Pope Francis Friday called on bishops in Thailand to keep their doors open for priests and to spread the faith as their missionary predecessors did.

“Be close to your priests, listen to them and seek to accompany them in every situation, especially when you see that they are discouraged or apathetic, which is the worst of the devil’s temptations. Do so not as judges but as fathers, not as managers who deploy them, but as true elder brothers.”

Francis gave a speech to the Asian Bishops Conference at the Shrine of Blessed Nicholas Bunkerd Kithamrung in Sam Phran, 56 kilometers west of capital Bangkok.

Huge crowds, including faithful from Vietnam, Cambodia and China welcomed the pope  when he earlier arrived for a meeting with clergy and seminarians at Saint Peter’s Parish in Nakhon Pathom province.   

Francis concluded the day’s celebrations with a Mass dedicated to young people at Bangkok’s Cathedral of the Assumption.
       
Francis is only the second pope to visit Thailand. Pope John Paul II, now Saint John Paul II, was the first in 1984.

Iraqi security forces clashed with protesters on a historic Baghdad street near a key bridge for the second day on Friday, killing three and bringing the death toll from the fierce outburst of fighting to 13, security and medical officials said.

Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the highest Shi’ite religious authority in Iraq, reemphasized calls to political parties to pass electoral reform laws and respond to the protesters’ demands. His comments were carried in his weekly sermon.

The clashes centered on Baghdad’s Rasheed Street — a century-old avenue that was once the heart of Baghdad’s cultural scene and is now known for its crumbling old buildings — are the most intense altercations in recent days amid Iraq’s massive weeks-long anti-government protests.

The fighting appeared to have begun when protesters tried Thursday to dismantle a security forces barricade on the street, which leads to Ahrar Bridge, a span over the Tigris River that has been a repeated flashpoint. Security forces responded with barrages of tear gas and live ammunition that killed 10 protesters and injured more than 100 by Thursday evening.

The violence took off again Friday afternoon. Live rounds and tear gas canisters were fired by security forces from behind a concrete barrier on Rasheed Street.

With their faces concealed with surgical masks, protesters ran from the scene, picking up the bodies of the dead and wounded who collapsed on their way. Plumes of smoke billowed as ammunition fire rang out in the background.

One protester was killed Friday by live ammunition, while the other two died because of tear gas, the officials said. It was not immediately clear if they died from inhaling the gas or from a direct hit by a tear gas canister, which has caused several other deaths in recent weeks. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

Protesters have held one side of Baghdad’s three main bridges — Sinak and Ahrar and Jumhuriya — leading to the heavily fortified Green Zone, the seat of Iraq’s government. Security forces are deployed on the other side to prevent them entering the area, which houses government buildings and various foreign embassies, including the United States.

At least 320 protesters have been killed and thousands have been wounded since the unrest began on Oct. 1, when demonstrators took to the streets in Baghdad and across Iraq’s mainly Shi’ite south to decry rampant government corruption and lack of basic services despite Iraq’s oil wealth.

The international community, including the United Nations and the United States, has denounced the use of force against peaceful demonstrators in statements.

The leaderless movement seeks to dismantle the sectarian system and unseat the government, including Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi.
 

People in Israel have expressed mixed reactions to the news that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been indicted on corruption charges. His supporters believe the charges are fabricated, and his opponents are calling for his resignation. Netanyahu is vowing to fight back, but it is not clear how long he can hold on to power after the indictment. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports.

The U.S. government agreed this week to give another coast guard vessel to Vietnam so the Southeast Asian country can increase its defense against China. But behind that move, Vietnam and the United States are struggling over a growing trade deficit that has alarmed U.S. officials.

The U.S. government has complained since June that Americans buy more Vietnamese-produced goods compared to what Vietnamese consumers take from the United States.

Vietnam relies heavily on export manufacturing for its economic growth of more than 6% per year. The deficit reached about $40 billion in 2018, which the U.S. Census Bureau calls the fifth largest between the United States and another country.

The diversion of export manufacturing from China, now saddled by U.S. tariffs, to Vietnam particularly alarms Washington, analysts say.

“The concern from the Vietnamese side is that the U.S. could say, ‘OK, we’re going to put tariffs on exports from Vietnam.’ That’s the fear,” said Rajiv Biswas, Asia-Pacific chief economist at market research firm IHS Markit.

“But I think they could avoid that kind of risk by undertaking some substantial purchases of big-ticket capital goods from the U.S.,” he said.

Vietnamese leaders are looking for ways to satisfy the U.S. government and avoid another protracted dispute such as the one Trump launched against China in early 2018, country analysts say.

US warnings

Trump called Vietnam “almost the single worst abuser of everybody” in a comment to the U.S. cable news network Fox News in June. A month later U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer told a Senate committee that Vietnam must take action to reduce the deficit and open its market to more American imports or services.

In some respects, Washington’s trade dispute with China has been a boon for Vietnam. To avoid tariffs covering $550 billion worth of Chinese goods, some multinationals have moved exports from China to Vietnam for re-labeling as “made in Vietnam,” possibly after just slight changes to the merchandise itself, analysts in the country told VOA earlier this year. Those goods would reach the United States tariff free.

The trade deficit has grown steadily since 2000, said Frederick Burke, partner with the law firm Baker McKenzie in Ho Chi Minh City.

Over the past two decades Vietnam has become an export manufacturing powerhouse now seen as a cheaper alternative to factory production in neighboring China. Vietnam’s membership in the 11-nation Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership trade bloc also allows liberal trade with Japan, Canada and other developed countries.

“The U.S. is really pressuring them to do something about the trade surplus,” Burke said. “Without the (trade partnership), the U.S. doesn’t have the reverse market entry traction into Vietnam that it should have.”

Action by Vietnam

Vietnamese officials will probably respond to U.S. pressure by buying more American goods, Biswas said.

Officials in Vietnam have pledged already to import more American coal, natural gas and farm products, news reports from Hanoi say. U.S. officials would particularly welcome purchases of pricey patrol boats, defense hardware, commercial aircraft and construction equipment, Biswas said.

Those purchases would improve relations fast because the two sides already enjoy strong “strategic” ties, Biswas said. Despite the U.S. role in the Vietnam War, Hanoi now looks to Washington as ally in resisting China’s expansion into a sea where the two Asian countries make claims to overlapping waters.

Defense Secretary Mark Esper said in a speech during his Nov. 20-21 Vietnam visit that the U.S. government would offer the coast guard vessel.

To stop the diversion of “Made in China” goods, Vietnam’s Ministry of Industry and Trade decided in June after a five-month review to impose anti-dumping tariffs on certain items from China that were getting around the U.S. tariffs.

“If they are seen as really slack and just an entrepot for the Chinese goods, they could get slammed,” said Adam McCarty, chief economist with Mekong Economics in Hanoi.

To ease U.S. pressure on trade, he said, Vietnam has “got to really pursue it, make it a public issue, have a state department or whoever involved to see that they’re working with them at least through the official system.”

President Donald Trump was to pay respects Thursday to a pair of Army officers who were killed in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan.

Trump has said the responsibility of receiving the remains of fallen U.S. soldiers is “the toughest thing I have to do” as president.

As the final day of public hearings in the House impeachment inquiry wound down, Trump left the White House for the short flight to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, where the remains of service members killed abroad are returned to U.S. soil.

David C. Knadle, 33, of Tarrant, Texas, and Kirk T. Fuchigami Jr., 25, of Keaau, Hawaii, died Wednesday when their helicopter crashed as they provided security for troops on the ground in Logar Province in eastern Afghanistan.

Both were assigned to Fort Hood, Texas. Each held the rank of chief warrant officer two.

Wednesday’s crash brought this year’s U.S. death toll in Afghanistan to 19, excluding three noncombat deaths.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for shooting down the helicopter, but the U.S military has dismissed that as a false claim. The crash remains under investigation.
 

At least eight protesters who had been holding out at a trashed Hong Kong university surrendered to police in the early hours of Friday, while others desperately searched for escape routes as riot officers surrounded the campus. 

The siege at the Polytechnic University on the Kowloon peninsula appeared to be nearing an end with the number of protesters dwindling to less than 100, days after some of the worst violence since anti-government demonstrations escalated in June. 

The mood on the near-deserted campus was calm as the sun rose after a night where some protesters roamed the grounds in search of undercover officers. Others hid, terrified they would be arrested by infiltrators. 

“We are feeling a little tired. All of us feel tired but we will not give up trying to get out,” said a 23-year-old demonstrator who gave his name only as Shiba as he ate noodles with egg and sausage in the protesters’ canteen. 

“We spent yesterday trying to find ways to get outside but failed, so we came for some breakfast,” he said. 

A Reuters reporter saw six black-clad protesters holding hands walk toward police lines, while a first aid worker said two more surrendered later.

Demonstrators are angry at what they see as Chinese meddling in freedoms promised to Hong Kong when the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997 and are calling for full democracy, among other demands.

Beijing has said it is committed to the “one country, two systems” formula under which Hong Kong is governed. It denies meddling in Hong Kong affairs and accuses foreign governments, including Britain and the United States, of stirring up trouble.

One older protester, who estimated only around 30 demonstrators remained, said some had given up looking for escape routes and were now making new weapons to protect themselves in case police stormed the campus.

The Chinese-ruled city has enjoyed two days and nights of relative calm ahead of district council elections that are to take place Sunday.

The government has said it is committed to proceeding with the elections and is monitoring the situation to ensure the election can be held safely.

All polling stations will be guarded by armed officers in riot gear for the first time in the history of local elections, the South China Morning Post reported.

Three agencies in charge of resettling refugees in the U.S. are suing the Trump administration over the president’s executive order allowing states and cities to block refugees from being settled in their areas.    
             
The lawsuit was filed Thursday by HIAS, Church World Service, and Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services in U.S. District Court in Baltimore.
                   
They say the order, the first of its kind in U.S. history, will harm the 40-year-old program hailed as a world model.
                   
President Donald Trump issued the order in September requiring states and cities to give written consent before refugees can be settled there. He also lowered the cap on the number of refugees allowed into the country to 18,000.
                   
Trump says local officials wanted more say. Agencies say they already work closely with local governments.

One of the sons of Egypt’s former autocratic President Hosni Mubarak says his 78-year-old mother and former first lady is in hospital.

Alaa Mubarak tweeted late Wednesday that Suzanne Mubarak was in intensive care but didn’t elaborate on her illness. He sought to reassure his followers and tweeted: “Things will be fine, God willing!”

During Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year-long rule, his wife had enjoyed significant political power and championed several projects, including efforts to eradicate female genital mutilation.

The 91-year-old Mubarak was ousted in the 2011 uprising that swept Egypt as part of the Arab Spring movements across the region. He was sentenced to life imprisonment but later retried and subsequently acquitted and released in 2017.

Mubarak’s two sons, Alaa and Gamal, were both convicted and served terms for corruption.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday blasted the U.S. Navy’s handling of a U.S. Navy SEAL whose rank he recently restored following a court martial, saying he would not allow the service to remove his SEALS status.

“The Navy will NOT be taking away Warfighter and Navy Seal Eddie Gallagher’s Trident Pin. This case was handled very badly from the beginning. Get back to business!” Trump said in a post on Twitter.

The Navy will NOT be taking away Warfighter and Navy Seal Eddie Gallagher’s Trident Pin. This case was handled very badly from the beginning. Get back to business!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 21, 2019

A military jury convicted Gallagher of illegally posing with an Islamic State detainee’s corpse while deployed to Iraq in 2017 but acquitted him of murder, prompting a demotion in rank and pay but not prison time.

Trump last week restored his rank and pay, and pardoned two Army officers who were separately accused of war crimes in Afghanistan.

U.S. officials and Gallagher’s lawyer told Reuters on Tuesday that Navy officials were considering whether to remove him from the Navy’s special operations force.

A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said at the time that Gallagher and three other SEALs were likely to be notified on Wednesday that they must appear before a board that will decide whether they should be stripped of their SEAL status.

The 2020 U.S. presidential election was back in the spotlight Wednesday in Atlanta, Georgia, where Democratic presidential contenders gathered for their fifth debate of the primary season.  As VOA National correspondent Jim Malone reports from Washington, the impeachment inquiry targeting President Donald Trump was a key focus of the debate.
Trump Impeachment Hearings Fuel Democratic President Debate
 

Two people were killed and 38 wounded early Thursday when Iraqi security forces fired tear gas canisters at protesters near two key bridges in Baghdad, security and medical sources said.

The cause of death in both cases was tear gas canisters aimed directly at the head, the sources said.

One protester was killed near Sinak bridge and the other near the adjacent Ahrar bridge, police said.

Hospital sources said some of the wounded protesters had injuries from live ammunition and others were wounded by rubber bullets and tears gas canisters.

More than 300 people have been killed since the start of mass unrest in Baghdad and southern Iraq in early October, the largest demonstrations since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003.

The protests are an eruption of public anger against a ruling elite seen as enriching itself off the state and serving foreign powers, especially Iran, as many Iraqis languish in poverty without jobs, health care or education.

The unrest has shattered the relative calm that followed the defeat of Islamic State in 2017.

The impeachment inquiry into allegations President Donald Trump sought to pressure Ukraine was the first topic on the agenda Wednesday night as Democrats competing to be the party’s nominee in the 2020 election squared off in their latest debate in Atlanta.

Senator Bernie Sanders called Trump perhaps the most corrupt president in modern U.S. history, but cautioned against making opposition to Trump the sole focus in the push to defeat the president at the polls. He pointed to economic challenges faced by those who lack health insurance or housing and the “existential crisis” of climate change as he said the government can take on both of those and investigating Trump.

Senator Elizabeth Warren cited the earlier probe by special counsel Robert Mueller, who looked into Russian meddling in the presidential election in 2016 and whether Trump sought to obstruct the probe once he was in office. Warren said a lack of congressional action on that matter emboldened Trump in the current scandal, in which he is facing allegations he sought to pressure Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden.

To date, Biden, Warren and Sanders have consistently stood out as a leading group in national polls in the Democratic race.

Recent polls of likely voters in the states of Iowa and New Hampshire also include in that pack South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg.

New Iowa leader

Buttigieg recently surged into the lead in the early voting state of Iowa, with 25 percent support, according to the latest CNN/Des Moines Register/Mediacom poll.

Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada are the first states where voters will actually make official picks in the race, starting with the Iowa caucuses February 3 and the New Hampshire primary February 11.

Candidates still have about 11 weeks before voting begins to sway voters and make the case that they should be the one to oppose Trump.

Senator Corey Booker, Representative Tulsi Gabbard, Senator Kamala Harris, Senator Amy Klobuchar, billionaire Tom Steyer and entrepreneur Andrew Yang rounded out Wednesday’s debate field.

Stricter requirements

Those who qualified had to amass 165,000 donors and achieve at least 3% support in four national polls or 5% in polls in two early voting states.

The requirements are getting stricter as the process goes on, and the candidate field trimmed from 12 in the last debate in October after former Representative Beto O’Rourke dropped out of the race and former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro failed to reach the support thresholds.

Candidates will need 200,000 supporters and either 4% in national polls or 6% in early state polls to make it into the next debate in December.

While the Democrats have seen several onetime candidates leave the race because of a lack of support or funding, others remain interested in taking a shot at the nomination. Former Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick announced last week he was joining the race, and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is reportedly giving serious consideration to a presidential run.

The reviews are biting: “mind-numbingly dull,” “a huge dud” and “a frickin’ joke.”

Yet they’re coming from an unusual place — Fox News Channel personalities talking about the programming that their network has spent hours televising over the past week.

Fox’s wall-to-wall coverage of the House’s impeachment hearings against President Donald Trump is bumping up against its opinion hosts’ attempt to minimize the proceedings.

In at least one case, viewers were asked to turn it off.

“My advice?” Greg Gutfeld, a host on Fox’s “The Five,” said. “Skip it and show up next November and give these clowns a hearing they’ll never forget.”

Like competitors CNN and MSNBC, Fox has covered all of the testimony, even as Tuesday’s session stretched past 11 hours and broadcast networks cut away. That set up an extraordinary game of chicken between Fox’s Tucker Carlson and Rep. Adam Schiff, the California Democrat chairing the House investigations committee.

Fox recorded its top ratings of 2019 last week with the opening of the hearings, the Nielsen company said.

“If you’re like most Americans, you didn’t watch today’s impeachment charade,” Fox’s Sean Hannity said a half hour after Tuesday’s hearing concluded. “Here’s the big takeaway: another huge dud. Americans are tuning out in a big way.”

An hour later, Laura Ingraham said that “Tylenol PM has nothing on Schiff.” She said the “impeachment farce” was mind-numbingly dull.

Similarly, “Fox & Friends” co-host Steve Doocy said Americans were ignoring the hearings.

“The American public, they want us to watch it all,” said Doocy’s morning show colleague, Ainsley Earhardt. “They want us to give them the summary and tell them what happened. It’s hard to follow all of these players and all of these individuals.”

Fox notes that its news operation, not the opinion hosts, has been covering the hearings. News anchor Chris Wallace, for example, has specifically contradicted the contention that people don’t care by pointing to ratings and saying Tuesday, “a lot of people are engaged and are watching this.”

Gutfeld has been a particularly harsh critic of the hearings, saying last week that Fox may be required to air the proceedings, but viewers aren’t required to watch.

“The media is shoving this down your throat, with blanket, abysmal coverage, and then they scold you for not genuflecting before their altar of solemn news,” he said last week. “This is historical, they tell you. No, it is hysterical.”

His colleague on “The Five,” Jesse Watters, said he tuned in to CBS for the hearing Tuesday afternoon and saw that the network had “dumped out” on coverage and was airing a daytime drama. “What’s the difference between this and a soap opera?” he said.

CBS cut out of networkwide coverage for part of Tuesday afternoon’s session, the first broadcast network to do so, saying it was giving local affiliates the option to air it and streaming it online. Later as the hearing stretched into the evening, CBS, ABC and NBC all left the hearing to air typical programming.

Each broadcast network, along with the cable news outlets, returned to live hearing coverage Wednesday with Ambassador Gordon Sondland’s testimony.

Tuesday’s hearing stretched into prime time, ending with a lengthy summation by Schiff that became an argument for impeachment itself and a refutation of various talking points expressed by Trump’s supporters. It was the first, and likely only, time that Schiff would have the chance to deliver unedited remarks to the roughly 3 million people who routinely watch Fox’s nightly opinion lineup.

As he talked, a chyron printed on Fox’s screen pleaded with viewers to stick around: “Tucker Carlson is Next,” the message read. “Impeachment Hearings Wrapping up Now.”

After adjournment, Carlson’s traditional hour-long show had been cut in half.

“We are out of time, sadly,” Carlson said at the end. “Stolen by Adam Schiff.”
 

A wave of unrest sweeps across South America. Plugged In with Greta Van Susteren examines the the issues fueling violent anti-government protests that has already ousted one long-time president. US Ambassador to the Organization of American States, Carlos Trujillo; Director of the Latin American program at the Wilson Center, Cynthia Arnson; and the host of VOA’s Foro Inter-Americano, Gonzalo Abarca join Greta for an in-depth look at “Turmoil in South America.” Air date November 20, 2019.

A new survey shows about one in four Europeans holding anti-Semitic beliefs, with such attitudes on the rise in eastern countries and mostly steady in the west.

The poll of 14 European countries released Thursday by the New York-based Anti-Defamation League found anti-Semitic attitudes most prevalent in Poland, Ukraine and Hungary, with more than 40% of the respondents in each country expressing such views.

The governments of all three countries have been criticized by Jewish groups recently, though all deny being anti-Semitic.

In western Europe, the study found anti-Semitic views were either stable or down, with decreases in Britain, Spain, Netherlands, Italy, Germany and Austria. Denmark and Belgium saw minor increases, while France was unchanged and Sweden had the lowest rate, at 4%.

Italy and Austria both posted significant decreases.
 

The Israeli military says its warplanes struck dozens of Iranian and Syrian military targets outside of Damascus Wednesday in retaliation for a rocket attack on the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights the day before.

The military says the targets, including surface-to-air missiles, weapons depots and troop headquarters, belonged to Iran’s elite Quds force, the overseas arm of the regime’s Revolutionary Guards.

Syria’s state-run media said two civilians were killed in the airstrikes, but the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says it has learned that 11 people died in the strikes.  

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement Wednesday that he has “made clear that whoever hurts us, we will hurt them.”

British rock band The Who became the first act to receive a paving stone on the Music Walk of Fame in London on Tuesday, in the unveiling of a new cultural attraction that echoes the starry sidewalks of Hollywood Boulevard.

Following the presentation of the Walk’s founding stone, The Who’s two surviving members Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend posed by their own plaque, depicting a music record, laid out in London’s buzzing Camden district.

The Music Walk of Fame will honor artists and others working in the industry in a series of unveilings between the Roundhouse and the Koko performance venues in the north London district that is popular with musicians.

“Camden has always been vital to London’s thriving music scene and is, as we all know, a world-renowned hub for the arts,” The Who said in a statement.

“As Londoners, it’s very surreal to be immortalized in stone on Camden High Street, and it’s quite something to know that people can pop by and see us anytime, albeit virtually.”

Up to 20 stones will be laid out each year, organizers have said, and inductees, chosen by a panel, will be honored in several categories: icon, innovator, inspiration, industry, unsung hero and artist of the year.

A dedicated app will allow visitors to learn more about the history of the music industry.

The presence of tanks in the streets of Chile, the resignation of Bolivia’s president Evo Morales and clashes in Ecuador are some of the violent incidents and political turmoil occurring in Latin America over the last few weeks. VOA’s Cristina Caicedo Smit reports on why all of this is happening at the same time.

Iranians have not had internet access for days. It is a government shutdown prompted by violent protests over rising gas prices. Observers say that in a country where shutdowns and blockages have happened in the past, this one appears to be the most widespread. Michelle Quinn takes a look at how the Iranian government has been able to turn off internet access.

Amnesty International says Iranian security forces have killed at least 106 people in nationwide anti-government protests since Friday, four times the death toll of Iran’s last mass protests two years ago.

In a Tuesday interview with VOA Persian, the London-based rights group’s Iran researcher Raha Bahreini said Amnesty determined that security forces killed 106 protesters based on eyewitness accounts, social media videos and reports of exiled Iranian human rights activists. She said Amnesty International soon would provide a breakdown of the number of protesters killed in various Iranian cities.

VOA Persian has independently confirmed the killings of at least seven protesters in shootings by Iranian security forces on Saturday. Iranian state media have said several people have been killed including at least one security force member in the demonstrations that began Friday and spread to dozens of cities. But the Iranian government has not published any official death toll.

The demonstrations erupted in response to the government abruptly raising the subsidized price of gasoline by 50% early Friday. Many Iranians see the increase as putting a further burden on their wallets at a time of worsening economic conditions.

Bahreini said Amnesty has called on the United Nations and European Union to make urgent appeals to Iran to end its violent crackdown on the protests and to respect Iranians’ rights to freedoms of expression and assembly.

Iran violently suppressed the last major wave of nationwide protests that swept the country from late December 2017 to early January 2018. At least 22 people were killed in the crackdown on those protests, which were fueled by public anger with government corruption and mismanagement.

This article originated in VOA’s Persian Service.