Italy has increased relocation of migrants around Europe, official figures showed Wednesday, reducing frictions around the issue and enabling far-right leader Matteo Salvini focus more on the economy.

Interior Ministry data showed that 172 migrants who came onshore from the Mediterranean were sent elsewhere in the last three months, compared with just 90 in the January-August period.

Immigration has been one of Italy’s most contentious issues and fueled the rise of Salvini’s League party, which ruled in coalition with the 5-Star Movement from mid-2018 until August.

The new administration signed an agreement to distribute migrants saved from the Mediterranean around the European Union to ease pressure on southern states.

Salvini’s replacement as interior minister, Luciana Lamorgese, is a technocrat with no party affiliation and has established better relations with European partners. 

“European countries prefer the current government and interior minister to Salvini, who constantly accused them,” said Gianfranco Pasquino, an analyst from Bologna University.

During his time in office, Salvini sought to block Italy’s ports to charity migrant rescue ships. Those noisy standoffs are over, though the new government of the 5-Star and the center-left Democratic Party has not repealed his laws.

With EU countries offering to take 82% of migrants qualified for relocation, pressure on Italy has eased and Salvini has shifted his focus. Now he leads opposition to reform of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), which he says could jeopardize citizens’ savings with restructuring of Italy’s debt.

Polls show the League remains Italy’s most popular party.

“Salvini jumps on every issue the government has difficulties with. The ESM [reform] is perfect. He will wait for other occasions and will try to exploit them,” Pasquino added.

Italy’s immigration problems are, however, far from over.

Arrivals may have halved from last year to 10,960 so far in 2019, according to government data. But there are still 95,000 migrants in Italian centers and more than 1,000 people have died trying to cross the Mediterranean this year, the International Organization for Migration says.

This week on Healthy Living, we discuss the flu, a very contagious respiratory infection. Dr. Kouamé Claude, Chief Medical Officer at The Medical Center “Gens De Mer”, in Abidjan Cote D’ivoire, joins us via Skype for more on the symptoms and causes of the flu. According to a new study, cigarettes? The answer in our “True or False” segment. And lastly, a portable allergen detector could help consumers protect themselves from allergies. These questions and more answered in this week’s Healthy Living.

South Korean actor Cha In-ha was found dead in his home, police said on Wednesday, the country’s third young celebrity to die in the past two months amid growing debate about the intense social pressures artists face.

While South Korea’s pop culture mostly projects a wholesome image on stage and screen, it has recently been marred by a series of untimely deaths and criminal cases that revealed a darker side of the industry.

A police official told Reuters Cha, 27, was found dead on Tuesday and that the cause of the death was not immediately known.

Cha, whose real name is Lee Jae-ho, made his film debut in 2017 and was previously a member of the five-member boy band Surprise U, which released two albums.

The singer-actor had left an Instagram post the day before he was found dead, telling his fans to take care in the cold winter.

His talent agency Fantagio in a statement expressed “the deepest mourning for his passing” and asked the public and the media to refrain from spreading stories about his death.

Cha’s death comes after a K-pop singer, Koo Hara, 28, was found dead at her home last month. She had been subjected to personal attacks on social media.

Her death followed the apparent suicide of a fellow K-pop idol star, Sulli, a former member of girl group f(x), in October. Sulli, 25, had spoken out against cyber bullying.

The cases have cast a dark cloud over the K-pop craze, one of South Korea’s most successful soft power exports, and brought a renewed focus on personal attacks and cyber bullying of young stars that goes largely unpunished.

The industry has also been hit by a series of sex scandals.

Last week, two male former K-pop band members were convicted of sexual assaults and sentenced to prison terms.

 

London fifth-graders sang “All I Want for Christmas is You” after Melania Trump added to their merriment by joining them to make wreaths and ornaments at a Salvation Army center.

At the facility in the Clapton neighborhood of east London, Mrs. Trump helped attach pine cones to a wreath covered in yellow tinsel.

 She also helped U.S. Marines put gifts into holiday-themed bags.

The first lady nodded in apparent enjoyment as the pupils serenaded her, then clapped and appeared to say “bravo” when they finished the song.

Mrs. Trump also donated presents for the charity’s holiday drive, including white baseball caps, white Frisbees and soccer balls all stamped with the logo of her “Be Best” youth initiative.

She gave the kids “Be Best” ornaments as gifts before she departed.
 

Representatives from over a dozen nations that are signatories to a Cold War-era defense treaty for the Americas moved Tuesday to further isolate close allies of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro with economic sanctions.

The 1947 Rio Treaty signatories concluded a meeting in Bogota by vowing to cooperate in pursuing sanctions and travel restrictions for Maduro government associates accused of corruption, drug trafficking, money laundering or human rights violations.

“The political, economic and social crisis in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela represents a threat for the peace and security of the continent,” Colombian Foreign Minister Claudia Blum said in the meeting’s final remarks.

While the United States and the European Union have targeted Maduro associates with economic sanctions, Latin American nations who are supporting opposition leader Juan Guaido have largely resorted to diplomatic pressure – and it will be up to each individual nation to decide how to move forward.

The promise of enhanced economic pressure against Maduro comes at a time when Venezuela’s opposition is faltering. Guaido has struggled to mobilize supporters onto the streets and dipped in popularity. Meanwhile, fissures within the opposition are coming to light amidst recent controversies involving alleged abuses of power.

David Smilde, a senior fellow at the Washington Office on Latin America, said the Rio Treaty’s resolution Tuesday marks a “small victory” for the opposition but “not enough to really put them in a different place.”

“Their strategy of maximum pressure seems to be stalling,” he said.

The 19 Rio Treaty member nations have been treading cautiously in pursuing economic restrictions against Venezuela while vowing not to invoke a provision in the accord that authorizes them to pursue a military intervention. The accord instructs signatories to consider a threat against any one of them a danger to all.

Colombian President Ivan Duque contends that Maduro is offering a safe haven to rebel factions of the National Liberation Army and dissidents with the former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, an assertion the Venezuelan leader denies. Duque urged that nations embark on tougher sanctions going forward.

“Here there’s no invitation for use of force,” he said.

Despite repeated remarks from Rio Treaty members indicating they will not pursue a military response, Venezuelan leaders contend the signatories are plotting to overthrow Maduro and warning citizens that an intervention could be imminent.

“The people should be prepared and alert on the streets,” Diosdado Cabello, head of Venezuela’s all-powerful National Constitutional Assembly, said Tuesday.

A decision by Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to dissolve the ruling party months ahead of the 2020 national election has prompted criticism from the upper echelons of his own government.

In an interview with VOA’s Afaan Oromo Service, Minister of Defense Lemma Megerssa said unrest in the country means it is the wrong time to create a new political party.

“Merging this party is not timely as there are many dangers. We are in a transition,” he said speaking in Afaan Oromo. “This is borrowed time, it is not ours. We are facing several problems from different places during this borrowed time.”

The decision came after a vote by coalition members in support of the change. On December 1, the prime minister held a ceremony in the capital celebrating the new party and saying it “has also prepared a clear program and bylaws as well as a 10-year plan that leads Ethiopia to prosperity,”

Lemma and others argue that a change now will do little to quell the ethnic violence spreading in Ethiopia. “It’s not the time to come up with something new, but a time to solve problems that we should be focused on,” he said. “We should focus on maintaining peace and stability and focus on macroeconomics, especially people’s struggle with the rising cost of living.”

But Fekadu Tessema, a spokesman for Abiy’s governing coalition, said the change was not a hasty decision. “We don’t think that the process has been sped up. It has been in the works for a year and a half, and the change has to be led with a clear flow chart and vision,” he said.

He also said the unified party is in line with Abiy’s guiding philosophy known as ‘medemer’ or “addition.” The philosophy seeks to erase the division between people and create a nation that is greater than the sum of its parts.

“What ‘medemer’ means is to highlight our knowledge, our thinking, and putting all the good attributes in one place,” Fekadu said. “And things like hate, violation of human rights, the question of injustice and the issues of lack of democracy and lack of freedom and other issues that people have been pointing out, and issues that were seen during the time of EPRDF, have to be corrected.”

This story is based on interviews that originated in the Horn of Africa Service. VOA Afaan Oromo services’ Jalene Gemeda conducted the interview with the Minister of Defense Lemma Megerssa in Afaan Oromo and Tizita Belachew translated the interview in Amharic, and additionally, Muktar Jemal interviewed Fekadu Tessema, a spokesman for Abiy’s governing coalition in Amharic.

Hungary has stifled its independent media and imposed a level of control over journalists that is unprecedented in an EU country, according to a joint report from six international press watchdogs that calls on EU leaders to take action.

The report was compiled ahead of a meeting next week at which EU leaders will discuss punishing Hungary for eroding democratic norms under maverick Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

“The Hungarian government has systematically dismantled media independence, freedom and pluralism, distorted the media market and divided the journalistic community in the country, achieving a degree of media control unprecedented in an EU member state,” the report says.

Hungarian government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs rejected the criticisms in a posting on Twitter.

“Fact: TV outlet with largest audience, news portal with largest readership, largest weekly (are) clearly pro-opposition,” Kovacs wrote. “But report says: opposition media under constant threat, being muted. What?”

Hungary and Poland’s ruling nationalist parties have tightened control over the media, academics, courts and advocacy groups, spurring the European Parliament to launch a so-called Article 7 legal process against both the EU countries.

The European Council, which brings together leaders of EU member states, will hold a hearing with EU affairs ministers on Dec. 10 to discuss the proceedings against both countries.

Fact-finding mission 

Ahead of that meeting, the six organizations, which include the International Press Institute (IPI), the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and Reporters Without Borders (RSF), sent a fact-finding mission to Hungary last month.

“Hungary’s situation does not get the attention it should,” IPI deputy director and mission leader Scott Griffen told Reuters. “It is important that the EU public and its institutions understand what is going on in Hungary.”

The report said some prominent independent outlets remained in Hungary, but their market weight was dwarfed by pro-government publications.

It said Budapest has “a clear strategy to silence the critical press (and operate) a pro-government media empire as a vast propaganda machine.”

Critics say that under Orban, state media have become an obedient mouthpiece of his Fidesz party, while the rest of the media landscape is dominated by a conglomerate created by pro-Fidesz businessmen.

Orban’s government has denied undermining press freedom.
 

Background checks on gun purchases in the U.S. are climbing toward a record high this year, reflecting what the industry says is a rush by people to buy weapons in reaction to the Democratic presidential candidates’ calls for tighter restrictions.

By the end of November, more than 25.4 million background checks – generally seen as a strong indicator of gun sales – had been conducted by the FBI, putting 2019 on pace to break the record of 27.5 million set in 2016, the last full year President Barack Obama was in the White House.

On Black Friday alone, the FBI ran 202,465 checks.

Some analysts question how accurately the background check figures translate into gun sales, since some states run checks on applications for concealed-carry permits, too, and some purchases involve multiple firearms. But the numbers remain the most reliable method of tracking the industry.

In the years since President Donald Trump took office, the industry has struggled through what has been referred to as the Trump Slump, a falloff in sales that reflected little worry among gun owners about gun control efforts.

But with the 2020 presidential election less than a year out and virtually every Democratic candidate offering proposals to restrict access to firearms, fears appear to be driving up sales again.

“The Trump Slump is real, but the politics of guns has changed a little bit over the last year,” said Adam Winkler, a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Law and an expert on gun rights and politics. “As we’re coming up upon another presidential election, Donald Trump is vulnerable, and the Democratic presidential contenders are falling all over themselves to propose more aggressive gun reforms than their opponents.’’

Trump has been viewed as one of the most gun-friendly presidents in modern history and has boasted of strong support from the National Rifle Association. He has addressed every one of its annual conventions since the 2016 campaign, and the powerful gun lobby pumped about $30 million into efforts to elect him.

Still, hopes of expanded gun rights under Trump’s watch haven’t materialized. Legislation that would make it easier to buy silencers stalled in Congress. In addition, Trump pushed through a ban on bump stocks, which allow semiautomatic rifles to mimic machine-gun fire. The gunman who killed 58 people in Las Vegas in 2017 in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history used such a device.

The industry has been going through one of its toughest periods, with some gunmakers, such as Remington Arms, filing for bankruptcy. More recently, Smith & Wesson’s parent company, American Outdoor Brands, announced plans to spin off its firearms unit, and Colt said it would suspend production of AR-15 rifles.

Amid some high-profile mass shootings in recent years, especially the Parkland school attack in Florida that left 17 people dead, gun control advocates have gained some momentum.

The crowded field of Democrats running for the White House has offered a variety of proposals to curtail gun rights. Former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke, whose state has seen repeated mass shootings this past year, went so far as to push for a mandatory buyback program for AR- and AK-style rifles before dropping out of the race, stoking gun owners’ fears when he declared during a debate, “Hell, yes, we’re going to take your AR-15, your AK-47.”

The gun industry says the figures from the National Instant Criminal Background Check System reflect the Second Amendment politics of the White House race.

“Americans are choosing to invest their hard-earned dollars in their ability to exercise their rights and buy the firearms they want before gun control politicians attempt to regulate away that ability,” said Mark Oliva, spokesman for the National Shooting Sports Foundation, which represents the gun industry.

Still, some experts took issue with the figures and said it is premature to declare the Trump Slump is over.

“These numbers cannot be taken be taken at face value,” said Jurgen Brauer, a retired business professor and now chief economist at Small Arms Analytics, which consults on the firearms industry.

Brauer said the numbers are increasingly skewed by states such as Kentucky that also run background checks when they issue or renew a permit to carry a concealed firearm. In October, for example, the state ran more than 280,000 checks through the NICS system for permits.

“That number has been rising over time as increasingly states check with some frequency on their existing permits,” Brauer said.

The NICS system was created after passage of the Brady Bill, which mandated background checks to buy a firearm. Convicted felons, domestic abusers and people who have been involuntarily committed to a mental institution are among those who cannot legally purchase a weapon.

In 1999, the first full year the system was used, just over 9 million background checks were conducted. It was near the end of Democrat Bill Clinton’s second term and in the midst of a 10-year ban on assault rifles that expired in 2004.

Background checks declined under President George W. Bush but picked up again in 2006 and have mostly risen since then, except for 2014 and 2017. In 2018, there were 26.18 million background checks.

“Gunmakers are promoting the idea that you should buy these guns now because they may be banned in the future,” Winkler said.

Harvard University’s graduate students are going on strike after failing to reach a labor contract with the administration.

A union representing the school’s graduate students began picketing Tuesday after more than a year of negotiations.

The labor group says Harvard has failed to offer fair pay, health care and workplace protections. Union members say they will stop teaching, grading and performing paid research.

A statement from Harvard says it is still negotiating with the union and believes a strike is unwarranted.

Graduate students at the Ivy League university voted last year to unionize with United Auto Workers, but they have yet to reach an initial contract with the university.

They join other graduate students who have gone on strike in recent years, including at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Tunisia’s prime minister-designate Habib Jemli expects to form a government next week with political independents holding most of the important portfolios, he said on Tuesday.

Jemli, who was named to the job by the moderate Islamist Ennahda party which finished first in October’s election, added that he would continue with economic reforms begun under previous governments, but would implement them differently.

“I expect to finish forming the government next week,” he told Reuters in an interview at the government office in Carthage.

October’s parliamentary election resulted in a deeply fractured parliament with no party winning more than a quarter of seats, complicating the process of coalition building.

Jemli said he would give the interior, justice, defense and foreign ministries to political independents who are unaffiliated with the big parties and that Ennahda understood this.

His choice of finance minister is somebody with a high local and international profile able to negotiate with foreign partners, Jemli said, without revealing the person’s name.

“Economic reforms and combating widespread corruption in all parts of the state will be my priority,” he said.

“Reforms are necessary, but with a new methodology. They must be in partnership with the labor union,” he added.

The union has opposed some government efforts to tighten public spending while foreign lenders have urged lower deficits.

The issue of corruption was thrust further into the political spotlight this autumn with the election of President Kais Saied, a political independent, a week after the parliamentary vote.

Saied, who as president has fewer immediate powers than the prime minister, ran an austere campaign that spent very little money and was portrayed by supporters as a figure of rigid personal integrity.

Tunisia’s economy has suffered years of low growth since the 2011 revolution that ended autocracy and introduced democratic rule, with successive governments struggling to create jobs and tame inflation.

Big increases in state jobs and public sector pay after the revolution contributed to large deficits and growing government debt, which the outgoing administration has tried to rein in through reforms backed by the International Monetary Fund.

Jemli said he planned to digitize more government functions, to improve governance of state-run companies, where performance has drastically declined since the revolution, and reduce bureaucracy.

Previous governments had gone wrong in failing to stick to the pledges they had made to international lenders regarding economic growth and the size of the public sector wage bill, he said.

 

VOA’s Russian service shot this 360 degree video of Vessel, a 16-story honeycomb-like structure in New York City.  If your browser supports 360 video, be sure to use your mouse to pan right, left, up and down to enjoy the 360 degree experience.

A top European human rights official has demanded immediate closure of a migrant camp in Bosnia where hundreds of people have refused food and water to protest a lack of protection in snowy and cold weather.

The Vucjak camp near the northwestern town of Bihac has almost no facilities. International aid organizations have said it is unfit for migrants because it is located on a former landfill and close to a mine field from the 1992-95 war.
                   
Already poor conditions in the camp have worsened further after snow fell on Monday.
                   
Dunja Mijatovic, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, on Tuesday visited Vucjak where migrants had spent the night in tents braving freezing temperatures. Mijatovic says migrants must be moved to a warm and safe location.

France is threatening a “strong European riposte” if the Trump administration follows through on a proposal to hit French cheese, Champagne, handbags and other products with tariffs of up to 100%.
                   
The U.S. Trade Representative proposed the tariffs on $2.4 billion in goods Monday in retaliation for a French tax on global tech giants including Google, Amazon and Facebook.
                   
“I’m not in love with those (tech) companies, but they’re our companies,” Trump said Tuesday ahead of a sure-to-be-tense meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron in London.
                   
The move is likely to increase trade tensions between the U.S. and Europe. Trump said the European Union should “shape up, otherwise things are going to get very tough.”
                   
French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said the U.S. tariff threat is “simply unacceptable. It’s not the behavior we expect from the United States toward one of its main allies.”
                   
Le Maire said the French tech tax is aimed at “establishing tax justice.” France wants digital companies to pay their fair share of taxes in countries where they make money instead of using tax havens, and is pushing for an international agreement on the issue.
                   
“If (the world) wants solid tax revenue in the 21stcentury, we have to be able to tax the digital economy,” he said. “This French taxation is not directed at any country, or against any company.”
                   
He also noted that France will reimburse the tax if the U.S. agrees to the international tax plan.
                   
Le Maire said France talked this week with the European Commission about EU-wide retaliatory measures if Washington follows through with the tariffs next month.
                   
EU Commission spokesman Daniel Rosario said the EU will seek “immediate discussions with the U.S. on how to solve this issue amicably.”
                   
The U.S tariffs could double the price American consumers pay for French imports and would come on top of a 25% tax on French wine imposed last month over a separate dispute over subsidies to Airbus and Boeing.
                   
French cheese producers expressed concern that the threatened new tariffs would hit small businesses hardest. It would also further squeeze exporters hit by a Russian embargo on European foods.
                   
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative charges that France’s new digital services tax discriminates against U.S. companies.
                   
Le Maire disputes that, saying it targets European and Chinese businesses, too. The tax imposes a 3% annual levy on French revenues of any digital company with yearly global sales worth more than 750 million euros ($830 million) and French revenue exceeding 25 million euros.
                   
“What we want is a plan for international tax that is on the table” at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Le Maire said.
                   
The U.S. investigated the French tax under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, the same provision the Trump administration used last year to probe China’s technology policies, leading to tariffs on more than $360 billion worth of Chinese imports in the biggest trade war since the 1930s.

The head of the European Union’s mission to Malta on Tuesday expressed doubts about the government’s credibility after meeting with the embattled prime minister of the Mediterranean island nation.

With protesters shouting in the background, European lawmaker Sophia in `t Veld said outside the prime minister’s office that “it is difficult to see how credibility of the office can be upheld.”

The EU delegation launched the mission to the small EU nation after an investigation into the 2017 car bomb killing of Daphne Caruana Galizia, a leading investigative journalist, implicated Prime Minister Joseph Muscat’s chief of staff. Keith Schembri resigned from office and denies any involvement.

Police have arrested a prominent businessman as the suspected mastermind. Yorgen Fenech reportedly linked Schembri to the killing.

The delegation chief’s comments raised pressure on Muscat, whose pledge to resign in January has done little to placate thousands of protesters gathering in the capital each night to demand he step down immediately.

“In politics it is about trust. It is about the integrity of office. This is not about formalities,” in `t Veld, a Dutch lawmaker, said as a handful of anti-government protesters shouted in the background. “We have made it very clear that there is a problem. This is not just between the prime minister and the Maltese people. It is between Malta and the European Union.”

She said trust between the EU and Malta “has been very seriously damaged,” and that Muscat did little to allay concerns.

“I am not coming out of this meeting with more confidence, I have to say,” in `t Veld said.

A Maltese member of the delegation, Roberta Metsola, said that Muscat, when asked, said he felt betrayed by his former chief of staff.

The delegation will also meet during the 1 ½-day mission with police, the attorney general, journalists, Europol, civil society and family members of Caruana Galizia.

The 53-year-old journalist, who had built a strong following for her work investigating corruption at the highest levels of Malta politics and economy, was slain in a car bomb in October 2017.

While three men are being held pending a trial on charges of carrying out the attack, it took more than two years to identify anyone behind the killing.

 

China is barring American Navy ships and military aircraft from visiting Hong Kong in retaliation for the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act — legislation that supports pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong.  The bill was passed by the U.S. Congress and signed by U.S. President Donald Trump last week. VOA’s Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine has more from the State Department. 

U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said on Monday that any future troop drawdowns in Afghanistan were “not necessarily” linked to a deal with Taliban insurgents, suggesting some lowering of force levels may happen irrespective of the ongoing peace push.

The remarks by Esper in an interview with Reuters came on the heels of a Thanksgiving trip last week to Afghanistan by President Donald Trump, who spoke of potential troop reductions and said he believed the Taliban insurgency would agree to a ceasefire in the 18-year-old war.

If honored by all sides, a ceasefire could lead to a significant reduction in violence. But U.S. military commanders would still focus on the threats associated with two other militant groups in Afghanistan: Islamic State and al-Qaida.

Esper said the Trump administration had been discussing potential reductions in troop levels for some time, both internally and with U.S. allies.

“I feel confident that we could reduce our numbers in Afghanistan and still ensure that place doesn’t become a safe haven for terrorists who could attack the United States,” Esper said, without offering a figure. “And our allies agree we can make reductions as well.”

Asked whether such reductions would necessarily be contingent on some sort of agreement with the Taliban insurgency, Esper said: “Not necessarily.”

He did not elaborate.

There are currently about 13,000 U.S. forces in Afghanistan as well as thousands of other NATO troops. U.S. officials have said U.S. forces could drop to 8,600 and still carry out an effective, core counter-terrorism mission as well as some limited advising for Afghan forces.

A draft accord agreed in September would have withdrawn thousands of American troops in exchange for guarantees that Afghanistan would not be used as a base for militant attacks on the United States or its allies.

Still, many U.S. officials privately doubt the Taliban could be relied upon to prevent al-Qaida from again plotting attacks against the United States from Afghan soil.

 

Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says the United States “is still i” the fight against climate change despite U.S. President Donald Trump pulling the U.S. out of the 2015 Paris agreement.

Pelosi is leading a delegation of congressional Democrats to the 10-day climate conference in Madrid. She said they want to show that their presence means the U.S is not turning its back on a major threat to humanity.

Pelosi said several Democratically-led House committees are working on separate parts of what would be a broad climate change plan.

“This climate action plan will be an extraordinary opportunity to really invest in the clean energy economy,” Pelosi said.

Trump has called global warming a Chinese concocted hoax and said the 2015 Paris accord would hurt the U.S. economy

Trump began officially pulling the U.S. out of the agreement last month — a process that ends the day after the 2020 presidential election.

Several Democratic candidates say they would immediately reverse Trump’s withdrawal the moment they take office.

U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres opened the summit Monday by saying the Earth cannot wait any longer.

“Do we really want to be remembered as the generation that buried its head in the sand, that fiddled while the planet burned?” he asked.

He said world leaders can take one of two paths — “the path of surrender where we have sleepwalked past the point of no return” or “the path of hope … resolve of sustainable solutions.”

The Madrid conference aims to tackle some of the unresolved issues from the 2015 Paris agreement, including carbon trading — an economic incentive to cut emissions.

A number of protesters amassed in Madrid, demanding less talk and stronger action to fight global warming.

The marchers heard from the old and young, including 8-year-old Licypriya Kangujam who came to the Spanish capital from India.

“I need to read my books. I have to play. I have to study. But our leaders have ruined all our childhood lives and our beautiful future … I am demanding our honorable Prime Minister of India, Mr. Narendra Modi, and our MPs to pass the climate change law.”

The crowd burst into cheers and applause when Licypriya finished speaking.

President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign said on Monday it will no longer issue press credentials to reporters working for Bloomberg News, the agency owned by Democratic presidential hopeful Michael Bloomberg.

Bloomberg’s news agency said following his formal announcement of his presidential bid that it would no longer critically cover the Democratic presidential candidates — including Bloomberg and his rivals — but would go on covering Trump.

A Bloomberg News representative could not immediately be reached for comment.

Credentials enable reporters to more easily access rallies and other campaign events leading up to the November 2020 election. Members of the public must obtain tickets from the campaign and then wait in long lines to enter events.

“Since they have declared their bias openly, the Trump campaign will no longer credential representatives of Bloomberg News for rallies or other campaign events,” Trump’s campaign manager Brad Parscale said in a statement.

“We will determine whether to engage with individual reporters or answer inquiries from Bloomberg News on a case-by-case basis.”

Amazon said Monday it has removed “Christmas ornaments” and other merchandise bearing the images of Auschwitz that had been available on its online site.

Amazon said in a statement that “all sellers must follow our selling guidelines” and that those who do not will be removed.

The move comes after the Auschwitz-Birkenau state museum on Sunday appealed to Amazon to remove the merchandise, which also included an Auschwitz bottle opener and a Birkenau “massacre” mouse pad.

It said that, “Selling ‘Christmas ornaments’ with images of Auschwitz does not seem appropriate. Auschwitz on a bottle opener is rather disturbing and disrespectful.”

Many others on Twitter voiced outrage.

On Monday, the state memorial said it was still calling on another online outlet, Wish Shopping, to stop selling the products.

Nazi Germany killed 1.1 million people at the death camp, most of them Jews, during its occupation of Poland during World War II.

 

An online site raising money to help koalas displaced and injured in Australia’s bushfire crisis has become one of the country’s most successful charity campaigns.

An animal hospital in New South Wales set up the GoFundMe online campaign with a target of $17,000 to buy automatic drinking stations for distressed koalas.

It has, though, raised more than $1.2 million.

Donations have come from around the world, including the U.S, Britain, New Zealand and Germany.

Much of the interest in the facility at Port Macquarie, north of Sydney, came after the dramatic rescue of a koala from charred bushland was captured on video.

The marsupial, who was later called Lewis, was picked up by a grandmother, who ran through the flames to rescue the badly burned marsupial.

Lewis was treated for his wounds, but they were so severe he could not be saved.

Sue Ashton, the president of the Port Macquarie Koala Hospital, said the fundraising effort has been incredible.

“Absolutely overwhelmed.  We had no idea it would generate so much interest and for the koala hospital it has been absolutely wonderful, but also for koalas.  I think it has really brought them front and center and they deserve to be.  They are just wonderful little creatures,” she said.

Dozens of koalas have been brought to the hospital for treatment since the fire crisis began.

Blazes continue to burn across eastern Australia.  Six people have died and hundreds of homes have been destroyed since the emergency began in November.

The impact on wildlife is unknown, but vast areas of habitat have been scorched.  Officials fear the toll on native flora and fauna will be immense.

Australians have also donated to those who have lost property, but some experts believe that the huge amounts pledged to the koala hospital reflects broader concerns about the impact of the fires on the natural environment.

The koala fundraising effort was launched last month and is now the biggest GoFundMe campaign in Australia.