A summit this week between leaders of Pacific Rim allies South Korea and the Philippines is expected to show that both lean toward the West rather than China despite their efforts to get along with Asia’s superpower, analysts say.
A swing toward the West by either country would put Beijing further on the back foot in Asia, where its military expansion alarms multiple governments, and give the United States a new opening to get involved in the region, scholars believe.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said on his office’s website November 20 he will meet his Korean counterpart at an Association of Southeast Asian Nations-South Korea summit in Busan Monday through Wednesday. Asian security issues will lead discussion, it said.
“The Philippines and Korea both have been fairly accommodating of China, because Korea given its proximity and Duterte because he wanted to make the best deals,” said Jeffrey Kingston, history instructor at Temple University’s Japan campus.
Now, he said, “both of them are countries that feel concerned about the rise of China. Both feel threatened.”
Ties with China
Duterte broke ice with China in 2016 by setting aside a maritime sovereignty dispute and accepting pledges of $24 billion in Chinese aid, key to his country’s infrastructure renewal effort. But Chinese activity in the disputed South China Sea including a boat collision earlier this year is worrying Filipinos again.
South Korea spars with China over ties with North Korea. The north, a Chinese ally, periodically tests missiles near the south, and in 2017 Beijing condemned the south for installing an advanced antimissile system. Chinese officials feared the U.S.-backed system could monitor activity in China.

FILE – Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, left, and Chinese President Xi Jinping, right, meet at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing, China, Aug. 29, 2019.China and South Korea separately dispute sovereignty over a tiny island, and South Korea’s coast guard has fired on Chinese fishing boats. However, the two sides, separated by just a few hundred kilometers, agreed last month to improve relations and pursue denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
“Although Korea has its own problems with China, especially with fishing and some islands, they’re handling it very, very differently from us,” Jay Batongbacal, international maritime affairs professor at University of the Philippines.
US alliances
The two leaders are expected to talk about China this week.
“The equilibrium of geopolitics will be high on the agenda including issues such as the tension in the Korean Peninsula and the Spratly Islands,” Manila’s presidential website quotes Duterte saying. Beijing and Manila dispute sovereignty over the Spratlys, an archipelago in the South China Sea.
South Korea and the Philippines, though both historic U.S. military allies in Asia, lack the clout on their own to take any action, said Fabrizio Bozzato, Taiwan Strategy Research Association fellow who specializes in Asia and the Pacific. They might instead jointly support a broader alliance, he said.
“I believe that they can be part of a regional U.S.-centric and Japan-centric regional architecture to resist China, but they cannot be the initiator of that,” Bozzato said. “What they have in common really is that they are both allies to the United States and that they are facing China’s pressure.”
A top U.S. defense official pledged in June more military cooperation in Asia — and criticized China’s military expansion. Washington regularly sends naval ships to the region as warnings to China.
Last month the Philippines joined U.S. and Japanese forces for annual military exercises that news reports from Manila said were designed to keep Asia “free and open,” wording that Washington uses to ask that China quit expanding. Duterte had resisted U.S. help in 2016 and 2017.
South Korea answered U.S. lobbying this month by saying it would stay in an intelligence-sharing pact with Japan despite a trade spat with the Japanese government.
South Korea still looks to China and the United States for help on North Korea issues, said Steven Kim, visiting research fellow at the Jeju Peace Institute.

U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper, right and South Korea defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo, left attend a press conference in Bangkok, Thailand, Sunday, Nov. 17, 2019.“It will have to carefully calibrate its relations between the two great powers while occasionally hewing closer to one over the other depending on which of its interests are on the line or at stake,” he said.
Korean aid to the Philippines
Since 2017, South Korea has already emerged as a benefactor to the Philippines and their leaders are due to sign four economy-related deals at the summit.
Two years ago it offered $1.7 billion in credit and other financial aid to help the Philippines improve transportation and energy. Analysts told VOA Seoul hoped to offset Chinese influence in the developing Southeast Asian country.
South Korean companies also build ships for the Philippines as Manila seeks to upgrade its navy. Korean shipbuilder Hyundai Heavy Industries started work this month on a Philippine frigate, news website Navaltoday.com reported. Another frigate is due for delivery in May.
“The Philippines is getting a lot of its modernization requirements like ships from Korea,” Batongbacal said.

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Jessye Norman was remembered as a force of nature as thousands filled the Metropolitan Opera House on Sunday for a celebration of the soprano, who died Sept. 30 at age 74.
Sopranos Renee Fleming, Latonia Moore, Lise Davidsen and Leah Hawkins sang tributes along with mezzo-soprano J’Nai Bridges and bass-baritone Eric Owens that were mixed among remembrances of family and friends, dance performances of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and video of Norman’s career.
“Yankee Stadium is the house that Babe Ruth built and welcome to this house that Jessye Norman built,” Met general manager Peter Gelb said. “Of course Jessye wasn’t alone in filling this hallowed hall with her glorious voice. She was joined by rather important voices, from Leontyne Price to Luciano Pavarotti, but in her operatic prime in the ’80s and the 90s, her majestic vocal chords reigned supreme in the dramatic soprano and the mezzo range. Like Babe Ruth, who swung for the fences, Jessye swung for standing room in the family circle, and she always connected.”
Norman’s celebration took place shortly after a memorial to actress Diahann Carroll at the Helen Hayes Theater, about a mile south. On Thursday, author Toni Morrison was memorialized at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, a trio of black Americans who were leaders in their fields.
“Three monumental women who carried through and offered a bounty of gifts to the world,” actress and playwright Anna Deavere Smith said.
Smith recalled signing letters “Little Sis” to Norman’s “Big Sis.” She remembered traveling to Norman’s performances around the world, focusing on one at the Festival de Musique de Menton on the French Riviera, near the Italian border. Organizers had arranged to stop traffic to clear the air for Norman but fretted over a train, asking whether Norman preferred they slow it down to lower the noise level in exchange for a lengthier time the noise would be audible.
“When the train came through Menton and Jessye was hitting the high note, I heard Jessye. She sang through it,” Smith said. “Until this morning, this very morning, I thought Jessye’s voice simply overrode that train. I don’t think so anymore. Now I understand that Jessye Norman had the ear, the timing, the love of song, the risk to share and the will to sing through – and with – the roaring train. In the same way, she integrated several musical histories to grace the world with the power of her voice.”

FILE – Soprano Jessye Norman performs during The Dream Concert at Radio City Music Hall in New York, Sept. 18, 2007.Speakers included Ford Foundation president Darren Walker and Gloria Steinem.
Younger sister Elaine Norman Sturkey and brother James Howard Norman told stories of their youth in Augusta, Georgia, and later travels together.
“Travel with Jessye was no small feat,” Norman Sturkey said with humor in her voice. “These Louis Vuittons that she bought were so heavy before you could even put anything in them. Then she would pack them to capacity, so that when we got to the airport, they were all going to be too heavy. We’re not going to have two maybe big suitcases or even three, we were going to have 10. And she’s not lifting anything. That’s somebody else’s problem. And she’s carrying everything from a humidifier to a teapot. And we’re going to be back in less than two weeks, sometimes a week.”
Carnegie Hall executive director Clive Gillinson spoke of summoning the courage to ask Norman to curate a festival, which she readily agreed to and became “Honor! A Celebration of the African American Cultural Legacy” in March 2009.
“Clive, this is the project I’ve been waiting my entire life to do,” he quoted her as responding.
Former French Culture Minister spoke of the controversy over his decision to hire Norman rather than a French singer to perform “La Marseillaise” at the Place de la Concorde in 1989 to mark the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution. His remembrance was followed by a video of Norman’s iconic, blazing rendition.
Fleming received a huge ovation after “Beim Schlafengehen (When Falling Asleep)” from Strauss’ “Four Last Songs,” accompanied by pianist Gerald Martin Moore and Met concertmaster David Chan. Hawkins and Moore began and ended the program with traditionals, “Great Day” and “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hand.” Bridges sang Duke Ellington’s “Heaven” and Owen performed Wotan’s farewell from “Die Walkuere.” Davidson, who is to make her Met debut Friday, sang Strauss’ “Morgen!”

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The voting process Sunday of Guinea-Bissau’s presidential election was “peaceful, calm and orderly,” said Oldemiro Baloi, who heads international observers of the Community of Portuguese speaking countries. Results of the balloting are expected Thursday.
The West African country has seen hardly any political stability since independence from Portugal 45 years ago.
President Jose Mario Vaz, who is seeking a second five-year term, is the only president since independence to survive a full term without a coup or assassination.
“The people of Guinea-Bissau are sovereign and I will respect the verdict of the ballot box,” Vaz said after voting in the capital, Bissau.  “I have accomplished my mission of restoring peace and tranquillity.”
The president’s chief competitor was former Prime Minister Domingos Simoes Pereira, one of six prime ministers Vaz fired during his presidency.  
Pereira also vowed to “respect” the results of the election.  “These elections are crucial for future of the country,” he said.  
Twelve candidates – all men – were running for president.
Vaz fired Prime Minister Aristides Gomes in late October and named a new head of government. But Gomes refused to step down. The regional bloc ECOWAS intervened to prevent the country from exploding into violence.
Whoever becomes the country’s next president will face numerous challenges in one of the world’s poorest countries, including poverty, corruption, drug trafficking, and badly needed improvements in health care and education.
If no candidate receives more than 50% of the vote, the top two finishers will meet in a runoff December 29.

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(Editor’s note: These are the final segments in our series “Climbing the Hill,” in which we followed two new members of Congress. Democrat Katie Porter was featured Sunday. )
 
WASHINGTON, D.C. — First-term Republican House member Pete Stauber of Minnesota wears his religion on his sleeve.
He begins every morning in Washington by attending Mass at a Catholic church near the U.S. Capitol. And, recently, he met a tour of 30 students and a priest from Minnesota on the steps of the Capitol, where they finished their prayer for the nation by making the sign of the cross.
“You just said the Lord’s Prayer on the steps of the greatest country in the world, at our Capitol,” the amiable Stauber explained in a brief lesson in religious freedom. “Isn’t that that awesome?”
Stauber, a former professional hockey player and retired police lieutenant, is not shy about showing his religion in a secular nation riven by partisanship and a historic impeachment inquiry targeting a Republican president.
Stauber is a staunch supporter of President Donald Trump and vigorously opposes the Democrats’ move toward impeachment. But he is also a firm believer in bipartisanship, and in less than a year has succeeded in passing two bills in the House with both Democratic and Republican support.
“I’ve always been really successful being a member of a team and and being inclusive, having that voice for all,” he said.
Stauber arrived in Washington less than a year ago after winning election in the traditionally Democratic 8th congressional district in northern Minnesota. Stauber became only the second Republican in 71 years to represent the district, which includes the Iron Range mining region. The victory gave him an element of political celebrity in the Republican Party.
Playing for the minors
When he ran for the House seat, Republicans controlled both the House and the Senate, an exciting time for a fledgling Republican candidate.

Minnesota Republican Congressman Pete Stauber and his staffer rush back from the Capitol to his office in the Cannon Building. (Carolyn Presutti/VOA News)But Democrats came storming back in the 2018 midterm election, regaining control of the House and consigning the Republicans to a vastly diminished minority role. But Stauber said he wasn’t fazed by the turn of events, and points to his sponsorship this year of 10 bills, including the two that were passed in the House.
“Being in the minority, two bills is pretty good and we are not done yet,” he said.
A onetime member of the Detroit Red Wings professional hockey team, Stauber said he wishes his fellow legislators would put aside partisan labels.
To explain, he used a quote from the hockey coach of the 1980 gold-medal-winning U.S. Olympic team.
“Herb Brooks says the [team’s] name on the front of the jersey means more than the [player’s] name on the back,” Stauber said. “If we all went into the House of Representatives with ‘USA’ on our sweater, we could move mountains.”
Dawn to dark
Part of what he learned in this first year is that the pace at the Capitol is nonstop. Rookie members of Congress get a taste of this during orientation, shortly after their November election. But nothing can prepare them for the real thing.
VOA joined Stauber for a full day in Washington in late October from sunup to sundown, to see what’s involved.

Rep. Pete Stauber (R – Minn) is coached by veteran congressman on usefulness of Capitol ID badges, car license plates. (Photo: Carolyn Presutti / VOA)Stauber rises before 6 a.m. and never gets home before dark. “Home” in Washington is a townhouse he shares with three other congressmen. His wife, Jodi Stauber, remains in Minnesota, where she takes care of their four children, including a teenager with special needs.
Every morning, Stauber texts his children so they are greeted with a message from their father when they awaken. Later in the morning, while he is returning calls to his constituents, he steals a few minutes to call his wife.
The rest of the day is a whirlwind, spent in congressional committee hearings, staff meetings, on the House floor trying to line up support for his bills, at Republican Party headquarters making fundraising calls, and in unnamed rooms attending classified briefings.
There is also plenty of time set aside for meeting with visiting constituents to discuss their local concerns. And then he’s back on the House floor for votes and corralling support for legislation he favors.
After his work is completed at the Capitol and in his office in the nearby House Cannon Office Building, Stauber has evening ceremonies and events to attend. Throughout it all, Stauber offers a smile and a handshake to all he meets.
“I absolutely love it,” he explained. “I have a passion to serve. When you really love what you are doing, it’s not work. It’s a passion.”
Disappointments
It hasn’t all been rosy. The first bill Stauber sponsored hasn’t made it to the House floor for a vote.
The proposed legislation would codify a federal land swap for a copper mine in Minnesota’s Iron Range. He’s a firm supporter of expanding the mining of iron ore and precious metals, which would mean more jobs and income for his northern district, rather than have the country rely on foreign entities for the minerals.
“Of course I’m disappointed, but that’s part of the process,” Stauber said, adding he is taking the stalling of the bill in stride. “I think in the end, northern Minnesota, we will be mining copper and nickel very soon.”
When asked what he has learned in this past year that he would like to pass on to the next class of first-year representatives, he quickly replied, “In this country, no matter what we are going through, she’s still worth fighting for.”
Chaos with impeachment
The country has been going through a lot since Stauber first arrived in the capital.
As soon as his new class of U.S. Representatives was sworn in, they had to deal with a monthlong government shutdown. And now, the impeachment inquiry.

Can someone tell Jodi that I caught a ride home today? pic.twitter.com/IlxaeAlsFX
— Pete Stauber (@PeteStauber) October 11, 2019
Stauber said he is grateful to President Trump, who campaigned for Stauber prior to his election. Stauber recently pinned a photo to his campaign twitter account of him riding on Air Force One last month when Trump visited Minnesota.
He says he spent the entire time in disbelief, pinching himself while the President and he “talked about economic drivers for the state of Minnesota.”
Report Card
Stauber has so far received mixed grades from the few U.S. public interest groups that have issued “report cards” for members of Congress. For Stauber, it mainly runs along party lines. Heritage Action for America rates him 85% on backing their conservative stances on issues.
 
Freedom Works, which ranks members on 33 key votes dealing with free-market economic issues that most Republicans hold dear, only gives him a 49 on a 100-point scale.
Progressive Punch compares the votes from a control group made up of 33 of the staunchest progressive legislators, typically Democrats. On that basis, the group gave Stauber an “F” — a failing grade.
Reelection
The two-year terms in the House pass by quickly, unlike in the Senate, where members are elected to six-year terms. Long before the end of the first year of their terms, House members must begin concentrating on reelection. Stauber said a former colleague called to congratulate him a few days after the 2018 election and said, “Welcome to your reelection.”
“It’s almost perpetual, so it is unfortunate,” he said.
He said he will never take any competitor for granted. Two Democrats have filed the necessary papers to run against him, but neither has raised any money for their campaigns. Stauber reported raising $871,188 in third-quarter fundraising to the Federal Election Commission.

Trump won Stauber’s district by 15 points in 2016, while Stauber won in 2018 by only 5%.
But analysts like Matthew Krayton, who owns Publitics, a political consulting firm, said the impeachment inquiry is the wild card in predicting the outcome of 2020 elections. Publitics specializes in Democratic candidates and has no connection to the 8th district race in Minnesota.
If he were consulting Stauber, Krayton said he would suggest Stauber focus on “bread-and-butter” local constituent issues, “without getting too bogged down in the national climate.”

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Nearly a year ago, VOA first met with two newly elected US Representatives for a project entitled, “Climbing the Hill.”  Through the lives of California Democrat Katie Porter and Minnesota Republican Pete Stauber we hope to show you what it’s like to be a new representative at the US Capitol.  In our final installment, we look at the challenges a representative faces during a typical day.  VOA’s Carolyn Presutti started the day at 6:30am with Representative Pete Stauber, who’s already been awake for a half hour.

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Supporters of the Hezbollah and Amal movements attacked Lebanese anti-government protesters in Beirut on Monday, with army reinforcements intervening to diffuse tensions.
Shortly before midnight on Sunday, men on foot and scooters arrived at a roadblock set up by anti-graft protesters across a key street in the capital, local television showed.
They shouted insults and chanted in support of the chiefs of the Shi’ite movements Hezbollah and Amal, before briefly breaking through and attacking some demonstrators.
Those at the roadblock chanted “peaceful, peaceful”, as the security forces and army reinforcements deployed in a thick line between both sides in the early hours of Monday morning.
The counter-protesters also headed to a main nerve center of protests nearby and destroyed tents there, a local television channel said.
The tensions came after a peaceful day of demonstrations, more than a month into a spontaneous nationwide street movement against the political elite.
On Saturday, Lebanese security forces briefly detained five youths, including three minors, for allegedly pulling down a sign for President Michel Aoun’s political party in the town of Hammana east of Beirut, sparking outrage on social media.
Security forces released them after midnight, the Committee of Lawyers for the Defense of Protesters said.
The army said two of the children were 15 years old and the third was 12.
“Down with the regime that arrests children,” a Twitter user said.
“When a 12-year-old child manages to shake the state’s throne, you know the state is corrupt,” another wrote.
During the first month of demonstrations, security forces arrested 300 people including 12 minors who were released within 24 to 48 hours, according to the lawyers’ committee.
But 11 people — including two minors — remain in detention accused of attacking a hotel in the southern city of Tyre during the first week of the uprising.
The demonstrators managed to bring down the government less than two weeks into the protests, but it remains in a caretaker capacity and no new cabinet has since been formed.
Late Sunday, protesters blocked major roads in several parts of the country and called for a general strike the following day in protest at the lack of progress in forming a fresh government.
Earlier, hundreds had gathered in protest centers in Beirut, the northern city of Tripoli and in Tyre.
In Beirut’s Martyrs’ Square, hundreds of women and men demanded their rights, some waving the national red and white flag or chanting “Revolution, Revolution!”
Lebanon’s protests have brought together people of all ages from across the political spectrum, tired of what they describe as sectarian politics three decades after a civil war.
In the latest show of unity, a festive mood had reigned Sunday afternoon as Lebanese came together in public spaces across the country on the second day of the weekend.
North of the capital women prepared traditional salads to share, while a group of men danced on a beach south of the city, state television footage showed.
The Free Patriotic Movement party that Aoun founded is now led by his son-in-law, outgoing foreign minister Gibran Bassil, one of the most reviled figures in the protests.
Hezbollah is the only party not to have disarmed after the 1975-1990 civil war and plays a key role in Lebanese politics.
 

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Officials say 42 people were charged with disorderly conduct after a protest interrupted a Saturday football game between archrivals Harvard and Yale.
Students from both schools occupied the midfield of the Yale Bowl during Saturday’s halftime protest. Some held banners urging their colleges to act on climate change. Other signs referred to Puerto Rican debt relief and China’s treatment of Uighurs.
Most protesters walked off after about an hour; those who remained were charged with misdemeanor disorderly conduct.
They were issued a court summons and released, according to a statement from Yale University.
Organizers of the protest had initially estimated that 20 to 30 protesters were arrested.
Rachel Sadoff, a junior at Harvard, said about 150 students from the two universities had planned to participate and about 100 more who were sitting in the stands joined in. She said organizers considered the protest a success.
“Our goal was to spread the word,” Sadoff said. “If more people speak up, our colleges will have to listen.”
Yale officials said in a statement handed to reporters in the press box during the fourth quarter that the school “stands firmly for the right to free expression.”
“It is regrettable,” a statement attributed to the Ivy League said, “that the orchestrated protest came during a time when fellow students were participating in a collegiate career-defining contest and an annual tradition when thousands gather from around the world to enjoy and celebrate the storied traditions of both football programs and universities.”
After the game resumed, Yale went on to beat Harvard 50-43, clinching the Ivy League championship.
Saturday’s matchup was the 136th edition of the football rivalry between the two schools.
 

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The U.S. House of Representatives will continue preparing its report this week in the impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump, as Democratic House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff says he won’t rule out the possibility of more hearings. This comes as another Democrat joins the field of candidates running for the presidency. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi has more.

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An exit poll published in Romania on Sunday after the close of voting stations shows incumbent Klaus Iohannis easily winning a second term in the country’s presidential election.
Iohannis, a conservative, was facing Social Democratic Party leader Viorica Dancila, a former prime minister, in the runoff vote.
An exit poll by the IRES independent think tank showed Iohannis getting 67.1 % of the votes, with 32.9% for Dancila. In the first round two weeks ago, Iohannis won 37.8% and Dancila 22.2%. The exit poll has a margin of error of 2 percentage points. Official preliminary results were expected late Sunday.
Iohannis has vowed to continue his efforts to fight corruption and strengthen the rule of law in this country of around 19.4 million people.
“Romanian won! Modern, European, normal Romania won today,” Iohannis said at the headquarters of the National Liberal Party after the release of the exit poll. “Romanians were the day’s heroes. They went to vote in impressive numbers and this is the most important gain of this day.”
“I receive this victory with joy, thankfulness, modesty and with faith in Romania,” said the 60-year-old former mayor of the city of Sibiu, a member of Romania’s ethnic German minority who was a high school physics teacher before entering politics.
For her part, speaking after casting her ballot in the morning, Dancila had promised “more involvement, work and commitment to the Romanian people.”
Dancila’s government was ousted on Oct. 10 after losing a confidence vote in parliament. It had been embroiled by allegations of corruption and criticized by the European Union for judicial reforms seen as compromising the rule of law and the independence of judges.

FILE – Former Romanian Prime Minister Viorica Dancila smiles after exit polls show her as the runner-up in the first round of presidential elections, in Bucharest, Romania, Nov. 10, 2019.Earlier this month, lawmakers backed a minority government led by Prime Minister Ludovic Orban of the National Liberal Party, formerly headed by Iohannis.
Iohannis has clashed often with Dancila and her party over the judiciary reforms and other legislation. Opponents and critics worried about the dilution of anti-corruption laws which in the past few years led to the indictment of dozens of Cabinet members, lawmakers and even a Romanian member of the European Parliament.
Public outrage has also resulted in frequent, massive anti-corruption protests in Bucharest and other cities.
With their shared ideological roots and values, Iohannis and Orban would be expected to work together to boost the anti-graft measures.
Though lacking an executive role, Romania’s president has significant decision-making powers, including on matters of national security and foreign policy. Elected for a five-year term, the president can also reject party nominees for prime minister and government nominees for judicial appointments.
Romania, a member of the EU since 2007, is plagued by widespread poverty with over 25% of its population living on less than $5.50 a day, according to a World Bank study last year. Recent figures pointed to slowing economic growth, though the annual rate of 3% percent achieved in the third quarter of the year was still among the fastest in Europe.
Iohannis rejected Dancila’s offers to hold debates ahead of the runoff vote, but earlier this week he took questions from analysts and journalists at a Bucharest university.
Romanians living abroad, estimated to number around 4 million, started casting their votes on Friday at hundreds of polling stations, including in Italy, Britain, France, Australia and the U.S. Romanians abroad also have the option of mailing in their ballots.
 

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Machine gun fire answers rock-throwing protesters. Motorcycle-riding Revolutionary Guard volunteers chase after demonstrators. Plainclothes security forces grab, beat and drag a man off the street to an uncertain fate.
As Iran restores the internet after a weeklong government-imposed shutdown, new videos purport to show the demonstrations over gasoline prices rising and the security-force crackdown that followed.
The videos offer only fragments of encounters, but to some extent they fill in the larger void left by Iran’s state-controlled television and radio channels. On their airwaves, hard-line officials allege that foreign conspiracies and exile groups instigated the unrest. In print, newspapers offered only PR for the government or had merely stenographic reporting at best, the moderate daily Hamshahri said in an analysis Sunday.
They don’t acknowledge that the gasoline price hike Nov. 15, supported by its civilian government, came as Iran’s 80 million people already have seen their savings dwindle and jobs scarce under crushing U.S. sanctions. President Donald Trump imposed them in the aftermath of unilaterally withdrawing America from Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers.
Authorities also have yet to give any overall figures for how many people were injured, arrested or killed during the several days of protests that swept across some 100 cities and towns.
Amnesty International said it believes the unrest and the crackdown killed at least 106 people. Iran disputes that figure without offering its own. A U.N. office earlier said it feared the unrest may have killed “a significant number of people.”
Starting Nov. 16, Iran shut down the internet across the country, limiting communications with the outside world. That made determining the scale and longevity of the protests incredibly difficult. Some recycled days-old videos and photographs as new, making it even more difficult.
Since Saturday, internet connectivity spiked in the country, allowing people to access foreign websites for the first time. On Sunday, connectivity stood nearly at 100% for landline services, while mobile phone internet service remained scarce, the advocacy group NetBlocks said.
The restoration brought messaging apps back to life for Iranians cut off from loved ones abroad. It also meant that videos again began being shared widely.
Recently released videos span the country. One video from Shiraz, some 680 kilometers (420 miles) south of Tehran, purports to show a crowd of over 100 people scatter as gunfire erupts from a police station in the city. One man bends down to pick up debris as a person off-camera describes demonstrators throwing stones. Another gunshot rings out, followed by a burst of machine gun fire.
In Kerman, some 800 kilometers (500 miles) southeast of Tehran, the sound of breaking glass echoes over a street where debris burns in the center of a street. Motorcycle-riding members of the Basij, the all-volunteer force of Iran’s paramilitary Guard, then chase the protesters away.
Another video in Kermanshah, some 420 kilometers (260 miles) southwest of Tehran, purports shows the dangers that lurked on the streets of Iran in recent days. Plainclothes security forces, some wielding nightsticks, drag one man off by the hair of his head. The detained man falls at one point.
“Look, (the agents) wear styles like the youth,” one man off-camera says, swearing at them.
On Sunday, it remained unclear if and how widespread any remaining demonstrations were. The acting commander of the Revolutionary Guard, Gen. Ali Fadavi, repeated the allegation that America was behind the protests, without offering any evidence to support his claim.
 
“Why did (the Americans) get angry after we cut off the internet? Because the internet is the channel through which Americans wanted to perform their evil and vicious acts,” Fadavi said. “We will deal with this, Islamic Republic supporters, and our proud men and women will sign up to make a domestic system similar to the internet with operating systems that (the Americans) can’t (control) even if they want.”
That likely refers to what has been known as the “halal net,” Iran’s own locally controlled version of the internet aimed at restricting what the public can see. The system known as the National Information Network has some 500 government-approved national websites that stream content far faster than those based abroad, which are intentionally slowed, activists say. Iranian officials say it allows the Islamic Republic to be independent if the world cuts it off instead.
But while Fadavi earlier said the protests were put down in 48 hours, he also acknowledged the scope of the unrest by comparing it to Operation Karbala-4, one of the worst military disasters suffered by Iran during its bloody 1980s war with Iraq.
That scope could be seen in one video. In the capital, Tehran, footage earlier aired by the BBC’s Persian service shot from a car purports to show a tableau of violence on Sattarkhan Street, as anti-riot police officers clashed with protesters.
       In the video, a woman’s scream rises over the shouts of the crowd as plainclothes security forces wearing white surgical masks accost one man, who puts his hands up to his face and hunches over to shield his body. Men walk backward to watch the chaos amid police with batons and riot shields, then run.
A woman in a green headscarf argues with one anti-riot police officer in front of a car.
 “What do you say?” the police officer asks.
 “He kicked my car,” she responds.
“Move,” the police officer orders. “Whom do you want to blame in this situation?”
Someone chases a man in front of a bank as people curse. The car makes a right-hand turn onto another street. A police officer off-camera shouts: “Come here!”
“Go, go, go!” a woman in the car cries out.
The car speeds away, passing burning debris. The clip ends. It lasts only 35 seconds.
 
 

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More than three dozen people are reported dead in a series of security-related incidents in Afghanistan, including a fatal attack on a U.N. vehicle in the capital, Kabul. Several of the dead were civilians.
Afghan officials said Sunday that Taliban rebels assaulted a security outpost in central Daykundi province overnight, killing eight soldiers and wounding four others.
Senior provincial authorities claimed the ensuing firefight also killed at least 20 assailants, though the Taliban disputed those claims.
Meanwhile, doctors and residents in western Farah province said an Afghan government air strike has killed at least nine civilians and injured several others.
The mainstream local TOLO news channel reported Sunday relatives took to the streets with bodies of the victims to protest and demand an immediate investigation into the deadly incident.
In Kabul, Interior Ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi said one foreign national was killed and five people were injured by a hand grenade hurled at a U.N. vehicle in the Makrorayan area of the city. The spokesman did not provide details but local news reports suggest the death toll may climb.
TOLO quoted protesters in Farah province saying the worshipers were leaving a mosque in the Pusht Rod district after offering Saturday evening prayers when the air strike hit them.
Provincial authorities told the media outlet anti-insurgency operations were carried out in Posht Rod and a nearby district, but they would not confirm whether the action caused any civilian casualties.
Civilians continue to bear the brunt of the Afghan war. The United Nations has documented around 2,600 Afghan civilian deaths in the first nine months of 2019 while more than 5,600 were injured.
 

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Interim Bolivian President Jeanine Anez agreed to withdraw the military from protest areas
and repeal a law giving them broad discretion in the use of force as part of a preliminary “pacification” deal struck early on Sunday with protest leaders.
In exchange for the concessions, more than a dozen leaders of indigenous groups, farmers and unions who took part in the talks agreed to order their followers to end their
demonstrations.
The 12-point pact follows the unanimous passage of legislation by Bolivia’s Congress on Saturday to annul contested elections and pave the way for a new vote without former
President Evo Morales, a major breakthrough in the political crisis. Anez signed the bill into law on Sunday.
At least 30 people have died in clashes between protesters and security forces since the Oct. 20 election, which was dogged by allegations of vote-rigging. Most have died since Morales stepped down on Nov. 10.
Social leaders blame the military for the deaths. Anez’s government denies the charge.
“If there’s no need for the army to be in the streets, it won’t be,” Anez said in comments broadcast on state TV at the end of the talks at the presidential palace.
“It’s due to extreme necessity that the army was deployed,” she said. “It wasn’t to abuse anyone or to show power.”
As part of the agreement, military officers will remain on guard at strategic state companies to prevent vandalism. The deal also commits the government to protect social leaders and
lawmakers from persecution, provide compensation for family members of people killed in clashes and free those arrested in protests.
Anti-government protesters lifted road blockades — including one at a natural gas plant where nine people were killed in clashes this week — ahead of the weekend’s talks.
Talks resume on Sunday at 5 p.m. to finalize a bill that Anez said she would send to Congress for passage later in the day. Sunday’s talks will include for the first time Andronico Rodriguez, an influential leader of coca growers who called for protests after Anez took the presidency citing the constitutional line of succession.
“From that moment on there will be pacification, social peace, across the national territory,” said Juan Carlos Huarachi, the head of Bolivia’s largest federation of labor unions, who acted as a mediator in talks. “We’ve advanced 99%.”
Huarachi’s federation of unions once backed Morales but along with the military was key in pushing him to step down after an audit of the election found serious irregularities.
 

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Emergency officials in the Democratic Republic of Congo say at least 18 passengers and crew members died when an airplane crashed shortly after takeoff Sunday.  
The Dornier-228 aircraft, operated by local company Busy Bee, crashed into a residential area near Goma airport.
The flight was headed to Beni, 350 kilometers north of Goma.
It was not immediately clear if people on the ground were killed or injured in the incident.
 
 

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A French naval base in Abu Dhabi will serve as the headquarters for a European-led mission to protect Gulf waters that will be operational soon, France’s defense minister said on Sunday.
France is the main proponent of a plan to build a European-led maritime force to ensure safe shipping in the Strait of Hormuz after tanker attacks earlier this year that Washington blamed on Iran.
Tehran has denied being behind the attacks on tankers and other vessels in major global shipping lanes off the coast of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in May and which increased tensions between the United States, Iran and Gulf Arab states.
“This morning we formalized that the command post will be based on Emirati territory,” Defense Minister Florence Parly told reporters at a French naval base in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the UAE.
The command center will host around a dozen officials representing the countries involved, she said. In a speech to French military personnel, she said the next time she visited the base she hoped the mission would be operational and thanked the UAE for supporting it.
The UAE has tempered its reaction to the attacks and has called for de-escalation and dialogue with Iran.
On Saturday, Parly said the initiative could start early next year and around 10 European and non-European governments would join, pending parliamentary approval.
First announced in July, the plan is independent of a U.S-led maritime initiative which some European countries feared would make U.S.-Iranian tensions worse.
Parly said the two missions would coordinate in order to ensure safety of navigation in an already tense area.
“We hope … to contribute to a navigation that is as safe as possible in a zone which we know is disputed and where there has already been a certain number of serious incidents,” she said. She also condemned Iran’s latest violations of a 2015 nuclear deal.
On Saturday, Parly said Paris was sending Saudi Arabia defense equipment to confront low-altitude attacks after Riyadh requested help following a September assault on the kingdom’s oil facilities which Washington and Riyadh have also blamed on Iran. Tehran has denied involvement.
“We have not had an equivalent request from the UAE,” she said on Sunday.
 

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Security forces opened fire on protesters in southern Iraq, killing at least five people and wounding dozens others, police and medical sources said, as weeks of unrest in Baghdad and some southern cities continue.
Protesters had gathered overnight on three bridges in the city, and security forces used live ammunition and tear gas canisters to disperse them, killing three, police and hospital sources said.
More than 50 others were wounded, mainly by live bullets and tear gas canisters, in clashes in the city, they added.
Two more people were killed and over 70 wounded on Sunday after  security forces used live fire to disperse protesters near the  country’s main Gulf port of Umm Qasr near Basra, police and medical sources said.
Hospital sources said the cause of death was live fire, adding that some of the wounded are in critical condition.
The protesters had gathered to demand security forces open roads around the port town blocked by government forces in an attempt to prevent protesters from reaching the port’s entrance.
On Friday, Iraqi security forces dispersed by force protesters who had been blocking the entrance to the port and reopened it, port officials said.
Umm Qasr is Iraq’s largest commodities port and it receives imports of grain, vegetable oils and sugar shipments that feed a country largely dependent on imported food.
At least 330 people have been killed since the start of mass unrest in Baghdad and southern Iraq in early October, the largest demonstrations since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003.
Protesters are demanding the overthrow of a political class seen as corrupt and serving foreign powers while many Iraqis languish in poverty without jobs, healthcare or education.
The unrest has shattered the relative calm that followed the defeat of Islamic State in 2017.
Medical authorities evacuated infants and children from a hospital in central Nassiriya overnight after tear gas spread inside hospital courtyards, two hospital sources said.
Protests continued in Nassiriya on Sunday, with some government offices set on fire, sources said.
Elsewhere in southern Iraq, hundreds of protesters burned tyres and blocked some roads on Sunday in Basra, preventing government employees from reaching offices, police said.
Iraqi security forces also wounded at least 24 people in the Shiâ€ite holy city of Kerbala overnight after opening fire on demonstrators to prevent them from reaching the local government headquarters, medical and security sources said.
 

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Romanians went to the polls Sunday for a presidential election runoff expected to reelect centrist president Klaus Iohannis, who has pledged to restart a judicial reform slowed by successive Social Democrat (PSD) governments.
While there have been no recent opinion polls, local bookmakers make Iohannis the short-odds favorite to beat former PSD prime minister Viorica Dancila comfortably in Sunday’s runoff.
Under a succession of PSD governments, Romania rolled back anti-corruption measures and weakened the independence of the courts. Along with ex-communist peers Poland and Hungary, it has been heavily criticized by Brussels for its actions.
Protector of rule of law
However, the 60-year-old Iohannis has been credited by Western allies and the European Union with trying to protect the rule of law, in particular by challenging attempts to limit judges’ independence.
“I will vote for a president to represent us, one that is respected both at home and abroad. This is the one we need,” said retired army staff Ioan Banu, while heading to a Bucharest college to cast his ballot, after polls opened at 0500 GMT.
The president’s powers are mostly limited to nominating a prime minister on the basis of who can command a majority, challenging laws in the Constitutional Court, and appointing some chief prosecutors.
If elected again, Iohannis will have a chance to install anti-graft and anti-mafia prosecutors who are serious about tackling endemic corruption with the backing of Prime Minister Ludovic Orban, who became head of a liberal minority government by winning a parliamentary vote of confidence three weeks ago.

Former Romanian Prime Minister Viorica Dancila smiles after exit polls indicate her as the runner-up of the presidential race, with up to 25 percent of the votes in Bucharest, Romania, Nov. 10, 2019.Getting back to normal
Teacher Andreea Mihai, 50, said that if Iohannis wins Sunday, “things should slowly return to normality. Both Orban and Iohannis will work together in the same direction.”
Dancila’s PSD had increased the burden of proof in corruption cases, reorganized panels of judges and set up a special unit to investigate magistrates for potential abuses, a move widely seen as an instrument of political coercion.
Romania’s judicial reforms have been monitored by Brussels since it joined the EU in 2007; in October, Brussels said the reforms were going backward.
Iohannis, a soft-spoken ethnic German and former mayor of Sibiu, became president in 2014.
He helped to secure a popular approval in a referendum last May that called for the government to be banned from altering legislation by emergency decree, and advocated a ban on amnesties and pardons for graft-related crimes.

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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will promise to bring his Brexit deal back to parliament before Christmas when he launches his manifesto Sunday, the cornerstone of his pitch to voters to “get Brexit done.”
Voters face a stark choice at the country’s Dec. 12 election: opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn’s socialist vision, including widespread nationalization and free public services, or Johnson’s drive to deliver Brexit within months and build a “dynamic market economy.”
Opinion polls show Johnson’s Conservative Party commands a sizeable lead over the Labour Party, although large numbers of undecided voters means the outcome is not certain.
“My early Christmas present to the nation will be to bring the Brexit bill back before the festive break, and get parliament working for the people,” Johnson will say, according to excerpts of his speech that he will make at an event in the West Midlands region of England.
Contrasting with Labour
Contrasting with Labour’s unabashed tax-and-spend approach, Johnson’s manifesto, titled “Get Brexit Done, Unleash Britain’s Potential,” will pledge to freeze income tax, value-added sales tax and social security payments.
Johnson will also announce a 3 billion pounds ($3.85 billion) National Skills Fund to retrain workers and an extra 2 billion pounds to fill pot-holes in roads. He will also pledge to maintain the regulatory cap on energy bills.
Labour spokesman Andrew Gwynne said Johnson’s plans were “pathetic.”
“This is a no hope manifesto, from a party that has nothing to offer the country, after spending 10 years cutting our public services,” Gwynne said.
Think tanks like the Institute for Fiscal Studies have raised questions about the credibility of plans to fund investment from both the Conservatives and Labour.
Tired of voting
Held after three years of negotiations to leave the European Union, the December election for the first time will show how far Brexit has torn traditional political allegiances apart and will test an electorate increasingly tired of voting.
Amid a heated campaign in which the Conservatives have been criticized for disseminating misleading social media posts, Johnson, 55, will say he will “turn the page from the dither, delay and division” of recent years.
Labour has said it will negotiate a better Brexit deal with the EU within six months that it will put to the people in a new referendum — one which will also offer the choice of remaining in the bloc.
Corbyn has said he would remain neutral in such a vote.
“We now know the country can be carbon (neutral) by 2050 and Corbyn neutral by 2020, as the leader of the opposition has decided to duck the biggest issue facing our country today,” Johnson will say.

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