Venice’s Hotel Association is urging tourists to visit the lagoon city without fear of high waters. Hoteliers say there have been many cancellations for Christmas and New Year’s, and that bookings have dropped more than 45 percent following the exceptional high tide of November 12. They add that the city is as beautiful as ever and that all museums, shops and restaurants are functioning properly, as is transportation.

The Venice Hotel Association is calling on tourists all over the world to come to see for themselves the beauty of a city that has always lived with high tides, which hoteliers stressed, come and go. They fear that the many cancellations received by hotels following the extraordinary high tide of Nov. 12 has scared tourists away.

Venice’s hotel association president, Vittorio Bonacini, said that tide certainly caused many problems in the city, with its hotels alone suffering $33 million in structural damage. He explained that the exceptionally high tide, which peaked at 187 centimeters (74 inches) and caused the worst flooding in the city in 50 years, was brought on by four factors: a rare lunar attraction, sirocco winds, extremely low atmospheric pressure on the high Adriatic Sea and winds blowing from the east at more than 126 kilometers (79 miles) an hour.
 
Bonacini added that the convergence of those factors was a lethal mix for the configuration of Venice and that the pictures captured at the time reminded everyone of just how fragile the city and its environment are. Bonacini said that what the pictures did not show is that the event lasted a mere one-and-a-half hours and that the tide had begun to recede after 3 hours.

Bonacini said that for centuries Venice has lived and experienced high water or “acqua alta,” regulated by the cycles of the tides which rise and recede every 6 hours.

Hoteliers say that very quickly after a high tide event, life in the city is back to normal. They say it was obviously harder after the exceptional Nov. 12 event, but all Venetians came together and worked very hard to return the city back to normality in a very short time and, in spite of the damage, everyone resumed their ordinary daily lives.
 
The tides are not an earthquake, they say, but something that comes and goes, and Venice has always lived with them. As tides come and go, soon the water disappears from the flooded squares and streets, and it’s business as usual at bars, restaurants and shops.   
 
Hoteliers made clear that all activities function properly in the city and that Venice is safe again for everyone, including children and the elderly. They stressed that “acqua alta” is nothing traumatic, but that many hotel guests even consider it a fun experience.
 
Many hotels hand out high plastic boots to their guests as gifts so that they can avoid getting their feet wet and are not forced to use elevated walkways to enjoy a cup of coffee sitting at a bar in a flooded Saint Mark’s Square.  

…

Robert Glenn “Junior” Johnson, the moonshine runner turned NASCAR driver described as “The Last American Hero” by author Tom Wolfe in a 1965 article for Esquire, died Friday. He was 88.

NASCAR announced the death of Johnson, the winner of 50 races as a driver and 132 as an owner. He was a member of the inaugural class inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2010.

NASCAR is America’s Fastest-Growing Spectator Sport

A small city in North Carolina has been transformed from an old lumber mill and textile manufacturing center into the home for automobile racing teams that compete in America’s fastest growing spectator sport known as NASCAR. VOA’s Chris Simkins takes a look at the growing phenomenon of NASCAR, and why the sport is attracting thousands of auto racing fans each year.
This is NASCAR, the popular American sport of stock car racing.

“From his early days running moonshine through the end of his life, Junior wholly embodied the NASCAR spirit,” NASCAR Chairman Jim France said in a statement. “He was an inaugural NASCAR Hall of Famer, a nod to an extraordinary career as both a driver and team owner. Between his on-track accomplishments and his introduction of (sponsor) Winston to the sport, few have contributed to the success of NASCAR as Junior has.

“The entire NASCAR family is saddened by the loss of a true giant of our sport, and we offer our deepest condolences to Junior’s family and friends during this difficult time.”

From North Wilkesboro, North Carolina, Johnson was named one of NASCAR’s greatest drivers in 1998 after a 14-year career that ended in 1966 and included a win in the 1960 Daytona 500. He honed his driving skills running moonshine through the North Carolina hills, a crime for which he received a federal conviction in 1956 and a full presidential pardon in 1986 from President Ronald Reagan.

His was first immortalized by Wolfe in 1965 and later in a 1973 movie adaptation starring Jeff Bridges.

As a car owner for drivers that included Darrell Waltrip, Cale Yarborough, Bill Elliott and Terry Labonte, Johnson claimed six Cup championships. His last race win as an owner was the 1994 Southern 500 with Elliott.

Waltrip said he grew up only dreaming of one day meeting Johnson, but surpassed that by getting to drive for his hero.

“He became my boss and made me a champion, I loved that man, God Bless Jr and his family. You were the greatest!” Waltrip said on Twitter.

Johnson also is credited with bringing the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company to NASCAR, which then led to Winston sponsoring its premier series from 1971-2003.

“The Last American Hero is gone and so leaves a huge dent in NASCAR racing. Junior Johnson was one of American sports’ great characters and one of the best racer and car owners ever. His mountain man drawl and tricks were legendary,” former race promoter Humpy Wheeler said. “He’ll go down as one of racing’s great ticket sellers.”

Johnson is credited with discovering drafting — using the slipstream of the car in front of you on the track to keep up or slingshot past. Using that maneuver, he won the 1960 Daytona 500, outrunning several cars that were about 10 mph faster.

As a young man, Johnson built a reputation as a moonshiner who could outrun the law on the mountain roads like no one else. He’s credited with inventing the Bootleg Turn, a maneuver that spins the car into a quick 180-degree turn and sends it speeding off in the opposite direction.

Johnson began driving at age 8, long before he had a license.

“I didn’t need one anyway,” he often said with a laugh. “They weren’t going to catch me.”

At 24, Johnson turned that talent to racing and became a superstar in NASCAR in the 1950s and 1960s. He walked away from the sport in 1996 to concentrate on his other businesses, including a line of fried pork skins and country ham.

“I had done just about everything in racing that I wanted to do,” Johnson said in an interview with The Associated Press before driving the pace car for the start of the 2008 Daytona 500, the 50th running of that event. “I do miss being in the garage sometimes, but I just wasn’t excited about going racing anymore.”

Johnson was never caught on the roads during his moonshining days, but he was arrested by federal authorities in 1956 when he was caught working at his father’s still. He was sentenced to 20 months but was released after 11 months in federal prison in Chillicothe, Ohio.

Although a lifelong Democrat, Johnson was pardoned by Reagan. In his later years, Johnson often said that the pardon in December 1986 was “the greatest thing in my life.”

Johnson is survived by wife Lisa, daughter Meredith and son Robert Glenn Johnson III.

“The Last American Hero is gone and so leaves a huge dent in NASCAR racing. Junior Johnson was one of American sports’ great characters and one of the best racer and car owners ever. His mountain man drawl and tricks were legendary,” former race promoter Humpy Wheeler said. “He’ll go down as one of racing’s great ticket sellers.”

…

Republican Wisconsin lawmakers took steps Friday to spend taxpayer dollars to hire their own attorney and intervene in a federal lawsuit seeking to stop the purge of more than 200,000 voter registrations. 
 
The League of Women Voters of Wisconsin filed the lawsuit this week against the state Elections Commission. It did so after a state judge ruled against the commission and said it must immediately deactivate more than 200,000 voter registrations of people identified as possibly having moved. That decision, in a case brought by a conservative law firm, is being appealed but the ruling has not been put on hold. 
 
The legal battles are being closely watched because the affected voters come from more heavily Democratic parts of the state. Democrats fear forcing them to re-register would create a burden and could negatively affect turnout in the 2020 presidential election. Republicans argue that removing the voters ensures the rolls are not full of people who shouldn’t be voting. 

Key state in 2020
 
President Donald Trump won Wisconsin by fewer than 23,000 votes in 2016. The state is one of a handful of battlegrounds in the upcoming election. 
 
Republican leaders of the state Senate and Assembly on Friday circulated a ballot to approve the hiring of a private attorney to represent them in the federal lawsuit, rather than Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul. Republicans have increasingly turned to hiring their own attorneys, paid for by taxpayers, rather than have Kaul represent them in lawsuits. Republicans don’t trust that Kaul will represent their interests because he is a Democrat. 
 
Kaul’s spokeswoman, Gillian Drummond, did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment on the move. 
 
The League argues in its lawsuit that it would be a violation of constitutional due process rights to deactivate the registrations of the voters without proper notice. The conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty argues in the other case that state law required the Elections Commission to deactivate the voters flagged as potentially having moved who didn’t respond to an October mailing, but it failed to do so.   

…

British prosecutors said on Friday they had decided to charge the wife of a U.S. diplomat over a fatal car crash in England and to seek her extradition, a decision that “disappointed” Washington.

Harry Dunn, 19, died after his motorcycle was in a collision with a car driven by Sacoolas near RAF Croughton, an air force base in the English county of Northamptonshire that is used by the U.S. military.

Anne Sacoolas, 42, was given diplomatic immunity and left Britain shortly after the accident, setting off a dispute between London and Washington over whether she should return to face investigation.

Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said on Friday it would charge Sacoolas with causing death by dangerous driving and had started legal proceedings.

But it said it was up to the Home Office (interior ministry) to decide whether to seek Sacoolas’ extradition formally through diplomatic channels.

“The Director of Public Prosecutions has met with Harry Dunn’s family to explain the basis of the decision we have made following a thorough review of the evidence available,” the CPS said in a statement.

The U.S. State department expressed its disappointment.

“We are disappointed by today’s announcement and fear that it will not bring a resolution closer,” a State Department spokesperson said.

“The United States has been clear that, at the time the accident occurred, and for the duration of her stay in the UK, the driver in this case had status that conferred diplomatic immunities.”

Dunn’s case gained international prominence when his parents met U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House in October, an occasion he described as “beautiful” but “sad.”

Trump hoped to persuade them meet Sacoolas, who was in the building at the same time, but they declined. They want Sacoolas to return to Britain to face police questioning about the crash.

Sacoolas initially cooperated with local police after the crash, but later said she had diplomatic immunity.

The White House and the U.S. Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The maximum jail sentence in Britain for causing death by dangerous driving is 14 years.

Dunn’s mother, Charlotte Charles, broke down in tears after finding out charges had been brought, saying it meant she had kept a promise to her son to get him justice.

“We had no idea it was going to be this hard and it would take this long, but we really do feel it is a huge step towards that promise to Harry,” she told reporters.

Edward Grange, a partner at the criminal law firm Corker Binning, said Sacoolas could voluntarily attend a hearing in Britain and that if she failed to appear, it could lead to an extradition request.

“The prospect of an extradition request succeeding remains to be seen, particularly in light of comment from the Trump Administration that it is very reluctant to allow its citizens to be tried abroad,” he said.

…

The Democratic presidential candidates held their liveliest debate yet Thursday in Los Angeles, California.  Seven contenders were on the debate stage and clashed over the economy, health care, climate change, campaign finance reform and who best can defeat President Donald Trump next year.  VOA National correspondent Jim Malone has more from Washington

…

Organizers wanted to make it clear the 99th Miss America competition isn’t your grandmother’s beauty pageant, and their winner did just that on Thursday.

Virginia biochemist Camille Schrier won the crown just minutes after wowing the crowd with science. Dressed in a lab coat, she gave a colorful chemistry demonstration of the catalytic decomposition of hydrogen peroxide.

Schrier, a native of Pennsylvania, said she hopes to “break stereotypes about what it means to be a Miss America in 2020” by being a “woman of science” who is authentic to herself.

“I’m not the beauty queen,” she said. “I’m the brand ambassador for this organization and I’m more than just someone with a crown on my head.”

Victoria Hill of Georgia placed first runner-up.

No longer called contestants, the 51 women “candidates,” who hailed from all 50 states and the District of Columbia, competed for a $50,000 scholarship and the “job” of Miss America, a one-year paid position they hope to use as a public platform for their “social impact initiative.”

For the second year in a row, women were not judged in a swimsuit or how they look in an evening gown. Instead, a series of interviews and talent demonstrations will determine who is best qualified to wear this year’s crown.

“To make it relevant for these young women, it was important for us as a scholarship and service organization to make sure that we were reflective of this generation, meaning that you no longer had to be defined by some sort of ideal,” said Regina Hopper, president & CEO of the Miss America Organization.

Schrier, 24, who spoke on stage about having tackled an eating disorder, said she decided to compete for Miss America after the swimsuit competition was ditched, along with other changes that have been made to modernize the organization.

“I kind of figured that I would never get on that stage because I was a woman who did not want to get into a swimsuit on stage. And I didn’t have a performing talent, which is really ironic now,” she said, adding how she’s the first Miss America to win with a science experiment, a presentation she brings to schools.

Schrier is a cum laude graduate of Virginia Tech with dual bachelor of science degrees in bio chemistry and systems biology and she is currently studying to obtain a doctor of pharmacy degree. Her platform issue is drug safety.

Morgan Nichols, Miss South Carolina, had her own message on Thursday night. She walked down the red carpet wearing a billowing, long skirt topped by a plain white T-shirt that read: “Stronger.”

While Hopper acknowledges there has been some push-back from “old pageant” people who liked the old way of doing things, she said there’s been greater interest in the competition since the roll-out of Miss America 2.0.

When asked on stage whether the Miss America organization should change even more and allow married women and women with children to participate, both Schrier and Hill said no. Schrier told reporters afterward that she believes the job would be too busy for a mother.

This year also marked the first time the multi-day event is being held at Mohegan Sun, a tribal casino and entertainment complex in suburban southeastern Connecticut. Miss America organizers announced plans this summer to leave Atlantic City, New Jersey — for the second time in its history.

Miss America also switched from ABC back to NBC to broadcast the glitzy finale to an estimated 4.5 million viewers. And for the first time, preliminary events and the finale — held in Mohegan’s 10,000-seat arena — are being streamed live on the NBC app.

“We’ve had many, many large events. This probably reaches the most people,” said Jeff Hamilton, president and general manager of Mohegan Sun. “We’re just really, really excited about it.”

Miss America organizers and NBC have not yet agreed to a multi-year contract with the Connecticut casino. A decision is expected in the coming months.

Schrier succeeds 2019 Miss America Nia Franklin, a classically trained opera singer from New York.

The decision to drop the swimsuit competition did create great controversy and criticism of Miss America officials, including former board chair and former Fox News host Gretchen Carlson, who said in 2018 that Miss America would represent “a new generation of female leaders focused on scholarship, social impact, talent and empowerment.” Carlson has since stepped down.

Atlantic City businessmen came up with the idea for a pageant in 1921 as a way to extend the summer tourism season beyond Labor Day weekend. It became synonymous with the New Jersey seaside resort but moved to Las Vegas in 2005, returning to Atlantic City in 2013.

…

The U.S. is closely watching North Korea for signs of a possible missile launch or nuclear test in the coming days that officials are referring to as a “Christmas surprise.”

A significant launch or test would mean the end of North Korea’s self-imposed moratorium and raise tensions in the region. It would also be a major blow to one of the Trump administration’s major foreign policy initiatives: the drive to get North Korea back to negotiations to eliminate its nuclear weapons and missiles.

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Pentagon Tests Long-Banned Ballistic Missile Over Pacific

The Pentagon says it’s conducted a flight test of a missile that had been banned under a treaty that the United States and Russia abandoned last summer

Earlier this month, the North conducted what U.S. officials say was an engine test. North Korea described it as “crucial” and experts believe that it may have involved an engine for a space launch vehicle or long-range missile. Officials worry that it could be a prelude to the possible launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile in the coming days or weeks.

Any test involving an ICBM would have the most serious impact on the diplomatic effort because it would be considered a move by North Korea to acquire the ability to strike the United States, or, even worse, to show they already have it.

“North Korea has been advancing. It has been building new capabilities,” said Anthony Wier, a former State Department official who tracks nuclear disarmament for the Friends Committee on National Legislation. “As long as that continues, they gain new capabilities to try new missiles to threaten us and our allies in new ways,”

The North Koreans warned of a possible “Christmas gift” in early December, saying the Trump administration was running out of time to salvage nuclear negotiations, and it was up to the U.S. to choose what “Christmas gift” it gets from the North.

Victor Cha, a Korea expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said a review of the possible launch sites in North Korea show that they are a “basically ready to go.” He said the expected launch could be a test of a sea-based ballistic missile or a solid-fuel rocket.

Using solid fuel allows North Korea to more quickly fuel up a rocket, providing less lead time for the U.S. or others to prepare for a launch. Sea-based launches are also more difficult to locate and would give less warning or time for the U.S. to react.

Either one, he said, “would be a new type of problem that the U.S. would have to deal with.”

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North Korea Tests Likely If They ‘Don’t Feel Satisfied’ – Pentagon Chief

The US special envoy for North Korea, Stephen Biegun, urged Pyongyang to return offers of talks, dismissing leader Kim Jong Un’s year-end deadline while highlighting Washington’s willingness to discuss ‘all issues of interest’

Defense Secretary Mark Esper told reporters earlier this week that the U.S. has heard all the talk of a possible upcoming test around Christmas.

“I’ve been watching the Korean Peninsula for a quarter-century now. I’m familiar with their tactics, with their bluster,” he said. “We need to get serious and sit down and have discussions about a political agreement that denuclearizes the peninsula. That is the best way forward and arguably the only way forward if we’re going to do something constructive.”

Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun, the special U.S. envoy for North Korea, has also warned of a possible launch.

“We are fully aware of the strong potential for North Korea to conduct a major provocation in the days ahead,” he said. “To say the least, such an action will be most unhelpful in achieving lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula.”

At a meeting in Singapore in June 2018, Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un issued a joint statement that said the North “commits to work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.”

But negotiations stalled this year after the U.S. rejected North Korean demands for broad sanctions relief in exchange for a partial surrender of the North’s nuclear capabilities at Kim’s second summit with Trump last February.

Since then, Pyongyang’s testing and rhetoric has escalated.

Since the Singapore summit, Cha said, Pyongyang has done more testing and grown their missile capabilities. “By most metrics, the Trump policy is not succeeding,” he said.

According to the U.S. military, North Korea has launched more than 20 missiles this year. They’ve included new types of missiles as well as a submarine-launched ballistic missile, in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions.

“The Trump administration and President Trump himself deserves some credit for allowing diplomacy,” Wier said. “That’s a good thing. Now is the time to empower real diplomacy.”

North Korea conducted a torrent of missile tests in 2017. It flew two new intermediate-range missiles over Japan and threatened to fire those weapons toward the U.S. territory of Guam. It also tested three developmental ICBMs, including the Hwasong-15 that demonstrated potential range to reach deep into the U.S. mainland.

Those ICBM tests, however, showed no clear sign that the North had perfected the technology needed to ensure that a warhead could survive the harsh conditions of atmospheric re-entry. According to experts at 38 North, a website specializing in North Korea studies, all of the 2017 launches were on highly lofted trajectories and the missiles’ reentry vehicles were not subjected to the thermal and mechanical stresses that would be created by a full-range flight.

Experts said North Korea needed additional flight tests to determine the reliability and accuracy of its ICBMs and establish a capable re-entry protection system.

Those 2017 tests triggered a sharp U.S. reaction. Trump said he would bring “fire and fury” on North Korea and exchanged threats of total destruction with Kim, touching off fears of war on the Korean Peninsula. Kim subsequently suspended ICBM and nuclear tests, allowing Trump to brag about that as a foreign policy win. The North has not performed any known tests of ICBMs since the Hwasong-15 launch in November 2017.

Esper said the U.S. has a team on the Korean peninsula now that has reached out to the North and is asking for meetings. At the same time, he said the U.S. military remains at a high level of readiness.

Esper has visited Korea twice this year since being sworn in as defense chief. A key discussion point has been the reduction in U.S. military exercises with South Korea — a move by the Trump administration to appease North Korea and woo them to the negotiating table for denuclearization talks.

The U.S. has about 28,000 troops in South Korea.

…

Russian President Vladimir Putin called the U.S. impeachment process “far-fetched” Thursday, making a seemingly obvious prediction that Donald Trump will be acquitted in the Senate.

Putin said Thursday at his annual news conference in Moscow that the move is a continuation of the Democrats’ fight against Trump. 

“The party that lost the (2016) election, the Democratic Party, is trying to achieve results by other means,” Putin said. 

He likened Trump’s impeachment to the earlier U.S. probe into collusion with Russia, which Putin downplayed as being groundless.

Putin noted that the impeachment motion “is yet to pass the Senate where the Republicans have a majority.” He added that “they will be unlikely to remove a representative of their own party from office on what seems to me an absolutely far-fetched reason.”

Trump was impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives, becoming only the third American chief executive to be formally charged under the Constitution’s ultimate remedy for high crimes and misdemeanors.

The historic vote split along party lines Wednesday night in the U.S., much the way it has divided the nation, over a charge that the 45th president abused the power of his office by enlisting a foreign government to investigate a political rival ahead of the 2020 election. The House then approved a second charge, that he obstructed Congress in its investigation. The articles of impeachment, the political equivalent of an indictment, now go to the Senate for trial. 

German extradition request

Turning to a spat with Germany over the killing of a Georgian citizen in Berlin in August, which German prosecutors alleged had been ordered by Moscow or authorities in the Russian province of Chechnya, Putin described the victim as a “bloodthirsty killer.” He said the man, an ethnic Chechen who was accused of being responsible for the killing of 98 people in just one raid in Russia’s North Caucasus and masterminding bombings on the Moscow subway system.

Russian officials have denied that Moscow had any relation to the killing,

Putin said that Russian law enforcement agencies had spoken to their German counterparts to demand the man’s extradition, but were given the cold shoulder and never sent a formal extradition request. He likened the victim to Islamic State group militants in custody in Turkey, some of whom come from Germany, France and other European nations.

“If those people come your way, will you like it?” Putin said. “Will you let them freely roam the streets like that?”

He argued that law enforcement agencies in Russia and Europe need to cooperate more closely to fend off terror threats.

Wide ranging news conference

Putin spoke on a variety of issues during the marathon news conference that was dominated by local issues, such as Russia’s ailing health care system and federal subsidies for the regions. 

He opened it by warning about new challenges posed by global climate change, saying that global warming could threaten Russian Arctic cities and towns built on permafrost.

The Russian leader added that climate changes could trigger fires, devastating floods and other negative consequences.

Putin emphasized that Russia has abided by the Paris agreement intended to slow down global warming. At the same time, he noted that factors behind global climate change have remained unknown and hard to predict.

Putin, who has been in power for two decades, also hailed the economic achievements of his rule. He emphasized that Russia has become the world’s largest grain exporter, surpassing the U.S. and Canada — a dramatic change compared to the Soviet Union that heavily depended on grain imports.

The Russian leader also pointed at industry modernization, saying that three quarters of industrial equipment is no older than 12 years.

He said that the country has built three new airports, 12 new railway stations and the number of major highways has doubled.

The Russian economy had suffered a double blow of a drop in global oil prices and Western sanctions that followed Moscow’s 2014 annexation of Crimea. It has seen a slow recovery since 2017 after a two-year stagnation.

Relations with West

Russia’s ties with the West have remained at post-Cold War lows, but Putin argued that Russia has recovered and become more resilient to shocks from Western penalties and fluctuations in global energy prices. 

Putin voiced hope for further moves to settle the conflict in eastern Ukraine following his talks in Paris on Dec. 9 with the leaders of Ukraine, France and Germany.

He said that the 2015 peace agreement signed in Minsk and brokered by France and Germany must be observed, rejecting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s push for revising it. 

The fighting in eastern Ukraine that flared up in 2014 after Russia’s annexation of Crimea has killed more than 14,000 and ravaged Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland.

The Minsk deal envisaged that Ukraine can regain control over the border with Russia in the separatist-held regions only after they are granted broad self-rule and hold local elections. The agreement was a diplomatic coup for Russia, ensuring that the rebel regions get a broad authority and resources to survive on their own without cross-border support.

Zelenskiy pushed for tweaking the timeline laid out in the accord so that Ukraine gets control of its border first before local elections are held, but Putin firmly rejected that.

“There is nothing but the Minsk agreement,” Putin said. “If we start revising the Minsk agreement, it will lead to deadlock.”

He said that Russia still hopes to negotiate a new gas deal with Ukraine that will allow his country to maintain transit shipments of gas to Europe via Ukrainian territory. The Russian leader noted that Moscow would be ready to continue pumping gas via Ukraine even though the new prospective Nord Stream 2 pipeline under the Baltic Sea is expected to come online next year.

Lenin

Putin, who once lamented the breakup of the Soviet Union as the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century, had some harsh words to say about Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin.

He lambasted Lenin’s policies on ethnic issues, saying that his idea to grant broad autonomy to ethnic-based Soviet republics, including their right to secede, paved way for the Soviet breakup once the Communist Party’s hold on power started to loosen.

At the same time, Putin rejected the push for taking Lenin’s embalmed body out of the Red Square tomb and burying it, saying that it would offend older people who still see the Soviet founder as a powerful symbol.

He noted that the Soviet demise spawned expectations of a “unipolar world” in which the U.S. dictates terms to others, adding that such “illusions” quickly collapsed. Putin said that China has come to challenge the U.S. as the global economic powerhouse and hailed increasingly close ties between Moscow and Beijing.

Putin, whose current term runs through 2024, remained coy about his political future. He wouldn’t answer if he could potentially extend his rule by shifting into a new governing position to become the head of a Russia-Belarus union.

He left the door open to amending the Russian Constitution, such as changing the powers of the president and the Cabinet, but noted that changes must be made carefully after a broad pubic discussion.

…

American folk singer and songwriter, Alice Peacock released her latest album, “Minnesota” earlier this year. The album’s title track is a love song to her home state, where her family spends their summers. Much has changed for Peacock since her last solo studio album, 2009’s “Love Remains.” She has had three kids, moved to Cincinnati and … gotten 10 years older.

…

Three small explosions went off in a southern Rakhine town in Myanmar Thursday just before civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi landed there in a rare visit to the conflict-ridden state, a local official said.

The blasts happened in the normally quiet town of Manaung on an island off Myanmar’s western coast where Suu Kyi was due to open a solar power plant.

“There were three explosions, but no casualties,” Win Myint, spokesperson for Rakhine’s regional government, told AFP.

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Myanmar Democracy Icon’s Dramatic Fall From Grace

Many former supporters watched in dismay as the Nobel peace laureate denied accusations that Myanmar’s military conducted atrocities against the Rohingya Muslim population

He said it happened before Suu Kyi arrived, but since they were on the other side of town the event went ahead as planned and she had since left safely on a flight to Yangon.

“This has never happened in Manaung before.”

No group has yet claimed responsibility for planting the small bombs, which detonated at the side of a road, photos from local media showed.  

The area has remained largely unscathed by unrest further north, where Myanmar’s military is locked in an increasingly vicious conflict with the Arakan Army (AA).

The rebel group claims to be fighting for more autonomy and rights for the ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and garners sympathy from many local people who have long felt marginalized in the Bamar-majority country.

But tens of thousands have fled their homes over the past year and dozens of civilians have been caught in the crossfire.

There have been allegations of abuse against both sides.

Rights groups say Myanmar’s military has abducted civilians and tortured detainees, but the army points to targeted shootings, roadside bombings and kidnappings by insurgents.

One Indian construction worker died while being held hostage and an MP from Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) has now been held for over six weeks.

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Myanmar Accusers Criticize Aung San Suu Kyi’s Defense of Genocide Allegations

Gambia, which brought the case, wants emergency order to protect Rohingyas

A number of hostages seized by the rebels in a raid on a ferry packed with scores of police and soldiers were killed in October, with each side blaming the other.

Rakhine state’s north was also the epicenter of a bloody military crackdown two years ago that forced some 740,000 Rohingya Muslims to flee over the border into Bangladesh.

Thursday’s visit was only the third time Suu Kyi had traveled to Rakhine since the Rohingya crisis erupted in 2017.

…

Lawyers for Marry Chiwenga, the wife of Zimbabwe’s vice president, Constantino Chiwenga, have asked judges to free her on bail, four days after she was arrested for allegedly attempting to murder her husband.

Attorney Toana Nyamakura filed the bail application on behalf of Marry Chiwenga at the High Court on Wednesday.

While Nyamakura refused to speak to reporters, Kenny Mubaiwa, the father of the former model, maintained his earlier line and only said:

According to state prosecutors, when Vice President Chiwenga was flown to South Africa for medical care in June, Marry Chiwenga forced her husband to stay at a hotel overnight, denying him treatment for about 24 hours. When security agents finally took the vice president to a hospital, his wife allegedly entered his room and removed an IV and a catheter, resulting in profuse bleeding.

Marry Chiwenga was also charged with corruption for allegedly using $1 million in foreign currency – of which there is a shortage in Zimbabwe – to buy houses and luxury vehicles abroad.

Alexander Rusero, a senior journalism lecturer at Harare Polytechnic College, says the attempted murder charge might well be true.

“When you have a whole vice president accusing his wife of murder, I think there is an element of truth to it. No husband in his entire pride would want to bring, or wash dirty linen unless there is something important, and in this case, a life-threatening issue,” he said.

At the same time, Rusero said he thinks the vice president is using his office to get back at his wife, from whom he recently filed for divorce.

“It is an exercise of power, an exercise of office, because the truth is that these are really domestic issues which have nothing to do with the national psyche, which actually have nothing to do with the current efforts that the government might otherwise try to nip the issue of corruption in the bud. They fall away, they are just a matter of flexing muscle by the vice president,” Rusero said.

Mrs. Chiwenga is facing another charge of trying to obtain an official marriage certificate without the vice president’s consent. The Chiwengas have been married for eight years under Zimbabwe’s customary law, a lesser status than the country’s official civil marriage. The state says Marry Chiwenga was attempting to position herself financially and politically in case the vice president died.

State prosecutors are opposed to granting bail, saying Marry Chiwenga has properties outside Zimbabwe and could flee the country to avoid significant jail time.

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Immigrants convicted of illegally reentering the U.S., driving drunk or committing domestic violence will be barred from claiming asylum under a proposed regulation announced Wednesday by the Trump administration.

The proposal, which must go through a public comment period before it is finalized, lists seven criminal areas, including some low-level crimes, that would bar migrants from claiming asylum in addition to federal restrictions already in place. It also would remove a requirement for immigration judges to reconsider some asylum denials.

It’s another push to restrict asylum by President Donald Trump’s administration, which claims migrants are gaming the system so they can spend years in the U.S. despite their ineligibility, in part because of a lower bar for initial screenings. Most of the people who claim asylum are fleeing violence, poverty and corruption in their home countries.

Immigrant advocates and humanitarian groups have criticized Trump’s hard-line policies as inhumane and have said the U.S. is abdicating its role as a safe haven for refugees.

But an immigration court backlog has reached more than 1 million cases, and border agencies were overwhelmed this year by hundreds of thousands of Central American families that require more care-giving and are not easily returned over the U.S.-Mexico border.

In an effort to stop the flow of migrants, the Department of Homeland Security, which manages immigration, has sent more than 50,000 migrants back over the border to wait out asylum claims. The migrants often are victimized in violent parts of Mexico and sickened by unsanitary conditions in what have become large refugee camps. Homeland Security officials also have signed agreements with Guatemala and other Central American nations to send asylum seekers there. The first families have already been sent to Guatemala.

The Justice Department also has taken aim at so-called sanctuary cities, like New York and Chicago, which do not assist Homeland Security agents with immigration-related requests. New York officials, for example, say they do not believe immigrants should be deported for minor offenses and won’t notify U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement if they have an immigrant in their custody. Attorney General William Barr and acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf complained about such policies.

“I think what we are doing is playing politics with public safety,” Wolf said recently in a Fox News Channel interview on New York laws. “That is really concerning from protecting the homeland perspective, making sure that DHS law enforcement officers have the data and the tools that they need to protect their communities.”

The proposed new rules would make asylum seekers ineligible if they were convicted of a felony or if they were arrested repeatedly on domestic violence charges. Other crimes include: low-level convictions for false identification or unlawful receipt of public benefits. Plus: smuggling or harboring immigrants, illegal reentry, a federal crime involving street gang activity or driving while under the influence of an intoxicant.

These crimes are in addition to other bars already in place  through federal asylum laws.

The changes were made so that the departments “will be able to devote more resources to the adjudication of asylum cases filed by non-criminal aliens,” according to a joint release Wednesday by the Justice Department and Homeland Security.

For the budget year 2018, there were about 105,500 asylum applications by those who came to the U.S. and were not in deportation proceedings first. The figure decreased by 25% from the previous budget year.

During the same period, the number of asylum applications by migrants who were already in court for deportation proceedings increased about 12%, to 159,473, mostly from Central America and Mexico.

According to Homeland Security data, the total number of people granted asylum increased 46%, to 38,687, in 2018. The top countries were China, Venezuela and El Salvador.
 

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