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# Israel faces new calls for truce after killing of hostages raises alarm about its conduct in Gaza By WAFAA SHURAFA and SAMY MAGDY December 17, 2023. 7:21 PM EST --- DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) - Israel's government faced calls for a cease-fire from some of its closest European allies on Sunday after a series of shootings, including the mistaken killing of three Israeli hostages, fueled global concerns about the conduct of the 10-week-old war in Gaza. Israeli protesters are urging their government to renew negotiations with Gaza's Hamas rulers, whom Israel has vowed to destroy. Israel is also expected to face pressure to scale back major combat operations when U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin visits Monday. Washington is expressing growing unease with civilian casualties even as it provides vital military and diplomatic support. The war has flattened large parts of northern Gaza, killed thousands of civilians and driven most of the population to the southern part of the besieged territory, where many are in crowded shelters and tent camps. Some 1.9 million Palestinians - about 90% of Gaza's population - have fled their homes. They survive off a trickle of humanitarian aid. Dozens of desperate Palestinians surrounded aid trucks after they drove in through the Rafah crossing with Egypt, forcing some to stop before climbing aboard, pulling down boxes and carrying them off. Other trucks appeared to be guarded by masked people carrying sticks. Israel said aid passed directly from Israel into Gaza for the first time Sunday, with 79 trucks entering from Kerem Shalom, where around 500 trucks entered daily before the war. Another 120 trucks entered via Rafah along with six trucks carrying fuel or cooking gas, said Wael Abu Omar, Palestinian Crossings Authority spokesman. Aid workers say it's still far from enough. "You cannot deliver aid under a sky full of airstrikes," a spokesperson with the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, Juliette Touma, said on social media, while the agency estimated that more than 60% of Gaza's infrastructure had been destroyed in the war. Telecom services in Gaza gradually resumed after a four-day communications blackout, the longest of several outages during the war that groups say complicate rescue and delivery efforts. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel "will continue to fight until the end," with the goal of eliminating Hamas, which triggered the war with its Oct. 7 attack into southern Israel. Palestinian militants killed some 1,200 people that day, mostly civilians, and captured scores of hostages. Netanyahu has vowed to bring back the estimated 129 hostages still in captivity. Anger over the mistaken killing of hostages is likely to increase pressure on him to renew Qatar-mediated negotiations with Hamas over swapping more of the remaining captives for Palestinians imprisoned in Israel. Meanwhile, Israel has been defensively striking Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, said Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, an Israel Defense Forces spokesperson. The group has ramped up attacks against Israel, he added, killing civilians and soldiers and displacing more than 80,000 Israelis from their homes. "Hezbollah - a proxy of Iran - is dragging Lebanon into an unnecessary war that would have devastating consequences for the people of Lebanon," Hagari said in a statement. "This is a war that they do not deserve." Hagari said Israel will continue to protect its borders "until and unless a diplomatic solution is found and implemented." ## CALLS FOR A NEW CEASE-FIRE In Israel on Sunday, French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna called for an "immediate truce" aimed at releasing more hostages, getting larger amounts of aid into Gaza and moving toward "the beginning of a political solution." France's Foreign Ministry earlier said an employee was killed in an Israeli strike on a home in Rafah on Wednesday. It condemned the strike, which it said killed several civilians, and demanded clarification from Israeli authorities. The foreign ministers of the U.K. and Germany, meanwhile, called for a "sustainable" cease-fire, saying too many civilians have been killed. "Israel will not win this war if its operations destroy the prospect of peaceful co-existence with Palestinians," British Foreign Secretary David Cameron and German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock wrote in the U.K.'s Sunday Times. The U.S. defense secretary is set to travel to Israel to continue discussions on a timetable for ending the war's most intense phase. Israeli and U.S. officials have spoken of a transition to more targeted strikes aimed at killing Hamas leaders and rescuing hostages, without saying when it would occur. Hamas has said no more hostages will be released until the war ends, and that in exchange it will demand the release of large numbers of Palestinian prisoners, including high-profile militants. Hamas released over 100 of more than 240 hostages captured on Oct. 7 in exchange for the release of scores of Palestinian prisoners during a brief cease-fire in November. Nearly all freed on both sides were women and minors. Israel has rescued one hostage. The Israeli military said Sunday it had discovered a large tunnel in Gaza close to what was once a busy crossing into Israel, raising new questions about how Israeli surveillance missed such conspicuous attack preparations by Hamas. ## SHOOTINGS DRAW SCRUTINY Military officials said Saturday that the three hostages who were mistakenly shot by Israeli troops had tried to signal that they posed no harm. It was Israel's first such acknowledgement of harming hostages in the war. The hostages, all in their 20s, were killed Friday in the Gaza City area of Shijaiyah, where troops are engaged in fierce fighting with Hamas. An Israeli military official said the shootings were against the army's rules of engagement and were being investigated at the highest level. Israel says it makes every effort to avoid harming civilians and accuses Hamas of using them as human shields. But Palestinians and rights groups have repeatedly accused Israeli forces of recklessly endangering civilians and firing on those who do not threaten them, both in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, which has seen a surge of violence since the war began. A shell struck the pediatric ward of a hospital in the city of Khan Younis in southern Gaza late Sunday, killing a girl, said Dr. Mohammed Abu Lihia, who works in the emergency department. Footage shared by Gaza's Health Ministry showed a burst ceiling and wall in the Mubarak Hospital for Children and Maternity in the Nasser Hospital complex with bloodstains near children's cots and cribs on the third floor. The doctor said he helped three others, two older adults and a child, escape the hospital. A videographer filming for The Associated Press said at least 5 people, including children, were wounded. The Israeli military didn't immediately comment. Israel continues to strike positions across Khan Younis. Palestinians from the north fled there in the early weeks of the conflict. Also Sunday, five people were killed and many injured after a reported Israeli airstrike hit near a U.N.-run school in Khan Younis where displaced Palestinians were sheltering. A cameraman with AP counted five bodies delivered to a hospital. The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem said two Christian women at a church compound in Gaza were killed by Israeli sniper fire. Pope Francis called Sunday for peace, saying "unarmed civilians are being bombed and shot at, and this has even happened inside the Holy Family parish complex, where there are no terrorists but families, children and sick people with disabilities, nuns." In discussions Saturday between the Israeli military and representatives of the church community, no one reported a strike on the church or civilians being wounded or killed, the military said. It said a review of its initial investigation had supported that. The offensive has killed more than 18,700 Palestinians, the Health Ministry in the Hamas-run territory said Thursday in its last update before the communications blackout. It has said that thousands more casualties are buried under the rubble. The ministry does not differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths, but has said that most of those killed were women and children. The plight of Palestinian civilians has gotten little attention inside Israel, where many are still deeply traumatized by the Oct. 7 attack and where support for the war remains strong. Israel's military says 121 of its soldiers have been killed in the Gaza offensive. It says it has killed thousands of militants, without providing evidence.
# Senate border security talks grind on as Trump invokes Nazi-era 'blood' rhetoric against immigrants By LISA MASCARO and STEPHEN GROVES December 17, 2023. 8:20 PM EST --- WASHINGTON (AP) - Time slipping, White House and Senate negotiators struggled Sunday to reach a U.S. border security deal that would unlock President Joe Biden's request for billions of dollars worth of military aid for Ukraine and other national security needs before senators leave town for the holiday recess. The Biden administration, which is becoming more deeply involved in the talks, is facing pressure from all sides over any deal. Negotiators insist they are making progress, but a hoped-for framework did not emerge. Republican leaders signaled that without bill text, an upcoming procedural would likely fail. The talks come as Donald Trump, the Republican presidential front-runner in 2024, delivered alarming anti-immigrant remarks about "blood" purity over the weekend, echoing Nazi slogans of World War II at a political rally. "They're poisoning the blood of our country," Trump said about the record numbers of immigrants coming to the U.S. without immediate legal status. Speaking in the early-voting state of New Hampshire, Trump, drew on words similar to Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kempf" as the former U.S. president berated Biden's team over the flow of migrants. "All over the world they're pouring into our country," Trump said. Throughout the weekend, senators and top Biden officials, including Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, have been working intently behind closed doors at the Capitol to strike a border deal, which Republicans in Congress are demanding in exchange for any help for Ukraine, Israel and other national security needs. Mayorkas arrived for more talks late Sunday afternoon. "Everyday we get closer, not farther away," said Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., as talks wrapped up in the evening. Their holiday recess postponed, Murphy and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, the Arizona independent, acknowledged the difficulty of drafting, and securing support, for deeply complicated legislation on an issue that has vexed Congress for years. Ahead of more talks Monday, it is becoming apparent any action is unlikely before year's end. Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said senators don't want to be "jammed" by a last-minute compromise reached by negotiators. "We're not anywhere close to a deal," Graham, whose staff has joined the talks, said Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press." Graham predicted the deliberations will go into next year. He was among 15 Republican senators who wrote to GOP leadership urging them to wait until the House returns Jan. 8 to discuss the issue. Top GOP negotiator Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell also signaled in their own letter Sunday that talks still had a ways to go. Lankford said later that the January timeline was "realistic." The Biden administration faces an increasingly difficult political situation as global migration is on a historic rise, and many migrants are fleeing persecution or leaving war-torn countries for the United States, with smugglers capitalizing on the situation. The president is being berated daily by Republicans, led by Trump, as border crossings have risen to levels that make even some in Biden's own Democratic Party concerned. But the Biden administration, in considering revival of Trump-like policies, is drawing outrage from Democrats and immigrant advocates who say the ideas would gut the U.S. asylum system and spark fears of deportations from immigrants already living in the U.S. The White House's failure to fully engage Latino lawmakers in the talks until recently, or ensure a seat at the negotiating table, has led to a near revolt from leaders of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. "It's unacceptable," said Rep. Nanette Barragan, D-Calif., chair of the Hispanic Caucus, on social media. "We represent border districts & immigrant communities that will be severely impacted by extreme changes to border policy." Progressives in Congress are also warning the Biden administration off any severe policies that would bar immigrants a legal path to enter the country. "No backroom deal on the border without the involvement of the House, the House Hispanic Caucus, Latino senators is going to pass," said Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., on Fox News. White House chief of staff Jeff Zients, along with Mayorkas, heard from leading Latino lawmakers during a conference call with the Hispanic Caucus on Saturday afternoon. The senators and the White House appear to be focused on ways to limit the numbers of migrants who are eligible for asylum at the border, primarily by toughening the requirements to qualify for their cases to go forward. The talks have also focused removing some migrants who have already been living in the U.S. without full legal status, and on ways to temporarily close the U.S.-Mexico border to some crossings if they hit a certain metric, or threshold. Arrests of migrants have topped 10,000 on some days. There has also been discussion about limiting existing programs that have allowed groups of arrivals from certain countries to temporarily enter the U.S. while they await proceedings about their claims. Decades ago, those programs welcomed Vietnamese arrivals and others, and have since been opened to Ukrainians, Afghans and a group that includes Cubans, Nicaraguans, Venezuelans and Haitians. Meanwhile, Biden's massive $110 billion aid package for Ukraine, Israel and other security needs is hanging in the balance. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made a dramatic, if disappointing, visit to Washington last week to plead with Congress and the White House for access to U.S. weaponry as his country fights against Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion. Many, but not all, Republicans have soured on helping Ukraine fight Russia, taking their cues from Trump. The former president praised Putin, quoting the Russian leader during Saturday's rally while slamming the multiple investigations against him as politically motivated - including the federal indictment against Trump for conspiring to overturn the 2020 election that resulted in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters. Ukraine's ambassador to the United States said Sunday she believes in "Christmas miracles" and won't give up hope. Of Biden's package, some $61 billion would go toward Ukraine, about half of the money for the U.S. Defense Department to buy and replenish tanks, artillery and other weaponry sent to the war effort. "All the eyes are on Congress now," the envoy, Oksana Markarova, said on CBS' "Face the Nation." "We can just only pray and hope that there will be resolve there, and that the deal that they will be able to reach will allow the fast decisions also on the support to Ukraine," she said. The House already left for the holiday recess, but Republican Speaker Mike Johnson is being kept aware of the negotiations in the Senate.
# A gloomy mood hangs over Ukraine's soldiers as war with Russia grinds on By SAMYA KULLAB December 18, 2023. 12:03 AM EST --- KYIV, Ukraine (AP) - A gloomy mood hangs over Ukraine's soldiers nearly two years after Russia invaded their country. Despite a disappointing counteroffensive this summer and signs of wavering financial support from allies, Ukrainian soldiers say they remain fiercely determined to win. But as winter approaches, they worry that Russia is better equipped for battle and are frustrated about being on the defensive again in a grueling war. Some doubt the judgment of their leaders. Discontent among Ukrainian soldiers - once extremely rare and expressed only in private - is now more common and out in the open. In the southern city of Kherson, where Ukraine is staging attacks against well-armed Russian troops on the other side of the Dnieper River, soldiers are asking why these difficult amphibious operations were not launched months ago in warmer weather. "I don't understand," said a commander of the 11th National Guard Brigade's anti-drone unit who is known on the battlefield as Boxer. "Now it's harder and colder." "It's not just my feeling, many units share it," said Boxer, who spoke on condition that only his battlefield name would be used. Russia, which illegally annexed the Crimean Peninsula in 2014, controls about one-fifth of Ukraine. After 22 months of war the two countries are essentially in a stalemate along the 1,000 kilometer-long (620 mile-long) front line. Russian forces aim to push deeper into eastern Ukraine this winter, analysts say, so that Russian President Vladimir Putin can cite this momentum as he campaigns for reelection, an outcome that is all but certain. Emboldened by recent gains on the battlefield, Putin said last week that he remains fully committed to the war and criticized Ukraine for "sacrificing" troops to demonstrate success to Western sponsors. In the United States, which has already spent some $111 billion defending Ukraine, President Joe Biden is advocating for an additional $50 billion in aid. But Republican lawmakers are balking at more support - just as some lawmakers in Europe are on the fence about providing another $50 billion to Ukraine, after failing to deliver on promised ammunition. "The reason the Ukrainians are gloomy is that, they now sense, not only have they not done well this year ... they know that the Russians' game is improving," said Richard Barrons, a former British army general. "They see what's happening in Congress, and they see what happened in the EU." Ukraine may be on the defensive this winter, but its military leaders say they have no intention of letting up the fight. "If we won't have a single bullet, we will kill them with shovels," said Serhii, a commander in the 59th Brigade that is active in the eastern city of Avdiivka and who spoke on condition that only his first name be used. "Surely, everyone is tired of war, physically and mentally. But imagine if we stop - what happens next?" ## BLEAK MOOD The fatigue and frustration on the battlefield are mirrored in Ukraine's capital, Kyiv, where disagreements among leaders have recently spilled out into the open. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy last month publicly disputed the assessment by Ukraine's military chief, Valery Zaluzhny, that the war had reached a stalemate. And the mayor of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, has repeatedly lashed out at Zelenskyy, saying he holds too much power. Disquiet in the halls of power appears to have filtered down to the military's rank and file, who increasingly have misgivings about inefficiency and faulty decision-making within the bureaucracy they depend on to keep them well-armed for the fight. In the southern Ukrainian region of Zaporizhzhia, where momentum has slowed since the summertime counteroffensive, drones have become a crucial tool of war. They enable soldiers to keep an eye on - and hold back - Russian forces while they conduct dangerous and painstaking operations to clear minefields and consolidate territorial gains. But fighters there complain that the military has been too slow in training drone operators. It took seven months to obtain the paperwork needed from multiple government agencies to train 75 men, said Konstantin Denisov, a Ukrainian soldier. "We wasted time for nothing," he said. Commanders elsewhere complain of not enough troops, or delays in getting drones repaired, disrupting combat missions. Defense Minister Rustem Umerov insists Ukraine has enough soldiers and weaponry to power the next phase of the fight. "We are capable and able to protect our people and we will be doing it," he told the Associated Press. "We have a plan and we are sticking to that plan." ## DEFENSIVE SHIFT The limited momentum Ukraine's forces had during their summertime counteroffensive has slowed - from the forests in the northeast, to the urban centers in the east, to the slushy farmland in the south. With Russia hoping to take the initiative this winter, Ukraine is mainly focused on standing its ground, according to interviews with a half dozen military commanders along the vast front line. Despite wet, muddy ground that makes it harder to move tanks and other heavy weaponry around, the Russian army has bolstered its forces in the eastern Donetsk region, where it has recently stepped up offensive maneuvers. "The main goal for the winter is to lose as few people as possible," said Parker, the Ukrainian commander of a mechanized battalion near Bakhmut who asked to go by his battlefield name to speak freely. Bakhmut is a city in eastern Ukraine that Russian forces took after months of heavy fighting. "We have to be clear," Parker said. "It's not possible in the winter to liberate Donetsk or Bakhmut, because they have too many (fighters)." Analysts say Ukraine may even be forced to cede patches of previously reclaimed territory this winter, though Russia is likely to pay a heavy price. "If Russia keeps on attacking, the most likely outcome is that they'll make some very marginal territorial gains, but suffer enormous casualties in doing so," said Ben Barry, a senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London. ## DRONES AND MEN Some Ukrainian commanders across the front line say they lack the fighters and firepower needed to keep Russia's seemingly endless waves of infantrymen at arm's length as they fortify defenses to protect soldiers. That places ever more importance on attack drones - a weapon, they say, that Russia is currently better equipped with. Indeed, while Ukrainian soldiers have proven to be resourceful and innovative on the battlefield, Moscow has dramatically scaled up its defense industry in the past year, manufacturing armored vehicles and artillery rounds at a pace Ukraine cannot match. "Yes they're ahead of us in terms of supply," said Boxer, the commander in Kherson, who credited Russian drones with having longer range and more advanced software. "It allows the drone to go up 2,000 meters, avoid jammers," he said, whereas Ukrainian drones "can fly only 500 meters." This is poses a problem for his troops, who have been limited in their ability to strike Russian targets on the other side of the Dnieper River. To eventually deploy heavy weaponry, such as tanks, Ukraine first needs to push Russian forces back to erect pontoon bridges. Until they get more drones, this won't be possible, said Boxer. "We wait for weapons we were supposed to receive months ago," he said. To sustain the fight, Ukraine will also have to mobilize more men. In the northeastern cities of Kupiansk and Lyman, Russian forces have deployed a large force with the goal of recapturing lost territory. "They are simply weakening our positions and strongholds, injuring our soldiers, thereby forcing them to leave the battlefield," said Dolphin, a commander in the northeast who would only be quoted using his battlefield name. Dolphin says he has been unable to sufficiently re-staff. "I can say for my unit, we are prepared 60%," he said.
# Serbia's populists claim a sweeping victory in the country's parliamentary election By DUSAN STOJANOVIC December 17, 2023. 6:17 PM EST --- BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) - Serbia's governing populists claimed a sweeping victory Sunday in the country's parliamentary election, which was marred by reports of major irregularities both during a tense campaign and on voting day. Acting Prime Minister Ana Brnabic said that with half the ballots counted, the governing Serbian Progressive Party's projections showed it won 47% percent of the vote and expected to hold around 130 seats in the 250-member assembly. The main opposition Serbia Against Violence group won around 23%, Brnabic said. The main contest in the parliamentary and local elections was between President Aleksandar Vucic's Serbian Progressives and the centrist coalition that sought to undermine the populists who have ruled the troubled Balkan state since 2012. The Serbia Against Violence opposition coalition was expected to mount its biggest challenge for the city council in Belgrade, with analysts saying an opposition victory in the capital would seriously dent Vucic's hardline rule in the country. Vucic, however, said his party was also leading in the vote in the capital, though he added that post-election coalition negotiations would determine who governs in Belgrade. "This is an absolute victory which makes me extremely happy," a jubilant Vucic said at his party's headquarters in Belgrade. "We know what we have achieved in the previous period and how tough a period lies ahead." The main opposition group disputed the election projections from the governing party, claiming there was vote-rigging and saying it would dispute the vote count "by all democratic means." "People who do not live in Belgrade were brought in buses, vans and cars to vote as if they were citizens of Belgrade," opposition leader Miroslav Aleksic said, also charging that 40,000 identity documents were issued for people who do not live in the capital. "We will use all available democratic means against the vote rigging in Belgrade and Serbia," he said. "What happened today cannot be something we can accept as the result of a democratic and fair election." Turnout one hour before the polls closed was around 55%, about the same as during the last election in 2022 when Vucic scored a landslide victory. First official results are expected Monday. Irregularities were reported by election monitors and independent media. One report alleged ethnic Serbs from neighboring Bosnia gathered to vote at a sports hall in Belgrade that wasn't an official polling station. Another report said a monitoring team was attacked and their car was bashed with baseball bats in a town in northern Serbia. Observers from the independent Center for Research, Transparency and Accountability expressed "the highest concern" over cases of the organized transfer of illegal voters from other countries to Belgrade, the group said in a statement. "The concentration of buses, minivans and cars was observed on several spots in Belgrade, transferring voters to polling stations across the city to vote," the group said. CRTA also reported cases of voters being given money to vote for the governing party and the presence of unauthorized people at polling stations. Authorities disputed that there was any wrongdoing. Brnabic, the premier, called the accusations "lies that are intended to spread panic." Several right-wing groups, including pro-Russia parties and Socialists allied with Vucic, ran candidates for parliament and local councils in around 60 cities and towns as well as regional authorities in the northern Vojvodina province. The election didn't include the presidency, but governing authorities backed by dominant pro-government media ran the campaign as a referendum on Vucic. Although he wasn't formally on the ballot, the Serbian president campaigned relentlessly for the SNS, which appeared on the ballot under the name "Aleksandar Vucic - Serbia must not stop!" Serbia Against Violence, a pro-European Union bloc, includes parties that were behind months of street protests this year triggered by two back-to-back mass shootings in May. The Serbian president toured the country and attended his party's rallies, promising new roads, hospitals, one-off cash bonuses and higher salaries and pensions. Vucic's image was on billboards all over the country, though he had stepped down as SNS party leader. Serbia, a Balkan country that has maintained warm relations with Russia and President Vladimir Putin, has been a candidate for European Union membership since 2014, but has faced allegations of steadily eroding democratic freedoms and rules over the past years. Both Vucic and the SNS denied allegations of campaign abuse and attempted vote-rigging as well as charges that Vucic as president violated the constitution by campaigning for one party. Vucic called the Dec. 17 early vote only a year and a half after a previous parliamentary and presidential election, although his party holds a comfortable majority in parliament. Analysts said Vucic is seeking to consolidate power after the two back-to-back shootings triggered months of anti-government protests, and as high inflation and rampant corruption fuel public discontent. Vucic has also faced criticism over his handling of a crisis in Kosovo, a former Serbian province that declared independence in 2008, a move that Belgrade doesn't recognize. His supporters view Vucic as the only leader who can maintain stability and lead the country into a better future. "I think it's time that Serbia goes forward with full steam," retiree Lazar Mitrovic said after he voted. "That means that it should focus on its youth, on young people, education and of course discipline."
# Chilean voters reject conservative constitution, after defeating leftist charter last year By MARÍA VERZA and PATRICIA LUNA December 17, 2023. 10:47 PM EST --- SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) - Voters rejected on Sunday a proposed conservative constitution to replace Chile's dictatorship-era charter, showing both the deep division in the South American country and the inability of political sectors to address people's demands for change made four years ago. With nearly all votes counted late Sunday, about 55.8% had voted "no" to the new charter, with about 44.2% in favor. The vote came more than a year after Chileans resoundingly rejected a proposed constitution written by a left-leaning convention and one that many characterized as one of the world's most progressive charters. The new document, largely written by conservative councilors, was more conservative than the one it had sought to replace, because it would have deepened free-market principles, reduced state intervention and might have limited some women's rights. The process to write a new constitution began after 2019 street protests, when thousands of people complained about inequality in one of Latin America's most politically stable and economically strongest countries. Chilean President Gabriel Boric said Sunday night that his government won't try a third attempt to change the constitution, saying there are other priorities. He admitted he wasn't able to "channel the hopes of having a new constitution written for everyone." On the contrary, he said, after two referendums, "the country became polarized, it was divided." Javier Macaya, the leader of the conservative Independent Democratic Union party, recognized the defeat and urged the government not to raise the issue again. "From a perspective of coherence and respect for democracy, we recognize the results," Macaya said. Now, the constitution adopted during the dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet - which was amended over the years - will remain in effect. That is what former President Michelle Bachelet had hoped for when she voted early Sunday. "I prefer something bad to something worse," said Bachelet, who campaigned to reject the latest charter proposal. One of the most controversial articles in the draft said that "the law protects the life of the unborn," with a slight change in wording from the current document that some warned could make abortion fully illegal. Chilean law currently allows abortions for three reasons: rape, an unviable fetus and risk to the life of the mother. Another article in the proposed document that sparked controversy said prisoners who suffer a terminal illness and aren't deemed to be a danger to society at large can be granted house arrest. Members of the left-wing opposition said the measure could end up benefiting those who have been convicted of crimes against humanity during the Pinochet's 1973-1990 dictatorship. The charter would have characterized Chile as a social and democratic state that "promotes the progressive development of social rights" through state and private institutions. It was opposed by many local leaders who said it would scrap a tax on houses that are primary residences, a vital source of state revenue that is paid by the wealthiest. It also would have established new law enforcement institutions and said irregular immigrants should be expelled "as soon as possible." César Campos, a 70-year-old taxi driver, turned out early to support the new constitution. He viewed it as a vote against the left, whose ideas largely dominated the first, rejected draft. "Boric wants everybody to be equal," Campos said of the president. "Why should anyone who studies or works their entire life have to share that?" In 2022, 62% of voters rejected the proposed constitution that would have characterized Chile as a plurinational state, established autonomous Indigenous territories and prioritized the environment and gender parity. In Santiago, the capital, talk before Sunday's vote often turned to security rather than the proposed charter. State statistics show an uptick in robberies and other violent crimes, a development that tends to benefit conservative forces. "This whole process has been a waste of government money ... it's a joke," said government employee Johanna Anríquez, who voted against the new constitution, calling "it is very extremist." "Let's keep the one we have and, please, let's get on with the work of providing public safety," Anríquez said. There appeared to be little enthusiasm for Sunday's vote. Most citizens are exhausted after 10 elections of various types in less than 2½ years, but voting is compulsory in Chile. Malen Riveros, 19, a law student at the University of Chile, said the fervor that was ignited by the 2019 street protests has been lost and for her, the choice on Sunday was between the bad or the worse. "The hopes were lost with the passing of time," Riveros said. "People have already forgotten why we went into the streets."
# Russia and Ukraine launch numerous drone attacks targeting a Russian air base and Black Sea coast By KARL RITTER December 17, 2023. 12:22 PM EST --- KYIV, Ukraine (AP) - Russia and Ukraine reportedly launched mass drone attacks at each other's territories for a second straight day Sunday, one of which apparently targeted a Russian military airport. At least 35 Ukrainian drones were shot down overnight over three regions in southwestern Russia, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a post on the messaging app Telegram. A Russian air base hosting bomber aircraft used in the war in Ukraine was among the targets, according to a Russian Telegram channel critical of the Kremlin. The channel posted short videos of drones flying over low-rise housing in what it said was the Russian town of Morozovsk, whose air base is home to Russia's 559th Bomber Aviation Regiment. Vasily Golubev, the governor of Russia's Rostov province, separately reported "mass drone strikes" near Morozovsk and another town farther west, but didn't mention the air base. Golubev said most the drones were shot down and and there were no casualties. He didn't comment on damage. As of Sunday evening, Kyiv didn't formally acknowledge or claim responsibility for the drone attacks. A major Ukrainian newspaper, Ukrainska Pravda, cited an anonymous source in the security services as saying that Ukraine's army and intelligence services successfully struck the Morozovsk air base, inflicting "significant damage" to military equipment. It wasn't immediately possible to verify this claim. Also Sunday morning, Ukraine's air force said it shot down 20 Iranian-made Shahed drones launched overnight by Russian troops in southern and western Ukraine, as well as one X-59 cruise missile launched from the country's occupied south. A civilian was killed overnight near Odesa, a key port on Ukraine's southern Black Sea coast, after the remnants of a destroyed drone fell on his house, Ukraine's military said. Stepped-up drone attacks over the past month come as both sides are keen to show they aren't deadlocked as the war approaches the two-year mark. Neither side has gained much ground despite a Ukrainian counteroffensive that began in June. Russian shelling on Sunday also killed an 81-year-old man in central Kherson, the southern Ukrainian city that was recaptured by Kyiv's forces last fall, according to the head of its municipal military administration. Ukrainian and Russian forces exchanged fire outside Terebreno, a Russian village just kilometers (miles) from the Ukrainian border, according to Telegram posts by Gov. Vasily Gladkov. He did not provide details, but insisted Russian authorities had the situation "under control." According to Baza, a Telegram news channel set up by Russian journalists critical of the Kremlin, fighting between Russian troops and a "Ukrainian diversionary group" began around 11 a.m. near Terebreno, home to some 200 people, forcing residents to hide in shelters. Ukraine's military security agency, the GUR, said on Sunday evening that Russia-based "armed opponents of the Kremlin regime" were responsible for what it called "armed clashes" near Terebreno. The online statement didn't say whether the GUR or other Ukrainian bodies had any involvement in or prior knowledge of the fighting. Hours later, a 69-year-old woman was reported killed in a Ukrainian border village in the northern Sumy region, about 25 kilometers (15 miles) west of Terebreno. According to the Ukrainian regional prosecutor's office, the woman died after a Russian shell flew into her home. It wasn't immediately clear whether her death was linked to the reported clashes. Late on Sunday afternoon, a Ukrainian border force official reported in a video statement that multiple Russian "sabotage and reconnaissance" operatives had crossed into Ukraine's northern Sumy and Kharkiv regions. Andriy Demchenko said that Ukrainian border guards and territorial defense units succeeded in pushing them back into Russia. While cross-border raids on Russian territory from Ukraine are rare, the Russian military said in May that it had killed more than 70 attackers, describing them as Ukrainian military saboteurs, in a 24-hour battle. Kyiv portrayed the fighting as an uprising against the Kremlin by Russian partisans. Ukraine's foreign minister, meanwhile, welcomed what he called a sea change in Germany's approach toward Kyiv's European Union membership bid. In an interview with Germany's Bild newspaper, Dmytro Kuleba said that German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has won "sincere and well-deserved admiration" among Ukrainians for his role in the EU's recent decision to open membership talks for Kyiv. Ukraine has long faced strong opposition in its attempts to join the 27-member bloc from Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who has repeatedly spoken of his desire to maintain close ties with Russia. Scholz said that at an EU summit last week he proposed that Orbán leave the room to enable the summit to launch accession talks with Ukraine, something that the Hungarian leader agreed to do. "What German Chancellor Olaf Scholz did at the summit to remove the threatened Hungarian veto will go down in history as an act of German leadership in the interests of Europe. The chancellor has this week won a lot of sincere and well-deserved admiration in the hearts of Ukrainians," Kuleba told Bild. He also voiced hope that Scholz' actions would mark a "broader and irreversible shift" in Berlin's approach towards EU negotiations with Kyiv. "When I campaigned in Berlin last May to grant Ukraine EU candidate status, my appeals to Germany to take the lead in this process mostly fell on deaf ears. 'Germany doesn't want to lead,' experts and politicians in Berlin told me. I am glad that German political decisions have changed since then," Kuleba said. The Ukrainian government has long cast EU and NATO membership as key foreign policy goals, and the EU's decision to start accelerated negotiations gave Kyiv a major boost - although it could be years before it's able to join. NATO leaders, meanwhile, haven't set any clear timeline so far for Kyiv's membership bid, even as Moscow's all-out invasion of Ukraine led another of Russia's neighbors, Finland, to be accepted into the military alliance in April. Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed to build up military units near the Russian-Finnish border. The Kremlin leader declared, without giving details, that Helsinki's NATO accession would create "problems" for the Nordic country. "There were no problems (between Russia and Finland). Now, there will be. Because we will create (a new) military district and concentrate certain military units there," he told Russian state television on Sunday morning.
# Ukrainian drone video provides a grim look at casualties as Russian troops advance toward Avdiivka By EVGENIY MALOLETKA December 17, 2023. 4:38 AM EST --- KYIV, Ukraine (AP) - As Russian forces press forward with an attempt to capture the town of Avdiivka in eastern Ukraine, The Associated Press obtained aerial footage that gives an indication of their staggering losses. A Ukrainian military drone unit near Stepove, a village just north of Avdiivka, where some of the most intense battles have taken place, shot the video this month. It's an apocalyptic scene: In two separate clips, the bodies of about 150 soldiers - most wearing Russian uniforms - lie scattered along tree lines where they sought cover. The village itself has been reduced to rubble. Rows of trees that used to separate farm fields are burned and disfigured. The fields are pocked by artillery shells and grenades dropped from drones. The drone unit said it's possible that some of the dead were Ukrainians. The footage was provided to the AP by Ukraine's BUAR unit of the 110th Mechanized Brigade, involved in the fighting in the area. The unit said that the footage was shot on Dec. 6 over two separate treelines between Stepove and nearby railroad tracks and that many of the bodies had been left there for weeks. The AP verified the location by comparing the video with maps and other drone footage of the same area shot six days later by the 47th Mechanized Brigade. Russian forces launched an offensive in Avdiivka in October. Though they have made some incremental gains, Western analysts say the push has resulted in thousands of casualties. Russia launched Europe's biggest war since WWII, invading Ukraine in February 2022.
# Russia's ruling party backs Putin's reelection bid while a pro-peace candidate clears first hurdle December 17, 2023. 11:47 AM EST --- MOSCOW (AP) - Delegates from Russia's ruling party unanimously backed President Vladimir Putin 's bid for reelection at a party conference in Moscow on Sunday, state agencies reported, just a day after the Kremlin leader's supporters formally nominated him to run in the 2024 presidential election as an independent. A little-known Russian presidential hopeful who calls for peace in Ukraine also inched closer towards formally registering as a candidate, securing a nomination from a group of more than 500 supporters in the Russian capital. Dmitry Medvedev, United Russia's chairman and a former Russian president and prime minister, called on fellow party members to "mobilize all activists and supporters" in support of Putin before the vote, scheduled for March 15-17, according to reports by Russian state agencies. In a speech at the conference, Medvedev referred to Putin as "our candidate," and asserted that his reelection for a fifth term as head of state "should be absolutely logical, legitimate and absolutely indisputable." "We must mobilize all activists, all supporters in order to prevent any disruptions during the election campaign, stop any attempts to influence the course of the campaign from the outside, arrange provocations, disseminate false, harmful information or violate public order," Medvedev said. Analysts have described Putin's reelection as all but assured, given the tight control he has established over Russia's political system during his 24 years in power. Prominent critics who could challenge him on the ballot are either in jail or living abroad, and most independent media have been banned within Russia. On Saturday, a group including top officials from the United Russia party, prominent Russian actors, singers, athletes and other public figures formally nominated Putin to run as an independent. The nomination by a group of at least 500 supporters is mandatory under Russian election law for those not running on a party ticket. Independent candidates also need to gather signatures from at least 300,000 supporters in 40 or more Russian regions. Hours before United Russia delegates announced their endorsement of Putin on Sunday, a former journalist and mom-of-three from a small town in western Russia cleared the initial hurdle, according to Telegram updates by Sota, a Russian news publication covering the opposition, protests and human rights issues. Yekaterina Duntsova's candidacy was formally backed by a group of 521 supporters at a meeting in Moscow, Sota reported. A former local legislator who calls for peace in Ukraine and the release of imprisoned Kremlin critics, Duntsova has spoken of being "afraid" following the launch of her bid for the presidency, and fears that Russian authorities might break up the supporters' meeting set to advance it. According to Sota, electricity briefly went out at the venue where Duntsova's supporters were gathered, and building security initially refused to let some supporters into the venue, but the meeting was otherwise unimpeded. The Kremlin leader has used different election tactics over the years. He ran as an independent in 2018 and his campaign gathered signatures. In 2012, he ran as a United Russia nominee instead. At least one party - A Just Russia, which has 27 seats in the 450-seat State Duma - was willing to nominate Putin as its candidate this year. But its leader, Sergei Mironov, was quoted by the state news agency RIA Novosti on Saturday as saying that Putin will be running as an independent and will be gathering signatures. Under constitutional reforms he orchestrated, the 71-year-old Putin is eligible to seek two more six-year terms after his current term expires next year, potentially allowing him to remain in power until 2036.
# Pope Francis' 87th birthday closes out a big year of efforts to reform the church, cement his legacy By NICOLE WINFIELD December 17, 2023. 12:35 PM EST --- ROME (AP) - Pope Francis turned 87 on Sunday, closing out a year that saw big milestones in his efforts to reform the Catholic Church as well as health scares that raise questions about his future as pope. Francis celebrated his birthday with cake during a festive audience with children Sunday morning, and there were "Happy Birthday" banners in St. Peter's Square during his weekly noon blessing. One early present came Saturday, when a Vatican tribunal handed down a mix of guilty verdicts and acquittals in a complicated trial that Francis had supported as evidence of his financial reforms. The biggest-name defendant, Cardinal Angelo Becciu, was convicted of embezzlement and sentenced to 5½ years in prison. "It was quite a year for a pope who's obviously thinking about legacy and finishing up," said Christopher Bellitto, professor of history at Kean University in New Jersey. Only seven popes are known to have been older than Francis at the time of their deaths, according to the online resource Catholic Hierarchy. Francis is fast closing in on one of them, Pope Gregory XII, perhaps best known for having been the most recent pope to resign until Pope Benedict XVI stepped down in 2013. Gregory was 88½ when he voluntarily stepped down in 1415 in a bid to end the Western Schism, in which there were three rival claimants to the papacy. Francis has said he, too, would consider resigning if his health made him unable to carry on, but more recently he said the job of pope is for life. Twice this year, however, Francis' less-than-robust respiratory health forced him to cancel big events: In spring, a bout of acute bronchitis landed him in the hospital for three days and made him miss the Good Friday procession at the Colosseum. More recently, a new case of bronchitis forced him to cancel a planned trip to Dubai to participate in the U.N. climate conference. Francis had part of one lung removed as a young man and seems to be increasingly prone to respiratory problems that make breathing difficult and speaking even more so. In between those events, he was hospitalized again in June for nine days for surgeons to repair an abdominal hernia and remove scar tissue from previous intestinal surgeries. The hospitalizations have raised questions about Francis' ability to continue the globetrotting rigors of the modern-day papacy, which is increasingly dependent on the person of the pope, said David Gibson, director of the Center on Religion and Culture at Fordham University. "It's a great improvement from the time when the pope was just a king in his throne surrounded by a royal court," he said. "But with such expectations can any pope govern into his 80s and even 90s and be effective?" While Francis' health scares punctuated his 87th year, perhaps the biggest milestone of all, and one that is likely to shape the remainder of Francis' pontificate, was Benedict's Dec. 31 death. Benedict largely stuck to his promise to live "hidden to the world" and allow Francis to govern unimpeded. But his death after 10 years of retirement removed the shadow of a more conservative pope looking over Francis' shoulder from the other side of the Vatican gardens. His death has seemingly freed up Francis to accelerate his reform agenda and crack down on his right-wing opponents. For starters, Francis presided over the first stage of his legacy-making meeting on the future of the Catholic Church. The synod aims to make the church more inclusive and reflective of and responsive to the needs of rank-and-file Catholics. The first session ended with "urgent" calls to include women in decision-making roles in the church. The next phase is scheduled for October 2024. "The effort to change the rigidly top-down nature of governance in Catholicism is the main reform project of the Francis papacy and its success or failure will likely be his chief legacy," said Fordham's Gibson. He said the jury was still out on whether it would succeed, since the transition period is "messy and absolutely exhausting." "Will the sense of exhaustion overcome the inspiration that invigorates so many?" he asked. Alongside the synod, Francis this year appointed an unusually progressive theologian as the Vatican's chief doctrine watchdog, and he has already begun setting a very new tone for the church's teachings that could have big effects on the church going forward. Cardinal Victor Fernandez has issued decrees on everything from how to care for cremated ashes (in a defined and sacred place) to membership in Masonic lodges (forbidden) and whether transgender people can be godparents (they can). At the same time, Francis has begun hitting back at his conservative critics, for whom Benedict was a point of reference for the past 10 years. Francis exiled Benedict's longtime secretary, Archbishop Georg Gaenswein, to his native Germany after a series of infractions culminating with a tell-all memoir published in the days after Benedict's death that was highly critical of Francis. Then, he forcibly removed the bishop of Tyler, Texas, Bishop Joseph Strickland, whose social media posts were highly critical of the pope. And most recently, he cut off the former Vatican high court judge, Cardinal Raymond Burke, after he warned that Francis' reform-minded synod risked dividing the faithful. Natalia Imperatori-Lee, professor of religious studies at Manhattan College, said the pushback against Burke was less of a "smackdown" and would have little tangible effect, since he has plenty of wealthy backers in the U.S. But she said it was part of an important year that had as its high point the synod, the conclusion of which will drive Francis at least for another year. "I think the Pope is thinking about his legacy in a way he hasn't done before. Perhaps that has to do with Benedict's death, maybe it's more a matter of his own mortality becoming more real given his recent illnesses," she said. "The synod is a huge part of that legacy, obviously, and you can see his investment in having it succeed. I'm willing to bet that seeing part 2 of the synod to fruition is a huge motivator for him right now."
# European diplomacy steps up calls for Gaza cease-fire December 17, 2023. 9:48 AM EST --- JERUSALEM (AP) - Some of Israel's closest European allies pressed for a cease-fire in the war with Hamas on Sunday, underscoring growing international unease with the devastating impact of the conflict on Gaza's civilian population. The concerted push by top European diplomats comes before a visit to Israel on Monday by U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who is also expected to put pressure on Israeli leaders to end the war's most intense phase and transition to a more targeted strategy against Hamas. Western allies of Israel have increasingly expressed concern with civilian casualties and the mass displacement of 1.9 million Palestinians - nearly 85% of Gaza's population - though the U.S. has continued to provide vital military and diplomatic support to its close ally. In a joint article in British newspaper The Sunday Times, U.K. Foreign Secretary David Cameron and German Foreign Affairs Minister Annalena Baerbock called for a cease-fire and said "too many civilians have been killed. The Israeli government should do more to discriminate sufficiently between terrorists and civilians, ensuring its campaign targets Hamas leaders and operatives." "Israel will not win this war if its operations destroy the prospect of peaceful coexistence with Palestinians," they said. They said the cease-fire should take place as soon as possible, but also said it must be "sustainable." At a news conference with her Israeli counterpart in Tel Aviv on Sunday, French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna also pushed for a cease-fire. "An immediate truce is necessary, allowing progress to be made toward a cease-fire to obtain the release of the hostages, to allow access and the delivery of more humanitarian aid to the suffering civilian population of Gaza, and in fact to move toward a humanitarian cease-fire and the beginning of a political solution," she said. Britain has previously called for "humanitarian pauses" in the conflict but stopped short of urging an immediate cease-fire. It abstained last week when the U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly voted for a cease-fire. France and Germany both supported the call for a cease-fire at the U.N., and French President Emmanuel Macron said at the beginning of November that Israel couldn't fight terrorism by killing innocent people. The increase in diplomatic pressure comes as domestic calls are also likely to grow for renewed negotiations with Hamas, following the killing of three Israeli hostages by the military on Friday. The air and ground war has flattened vast swaths of northern Gaza and driven most of the population to the southern part of the besieged territory, where many are packed into crowded shelters and tent camps. The offensive has killed more than 18,700 Palestinians, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-run territory. The ministry doesn't differentiate between civilians and combatants. Israel has continued to strike what it says are militant targets in all parts of Gaza. It has vowed to continue operations until it dismantles Hamas, which triggered the war with its Oct. 7 attack into southern Israel, in which militants killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians. Israel has also vowed to return the estimated 129 hostages still held in Gaza. A group of European lawmakers also called for a cease-fire in Gaza following their trip to the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt over the weekend to see how European aid is helping Palestinians in Gaza. The four are centrist members of the European Parliament from Sweden, France, and Ireland. Abir Al Sahlani of Sweden that said a cease-fire is urgently needed to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza. "We found out that no matter how much we are going to send, it doesn't matter, because there is no cease-fire and there is no security as long as there are bombs - Israeli bombs falling on the Palestinian people," Al Sahlani said. "The only way is political pressure on both sides," she added, urging international players "to pressure, first and foremost, the (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu government and (his) Likud (party) and his right-wing government to stop the bombing of civilians and respect and follow international humanitarian law."
# Finland seeks jailing, probe of Russian man wanted in Ukraine over alleged war crimes in 2014-2015 December 17, 2023. 12:21 PM EST --- HELSINKI (AP) - Finnish police on Sunday sought a court order to imprison a Russian man who had been living under an alias in the Nordic country and is accused of committing war crimes against wounded or surrendered soldiers in eastern Ukraine in 2014 and 2015. Yan Petrovsky, who had been living in Finland under the name Voislav Torden, is already in Finnish custody but authorities are asking that he be formally jailed while they conduct an investigation into his alleged crimes against Ukrainian soldiers. A court ruling on his imprisonment is expected on Monday. Finland's Supreme Court has ruled that Petrovsky cannot be extradited to Ukraine, where he faces an arrest warrant, due to the risk of inhumane prison conditions there. Sunday's decision indicates Finnish authorities plan to investigate and possibly try the Russian in Finland, which has signed treaties allowing it to try international crimes. Petrovsky is currently on the European Union's sanctions list against Russia for allegedly being a founding member of the far-right group Rusich that is suspected of terrorism crimes in Ukraine and is connected with Russia's mercenary Wagner Group, the Finnish news agency STT reported. Petrovsky, who earlier resided in Norway, was taken into custody by Finnish authorities after he was caught at Helsinki Airport in July shortly before he was fly to Nice, France together with his family. Media reports said he managed to enter Finland despite a EU-wide entry ban with the help of a new identity and his wife's student status in the Nordic country. The National Bureau of Investigation - a unit of the Finnish police - provided the imprisonment request for Petrovsky, aged 36, to the Helsinki District Court on Sunday, STT said. Citing his Finnish lawyer, STT said Petrovsky has denied all war crimes charges against him. Finland's National Prosecution Authority on Friday said Petrovsky is suspected of war crimes "committed against wounded or surrendered Ukrainian soldiers during the armed conflict in Ukraine" in 2014-2015 before the start of Moscow's ongoing assault on Ukraine in February 2022. "The crimes will be investigated by Finnish authorities, because the suspect cannot be extradited to Ukraine, and the case, as an international crime, falls under the jurisdiction of Finland," the Finnish prosecutors said in a statement.
# A candidate for a far-right party is elected as the mayor of an eastern German town December 17, 2023. 3:27 PM EST --- BERLIN (AP) - A candidate for the far-right Alternative for Germany was elected Sunday as the mayor of the eastern town of Pirna, marking another milestone for the party. Official results showed that Tim Lochner - who isn't a member of Alternative for Germany, or AfD, but ran on its ticket - won 38.5% of the vote in a three-way runoff. Candidates for the center-right Christian Democratic Union, Germany's main opposition party, and the conservative Free Voters took 31.4% and 30.1%, respectively. Lochner's win in Pirna, which has about 40,000 inhabitants and is located between Saxony's state capital, Dresden, and the Czech border, marks the first time that an AfD candidate has been elected as an "Oberbuergermeister," the mayor of a significantly sized town or city. AfD's first mayor anywhere in Germany was elected in August in the municipality of Raguhn-Jessnitz, in the neighboring eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt. That came after the party's first head of a county administration, Robert Sesselmann, was elected in June in Sonneberg county, in another neighboring state, Thuringia. The successes come before state elections next September in Saxony, Thuringia and a third eastern state, Brandenburg, in which AfD is hoping to emerge as the strongest party for the first time. Recent national polls have shown the party in second place at 20% or more as discontent with Chancellor Olaf Scholz's three-party government is running high. While it is strongest in the formerly communist east, it also performed well in regional elections in October in the western states of Hesse and Bavaria. Pirna is located in a constituency that has elected AfD candidates in Germany's last two national elections.
# UK parliamentarian admits lying about lucrative pandemic contracts but says she's done nothing wrong By JILL LAWLESS December 17, 2023. 8:36 AM EST --- LONDON (AP) - A member of Britain's House of Lords has acknowledged that she repeatedly lied about her links to a company that was awarded lucrative government contracts to supply protective masks and gowns during the coronavirus pandemic. Underwear tycoon Michelle Mone said that she had made an "error" in denying connections to the company PPE Medpro, and regretted threatening to sue journalists who alleged she had ties to the firm. Her husband, Doug Barrowman, has acknowledged he led the consortium that owns the company. "I did make an error in saying to the press that I wasn't involved," Mone said in a BBC interview broadcast Sunday. "Hindsight is a wonderful thing. I wasn't trying to pull the wool over anyone's eyes, and I regret and I'm sorry for not saying straight out, 'Yes, I am involved.'" Mone admitted that she is a beneficiary of her husband's financial trusts, which hold about 60 million pounds ($76 million) in profits from the deal. But she argued that the couple were being made "scapegoats" in a wider scandal about U.K. government spending during the pandemic. "We've done one thing, which was lie to the press to say we weren't involved," she said, adding: "I can't see what we've done wrong." The case has come to symbolize the hundreds of millions of pounds wasted through hastily awarded contracts for protective equipment. The U.K. government has come under heavy criticism for its so-called VIP lanes during the pandemic - where preferential treatment for public contracts was given to companies recommended by politicians. Mone, founder of the Ultimo lingerie firm, was appointed to Parliament's unelected upper house in 2015 by then Prime Minister David Cameron, who is now the U.K. foreign minister. A year ago, she said that she was taking a leave of absence from Parliament to "clear her name" over the scandal. She repeatedly denied reports that she used her political connections to recommend PPE Medpro to senior government officials. The newly established firm won contracts worth more than 200 million pounds ($250 million) during the height of the first COVID-19 wave in 2020. Millions of surgical gowns that it supplied to U.K. hospitals were never used, after officials decided they weren't fit for use, and the government has since issued breach of contract proceedings. The National Crime Agency also is investigating allegations of fraud and bribery. Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden defended the so-called VIP lanes - reserved for referrals from lawmakers and senior officials - and insisted there had been "no favors or special treatment" for government cronies. "With any large allocation of government funds for large-scale procurement, there are going to be issues that arise subsequently," he told the BBC. "You can see there is civil litigation happening, you can see there is a criminal investigation happening. So, if there is fraud, the government will crack down."
# Ex-Jesuit's religious community in Slovenia ordered to dissolve in one year over widespread abuse December 17, 2023. 7:37 AM EST --- ROME (AP) - The Vatican has decided to shut down a Slovenian-based female religious community founded by a controversial ex-Jesuit artist accused by some women of spiritual, psychological and sexual abuses. The archdiocese of Ljubljana, Slovenia said in a statement Friday that the Loyola Community would have one year to implement the Oct.20 decree ordering its dissolution. The reason given was because of "serious problems concerning the exercise of authority and the way of living together." The dissolution of the community was the latest chapter in the saga of the Rev. Marko Rupnik, a once-famous Jesuit artist and preacher whose mosaics decorate churches and basilicas around the world. He had founded the Loyola Community in the 1980s with a nun. But recently, former members of the community came forward to say he had spiritually, sexually and psychologically abused them. In 2020, he was declared excommunicated by the Vatican for committing one of the gravest crimes in the church's canon law; using the confessional to absolve a woman with whom he had engaged in sexual activity. Pope Francis recently reopened a canonical investigation into their claims, reversing the Vatican's previous decision to shelve the case because the statute of limitations had expired. Earlier this year, the Jesuits kicked him out of the order because he refused to enter into a process of reparations with the victims.
# Church of England blesses same-sex couples for the first time, but they still can't wed in church By JILL LAWLESS December 17, 2023. 9:35 AM EST --- LONDON (AP) - Church of England priests offered officially sanctioned blessings of same-sex partnerships for the first time on Sunday, though a ban on church weddings for gay couples remains in place amid deep divisions within global Anglicanism over marriage and sexuality. In one of the first ceremonies, the Rev. Catherine Bond and the Rev. Jane Pearce had their union blessed at St John the Baptist church, in Felixstowe, eastern England, where both are associate priests. The couple knelt in front of Canon Andrew Dotchin, who held their heads as he gave "thanks for Catherine and Jane, to the love and friendship they share, and their commitment to one another as they come before you on this day." The church's national assembly voted in February to allow clergy to bless the unions of same-sex couples who have had civil weddings or partnerships. The words used for the blessings, known as prayers of love and faith, were approved by the church's House of Bishops on Tuesday and used for the first time on Sunday. The compromise was struck following five years of discussions about the church's position on sexuality. Church leaders offered an apology for the church's failure to welcome LGBTQ people, but also endorsed the doctrine that marriage is the union of one man and one woman. Clergy won't be required to perform same-sex blessings if they disagree with them. The blessings can be used in regular church services. The church's governing body has also drawn up a plan for separate "services of prayer and dedication" for same-sex couples that would resemble weddings, but it has not yet been formally approved. Public opinion surveys consistently show that a majority of people in England support same-sex marriage, which has been legal since 2013. The church didn't alter its teaching on marriage when the law changed. Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby has said he won't personally bless any same-sex couples because it's his job to unify the world's 85 million Anglicans. Welby is the spiritual leader of both the Church of England and the global Anglican Communion of which it is a member. Several Anglican bishops from Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Pacific said after the February decision that they no longer recognize Welby as their leader.
# Over 60 people have drowned in the capsizing of a migrant vessel off Libya, the UN says By SAMY MAGDY December 17, 2023. 7:38 AM EST --- CAIRO (AP) - A boat carrying dozens of migrants trying to reach Europe capsized off the coast of Libya, leaving more than 60 people dead, including women and children, the U.N. migration agency said. The shipwreck, which took place overnight between Thursday and Friday, was the latest tragedy in this part of the Mediterranean Sea, a key but dangerous route for migrants seeking a better life in Europe. Thousands have died, according to officials. The U.N.'s International Organization for Migration said in a statement late Saturday that the boat was carrying 86 migrants when strong waves swamped it off the town of Zuwara on Libya's western coast and that 61 migrants drowned, according to survivors. "The central Mediterranean continues to be one of the world's most dangerous migration routes," the agency wrote on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter. The European Union's border agency said in a statement Sunday that its plane located the partially deflated rubber boat Thursday evening in Libya's search and rescue zone. "The people were in severe danger because of adverse weather conditions, with waves reaching heights of 2.5 meters (8.2 feet)," the agency, known as Frontex, said. Alarm Phone - a hotline for migrants in distress - said in a tweet that some migrants onboard reached out to the volunteer group who in turn alerted authorities including the Libyan coastguard, "who stated that they would not search for them." A spokesman for the Libyan coast guard was not immediately available for comment. Libya has in recent years emerged as the dominant transit point for migrants fleeing war and poverty in Africa and the Middle East, even though the North African nation has plunged into chaos following a NATO-backed uprising that toppled and killed longtime autocrat Moammar Gadhafi in 2011. More than 2,250 people died on the central European route this year, according to Flavio Di Giacomo, an IOM spokesperson. It's "a dramatic figure which demonstrates that unfortunately not enough is being done to save lives at sea," Di Giacomo wrote on X. According to the IOM's missing migrants project, at least 940 migrants were reported dead and 1,248 missing off Libya between Jan. 1 and Nov. 18. The project, which tracks migration movements, said about 14,900 migrants, including over 1,000 women and more than 530 children, were intercepted and returned to Libya this year. In 2022, the project reported 529 dead and 848 missing off Libya. Over 24,600 were intercepted and returned to Libya. Human traffickers in recent years have benefited from the chaos in Libya, smuggling in migrants across the country's lengthy borders, which it shares with six nations. The migrants are crowded onto ill-equipped vessels, including rubber boats, and set off on risky sea voyages. Those who are intercepted and returned to Libya are held in government-run detention centers rife with abuses, including forced labor, beatings, rapes and torture - practices that amount to crimes against humanity, according to U.N.-commissioned investigators. The abuse often accompanies attempts to extort money from the families of the imprisoned migrants before allowing them to leave Libya on traffickers' boats to Europe.
# The jungle between Colombia and Panama becomes a highway for migrants from around the world By CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN December 17, 2023. 9:22 AM EST MEXICO CITY (AP) - Once nearly impenetrable for migrants heading north from Latin America, the jungle between Colombia and Panama this year became a speedy but still treacherous highway for hundreds of thousands of people from around the world. Driven by economic crises, government repression and violence, migrants from China to Haiti decided to risk three days of deep mud, rushing rivers and bandits. Enterprising locals offered guides and porters, set up campsites and sold supplies to migrants, using color-coded wristbands to track who had paid for what. Enabled by social media and Colombian organized crime, more than 506,000 migrants - nearly two-thirds Venezuelans - had crossed the Darien jungle by mid-December, double the 248,000 who set a record the previous year. Before last year, the record was barely 30,000 in 2016. Dana Graber Ladek, the Mexico chief for the United Nation's International Organization for Migration, said migration flows through the region this year were "historic numbers that we have never seen." It wasn't only in Latin America. The number of migrants crossing the Mediterranean or the Atlantic on small boats to reach Europe this year has surged. More than 250,000 irregular arrivals were registered in 2023, according to the European Commission. A significant increase from recent years, the number remains well below levels seen in the 2015 refugee crisis, when more than 1 million people landed in Europe, most fleeing wars in Syria, Iraq and elsewhere. Still, the rise has fed anti-migrant sentiment and laid the groundwork for tougher legislation. Earlier this month, the British government announced tough new immigration rules aimed at reducing the number of people able to move to the U.K. each year by hundreds of thousands. Authorized immigration to the U.K. set a record in 2022 with nearly 750,000. A week later, French opposition lawmakers rejected an immigration bill from President Emmanuel Macron without even debating it. It had been intended to make it easier for France to expel foreigners considered undesirable. Far-right politicians alleged the bill would have increased the number of migrants coming to the country, while migrant advocates said it threatened the rights of asylum-seekers. In Washington, the debate has shifted from efforts early in the year to open new legal pathways largely toward measures to keep migrants out as Republicans try to take advantage of the Biden administration's push for more aid to Ukraine to tighten the U.S. southern border. The U.S. started the year opening limited spaces to Venezuelans - as well as Cubans, Nicaraguans and Haitians - in January to enter legally for two years with a sponsor, while expelling those who didn't qualify to Mexico. Their numbers dropped somewhat for a time before climbing again with renewed vigor. Venezuelan Alexander Mercado had only been back in his country for a month after losing his job in Peru before he and his partner decided to set off for the United States with their infant son. Venezuela's minimum wage was the equivalent of about $4 a month then, while 2.2 pounds (a kilogram) of beef was about $5, said Angelis Flores, his 28-year-old wife. "Imagine how someone with a salary of $4 a month survives," she said. Mercado, 27, and Flores were already on their way when in September the U.S. announced it was granting temporary legal status to more than 470,000 Venezuelans already in the country. Weeks later, the Biden administration said it was resuming deportation flights to the South American nation. Mercado and Flores hiked the well-trod trail through the jungle, managing to push through in three days. Flores and their son, in particular, got very sick. She believes they were infected by the contaminated water they drank along the way. "There was a body in the middle of river and the 'zamuros', those black birds, were eating it and picking it apart ... all of that was running in the river," she said. For Mercado and Flores, the journey accelerated once they left the jungle. In October, Panama and Costa Rica announced a deal to speed migrants across their countries. Panama bused migrants to a center in Costa Rica where they were held until they could buy a bus ticket to Nicaragua. Nicaragua also seemed to opt for speeding migrants through its territory. Mercado said they crossed on buses in a day. After discovering that Nicaragua had lax visa requirements, Cubans and Haitians poured into Nicaragua on charter flights, purchasing roundtrip tickets they never intended. Citizens of African nations made circuitous series of connecting flights through Africa, Europe and Latin America to arrive in Managua to start travelling overland toward the United States, avoiding the Darien. In Honduras, Mercado and Flores were given a pass from authorities allowing them five days to transit the country. Adam Isacson, an analyst tracking migration at the Washington Office on Latin America, said that Panama, Costa Rica and Honduras grant migrants legal status while they're transiting the countries, which have limited resources, and by letting migrants pass legally the countries make them less vulnerable to extortion from authorities and smugglers. Then there are Guatemala and Mexico, which Isacson called the "we're-going-to-make-a-show-of-blocking-you countries" attempting to score points with the U.S. government. For many that has meant spending money to hire smugglers to cross Guatemala and Mexico, or exposing themselves to repeated extortion attempts. Mercado didn't hire a smuggler and paid the price. It was "very difficult to get through Guatemala," he said. "The police kept taking money." But that was just a taste of what was to come. Standing outside a Mexico City shelter with their son on a recent afternoon, Flores recounted all of the countries they had traversed. "But they don't rob you as much, extort you as much, send you back like when you arrive here to Mexico," she said. "Here the real nightmare starts, because as soon as you enter they start taking a lot of your money." Mexico's immigration system was thrown into chaos on March 27, when migrants held in a detention center in the border city Juarez, across from El Paso, Texas, set mattresses on fire inside their cell in apparent protest. The highly flammable foam mattresses filled the cell with thick smoke in an instant. Guards did not open the cell and 40 migrants died. The immigration agency's director was among several officials charged with crimes ranging from negligence to homicide. The agency closed 33 of its smaller detention centers while it conducted a review. Unable to detain many migrants, Mexico instead circulated them around the country, using brief, repeat detentions, each an opportunity for extortion, said Gretchen Kuhner, director of IMUMI, a nongovernmental legal services organization. Advocates called it the "politica de desgaste" or wearing down policy. Mercado and Flores made it all the way to Matamoros, across the border from Brownsville, Texas, where they were detained, held for a night in an immigration facility in the border city of Reynosa and then flown the next morning 650 miles (1046 kilometers) south to Villahermosa. There they were released, but without their cell phones, shoelaces and money. Mercado had to wait for his brother to send $100 so they could start trying to make their way back to Mexico City through an indirect route that required them to travel by truck, motorbike and even horse. In late November, they had just made it back to Mexico City again. This time Mercado was unequivocal: They would not leave Mexico City until the U.S. government gave them an appointment to request asylum at a border port of entry. "It is really hard to make it back here again," he said. "If they manage to send me back again I don't know what I would do."
# Teenager Alex Batty returns to Britain after being missing for 6 years and then turning up in France By JILL LAWLESS December 16, 2023. 5:26 PM EST --- LONDON (AP) - British teenager Alex Batty flew back to the U.K. on Saturday, six years after he left home on what was meant to be a two-week family vacation in Spain. Batty never returned from that holiday to his grandmother and guardian in Oldham, near Manchester. Her frantic appeals found no trace of him - until he turned up this week, walking along a road in southern France in the middle of the night. Assistant Chief Constable Matt Boyle of Greater Manchester Police said Batty had arrived in England on a flight from Toulouse. He said police "are yet to fully establish the circumstances surrounding his disappearance" and whether there should be a criminal investigation. Now, 17, Alex told French officials he had been living a nomadic lifestyle in Spain, Morocco and France with his mother and grandfather as part of a "spiritual community." He said the family moved from place to place, grew their own food, meditated and contemplated reincarnation and other esoteric subjects. When his mother said she wanted to move the family to Finland, Alex decided to leave, French prosecutor Antoine Leroy told reporters on Friday. He was spotted by a delivery driver walking alone in the rain and dark with a flashlight, a rucksack and his skateboard. The driver, Fabien Accidini, offered him a lift, and Alex told him about his life and how he had walked for four days, traveling by night, through the remote and rugged Pyrenees. Accidini said the boy told him "that he had been kidnapped by his mother" years ago. He added "that he'd been in France for the past two years in a spiritual community that was a bit strange with his mother who is also a bit strange." "He'd had enough. He said, 'I am 17. I need a future.' He didn't see a future for him there." Alex's mother Melanie Batty is wanted by British police in connection with the boy's disappearance. French officials say she may be in Finland, and Alex's grandfather, David Batty, is believed to have died about six months ago. The tale has generated intense interest in Britain, with a photo of a blond, 11-year-old Alex splashed across newspapers and news websites. The teenager's grandmother, Susan Caruana, appealed for the family to be given time and space. "I cannot begin to express my relief and happiness that Alex has been found safe and well," she said in a statement issued through British police. "The main thing is that he's safe, after what would be an overwhelming experience for anyone, not least a child. I would ask that our family are given privacy as we welcome Alex back, so we can make this process as comforting as possible." Boyle, the British police officer, said detectives would be speaking to Alex "at a pace that feels comfortable to him." "No matter what, we understand that this may be an overwhelming process," he said. "He may now be six years older than when he went missing, but he is still a young person."
# British man pleads not guilty in alleged $99 million wine fraud conspiracy December 16, 2023. 4:31 PM EST --- NEW YORK (AP) - A British man pleaded not guilty in a New York courtroom Saturday in connection with an alleged $99 million, Ponzi-like fraud involving high-priced fine wine and duped investors. Stephen Burton, 58, was extradited Friday to New York from Morocco, where he was arrested in 2022 after using a bogus Zimbabwean passport to enter that country, U.S. Attorney Breon Peace's office said. Burton was arraigned in Brooklyn federal court on Saturday and pleaded not guilty to charges of wire fraud, wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy. He is detained without bail pending his next court hearing on Jan. 22. "These are all allegations, and we will defend them vigorously," Burton's lawyer, John Wallenstein, said. "We're going to wait for the discovery and examine the evidence very carefully." Prosecutors said Burton and another British man, James Wellesley, 56, ran a company called Bordeaux Cellars, which they said brokered loans between investors and wealthy wine collectors that were secured by their wine collections. They solicited $99 million in investments from residents of New York and other areas from 2017 to 2019, telling them they would profit from interest on the loans, authorities said. But prosecutors alleged the operation was a scam. They said the wealthy wine collectors did not exist, no loans were made, and Bordeaux Cellars did not have custody of the wine securing the loans. Instead, officials said, Burton and Wellesley used loan money provided by investors for themselves and to make fraudulent interest payments to other investors. "With the successful extradition of Burton to the Eastern District of New York, he will now taste justice for the fine wines scheme alleged in the indictment," Peace said in a statement. "This prosecution sends a message to all perpetrators of global fraud that you can run from law enforcement, but not forever." Wellesley is in the United Kingdom facing extradition proceedings, officials said. It was not immediately clear if he has a lawyer who could respond to the allegations.
# Author receives German prize in scaled-down format after comparing Gaza to Nazi-era ghettos December 16, 2023. 4:22 PM EST --- BERLIN (AP) - The Russian-American writer Masha Gessen received a German literary prize Saturday in a ceremony that was delayed and scaled down in reaction to an article comparing Gaza to Nazi German ghettos. The comparison in a recent New Yorker article was viewed as controversial in Germany, where government authorities strongly support Israel as a form of remorse and responsibility after Adolf Hitler's Germany murdered up to 6 million Jews in the Holocaust. Gessen, who was born Jewish in the Soviet Union, is critical of Israel's treatment of Palestinians. Reaction to the article comes as German society grapples with the fallout from the Israel-Hamas war, with both pro-Palestinian protests and pro-Israel demonstrations taking place in past weeks. German leaders have repeatedly stressed their support for the country's Jews and for Israel as they have denounced antisemitic incidents. Gessen was originally due to receive the Hannah Arendt Prize for Political Thought on Friday in the city hall of Bremen, in northwest Germany, but the sponsoring organization, the Heinrich Böll Foundation, and the Senate of the city of Bremen withdrew from the ceremony. It took place instead in a different location Saturday with about 50 guests crowded into a small event room and with police security, the German news agency dpa reported. In Gessen's article, titled "In the Shadow of the Holocaust," the author explores German Holocaust memory, arguing that Germany today stifles free and open debate on Israel. Gessen also is critical of Israel's relationship with Palestinians, writing that Gaza is "like a Jewish ghetto in an Eastern European country occupied by Nazi Germany." "The ghetto is being liquidated," the article added. The ghettos in German-occupied countries during World War II were open-air prisons where Jews were killed, starved and died from diseases. Those who didn't perish there were rounded up and transported to death camps where they were murdered, a process called "liquidation." The Böll Foundation, affiliated with Germany's Green party, called the comparison "unacceptable." A jury decided in the summer to award Gessen, an outspoken critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and the foundation said it wasn't canceling the award itself. Gessen was not available for comment, a New Yorker spokesperson said, but the writer defended the article in an interview with Politico. "I think it is possible to be very upset about that comparison," Gessen told Politico. "I also think that in this circumstance, it is morally necessary and politically necessary to make this very, very upsetting comparison." The award is to honor people who contribute to public political thought in the tradition of Hannah Arendt, the German-born American political theorist who explored totalitarianism.
# In pivotal moment, Notre Dame Cathedral spire gets golden rooster weathervane, a symbol of a phoenix By THOMAS ADAMSON December 16, 2023. 1:28 PM EST --- PARIS (AP) - Notre Dame Cathedral got its rooster back Saturday, in a pivotal moment for the Paris landmark's restoration. The installation by a crane of a new golden rooster, reimagined as a dramatic phoenix with licking, flamed feathers, goes beyond being just a weathervane atop the cathedral spire. It symbolizes resilience amid destruction after the devastating April 2019 fire - as restoration officials also revealed an anti-fire misting system is being kitted out under the cathedral's roof. Chief architect Philippe Villeneuve, who designed this new rooster, stated that the original rooster's survival signified a ray of light in the catastrophe. "That there was hope, that not everything was lost. The beauty of the (old) battered rooster... expressed the cry of the cathedral suffering in flames," Villeneuve said. He described the new work of art, approximately half a meter long and gleaming in the December sun behind Notre Dame Cathedral, as his "phoenix." Villeneuve elaborated on the new rooster's significance, saying: "Since (the fire) we have worked on this rooster (the) successor, which sees the flame carried to the top of the cathedral as it was before, more than 96 meters from the ground... It is a fire of resurrection." In lighthearted comments, the architect said that the process of design was so intense he might have to speak to his "therapist" about it. Before ascending to its perch, the rooster - a French emblem of vigilance and Christ's resurrection - was blessed by Paris Archbishop Laurent Ulrich in a square behind the monument. The rooster - or "coq" in French - is a emotive national emblem for the French because of the word's semantics - the Latin gallus meaning Gaul and gallus simultaneously meaning rooster. Ulrich placed sacred relics in a hole inside the rooster's breast, including fragments of Christ's Crown of Thorns and remains of St. Denis and St. Genevieve, infusing the sculpture with religious importance. The Crown of Thorns, regarded as Notre Dame's most sacred relic, was among the treasures quickly removed after the fire broke out. Brought to Paris by King Louis IX in the 13th century, it is purported to have been pressed onto Christ's head during the crucifixion. A sealed tube was also placed in the sculpture containing a list the names of nearly 2,000 individuals who contributed to the cathedral's reconstruction, underscoring the collective effort behind the works. Amid the rooster benediction ceremony, Notre Dame's new restoration chief, Philippe Jost, also detailed pioneering measures taken to safeguard the iconic cathedral against future fires - in rare comments to the press. "We have deployed a range of fire protection devices, some of which are very innovative in a cathedral, including a misting system in the attics, where the oak frame and in the spire are located," Jost said. "And this is a first for a cathedral in France." French President Emmanuel Macron, who last week visited the site to mark a one-year countdown to its re-opening, announced that the original rooster will be displayed in a new museum at the Hôtel-Dieu. This move, along with plans to invite Pope Francis for the cathedral's reopening next year, highlights Notre Dame's significance in French history and culture. The rooster's installation, crowning a spire reconstructed from Eugène Viollet-le-Duc's 19th-century design, is a poignant reminder of its medieval origins as a symbol of hope and faith. Its longstanding association with the French nation since the Renaissance further adds to its historical and cultural significance, marking a new chapter of renewal and hope for Notre Dame and the French people.
# Russia and Ukraine exchange drone attacks after European Union funding stalled By KARL RITTER and ELISE MORTON December 16, 2023. 1:56 PM EST --- KYIV, Ukraine (AP) - Russia and Ukraine each reported dozens of attempted drone attacks in the past day, just hours after Hungary vetoed 50 billion euros ($54.5 billion) of European Union funding to Ukraine. Ukraine's air force said Saturday that Ukrainian air defense had shot down 30 out of 31 drones launched overnight against 11 regions of the country. Russia also said Friday evening that it had thwarted a series of Ukrainian drone attacks. Russian anti-aircraft units destroyed 32 Ukrainian drones over the Crimean Peninsula, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Telegram. Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, a move that most of the world considered illegal, and has used it as a staging and supply point during the war. Earlier, Russia's Defense Ministry said that six drones had been shot down in the Kursk region, which borders Ukraine. In Ukraine's partially occupied southern Kherson region, the Russia-installed governor, Vladimir Saldo, reported on Telegram that Russian anti-aircraft units had downed at least 15 aerial targets near the town of Henichesk. Saldo said later Saturday that a Ukrainian missile attack on a village in the Russia-held part of the region had killed two people. Meanwhile, shelling wounded two people in Ukrainian-held parts of the Kherson region, regional Gov. Oleksandr Prokudin said Saturday. Stepped-up drone attacks over the past month come as both sides are keen to show they aren't deadlocked as the war approaches the two-year mark. Neither side has gained much ground despite a Ukrainian counteroffensive that began in June, and analysts predict the war will be a long one. On Friday, EU leaders sought to paper over their inability to boost Ukraine's coffers with a promised 50 billion euros ($54.5 billion) over the next four years, saying the funds will likely arrive next month after some more haggling between the bloc's other 26 leaders and the longtime holdout, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. Instead, they wanted Ukraine to revel in getting the nod to start membership talks that could mark a sea change in its fortunes - although the process could last well over a decade and be strewn with obstacles placed by any single member state. Also on Saturday, Russia returned three Ukrainian children to their families as part of a deal brokered by Qatar, according to the head of Ukraine's presidential office, Andriy Yermak, and Ukrainian human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets. Lubinets voiced hope last week that a coalition of countries formed to facilitate the return of Ukrainian children illegally deported by Russia - the National Coalition of Countries for the Return of Ukrainian Children - will be able to come up with a faster mechanism to repatriate them. More than 19,000 children are still believed to be in Russia or in occupied regions of Ukraine.
# Cambodia welcomes the Metropolitan Museum of Art's plan to return looted antiquities By MAYSOON KHAN and SOPHENG CHEANG December 16, 2023. 12:55 AM EST --- PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) - Cambodia has welcomed the announcement that New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art will return more than a dozen pieces of ancient artwork to Cambodia and Thailand that were tied to an art dealer and collector accused of running a huge antiquities trafficking network out of Southeast Asia. This most recent repatriation of artwork comes as many museums in the United States and Europe reckon with collections that contain objects looted from Asia, Africa and other places during centuries of colonialism or in times of upheaval. Fourteen Khmer sculptures will be returned to Cambodia and two will be returned to Thailand, the Manhattan museum announced Friday, though no specific timeline was given. "We appreciate this first step in the right direction," said a statement issued by Cambodia's Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts. "We look forward to further returns and acknowledgements of the truth regarding our lost national treasures, taken from Cambodia in the time of war and genocide." Cambodia suffered from war and the brutal rule of the communist Khmer Rouge in the 1970s and 1980s, causing disorder that opened the opportunity for its archaeological treasures to be looted. The repatriation of the ancient pieces was linked to well-known art dealer Douglas Latchford, who was indicted in 2019 for allegedly orchestrating a multiyear scheme to sell looted Cambodian antiquities on the international art market. Latchford, who died the following year, had denied any involvement in smuggling. The museum initially cooperated with the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan and the New York office of Homeland Security Investigations on the return of 13 sculptures tied to Latchford before determining there were three more that should be repatriated. "As demonstrated with today's announcement, pieces linked to the investigation of Douglas Latchford continue to reveal themselves," HSI Acting Special Agent in Charge Erin Keegan said in a statement Friday. "The Metropolitan Museum of Art has not only recognized the significance of these 13 Khmer artifacts, which were shamelessly stolen, but has also volunteered to return them, as part of their ongoing cooperation, to their rightful owners: the People of Cambodia." This isn't the first time the museum has repatriated art linked to Latchford. In 2013, it returned two objects to Cambodia. The Latchford family also had a load of centuries-old Cambodian jewelry in their possession that they later returned to Cambodia. In February, 77 pieces of jewelry made of gold and other precious metal pieces - including items such as crowns, necklaces and earrings - were returned to their homeland. Other stone and bronze artifacts were returned in September 2021. Pieces being returned include a bronze sculpture called The Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara Seated in Royal Ease, made sometime between the late 10th century and early 11th century. Another piece of art, made of stone in the seventh century and named Head of Buddha, will also be returned. Those pieces are part of 10 that can still be viewed in the museum's galleries while arrangements are made for their return. "These returns contribute to the reconciliation and healing of the Cambodian people who went through decades of civil war and suffered tremendously from the tragedy of the Khmer Rouge genocide, and to a greater strengthening of our relationship with the United States," Cambodia's Minister of Culture and Fine Arts, Phoeurng Sackona, said in her agency's statement. Research efforts were already underway by the museum to examine the ownership history of its objects, focusing on how ancient art and cultural property changed hands, as well as the provenance of Nazi-looted artwork.
# The West supports Ukraine against Russia's aggression. So why is funding its defense in question? By LAURIE KELLMAN December 15, 2023. 2:02 PM EST --- LONDON (AP) - Ukrainian President Vlodymyr Zelenskyy issued a warning to allies as he hopscotched continents urging them to support his war-scarred country as it defends itself against the Russian invasion. Moscow's "real target," he said in Washington, "is freedom." That idea functioned as a rallying cry as the West lined up behind Ukraine at the start of the war. But 21 months later, support for Ukraine has become complicated, especially when it comes to spending government money. Zelenskyy headed home Friday without billions in aid proposed in the U.S. and the EU, with those plans pushed into limbo. Here's how it all unfolded: ## THE ASK Zelenskyy received a hero's welcome around the world from the start of the war, but now he's having to make in-person appeals for aid as his country fights, he said this week, "for our freedom and yours." "It's very important," he said in Washington, "that by the end of this year we can send very strong signal of our unity to the aggressor and the unity of Ukraine, America, Europe, the entire free world." The risk of inaction, he says: emboldening Russian President Vladimir Putin. "If there's anyone inspired by unresolved issues on Capitol Hill, it's just Putin and his sick clique," Zelenskyy told an audience of military leaders and students at the National Defense University in Washington. He underscored the urgency in an interview with The Associated Press earlier this month, saying the winter posed additional challenges after a summer counteroffensive affected by enduring shortages of weapons and ground forces. "Winter as a whole is a new phase of war," Zelenskyy said in an exclusive interview this month in Kharkiv in northeastern Ukraine. ## TANGLED SUPPORT IN THE U.S. Close to half of the U.S. public thinks the country is spending too much on aid to Ukraine, according to polling from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Those sentiments, driven primarily by Republicans, help explain the hardening opposition among conservative GOP lawmakers on Capitol Hill who are rebuffing efforts from President Joe Biden to approve more aid for Ukraine. Republicans have linked Ukraine's military assistance to U.S. border security, injecting one of the most divisive domestic political issues - immigration and border crossings - into the middle of an intensifying debate over wartime foreign policy. Zelensky's visit to Washington this week - where he appeared at a news conference with Biden and was squired around Capitol Hill by leading lawmakers - did nothing to change that. Congress left town for the holidays on Thursday without a deal to send some $61 billion to Ukraine. ## A HOLDOUT IN EUROPE There were two questions before the EU on Friday: Whether to advance Ukraine's future membership in to the bloc, and whether to approve a 50 billion-euro ($54 billion) financial aid package that Ukraine urgently needs to stay afloat. Hungary's Viktor Orban left the room, effectively abstaining on the first question. Zelenskyy led a round of celebration for his war-ravaged country, tweeting thanks to "everyone who helped" the EU take the step. But Orban wasn't done. He reappeared hours later to veto the proposal for wartime aid to Ukraine to prop up its war-weakened economy. He was the only member to vote against the package. "Summary of the nightshift: veto for the extra money to Ukraine," Orban wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. He also suggested that he had plenty of time to block Ukraine's drive to join the EU down the road. ## WHAT'S NEXT? In the U.S., Senate negotiators and the Biden administration were still racing to strike a compromise before the end of the year. The Democratic-led Senate planned to come back next week in hopes of passing the package. But the Republican-led House showed no such inclination. U.S. aid to Ukraine hasn't dried up, but it's complicated. The Pentagon and State Department on Dec. 6 said the U.S. is sending a $175 million package of military aid to Ukraine, including guided missiles for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), anti-armor systems and high-speed anti-radiation missiles, the Pentagon and State Department said. The EU hasn't given up either. French President Emmanuel Macron said later that there were other ways the EU could send aid to Ukraine. But he urged Orban to "act like a European" and support Zelenskyy's country, European Council President Charles Michel said leaders would reconvene in January to try to break the deadlock.
# Village council member in Ukraine sets off hand grenades during a meeting and injures 26 December 15, 2023. 3:16 PM EST --- KYIV, Ukraine (AP) - A village council member in western Ukraine detonated three hand grenades during a meeting Friday, critically injuring himself and at least two dozen other people, authorities said. A video posted on social media showed a man entering a room where the village council of Keretsky was meeting to discuss and approve the community's budget. The man, who was preliminary identified as Serhii Batryn, a council member who belongs to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's Servant of the People party, took three grenades from his pockets, removed the pins and threw the weapons on the floor in front of him. Transcarpathian region police said in an official statement that 26 people were injured, six of them critically. The man who set off the grenades suffered grave injuries and medics worked to save his life, police said. There was no immediate word on a possible motive or if the attack was somehow connected to Russia's war in Ukraine.
# The EU's drip-feed of aid frustrates Ukraine, despite the promise of membership talks By RAF CASERT December 15, 2023. 12:11 PM EST --- BRUSSELS (AP) - Drop by drop, Ukraine is being supplied with aid and arms from its European allies, at a time when it becomes ever clearer it would take a deluge to turn its war against Russia around. On Friday, EU leaders sought to paper over their inability to boost Ukraine's coffers with a promised 50 billion euros ($54.5 billion) over the next four years, saying the check will likely arrive next month after some more haggling between 26 leaders and the longtime holdout, Viktor Orban of Hungary. Instead, they wanted Ukraine to revel in getting the nod to start membership talks that could mark a sea change in its fortunes - never mind that the process could last well over a decade and be strewn with obstacles from any single member state. "Today, we are celebrating," said Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda. Ukrainian government bookkeepers are unlikely to join in. Kyiv is struggling to make ends meet from one month to the next and to make sure enough is left to bolster defenses and even attempt a counterattack to kick the Russians out of the country. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is traveling the world - Argentina, United States, Norway and Germany in just the past week - to make sure the money keeps flowing. After the close of the summit on Friday, the most the EU could guarantee was that funds would continue to arrive in Kyiv in monthly drips of 1.5 billion euros at least until early next year. Orban, the lone EU leader with continuing close links to Russian President Vladimir Putin, claims war funding for Ukraine is like throwing money out of the window since victory on the battlefield is a pipe dream. "We shouldn't send more money to finance the war. Instead, we should stop the war and have a cease-fire and peace talks," he said Friday, words that are anathema in most other EU nations. Since the start of the war in February 2022, the EU and its 27 member states have sent $91 billion in financial, military, humanitarian, and refugee assistance. All the other leaders except Hungary, however, said they would work together over the next weeks to get a package ready that would either get approval from Orban or be approved by sidestepping him in a complicated institutional procedure. "I can assure you that Ukraine will not be left without support. There was a strong will of 26 to provide this support. And there were different ways how we can do this," said Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas. A new summit to address that is set for late January or early February. In the meantime, Ukraine will have to warm itself by the glow from the promise of opening membership talks, announced on Thursday. "It will lift hearts," said Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, "where there are people tonight in bomb shelters and tomorrow morning defending their homes, this will give them a lot of hope."
# Albania returns 20 stolen icons to neighboring North Macedonia By LLAZAR SEMINI December 15, 2023. 4:06 PM EST --- TIRANA, Albania (AP) - Albania on Friday returned 20 icons to neighboring North Macedonia that were stolen a decade ago, Albania's Culture Ministry said. The return marked the final stretch on a long, 10-year road with "much inter-institutional and international cooperation," said Albania's Culture Minister Elva Margariti. It also showed Albania's commitment to "the fight against trafficking of the cultural inheritance objects," she said. A handover ceremony was held at the National Historic Museum in the Albanian capital of Tirana. No further details were provided about the icons. Later, the cargo arrived at the National Museum in North Macedonia's capital, Skopje, where they were unpacked and briefly presented to the public. They will be kept for up to 45 days in a special chamber to avoid damage from atmospheric pressure changes, after which experts will start their restoration. North Macedonia's Prime Minister Dimitar Kovachevski and head of the Orthodox Church, Archbishop Stefan joined the ceremony. In 2013, Albanian authorities in Tirana seized more than 1,000 stolen religious and secular pieces of art dating from the 15th to the mid-20th century and arrested two men suspected of planning to sell them abroad. The icons, frescoes and other pieces were taken from churches and cultural centers in southeastern Albania and in the neighboring North Macedonia. North Macedonian Culture Minister Bisera Kostadinovska thanked Albanian authorities. In 2013, North Macedonian experts recognized the icons when Albanian television stations broadcast Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama inspecting icons seized by police. Skopje officially put in a request for their return in 2018. In 2022, the two governments signed the agreement for their return during a joint Cabinets' meeting in Skopje, the first of its kind in the region. Many icons and other artworks in Albania are believed to have been looted from churches and other places, especially during the anarchy of 1997 in Albania, when many in the country - among some of the continent's poorest people - lost their life savings in failed pyramid schemes. Over the past two decades, more than 10,000 religious artifacts have been stolen from North Macedonia's churches, including precious icons painted in the stylized Byzantine tradition. Thieves removed sections of altar screens, crosses, lamps and Bibles. Icons recovered from Albania are the first to be returned so far. Both Albania and North Macedonia have launched full membership negotiations with the European Union.
# 'I didn't change my number': Macron still open to dialogue with Putin if it helps to bring peace By SAMUEL PETREQUIN December 15, 2023. 11:15 AM EST --- BRUSSELS (AP) - French President Emmanuel Macron said Friday he would still consider talking with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin if it helps creating a sustainable peace between Ukraine and Russia. Macron and Putin enjoyed a good working relationship before Russia invaded its neighbor in February 2022. In weeks preceding the start of hostilities, Macron's diplomatic efforts failed to stop the war but he then kept open a line of communication with the Russian president for months. Their diplomatic and personal links deteriorated badly as the war dragged on. Earlier this year, Macron weighed the possibility of stripping Putin of France's highest medal of honor. Putin was asked Thursday during his year-end news conference by a journalist from the French channel TF1 about his views on France and Macron. Putin said: "At some point the French president stopped the relationship with us. We didn't do it, I didn't. He did. If there's interest, we're ready. If not, we'll cope." Speaking in Brussels at the end of a summit where EU leaders decided to open membership negotiations with war-torn Ukraine, Macron said he remained open to dialogue with Putin on finding a peaceful solution if the Russian leader reaches out to him. "I didn't start the war unilaterally, breaking the treaties I'd agreed to. And it wasn't France that decided to commit war crimes in the north of Ukraine, making discussions virtually impossible," Macron said. "Well, we have to be serious, so I have a very simple position. I haven't changed my number." Macron added that if Putin shows a will to kick-start a dialogue that can build a lasting peace, France is ready to help. "If President Putin has a willingness to engage in dialogue and serious proposals to move forward and emerge from the conflict and build a lasting peace, that is to say one that respects international law and therefore Ukrainian interests and sovereignty, I'll take the call," Macron said. Putin said this week there would be no peace until Russia achieves its goals, which he says remain unchanged after nearly two years of fighting.
# Moldova and Georgia celebrate as their aspirations for EU membership take crucial steps forward By EMMA BURROWS December 15, 2023. 12:49 PM EST --- LONDON (AP) - Moldova and Georgia celebrated after European Union leaders buoyed their aspirations to join the 27 member nation bloc by removing key hurdles on their long path toward membership. Lawmakers in both the Moldovan and Georgian parliaments waved EU flags and played the bloc's anthem at Friday's opening of their parliamentary sessions, following Thursday's surprise announcement to open membership negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova and to grant candidacy status to Georgia. The announcement came despite strong opposition from Hungary and the fact that Ukraine and Georgia are partially occupied by Russia which also has troops deployed in Moldova's Transnistria region. Thousands of Georgians gathered in the country's capital Tbilisi to celebrate. "The EU and integration with Europe is important for us. Not only will it be a security guarantee for us and enable the country to get stronger economically, but it is important for other values too including sports and culture, among others," said Erekle Sarishvili, a student who took part in the rally. "We, the young generation, have fought for this result but we also need to remember the older generations that have brought Georgia here." Moldova's President Maia Sandu invited citizens to a pro-European gathering scheduled for Sunday in the capital Chisinau to herald what she described as a "historic step for the destiny of our country." Moldova's pro-Western Prime Minister Dorin Recean echoed Sandu, saying "Moldova is European" and "our future is in the EU." Georgia's Prime Minister Irakli Gharibashvili congratulated the nation, saying that "this historic victory belongs to you, to our undefeated, unbroken, freedom loving Georgian people." By opening membership talks with Ukraine and Moldova and by offering Georgia candidate status, the EU has sent "a very important message to Russia," Natia Seskuria, director of the Regional Institute of Security Studies in the Georgian capital Tbilisi said. Although the path to full membership could take decades, the move "has a lot of symbolism," she said, because if the countries had been rejected "it would be another sign for Russia that they can basically do whatever they want." Both Moldova and Georgia were part of the Soviet Union for decades and both have struggled to emerge from Moscow's shadow. On Friday, the Kremlin responded with irritation to the news. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the move was "absolutely politicized" and that it was driven by the bloc's "desire to annoy Russia further and antagonize these countries towards Russia." Peskov said membership talks could take "years and decades," adding "such new members could destabilize the EU." Since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Moldova has faced a long string of crises, including a severe energy shortage after Moscow dramatically reduced gas supplies last winter, skyrocketing inflation, and anti-government protests by a Russia-friendly political party. In February, Moldovan President Maia Sandu also accused Moscow of plotting to overthrow the government to put the nation "at the disposal of Russia," and to derail it from its course toward EU membership. Russia denied the accusations. Debris from rocket fire has also landed several times in Moldova as a result of fighting in neighboring Ukraine. Tensions also soared in the country in April last year after a string of explosions in Transnistria - a Russia-backed separatist region of Moldova where Russia bases about 1,500 troops. Russia also has forces in Georgia after the two countries fought a short war in 2008 that ended with Georgia losing control of two Russia-friendly separatist regions. In November, Russian troops shot and killed a Georgian civilian in South Ossetia, one of the breakaway regions, prompting condemnation from Georgian authorities. Seskuria, from the Regional Institute of Security Studies, said EU membership has been a "generational dream for Georgians." Although it's Georgia's "biggest success" so far toward EU membership, Seskuria cautioned that there's still a "long way ahead" and warned Georgia needs to deliver on the kind of progress the EU is seeking for the country to fulfill strict membership criteria. That applies for all three countries which need to tackle corruption and organized crime while strengthening the rule of law. Membership talks could also heighten tensions in Georgia where Salome Zourabichvili, Georgia's pro-EU president, has long been a vocal supporter of joining the bloc, putting her at odds with the ruling Georgian Dream party which is widely seen as being pro-Russian by the Georgian opposition. Speaking shortly after the EU leaders' meeting, Zourabichvili said "Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova are the examples of what it means to fight for freedom, to fight for Europe, for those common values that we share with Europe and stay true to them." Zourabichvili has criticized a foreign agent registration bill which protesters in Tbilisi earlier this year said was inspired by a similar law in Russia used to silence critics of the Kremlin. Opponents of Georgian Dream say the party's founder, former Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili, a billionaire who amassed a fortune in Russia, has continued calling the shots in the former Soviet republic of 3.7 million people even though he currently doesn't hold a government job. Georgian Dream has repeatedly denied any links to Russia or that it leans toward Moscow.
# Shops in 2 Dutch cities start selling legally grown cannabis in an experiment to regulate pot trade By MIKE CORDER December 15, 2023. 10:54 AM EST BREDA, Netherlands (AP) - A paradox at the heart of the Netherlands' permissive pot policy went up in smoke Friday in two Dutch cities as "coffeeshops" began selling the country's first legally cultivated cannabis as part of an experiment to regulate the trade. The experiment could mark the beginning of the end for a long-standing legal anomaly - you can buy and sell small amounts of weed without fear of prosecution in the Netherlands, but growing it commercially remains illegal. "This is really a very, very big step in the right direction," Derrick Bergman, chairman of the Union for the Abolition of Cannabis Prohibition, said as he sat in the De Baron cannabis cafe in the southern Dutch city of Breda. Dutch Health Minister Ernst Kuipers visited earlier to launch the new policy. The plan for the experiment dates back to 2017 and is seen as as a way of providing "quality-controlled" weed to coffeeshops - places that are allowed to sell marijuana - and shutting out illegal growers. "By regulating the sale of cannabis, we have a better insight into the origin of the products and the quality," Kuipers said. "In addition, we can better inform consumers about the effects and health risks of cannabis use." Bart Vollenberg, who grows cannabis for the experiment, called it a "happy day for the Netherlands." "The most significant advantage is that it is not criminal activity, and it becomes transparent," he said. "You can test the weed in the laboratory. With all the knowledge and skills of Dutch horticulture, we can start improving the quality of the weed now. No longer need to make all kinds of twists and turns in illegality." A trailblazer in decriminalizing pot since the 1970s, the Netherlands has grown more conservative. Amsterdam, long a magnet for marijuana smokers from around the world, has been closing coffeeshops in recent years and has banned smoking weed on some of the cobbled streets that make up its historic center. Across the nation, there are 565 coffeeshops. That is down from around 2,000 "in the real heyday," Bergman said. Meanwhile, other countries around the world and some U.S. states have taken steps to legalize the recreational use of cannabis. "We are finally taking a small place on the international stage back again," Bergman said. "It's not like we're back full on. It's a small experiment." Friday marked the first day of what the government calls the "closed coffeeshop chain experiment." The initial phase is scheduled to last a maximum of six months and could then be rolled out to 11 municipalities across the Netherlands. "During the startup phase, growers, coffeeshop owners, transporters and supervisors will gain experience with the supply and sale of regulated cannabis and its supervision, secure transport and the use of the track and trace system," the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport said in a statement. Coffeeshops in Breda and nearby Tilburg are allowed to have a maximum of 500 grams (17.64 ounces) of weed from legal growers in stock at a time. Breda Mayor Paul Depla said the initial experiment in his city and Tilburg would help detect any "growing pains" in the system. "It is also a great opportunity to see how cooperation within the closed chain between legal growers, coffeeshop owners and all other authorities involved works," he said. The Trimbos Institute, a Dutch organization that raises awareness about mental health and the use of drugs, alcohol and tobacco, is involved in the experiment and promoting measures to prevent cannabis use. "We think it's important that people who use cannabis are well informed about the risks and options for help," spokeswoman Harriëtte Koop said in an email. For longtime campaigner Bergman, an upside of the new policy is that smokers can now easily see who grew the cannabis they are using and let friends know whether it's any good. "It's a relief that the weed is quite good," he said, smiling as he lit his marijuana cigarette in a small puff of thick white smoke. There is a downside, Bergman added. He looked at a plastic beaker in a plastic bag holding the new legally grown weed and a much smaller plastic container for illegal pot. "The new system produces much more plastic waste," he noted.
# The EU struggles to unify around a Gaza cease-fire call but work on peace moves continues By LORNE COOK December 15, 2023. 8:52 AM EST BRUSSELS (AP) - As the civilian death toll in Gaza continues to mount, a number of European Union leaders sought on Friday to use growing concern about Israel's military offensive against Hamas to convince their partners to rally around a united call for a ceasefire. "The killing of innocent civilians really needs to stop," Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said. He said the EU must unite "if we want to play a serious role in that conflict, and I think we have to because we will be wearing the consequences if things go further in a bad direction." More than 18,700 Palestinians have now been killed, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-controlled territory, which does not differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths, since Hamas rampaged through southern Israel on Oct. 7. Hamas killed about 1,200 people - mostly civilians - and took about 240 hostages. The EU is the world's biggest provider of aid to the Palestinians and has been trying to use its diplomatic leverage as a 27-nation bloc to encourage peace moves. But despite being Israel's largest trading partner, the EU has mostly been ignored by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Beyond this, the members have long-been divided over Israel and the Palestinians. Austria and Germany are among Israel's most vocal supporters. Their leaders went to Israel to show solidarity after the assault. Spain and Ireland often focus on the plight of the Palestinian people. Hamas, for its part, is on the EU's list of terrorist groups. Since its attack, the bloc has struggled to strike a balance between condemning the Hamas attacks, supporting Israel's right to defend itself and ensuring that the rights of civilians on both sides are protected under international law. At the United Nations on Tuesday, an increasing number of EU members voted for a resolution calling for a ceasefire - a total of 17 - and fewer abstained. Still, Austria and the Czech Republic voted against. "We now have a clear majority of countries here in the European Union calling for a cease fire. I think that's the view of the people of Europe as well," Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said. "There's no possible justification or excuse for what's happening there." But Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas was less categorical. "In (the) U.N. we were not united as a European Union. But we will hear the worries and like we always do try to work out the compromises," she told reporters at the EU's summit in Brussels. The EU is more united around what should happen once the fighting stops for good. Mindful that resentment and conflict in the wider Middle East and Gulf regions have been fueled by decades of Israeli-Palestinian tensions, the bloc is exploring ways to realize a long-held EU ideal - two states living peacefully side by side. The EU has for years tried to promote the idea of an Israeli and a Palestinian state with borders set mostly as they were in 1967 - before Israel captured and occupied the West Bank and Gaza - with some land swaps agreed between them. Both would have Jerusalem as their shared capital. Top EU officials concede that their international peace efforts so far haven't been effective. This is the fifth war between Israel and Hamas, and the number of deaths in Gaza far exceeds the combined tally of those killed in the previous four, which is estimated to be around 4,000. An internal discussion paper on the way ahead - a text seen by The Associated Press - insists that the EU must develop a "comprehensive approach." Officials believe a "whole of Palestine" approach that has Gaza as part of a future Palestinian state remains the most viable option. The capability of the Palestinian Authority, which governs the West Bank but not Gaza, is "of key importance for the viability and legitimacy" of a two-state solution. It noted that Arab states will only get involved if their efforts lead to "a genuine peace process that results in the two-state solution." EU efforts, the document said, should focus on support for an international conference, only "not as a singular event but as part of a peace process plan." Israeli and Palestinian foreign ministers should be separately invited to EU meetings "to maintain the dialogue with both." But in the region, talk of a two-state solution conjures up images of years of diplomatic failures, and for many in mourning it's simply too early to talk about peace.
# EU releasing 5 billion euros to Poland by year's end as new government works to restore rule of law December 15, 2023. 6:34 AM EST --- BRUSSELS (AP) - The European Union will by year's end transfer to Poland the first 5 billion euros in funding that was frozen over democratic backsliding under the previous government, the new Polish prime minister and the European Commission president said Friday. The money is part of a larger tranche that was held up due to laws passed by the previous national conservative government that eroded the independence of judges - something that the EU deemed to be a violation of the democratic separation of powers. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said the 5 billion euros ($5.5 billion) was arriving symbolically in time for Christmas. The money is aimed at helping EU nations recover from the energy crisis that followed Russia's invasion of Ukraine last year, and reduce their dependence on Russian fossil fuels. "This is not just a gift. This is serious money earmarked for our energy sovereignty and we will try to spend this money very quickly and wisely," he said at a news conference alongside EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on the sidelines of a summit of the 27 member states. The money will start to flow due to pledges by Tusk's government to restore the rule of law but more steps have to be taken before it is all released. Tusk and his coalition partners won Poland's national election pledging to restore rule of law and democratic values. "We know that the rule of law is very important. It is about our place in Europe. It is about our common values," Tusk said. He added that Polish lawyers, prosecutors, judges and citizens "never agreed to Poland without the rule of law. And everyone in their capacity was trying to address this issue." Von der Leyen expressed her satisfaction. "I welcome your commitment to put the rule of law at the top of your government agenda and your determination to address all the concerns that have been expressed over the last years by the European Court and by the Commission," she said.
# Prince Harry claims vindication in court victory as judge finds British tabloid hacked his phone By BRIAN MELLEY December 15, 2023. 2:19 PM EST --- LONDON (AP) - Prince Harry's phone was hacked by journalists and private investigators working for the Daily Mirror who invaded his privacy by snooping on him unlawfully, a judge ruled Friday, delivering an historic victory for the estranged royal who broke from family tradition to take on the British press. Phone hacking was "widespread and habitual" at Mirror Group Newspapers, and executives at the papers covered it up, Justice Timothy Fancourt said in his 386-page ruling handed down in the High Court. The newspapers were ordered to pay the Duke of Sussex 140,000 pounds ($180,000) for using unlawful information gathering in 15 of the 33 newspaper articles examined at trial. Harry said the ruling was "vindicating and affirming" and should serve as a warning to other news media that used similar practices, an overt reference to two tabloid publishers that face upcoming trials in lawsuits that make nearly identical allegations. "Today is a great day for truth, as well as accountability," Harry said in a statement read by his lawyer outside court. "I've been told that slaying dragons will get you burned. But in light of today's victory and the importance of doing what is needed for a free and honest press, it is a worthwhile price to pay. The mission continues." Fancourt awarded the duke damages for the distress he suffered and a further sum to "reflect the particular hurt and sense of outrage" because two directors at Trinity Mirror knew about the activity and didn't stop it. "They turned a blind eye to what was going on and positively concealed it," Fancourt said. "Had the illegal conduct been stopped, the misuse of the duke's private information would have ended much sooner." Harry, 39, the alienated younger son of King Charles III, had sought 440,000 pounds ($560,000) as part of a crusade against the British media that bucked his family's longstanding aversion to litigation and made him the first senior member of the royal family to testify in court in over a century. His appearance in the witness box over two days in June created a spectacle as he lobbed allegations that Mirror Group had employed journalists who eavesdropped on voicemails and hired private investigators to use deception and unlawful means to learn about him, other family members and associates. "I believe that phone hacking was at an industrial scale across at least three of the papers at the time," Harry asserted in the High Court. "That is beyond any doubt." But Harry had little proof of his own to back his allegations. The Mirror's lawyer showed him examples of stories that mirrored those published previously in competing papers and even stories that had come from Buckingham Palace and, in one instance, a story from an interview the prince himself had given to mark his 18th birthday. Harry repeatedly insisted there was no way the papers could have landed their scoops legitimately. The judge said Harry had a tendency in his testimony "to assume that everything published was the product of voicemail interception because phone hacking was rife within Mirror Group at the time." Fancourt said Mirror Group was "not responsible for all of the unlawful activity directed at the duke" by the press, but found it had eavesdropped on his messages as early as 2003 and when hacking was "extensive" at the newspapers from 2006 to 2011. Mirror Group welcomed the judgment for providing the "necessary clarity to move forward from events that took place many years ago," Chief Executive Jim Mullen said. "Where historical wrongdoing took place, we apologize unreservedly, have taken full responsibility and paid appropriate compensation," Mullen said in statement. Attorney Philippa Dempster, who wasn't involved in the case, said hundreds of people who had articles written about them decades ago that contained private information from questionable sources may now be inspired to bring a claim against the newspapers. "This is a landmark victory for the privacy rights of individuals and marks another clear line in the sand for press standards," Dempster said. "It shows that the courts are willing to reach back into the past, sift through evidence and hold those who practiced the so-called 'dark arts' of the press to account." The case is the first of three lawsuits Harry has filed against the tabloids over allegations of phone hacking or some form of unlawful information gathering. They form the front line of attack in what he says is his life's mission to reform the media. Harry's beef with the news media runs deep and is cited throughout his memoir, "Spare." He blames paparazzi for causing the car crash that killed his mother, Princess Diana, and he said intrusions by journalists led him and his wife, Meghan, to leave royal life for the U.S. in 2020. Harry alleged that Mirror Group used unlawful means to produce nearly 150 stories on his early life between 1996 and 2010, including his romances, injuries and alleged drug use. The reporting caused great distress, he said in sometimes emotional testimony, but was hard to prove because the newspapers destroyed records. Of the 33 articles at the center of the trial, Mirror denied using unlawful reporting methods for 28 and made no admissions concerning the remaining five. Fancourt previously tossed out Harry's hacking claims against the publisher of The Sun. He is allowing Harry and actor Hugh Grant, who has made similar claims, to proceed to trial on allegations that News Group Newspapers journalists used other unlawful methods to snoop on them. Another judge recently gave Harry the go-ahead to take a similar case to trial against the publisher of the Daily Mail, rejecting the newspaper's efforts to throw out the lawsuit. Harry is joined in that litigation by Elton John, actors Elizabeth Hurley, Sadie Frost and others. Attorney Michael Gardner, who was not involved in the case, said the judgment will get the attention of other publishers facing trial, particularly after the judge called out higher-ups who were aware of the unlawful activity. "Overall, the media organizations that Harry is still suing will be worried that this will give him a lift and strengthen his determination to pursue them," Gardner said. "To the extent that Harry's other cases could implicate individuals at other media groups, then clearly there will be concerns there." Phone hacking by British newspapers dates back more than two decades to a time when unethical journalists used an unsophisticated method of phoning the numbers of royals, celebrities, politicians and sports stars and, when prompted to leave a message, punched in default passcodes to eavesdrop on voicemails. The practice erupted into a full-blown scandal in 2011 when Rupert Murdoch's News of the World was revealed to have intercepted messages of a murdered girl, relatives of deceased British soldiers and victims of a bombing. Murdoch closed the paper. Newspapers were later found to have used more intrusive means such as phone tapping, home bugging and obtaining flight information and medical records. Mirror Group Newspapers said it has paid more than 100 million pounds ($128 million) in other phone hacking lawsuits over the years, but denied wrongdoing in Harry's case. It said it used legitimate reporting methods to get information on the prince. At the start of the trial, Mirror Group apologized "unreservedly" for one instance when it admitted to hiring a private investigator for a story about Harry partying at a nightclub in February 2004. Although the article, headlined "Sex on the beach with Harry," wasn't among those at issue in the trial, Mirror Group said he should be compensated 500 pounds ($637). Harry brought the case along with three other claimants, including two members of Britain's longest-running TV soap opera, "Coronation Street." The judge found all had legitimate claims but he tossed out cases brought by actor Nikki Sanderson and Fiona Wightman, the former wife of comedian Paul Whitehouse, because they were filed too late. He awarded actor Michael Turner 31,000 pounds ($40,000). The trial was a test case against Mirror Group and the verdict could influence the outcome of hacking claims made by the estate of the late singer George Michael, former Girls Aloud member Cheryl and former soccer player Ian Wright. Harry's case is also not resolved. He could receive additional compensation over the remaining 115 articles that were not examined at trial. The judge told the parties to work out an agreement on those or they would have to go to trial again.
# Denmark widens terror investigation that coincides with arrests of alleged Hamas members in Germany By JAN M. OLSEN December 15, 2023. 10:17 AM EST --- COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) - Denmark is holding two people in custody and four others are the target of a terrorism investigation, a prosecutor said Friday, in a case that coincided with an arrest in the Netherlands and several in Germany of alleged Hamas members. Authorities in Germany said three people arrested there were suspected of preparing for attacks on Jewish institutions in Europe. Danish authorities said that one person was arrested in the Netherlands, but it wasn't clear if there were any ties to the Hamas investigation in Germany. Denmark hasn't cited an alleged Hamas link in its investigation. The two people being held in Denmark were ordered to remain in pretrial detention until Jan. 9. Danish media identified them as a man in his 50s and a 19-year-old woman. Danish intelligence agency PET on Thursday announced the arrests of three people on suspicion of plotting to carry out "an act of terror." One of them, identified by Danish media as a 29-year-old man, was released, prosecutor Anders Larsson said early Friday after a night-long custody hearing at a Copenhagen court. Larsson also said that four other people were held in "pretrial custody in absentia," but he didn't say whether authorities knew their whereabouts or if an active search for them was underway. Without elaborating, he said there was "still someone at large." None of the suspects can be identified because of a court order, and the custody hearing was held behind "double closed doors" - meaning no details were available about the case, which is shrouded in secrecy. German prosecutors allege that the three men detained in Germany on Thursday were tasked with finding a previously set-up underground Hamas weapons cache in Europe. "The weapons were due to be taken to Berlin and kept in a state of readiness in view of potential terrorist attacks against Jewish institutions in Europe," they said. On Friday, a judge ordered the three men detained in Berlin to be held in custody pending a possible indictment for being members of a foreign terrorist organization, prosecutors said. A fourth suspect in the German case was taken into custody on Thursday in the Dutch port city of Rotterdam. German prosecutors alleged the suspects "have been longstanding members of Hamas and have participated in Hamas operations abroad." They said the suspects were closely linked to the leadership of Hamas' military wing, which is considered a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union. Earlier this month, the EU's home affairs commissioner, Ylva Johansson, warned that Europe faced a "huge risk of terrorist attacks" over the Christmas holiday period amid the Israel-Hamas war. In Brussels, where she attended a European Union summit, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen mentioned the Danish, German and Dutch cases but declined to tie them together. She said the wider picture for security in Europe was worrying. "We have seen how ships are attacked in the Red Sea off Yemen," she told a press conference in reference to a ballistic missile fired by Yemen's Houthi rebels that slammed into a cargo ship Friday in the Red Sea, following another attack only hours earlier that struck a separate vessel. "Individually, these incidents are serious and worrying, but together they paint a picture of something bigger. That we are facing a more serious and complex threat picture," she said. "It is very, very serious."
# Hungary's Orbán says he won't hesitate to slam the brakes on Ukraine's EU membership By JUSTIN SPIKE December 15, 2023. 1:42 PM EST --- BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) - Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said Friday his country will have plenty of opportunities in the future to interrupt Ukraine's process of joining the European Union, a day after the right-wing leader's stunning turnaround allowed an EU summit to move forward on bringing the war-torn country into the bloc. Orbán had spent weeks vigorously declaring that his country would not consent to the EU beginning talks with Ukraine on its eventual membership, arguing such a decision would be catastrophic and that Kyiv was unprepared to begin the process. But in a dramatic reversal in Brussels on Thursday, Orbán left the room where the leaders of the EU's 27 member nations were debating the measure and allowed a unanimous vote of 26 to approve the start of accession talks for Kyiv. In an interview Friday with Hungarian state radio, Orbán said that EU leaders told him he would "lose nothing" by dropping his veto since he'd have chances in the future to block Ukraine's accession if he chose to - something he vowed to do if it appeared Hungary's interests were at risk. "Their decisive argument was that Hungary loses nothing, given that the final word on Ukraine's membership has to be given by the national parliaments, 27 parliaments, including the Hungarian one," Orbán said. "I made it clear that we will not hesitate for a moment if the financial and economic consequences of this bad decision will be paid by the Hungarians. Those who made this decision should be the ones who pay," he said. "If necessary, we will slam the brakes." The decision by EU leaders to move forward on Ukraine's membership - a process that could take many years - was met with jubilation in Kyiv, with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy welcoming the agreement as "a victory for Ukraine. A victory for all of Europe." But the results of Thursday's summit were mixed as Orbán blocked a 50-billion-euro ($54-billion) package of financial aid that Ukraine desperately needs to stay afloat, a major blow to Zelenskyy after he failed this week to persuade U.S. lawmakers to approve an additional $61 billion for his war effort. Charles Michel, the president of the European Council, said EU leaders would reconvene in January in an effort to break the deadlock. It was not the first time Orbán had derailed EU plans to provide funding to Ukraine. The nationalist leader is widely considered to be Russian President Vladimir Putin's closest ally in the EU, and has been accused by his critics of promoting Moscow's interests over those of his EU and NATO allies. Orbán has advocated for an immediate end to the fighting and pushed for peace talks between Moscow and Kyiv, though he has not detailed what such a step would entail for Ukraine's territorial integrity. On Friday, Orbán accused his EU partners of seeking to prolong the war, and said providing more money for Kyiv was "an immediate violation of (Hungary's) interests." "The situation in Ukraine is bad, so no more money should be sent to the war," he said. "The war should be stopped and there should be a cease-fire and peace talks. Instead, now they want to give money to keep the war going."
# Hague court rejects bid to ban transfer to Israel of F-35 fighter jet parts from Dutch warehouse December 15, 2023. 9:48 AM EST --- THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) - A Dutch court on Friday rejected a request by a group of human rights and humanitarian organizations to order a halt to the transfer to Israel of parts for F-35 fighter jets. The organizations went to court Dec. 4 arguing that delivery of parts for the aircraft makes the Netherlands complicit in possible war crimes being committed by Israel in its war with Hamas. The parts are stored in a warehouse in the Dutch town of Woensdrecht. In a written statement, the Hague District Court said the judge who heard the civil case concluded that the government of the Netherlands "weighed the relevant interests" before agreeing to the delivery of parts. Lawyer Liesbeth Zegveld told the court that the Dutch government decided to continue transferring F-35 parts to Israel even after the deadly Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas triggered the Israel-Hamas war. "The warning that the fighter jets can contribute to serious breaches of the laws of war does not, for the (Dutch) state, outweigh its economic interests and diplomatic reputation," Zegveld said. Government lawyer Reimer Veldhuis told the judge hearing the civil case that a ban on transfers from the Netherlands would effectively be meaningless as "the United States would deliver these parts to Israel from another place." Zegveld said she would appeal the decision. She said "human rights are put behind or after or lower than political foreign policy interests. That is amazing given what's happening in Gaza."
# Declared missing as a child, British teenager lives off-grid for 6 years, then pops up in France By JILL LAWLESS and JOHN LEICESTER December 15, 2023. 2:50 PM EST --- LE PECQ, France (AP) - The vehicle's headlights silhouetted the exhausted teenager walking alone in the rain in deepest rural France, with a skateboard tucked under his arm. "I said to myself, 'That's strange. It's 3 am in the morning, it's raining, he's all by himself on the road between two villages," delivery driver Fabien Accidini recounted. From there, the story gets stranger still. The youngster, it turned out, was Alex Batty, a 17-year-old from Britain who had been missing since 2017. British and French authorities confirmed on Friday that the teenager found by Accidini this week was the boy who vanished at age 11, when his mother and grandfather took him on what was meant to be a two-week family holiday in Spain. Instead, it turned out to be a six-year odyssey through Morocco, Spain and southwest France, living an off-the-grid life. Until this week. Batty suddenly popped back up on the radar on Wednesday. That's when Accidini found him alone on the remote French road and delivered him to the safe keeping of French police. The youngster told French investigators that he, his mother and her father had moved from house to house, carrying their own solar panels, growing their own food, living with other families, meditating and contemplating reincarnation and other esoteric subjects. "It was a nomadic life," said police officer Lea Chambonnière. "The only constants, the only things they carried with them, were the solar panels and their vegetable plants." The teenager decided to put an end to his roaming, parting ways with his mother after she told him she wanted them to move again - to Finland, said French prosecutor Antoine Leroy. He and Chambonnière, a commander in the gendarmerie, spoke at a news conference in the southwestern French city of Toulouse. "When his mother indicated that she intended to leave for Finland with him, this young man understood that this journey had to stop," the prosecutor said. He said he couldn't employ the term 'sect' to describe how the mother, grandfather and Batty lived. "The term he uses himself is 'spiritual community,'" he said. "He was never locked up," he added. "But he was always obliged to live in these conditions." Until he decided to go his own way. Batty walked for four nights - resting during the days - and fed himself with "different things that he found in fields or gardens" before the delivery driver picked him up, the prosecutor said. Batty told police he'd been aiming for Toulouse, hoping authorities there would return him to the United Kingdom to be reunited with his grandmother, who had custody of him before he vanished as a child. The prosecutor said they'll be reunited in the U.K. this weekend. "I cannot begin to express my relief and happiness that Alex has been found safe and well," the grandmother, Susan Caruana, said in a statement released by British police. She said they spoke by video call and "it was so good to hear his voice and see his face again. I can't wait to see him." The mother, Melanie Batty, has probably left for Finland, the prosecutor said. The grandfather, David Batty, is thought to have died about six months ago, he said. Both are sought by British police in connection with the youngster's disappearance. After failing to return to the U.K. from the 2017 trip to Spain, the trio spent about two years in Morocco before traveling back via Spain to southwestern France, where they appear to have spent the last two years roaming in the region of the Pyrenees mountains. But Batty "does not know exactly where he was, which is very surprising," the prosecutor said. "We will dig a bit." The delivery driver who found him spotted the teen alone in the rain and dark with a flashlight, a rucksack and his skateboard. He stopped "and asked if he was OK, what he was doing there, if he needed help and if he wanted me to drop him in a village," Accidini told French broadcaster BFMTV. Initially, Batty was suspicious, giving a false name, Zac, but he was also "very, very tired," Accidini said. So he climbed aboard and they got chatting while Accidini finished his deliveries. "Once he felt reassured, he gave me his real name and told me that he had been kidnapped by his mother five years ago," Accidini said. The teen added "that he'd been in France for the past two years in a spiritual community that was a bit strange with his mother who is also a bit strange, a bit loopy." "He'd had enough. He said, 'I am 17. I need a future.' He didn't see a future for him there." Batty used Accidini's mobile phone to send a message to his grandmother. Accidini showed it to BFM. It read: "Hello grandma it is me Alex i am in France Toulouse i really hope that you receive this message i love you i want to come home."
# Migrant dies and another is in critical condition after boat partially deflates in English Channel By PAN PYLAS December 15, 2023. 8:06 AM EST --- LONDON (AP) - A boat carrying more than 60 migrants encountered difficulty Friday as it attempted to make the dangerous crossing across the English Channel from France, and authorities said one person died and another was hospitalized in critical condition after a rescue operation. French maritime authorities said in a statement that the boat carrying the migrants had partially deflated and that the individual who died was unconscious when rescue ships arrived. They said another person was in critical condition and flown by helicopter to a hospital in the French port of Calais. Rescue vessels picked up 66 people in all, including the person who died, after the boat in distress was spotted around five miles (8 kilometers) off the coast of Grand-Fort-Philippe at around 12:30 a.m. local time. The U.K. coastguard said it sent a helicopter to assist the French authorities coordinating the operation. The French coast around Calais has long been a jumping-off point for people fleeing conflict and poverty around the world seeking to reach Britain, often via dangerous and sometimes deadly sea journeys across one of the world's busiest shipping channels. More than 29,000 migrants have arrived in the U.K. this year after crossing the Channel, the second highest annual total to date since records began in 2018. Though sharply down from last year's 46,000, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has pledged to "stop the boats" and is currently trying to win approval from lawmakers for a controversial plan to send some asylum-seekers to Rwanda. Following confirmation of the latest death in the Channel, Britain's interior minister, James Cleverly, said the government "must and will do more." "The incident in the Channel last night is a horrific reminder of the people-smugglers' brutality," he said on X, formerly known as Twitter. A bill that Cleverly is steering through Parliament seeks to overcome a ruling by the U.K. Supreme Court that the plan to send migrants who arrive from across the English Channel to Rwanda - where they would stay permanently - is illegal. The Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill faces criticism both from centrists in the governing Conservative Party who think it skirts with breaking international law, and from lawmakers on the party's right, who say it doesn't go far enough to ensure migrants who arrive in the U.K. without permission can be deported. The main opposition Labour Party which is far ahead in opinion polls ahead of a general election next year, has promised to ditch the plan that it has derided as a "gimmick." The party says the British government's priority should be breaking up the smuggling gangs that facilitate migrant boat crossings and promoting greater cooperation across Europe. Enver Solomon, chief executive of the U.K. based Refugee Council, said these "appalling deaths" were all to common and added urgency to the need to "put in place safe routes so people don't have to take dangerous journeys across the world's busiest shipping lane." "Instead, the government is pushing ahead with its unworkable and unprincipled Rwanda plan as well as shutting down existing safe ways to get to the U.K.," he said.
# The Vatican's 'trial of the century,' a Pandora's box of unintended revelations, explained By NICOLE WINFIELD December 15, 2023. 12:10 AM EST --- VATICAN CITY (AP) - Verdicts are expected Saturday for a cardinal and nine other defendants in the most complicated financial trial in the Vatican's modern history: a case featuring a Hollywood-worthy cast of characters, unseemly revelations about the Holy See and questions about Pope Francis ' own role in the deals. The trial had initially been seen as a showcase for Francis' reforms and his willingness to crack down on alleged financial misdeeds in the Vatican, which long had a reputation as an offshore tax haven. But after 2 1/2 years of hearings, no real smoking gun emerged to support the prosecution's hypothesis of a grand conspiracy to defraud the pope of millions of euros (dollars) in charitable donations. Even if some convictions are handed down, the overall impression is that the "trial of the century" turned into something of a Pandora's box of unintended revelations about Vatican vendettas, incompetence and even ransom payments that ultimately cost the Holy See reputational harm. ## WHAT WAS THE TRIAL ABOUT? After a two-year investigation that featured unprecedented police raids in the Apostolic Palace, Vatican prosecutors in 2021 issued a 487-page indictment accusing 10 people of numerous financial crimes, including fraud, embezzlement, extortion, corruption, money laundering and abuse of office. The main focus involved the Holy See's 350 million euro investment in a luxury London property. Prosecutors allege brokers and Vatican monsignors fleeced the Holy See of tens of millions of euros in fees and commissions, and then extorted the Holy See for 15 million euros ($16.5 million) to cede control of the property. The original London investigation spawned two tangents that involved the star defendant, Cardinal Angelo Becciu, once one of Francis' top advisers and a onetime papal contender. Chief prosecutor Alessandro Diddi is seeking prison sentences from three to 13 years for each of the 10 defendants, as well as the confiscation of some 415 million euros ($460 million) in damages and restitution. ## HOW DOES THE CARDINAL FIT IN? Becciu wasn't originally under investigation in the London deal since he had been transferred from the Vatican secretariat of state to the saint-making office before the key London transactions occurred. But he became enmeshed after prosecutors began looking into other deals, including 125,000 euros in Vatican money that he sent to a diocesan charity in his native Sardinia. Prosecutors alleged embezzlement, since the charity was run by his brother. Becciu argued that the local bishop requested the money for a bakery to employ at-risk youths, and that the money remained in the diocesan coffers. Becciu is also accused of paying a Sardinian woman, Cecilia Marogna, for her intelligence services. Prosecutors traced some 575,000 euros in transfers from the Vatican to her Slovenian front company. Becciu said he thought the money was going to be used to pay a British security firm to negotiate the release of a Colombian nun who had been taken hostage by Islamic militants in Mali in 2017. Marogna, who is also on trial, denied wrongdoing. ## THE MYSTERIOUS MONSIGNOR PERLASCA No figure in the trial was as intriguing as Monsignor Alberto Perlasca, who ran the office that managed the Vatican's sovereign wealth fund, with estimated assets of 600 million euros (around $630 million). It was Perlasca who signed the contracts in late 2018 giving operative control of the London property to London broker Gianluigi Torzi, another defendant who is accused of then extorting the Vatican for 15 million euros to get the property back. Because of his intimate involvement in the deal, Perlasca was initially a prime suspect. But after his first round of questioning, he fired his lawyer, changed his story and began cooperating with prosecutors. Perlasca escaped indictment and was even allowed to be listed as an injured party, enabling him to possibly recover damages. Only during the course of the trial did it emerge that Perlasca had been manipulated into changing his story to turn on Becciu, his former boss. ## THE MYSTERIOUS WOMEN WHO COACHED HIM In a trial that had plenty of surreal twists, perhaps none was as jaw-dropping as when a controversial figure from the Vatican's past emerged as having had a starring role in coaching Perlasca to change his testimony. Public relations specialist Francesca Chaouqui had previously served on a papal commission tasked with investigating the Vatican's murky finances. She is known in Vatican circles for her role in the "Vatileaks" scandal of 2015-2016, when she was convicted by the same tribunal of conspiring to leak confidential Vatican documents to journalists and received a 10-month suspended sentence. Chaouqui openly nurtured a grudge against Becciu because she blamed him for supporting her Vatileaks prosecution. She apparently saw the investigation into the London property as a chance to settle scores. And so it emerged in late 2022, when Perlasca was being questioned on the stand, that Chaouqui had engaged in an elaborate plot with a Perlasca family friend to persuade the prelate to turn on Becciu. "I knew that sooner or later the moment would come and I would send you this message," Chaouqui wrote Perlasca in a text message that was entered into evidence. "Because the Lord doesn't allow the good to be humiliated without repair. I pardon you Perlasca, but remember, you owe me a favor." Diddi, the prosecutor, hasn't said what, if any, charges are pending for anyone involved in the Perlasca testimony saga. ## THE POPE'S OWN ROLE Francis made clear early on that he strongly supported prosecutors in their investigation. But the trial produced evidence that his involvement went far beyond mere encouragement. Defense lawyers discovered that the pope had secretly issued four decrees during the investigation to benefit prosecutors, allowing them to conduct intercepts and detain suspects without a judge's warrant. Lawyers cried foul, arguing such interference by an absolute monarch in a legal system where the pope exercises supreme legislative, executive and judicial power violated their clients' fundamental rights and robbed them of a fair trial. Diddi argued the decrees served as a "guarantee" for the suspects. In addition, witnesses testified that Francis was very much aware of key aspects of the deals in question, and in some cases explicitly authorized them: - The former head of the financial intelligence agency who is on trial said Francis explicitly asked him to help the secretariat of state negotiate the exit deal with Torzi; - Becciu testified Francis had approved spending up to 1 million euros to negotiate the nun's freedom; - Becciu's onetime secretary, who is on trial, said Francis was so pleased with the outcome of the Torzi negotiation that he paid for a celebratory group dinner at a fancy Roman fish restaurant. In a religious hierarchy where obedience to superiors is a foundational element of a vocation, defense lawyers argued their underling clients merely obeyed orders from the pope on down. That included negotiating the exit strategy with Torzi, who was previously unknown to the Vatican but was brought into the deal by a friend of Francis. "Torzi was introduced by Giuseppe Milanese, who was a friend of the pope's, so why wouldn't we trust him?" said Massimo Bassi, a lawyer for another of the defendants. Milanese wasn't charged. Torzi denied wrongdoing.
# Ukraine's a step closer to joining the EU. Here's what it means, and why it matters By ANGELA CHARLTON December 14, 2023. 9:43 PM EST --- BRUSSELS (AP) - Ukraine got a green light Thursday to start sped-up talks on joining the European Union. That's a big boost for war-ravaged Ukraine and a loud message to Vladimir Putin - but it could be years before the country actually becomes a member of the EU. Here's a look at what Thursday's decision means, and why joining the EU is especially important, and especially hard, for Ukraine. ## WHAT IS THE EU AND HOW DO YOU JOIN? The European Union was born after World War II as a trading bloc with a bold ambition: to prevent another war between Germany and France. The six founding members were Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. Since then, the EU has steadily expanded to contain 27 democratic nations, many from the former communist bloc in Eastern Europe, inspired by the idea that economic and political integration among nations is the best way to promote prosperity and peace. This notably led to the creation of the shared euro currency in 1999, the continent's open borders, and trailblazing rules to reduce carbon emissions and regulate tech giants. To join the EU, candidate countries must go through a lengthy process to align their laws and standards with those of the bloc and show that their institutions and economies meet democratic norms. Launching accession talks requires approval by consensus from the current member nations. ## WHY JOINING IS IMPORTANT TO UKRAINE Ukraine is one of several countries that have long wanted to join the EU, seeing it as a path to wealth and stability. While the EU is not a military alliance like NATO, membership in the bloc is seen by some as a rampart against Russian influence. Ukraine officially applied for EU accession less than a week after Russia invaded in February 2022. Its capital, Kyiv, faced the threat of capture, and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's government faced the threat of collapse. The start of membership talks less than two years later is only one step in a long journey. But it sends a strong signal of solidarity with Ukraine just as U.S. support for Ukraine's military is faltering and a Ukrainian counteroffensive is stalled - and as Putin appears increasingly emboldened. And it offers a ray of hope for Ukraine even as EU members failed Thursday to agree on a more immediate boost in the form of 50 billion euros ($55 billion) in aid to keep the Ukrainian economy afloat. ## WHY UKRAINE'S MEMBERSHIP JOURNEY IS ROCKY EU officials had said talks couldn't officially begin until Ukraine addresses multiple issues including corruption, lobbying concerns and restrictions that might prevent national minorities from studying and reading in their own language. While EU officials say Ukraine has made progress on these issues in recent months, it still has a long way to go. Every EU country has gradually agreed to support Ukraine's bid - except Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Putin's greatest ally within the EU. Orban maintains that Ukraine isn't ready to even start talking about EU membership. In a surprise move, Orban stepped aside Thursday and abstained from the vote to allow Ukraine's membership talks to begin. It is just a beginning, and many steps remain. Debt crises, waves of migration and Brexit had all contributed to the bloc's skittishness toward expanding its ranks in recent years. So, too, did the growth of Euro-skeptic political forces in many member countries. But the urgency created by Russia's invasion and Ukraine's request for expedited consideration upended the EU's go-slow approach to adding new members and reversed years of "enlargement fatigue." Thursday's decision also has an impact on other would-be members, who feel the EU is showing favoritism. ## WHO ARE THE OTHER CANDIDATES? Turkey applied for membership in 1987, received candidate status in 1999, and had to wait until 2005 to start talks for actual entry. Only one of more than 30 negotiating "chapters" has been completed in the years since, and the whole process is at a standstill as a result of various disputes. Several countries in the Balkans, meanwhile, have become discouraged by the bloc's failure to live up to its lofty membership promises. North Macedonia submitted its entry bid in 2004. Even after subsequently changing its name to settle a longstanding dispute with EU member Greece, the country is still waiting for membership talks to begin because Bulgaria threw up a hurdle related to ethnicity and language. Bosnia remains plagued by ethnic divisions that make reform an almost impossible challenge. The commission said last month that it should only start membership talks after more progress is made. It expressed concern about the justice system and other rights failures in the Bosnian Serb part of the country. Serbia and Kosovo refuse to normalize their relations and stand last in the EU's line.
# Rights expert blasts Italy's handling of gender-based violence and discrimination against women December 14, 2023. 1:42 PM EST --- ROME (AP) - Violence and discrimination against women in Italy is a "prevailing and urgent concern," a European expert on human rights said Thursday in a scathing report that comes amid a national outcry over a gruesome murder of a young woman allegedly by her ex-boyfriend. Dunja Mijatovic, commissioner for human rights at the Council of Europe, faulted Italy across multiple areas, lamenting that Italian courts and police sometimes revictimize the victims of gender-based violence and that women have increasingly less access to abortion services. She also noted Italy's last-place in the EU ranking for gender equality in the workplace. The report followed a visit by Mijatovic to Italy in June and focused also on the country's handling of migrants and press freedom. But the section of her report on women comes amid a national reckoning on gender-based violence following the latest case that has grabbed headlines for a month. Giulia Cecchettin, a 22-year-old who was about to graduate with a bioengineering degree, was found dead, her throat slit, in a ditch in a remote area of the Alpine foothills on Nov. 18. She had disappeared along with her ex-boyfriend a week earlier after meeting him for a burger. Filippo Turetta, 21, was later arrested in Germany, and is being held in an Italian jail pending an investigation to bring charges. Turetta's lawyer has said he admitted to the crime under prosecutors' questioning. Cecchetin was among 102 women murdered through mid-November this year in Italy, more than half by current or former intimate partners, according to the Interior Ministry. While Italy has made some progress and passed notable legislation to punish perpetrators of violence against women, courts interpret sex crimes differently and there are uneven, regional disparities in access and funding to shelters and other services for victims of domestic violence, the report said. "There is an urgent need to combat sexism and prejudice against women among law enforcement, prosecution and judicial authorities, which contribute toward the low prosecution and conviction rates in cases of violence against women and impunity for perpetrators," the report said. It called for better training of personnel to improve treatment of victims and prevent them from being revictimized. In it's official response, the Italian government said the report was incomplete and in some cases incorrect, stressing that new prevention initiatives and funding are under way. It also noted provisions of its five-year strategic plan to address gender equality. Italy ranks 13th in the European Union's Gender Equality Index, under the EU average and the worst score for any major European economy. The index ranks EU countries on certain benchmarks in economic, political, education and health-based criteria. In the criteria of gender equality in the workplace, Italy ranks last altogether. Motherhood in general and the COVID-19 pandemic in particular have exacerbated the gender gap in the workplace, with 38% of women changing their employment status for family reasons, compared to 12% of men, the report said. The gender pay gap is also widening, particularly in the private sector where women earn up to 20% and in some cases 24% less than their male counterparts, the report said. Mijatovic blamed a deeply rooted culture of "entrenched stereotypes" about women, their negative portrayal in media and "sexist hate speech" in public debate as part of the problem. In its response, the Italian government strongly protested the assertion, noting above all the number of women in public office, starting with Premier Giorgia Meloni, Italy's first female head of government. On sexual and reproductive health, the commissioner lamented that women in Italy have uneven access to abortion, which has been legal since 1978. She cited bureaucratic obstacles, regional disparities and widespread conscientious objection by doctors who refuse to terminate pregnancies.
# Finland to close again entire border with Russia as reopening of 2 crossing points lures migrants By JARI TANNER December 14, 2023. 12:53 PM EST --- HELSINKI (AP) - Finland's government has decided to seal again, effective Friday, the Nordic country's entire eastern frontier due to a continuing influx of migrants at the two crossing points on the border with Russia that were reopened on a temporary basis early Thursday. Interior Minister Mari Rantanen told reporters that a decision by Prime Minister Petteri Orpo's Cabinet earlier this week to temporarily reopen the southeastern Vaalimaa and Niirala crossing points today was meant as a trial to see whether the migrant "phenomenon" still exists at the border. The Finnish Border Guard reported that dozens of migrants without proper documentation or visas had arrived at the two checkpoints by late Thursday. The number of migrants was predicted to increase rapidly at Vaalimaa and Niirala checkpoints, prompting the Finnish government's to react quickly and close them as of 8 p.m. Friday until Jan. 14, Rantanen said. At the end of November, Orpo's government opted to close the entire 1,340-kilometer (830-mile) border for at least two weeks over concerns that Moscow was using migrants to destabilize Finland in an alleged act of "hybrid warfare." Finnish authorities say that nearly 1,000 migrants without proper visas or valid documentation had arrived at the border since August until end-November, with more than 900 of them in November alone. The numbers are much higher than usual. Finland accuses Russia of deliberately ushering migrants - most of whom are seeking asylum in Finland - to the border zone, which is normally heavily controlled by Russia's Federal Security Service, or FSB, on the Russian side. The Kremlin has denied that Russia is encouraging migrants to enter Finland and has said that it regrets the Finnish border closures. There are eight crossing points for passenger and vehicle traffic on the Finland-Russia land border, and one rail checkpoint for cargo trains. As of Friday evening, only the rail checkpoint will remain open between the two countries. Earlier December, Finnish authorities said the vast majority of the migrants who arrived in November hailed from three countries: Syria, Somalia and Yemen. Finland, a nation of 5.6 million people, makes up a significant part of NATO's northeastern flank and acts as the European Union's external border in the north.
# Storm drenches Florida and causes floods in South Carolina as it moves up East Coast December 17, 2023. 7:27 PM EST --- GEORGETOWN, S.C. (AP) - An intense late-year storm barreled up the East Coast on Sunday with heavy rains and strong winds that shattered rainfall records, forced water rescues from flooded streets and washed out holiday celebrations. Authorities rescued dozens of motorists stranded by floodwaters in South Carolina's waterfront community of Georgetown, Georgetown County spokesperson Jackie Broach said. More than 9 inches (22.9 centimeters) of rain fell in the area situated between Charleston and Myrtle Beach since late Saturday. "It's not just the areas that we normally see flooding, that are flood-prone," Broach said. "It's areas that we're not really expecting to have flooding issues... It's like a tropical storm, it just happens to be in December." The tide in Charleston Harbor hit its fourth highest level on record and was "well above the highest tide for a non-tropical system," according to the National Weather Service. Rising sea levels driven by human-caused climate change mean even relatively weak weather systems can now produce storm surges previously associated with hurricanes, said Meteorologist Jeff Masters, co-founder of the Weather Underground. In South Carolina that's worsened by natural subsidence along the coast. By 2050, Charleston is expected to see another 14 inches (35.6 centimeters) of sea level rise, Masters said. "In Charleston, this is the sixth time this year already that they've had a major coastal flood. Most of those would not have been major flooding 100 years ago, because the sea level has risen that much," he said. The storm was forecast to gain strength as it tracked along the Georgia and Carolina coasts, producing heavy rain and gusty winds before sweeping into New England by Monday morning, the weather service said. Wind gusts of 35 mph to 45 mph (56 kph to 72 kph) could bring down trees, especially on saturated ground. There were numerous road closures in Charleston and across South Carolina's Lowcountry, while stranded cars littered streets. There were no reports of injuries or deaths in Georgetown County, Broach said. Gusty winds were strong enough to topple some signs and trees. Outdoor holiday decorations were tossed about, she said. Water rescues also took place on Kiawah and Seabrook islands, according to media outlets. Charleston International Airport had more than 3 inches (8 centimeters) of rain in 24 hours - almost five times the prior record set in 1975, according to the National Weather Service. Farther up the coast, minor to moderate coastal flooding was expected Sunday, according to the National Weather Service office in Wilmington, North Carolina. There were more than 31,000 power outages in South Carolina, according to PowerOutage.us, along with over 14,000 in North Carolina and more than 11,000 in Florida. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul warned of a possible 2 to 4 inches (5.1 to 10.2 centimeters) of rain, powerful winds and potential flooding in parts of the state. Flood watches were in effect in many locations in New York City, and high wind warnings were activated around the city and Long Island. "We will get through this storm, but preparation is the key," New York Mayor Eric Adams said. City officials told residents to expect several hours of rain and possible delays during Monday morning's commute. Colder air behind the storm will trigger lake-effect snow across the Great Lakes toward the Appalachians and upstate New York into Tuesday, the weather service said. The storm dumped up to 5 inches (12.7 centimeters) of rain across Florida, inundating streets and forcing the cancellation of boat parades and other holiday celebrations. The National Weather Service issued flood warnings and minor flooding advisories for a wide swath of the state, from the southwest Gulf Coast to Jacksonville. Major airports remained open, however, at the start of the busy holiday travel season. "Today is not the day to go swimming or boating!" Sheriff Carmine Marceno of Lee County, on Florida's southwestern coast, said on X, formerly known as Twitter. Coastal advisories were issued for much of Florida as strong winds churned waters in the Gulf and along the north Atlantic coast. The storm could be good news for residents in southwest Florida who have been facing water restrictions and drought conditions heading into what normally is the region's dry season. The weather service also warned of 2 to 4 inches (5.1 to 10.2 centimeters) of rain in parts of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware, with the heaviest expected late Sunday night, and possible urban and small stream flooding and at least minor flooding to some rivers through Monday. Forecasters also warned of strong winds in coastal areas, gale-force winds offshore, and moderate coastal flooding along Delaware Bay and widespread minor coastal flooding elsewhere. The weather service said there is a slight risk of excessive rainfall over parts of New England through Monday morning, with the potential for flash flooding. Northern New England is expected to get the heaviest rain Monday through Tuesday morning.
# How much gerrymandering is too much? In New York, the answer could make or break Dems' House hopes By ANTHONY IZAGUIRRE December 17, 2023. 10:37 AM EST --- ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - New York's highest court last week gave Democrats a chance to redraw the state's congressional districts, a major victory as the party tries to win control of the U.S. House next year. Now the question is how far the state's Democrat-dominated Legislature will try to push the boundaries in crucial battleground districts to give their party an advantage, and how far the courts will let them. The process will be closely watched for any sign of partisan gerrymandering - drawing lines that give one party an unfair advantage - which is forbidden by state law. And Republicans are expected to challenge the results in court as they try to retain their slim House majority. But experts say it's unclear where the state's highest court will land on determining what's too partisan. "There's no hard and fast definition or bright line to define partisan gerrymandering," said New York Law School professor Jeffrey Wice, who focuses on redistricting. "There really is no bright line to know when a plan becomes too much of a partisan gerrymander. That's often based on a panel of experts and the decision of judges." Part of the uncertainty in New York comes from a decision by the state's highest court last year, when it threw out congressional maps drawn by Democrats that were criticized for oddly shaped lines that crammed the state's Republican voters into a few super districts. In that ruling, the court focused more on questions over the procedural steps Democrats took to draw the lines and spent only a few paragraphs on whether the districts violated the state's gerrymandering prohibition. It instead upheld lower court rulings that found "clear evidence and beyond a reasonable doubt that the congressional map was unconstitutionally drawn with political bias" and that "the 2022 congressional map was drawn to discourage competition and favor democrats," based on testimony and analysis of previous maps. The court then appointed a special master to draw a new set of congressional lines for the last election, which along with strong GOP turnout and dissatisfaction with Democratic policies, led to Republicans flipping seats in the New York City suburbs and winning control of the House. After the election, Democrats sued to toss the court-drawn maps, arguing that the state's bipartisan redistricting commission should get another chance to draft congressional lines. The court agreed in a decision last week. The new maps will be first left to the commission, before the Legislature has a chance to approve or alter the lines. Richard Briffault, a Columbia Law School professor with an extensive background on redistricting and government, said he thinks Democrats might err on the side of caution to avoid another long legal fight before the election. "My guess is they're going to be more careful," Briffault said. "They certainly would be wise to be more careful and not be too aggressive because they will surely be sued." Democrats had already targeted the state as a battleground for the House next year. The party has set its sights on six seats it wants to flip in New York, with those potential pickups reversing or even exceeding the expected loss of at least three districts in North Carolina after a Republican gerrymander there. At the same time, redistricting litigation is ongoing in several other states, including Florida, Georgia and Louisiana, where Democrats are hoping to make gains. Democrats also are expected to gain a seat in Alabama, where districts were revised after federal judges ruled that the original map enacted by Republican state officials had illegally diluted the voting power of Black residents. "The parties are fighting these battles district by district in courtrooms across the country that are aimed at giving Democrats a better chance at the starting gate," said Wice. "Each court victory counts in a major way." The New York redistricting commission has been tasked with submitting a map to the state Legislature by Feb 28. But Republicans are already crying foul. "For all their rhetoric about defending democracy, we see what occurred here in New York," said John Faso, a former congressman who is advising other Republicans on redistricting. "The Democrats don't want to win districts at the polls. They want to win them in the backrooms of Albany."
# Florida Republican Party suspends chairman and demands his resignation amid rape investigation By BRENDAN FARRINGTON December 17, 2023. 4:02 PM EST --- TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - The Republican Party of Florida suspended Chairman Christian Ziegler and demanded his resignation during an emergency meeting Sunday, adding to calls by Gov. Ron DeSantis and other top officials for him to step down as police investigate a rape accusation against him. Ziegler is accused of raping a woman with whom he and his wife, Moms for Liberty co-founder Bridget Ziegler, had a prior consensual sexual relationship, according to police records. "Christian Ziegler has engaged in conduct that renders him unfit for the office," the party's motion to censure Ziegler said, according to a document posted on the social media platform X by Lee County GOP Chairman Michael Thomason. Ziegler tried to defend himself during the closed-door meeting, but the party board quickly took the action against him, Thompson said. "Ziegler on soap box trying to defend himself, not working," Thompson posted before confirming the votes. The party's executive committee will hold another vote in the future on whether to remove Ziegler. The Sarasota Police Department is investigating the woman's accusation that Ziegler raped her at her apartment in October. Police documents say the Zieglers and the woman had planned a sexual threesome that day, but Bridget Ziegler was unable to make it. The accuser says Christian Ziegler arrived anyway and assaulted her. Christian Ziegler has not been charged with a crime and says he is innocent, contending the encounter was consensual. The accusation also has caused turmoil for Bridget Ziegler, an elected member of the Sarasota School Board, though she is not accused of any crime. On Tuesday the board voted to ask her to resign. She refused. The couple have been outspoken opponents of LGBTQ+ rights, and their relationship with another woman has sparked criticism and accusations of hypocrisy. In addition to DeSantis, Republican Sens. Rick Scott and Marco Rubio, U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz and Florida's Republican House and Senate leaders have all called for Christian Ziegler's resignation.
# An order blocking enforcement of Ohio's abortion ban stands after the high court dismissed an appeal December 16, 2023. 1:19 PM EST --- COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - The Ohio Supreme Court has dismissed the state's challenge to a judge's order that has blocked enforcement of Ohio's near-ban on abortions for the past 14 months. The ruling moves action in the case back to Hamilton County Common Pleas, where abortion clinics asked Judge Christian Jenkins this week to throw out the law following voters' decision to approve enshrining abortion rights in the state constitution. The high court on Friday said the appeal was " dismissed due to a change in the law." The justices in March agreed to review a county judge's order that blocked enforcement of the abortion restriction and to consider whether clinics had legal standing to challenge the law. They ultimately denied Republican Attorney General Dave Yost's request that they launch their own review of the constitutional right to abortion, leaving such arguments for a lower court. The clinics asked Jenkins on Thursday to block the abortion ban permanently on the heels of the amendment Ohio voters approved last month that ensures access to abortion and other reproductive health care. A law signed by Republican Gov. Mike DeWine in April 2019 prohibited most abortions after the first detectable "fetal heartbeat." Cardiac activity can be detected as early as six weeks into pregnancy, before many women know they are pregnant. The ban, initially blocked through a federal legal challenge, briefly went into effect when the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision was overturned last year. It was then placed back on hold in county court, as part of a subsequent lawsuit challenging it as unconstitutional under the state constitution. Yost's office referred to a statement from Dec. 7 that "the state is prepared to acknowledge the will of the people on the issue, but also to carefully review each part of the law for an orderly resolution of the case." The abortion providers asked the lower court that initially blocked the ban to permanently strike it down. They cited Yost's own legal analysis, circulated before the vote, that stated that passage of the amendment would invalidate the state's six-week ban, stating, "Ohio would no longer have the ability to limit abortions at any time before a fetus is viable."

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Number of Samples: 1,000

      Most Tokens: 4,817
     Least Tokens: 186
   Average Tokens: 1,027
    Median Tokens: 925
     Total Tokens: 1,027,462

Using Mistral-v0.1-7B Tokenizer

A small set of news articles which I will try to continue collecting. Very recent samples to bring a model up to speed with what's currently happening.

Grabbed whatever articles I could find going through different categories.

There will be a bias towards whatever AP News has on its front page whenever I open it. It is very current topic focused. Over time as I collect more hopefully it gets a better overall view of what's happening in real life for LLMs to learn from.

Markdown formatted.
Cleaned up formatting as I saw fit, but keeping as consistent as I can.

May have duplicate articles due to some articles showing up for multiple days, or on multiple pages.

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