Many experts say the most remarkable news from the recently held NATO summit in London is that NATO, history’s most lasting and effective alliance, for the first time defined China as a strategic challenge. They contend that Beijing aims to dominate the world’s high-tech industry through its technology giant Huawei, forge a military on par with the United States, and connect the majority of the world’s population under its Belt and Road Initiative. VOA’s Jela de Franceschi talks with two former NATO supreme commanders about the geostrategic risks posed by China

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Hakki Akdeniz arrived in New York from the Middle East many years ago. Once homeless, he is now a millionaire and has returned to the streets to help those who less fortunate than him.  Anna Nelson has the story narrated by Anna Rice

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Moviegoers in the U.S. and much of the world can now see “Star Wars, Episode 9: The Rise of Skywalker.” The final installment of the “Skywalker Saga” ends a story that spawned the most successful movie franchise of all time, with more than $9 billion in global box office receipts – and counting. The film’s release is bittersweet for those who look back and see “Star Wars” woven throughout their lives. Among them is VOA’s Midwest Correspondent, Kane Farabaugh

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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un held a meeting of top military officials to discuss boosting the country’s military capability, state news agency reported on Sunday amid heightened concern the North may be about to return to confrontation with Washington.
Kim presided over an enlarged meeting of the ruling Workers’ Party’s Central Military Commission, KCNA news agency said, to discuss steps “to bolster up the overall armed forces of the country … militarily and politically.”
“Also discussed were important issues for decisive improvement of the overall national defense and core matters for the sustained and accelerated development of military capability for self-defense,” KCNA said.

It did not give details on when the meeting was held nor what was decided.
The commission is North Korea’s top military decision-making body. Kim rules the country as its supreme military commander and is the chairman of the commission.
North Korea has set a year-end deadline for the United States to change what it says is a policy of hostility amid a stalemate in efforts to make progress on their pledge to end the North’s nuclear program and establish lasting peace.
Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump have met three times since June 2018, but there has been no substantive progress in dialogue while the North demanded crushing international sanctions be lifted first.
On Saturday, the state media said the United States would “pay dearly” for taking issue with the North’s human rights record and said Washington’s “malicious words” would only aggravate tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

North Korea Slams ‘Reckless’ US Remarks on Rights Record
North Korea warns US will ‘pay dearly’ for its comments
TWEET: North Korea Slams ‘Reckless’ US Remarks on Rights Record

North Korea has also repeatedly called for the United States to drop its “hostile policy” and warned about its “Christmas gift” as the end-year deadline it set for Washington to change its position looms.
Some experts say the reclusive state may be preparing for an intercontinental ballistic missile test that could put it back on a path of confrontation with the United States.
The U.S. envoy for North Korea, Stephen Biegun, has visited South Korea and China in the past week, issuing a public and direct call to North Korea to return to the negotiating table, but there has been no response.
 

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At the end of a difficult year, Queen Elizabeth has posed for photographs with her son Prince Charles, grandson Prince William and great-grandson Prince George in an apparent message about the continuity of the British royal family.
Buckingham Palace released photographs on Saturday of the Queen and the three immediate members of the line of succession as they prepared traditional Christmas puddings.
Prince George, 6, is the focus of attention for his older relatives as he stirs pudding mixture in a bowl.
The palace said the four generations of royals represented a cross-section of people helped by a charity for serving and former members of the armed forces – the Royal British Legion – which the queen has supported since 1952.
The family scene struck a happy note for Queen Elizabeth, 93, after a difficult year.
Over the past 12 months, her husband Prince Philip got a police warning for his involvement in a car crash, grandsons Princes William and Harry publicly fell out and her second son Prince Andrew became more entangled in the furor over his links to disgraced U.S. financier Jeffrey Epstein.
On Friday, 98-year-old Philip was taken to hospital for treatment of an existing condition, Buckingham Palace said.

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The internet shutdown in India’s Muslim-majority state of Jammu and Kashmir, which shows no signs of abating and has been the longest lockdown in a democracy, is taking a toll on the local economy and has led to the loss of thousands of jobs, according to rights groups and analysts. 
Access Now, a global digital rights group that has been monitoring the situation in Kashmir, told VOA the “loss of connectivity in the valley” because of the shutdown has been “devastating to the local economy.” 
“India’s internet shutdown in Kashmir is the longest ever in a democracy,” Raman Jit Singh Chima, Access Now’s senior international counsel and Asia Pacific policy director, told VOA. 
“The Kashmir Chamber of Commerce has gone on record to speak of the immense economic cost that the internet shutdown has caused to the region, undermining the very economic goals that the Union Government promised it would drive through integrating the area into the wider Indian Union,” Chima added. 
The lockdown has been in place since August, when New Delhi revoked Kashmir’s semiautonomous status and imposed a curfew on the region, including shutting down the internet. 

FILE – Indian security personnel guard outside the civil secretariat of the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir during the annual reopening of the former state’s winter capital in Jammu, India, Nov. 4, 2019.The government defended its decision, saying it was a temporary measure to prevent possible terrorist attacks. 
In a televised address to the nation in August, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, “The Kashmir decision will bring positive changes in the lives of the common man. It would mean the protection of Indian laws, industrialization, a boost in tourism and, therefore, more employment opportunities.” 
However, opposition parties in the country argue the opposite is happening. 
“You have redefined the definition of normalcy, the J&K [Jammu and Kashmir] definition of normalcy now prevails in the rest of the country. This is uncaring and unthinking government,” Indian National Congress said on twitter this week in reference to what’s happening in Kashmir and the passage of a recent controversial law. 
India’s parliament recently approved legislation that allows Hindus, Christians and other religious minorities who are living in India illegally to become citizens. The applicants must prove they were persecuted because of their religious beliefs in neighboring Bangladesh, Pakistan or Afghanistan. 
However, the law does not apply to Muslims, which critics say is discriminatory. 
Terrorism or protests? 
India’s government, led by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), defends its continued lockdown of internet connectivity in Kashmir as a deterrent to terrorist attacks. 
While briefing the country’s lawmakers in November, Indian Home Minister Amit Shah, a close ally of Modi, said the internet would be restored as soon as local authorities felt it was appropriate. 
“There are activities by our neighbors in the region, so we must keep security in mind. Whenever local authorities see fit, a decision will be taken to restore it [internet service],” Shah said, referring to Pakistan’s alleged interference in the region. 
India has accused Pakistan’s intelligence agency of fomenting instability in Kashmir by supporting local militant groups, a charge Islamabad has denied. 

FILE – A Kashmiri boy throws rocks at a police drone over Jamia Masjid mosque where Kashmiris were offering their first Friday prayers since Aug. 5 in Srinagar, Kashmir, Dec. 20, 2019. The mosque was shut Aug. 5 as part of India’s security lockdown.Some analysts, however, say the internet lockdown is largely designed to prevent collective political protests. 
“The stated reason [by the Indian government] was to contain possible terrorist attacks. In my view, it is largely designed to prevent collective political protests of any sort,” Sumit Ganguly, a professor of political science and the Tagore Chair in Indian Cultures and Civilization at Indiana University, told VOA. 
Other analysts, such as Ashok Swain, a professor of peace and conflict studies at Uppsala University in Sweden who follows Indian politics, said the reasons behind the Indian government’s decision to shut down the internet in Kashmir are multifaceted. 
“As I see [it], the real reason for [the] internet shutdown is not to restrict communication within Kashmir Valley, but to restrict Kashmir’s communication with [the] outside world,” Swain said, adding the government is more concerned about its global image as a democracy. 
“By taking away the internet, [the] regime is also controlling the local media and its publication as the journalists are dependent on [the] regime’s mercy to communicate with [the] outside world and to contact with their offices,” Swain said. 
Local economy 
Sheikh Ashiq, the president of the Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industry, told VOA that there has been a rapid rise in unemployment and a significant drop in Kashmir’s cottage industry. 
“Our handicraft sector, that is solely based on the internet, is at a standstill. As a result, 50,000 artisans are jobless,” Ashiq said, adding that the export of its heritage industry handicrafts had declined by 62%. 
Experts say the action against Kashmir has led to losses in tourism, health care, education and in the communications industries. 
“The state economy has lost more $1.5 billion due to [the] lockdown. Several companies, whose operations were internet-dependent, have been closed,” Swain said. 
The internet lockdown “has affected education, health service and even regular movement of the people, creating a severe humanitarian crisis. Business, particularly fruit trade and tourism, have [been] affected severely,” he added. 

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Local voices 
Young Kashmiri entrepreneurs like Muheet Mehraj see a bleak future in Kashmir, as the internet shutdown has placed a cloud over future employment prospects. 
“If something doesn’t change for the better with time or our internet isn’t resumed, then I don’t understand what I am going to do in the future,” Mehraj told VOA. 
Many businesspeople told VOA they have been forced to leave Kashmir to earn an income. 
Syed Mujtaba, the owner of Kashmir Art Quest, shifted his business to Delhi because of the lockdown. 
“Eventually, my family and my own logic told me it was best to leave Kashmir,” Mujtaba told VOA. 
“Now I am in Delhi, you know … in search of new opportunity … and halfheartedly so, to be honest. My heart is still in Kashmir and will always remain in Kashmir,” he added. 
The government, however, continues to paint a normal picture of the situation on the ground. 
“The situation in Kashmir does not need to be normalized. The situation in Kashmir is already normal,” Home Minister Shah told lawmakers last month. 
Ashiq, of the Kashmir Chamber of Commerce, paints a different picture. 
“We are handed a narrative of development. However, we do not see any form of development,” he said. 
VOA’s Zubair Dar contributed to this story from Srinagar. 

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Three years into Donald Trump’s presidency, the U.S. government is ramping up its efforts to seize private land in Texas to build a border wall. 
 
Trump’s signature campaign promise has consistently faced political, legal and environmental obstacles in Texas, which has the largest section of the U.S.-Mexico border, most of it without fencing. And much of the land along the Rio Grande, the river that forms the border in Texas, is privately held and environmentally sensitive. 
 
Almost no land has been taken so far. But Department of Justice lawyers have filed three lawsuits this month seeking to take property from landowners. On Tuesday, lawyers moved to seize land in one case immediately before a scheduled court hearing in February. 
 
The agency says it’s ready to file many more petitions to take private land in the coming weeks. While progress has lagged, the process of taking land under eminent domain is weighted heavily in the government’s favor. 
 
The U.S. government has built about 90 miles (145 kilometers) of walls since Trump took office, almost all of it replacing old fencing. Reaching Trump’s oft-stated goal of 500 miles (800 kilometers) by the end of 2020 will almost certainly require stepping up progress in Texas. 
Lobbying, legal challenges
 
Opponents have lobbied Congress to limit funding and prevent construction in areas like the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge, an important sanctuary for several endangered species of jaguars, birds and other animals, as well as the nonprofit National Butterfly Center and a historic Catholic chapel. They have also filed several lawsuits. A federal judge this month prevented the government from building with money redirected to the wall under Trump’s declaration of a national emergency earlier this year. Also, two judges recently ordered a private, pro-Trump fundraising group to stop building its own wall near the Rio Grande. 
 
Even on land the government owns, construction has been held up. In another federal wildlife refuge, at a site known as La Parida Banco, work crews cleared brush this spring and the government announced in April that construction would soon begin. Eight months later, the site remains empty. 
 
According to a U.S. official familiar with the project, work crews discovered that the land was too saturated. The planned metal bollards installed on top of concrete panels would have been unstable because of the water levels in the soil, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the person did not have authorization to share the information publicly. 
 
U.S. Customs and Border Protection declined to comment on the issue of saturation at La Parida Banco, saying construction there was “currently in the design phase.” 
 
In a statement, CBP says it continues to need a border wall for “the enduring capability it creates to impede and/or deny attempted illegal entries while creating additional time to carry out successful law enforcement resolutions.” The agency says it plans by the end of 2020 to have 450 miles (724 kilometers) of walls built and another 59 miles (95 kilometers) under construction, “pending availability of real estate.” 
 
The Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution requires the government pay “just compensation” to anyone whose land is taken for public use. But the government can deposit an amount it deems fair with the court, then seek to take the land immediately on the basis that a border wall is urgently needed. Even as border crossings have plummeted from record highs for families earlier this year, Justice Department attorneys argue the government needs to take land as quickly as possible. 
 
“Time is of the essence,” the lawyers wrote in Tuesday’s motion. 
Possible settlement
 
In the case of the land targeted on Tuesday, the government has deposited $93,449 with the court for 12.6 acres (5 hectares). U.S. District Judge Micaela Alvarez has not yet ruled on the motion. 
 
Roy Brandys, an attorney for the landowners, said both sides were close to settling and allowing the government to take the land, potentially within a week. 
 
“When landowners disagree with the government over valuation, there is a transparent, court-supervised process for determining just compensation,” said Jeffrey Clark, an assistant attorney general, in a statement. 
 
Some landowners support a border wall and have agreed to work with the government. Others worry about losing part of their property to a “no man’s land” between the wall or the river. Several have vowed to fight as long as they can. 
Ricky Garza, a lawyer with the Texas Civil Rights Project, which represents six landowners at various stages of the eminent domain process, pointed out that the Rio Grande Valley is one of the poorest regions of the United States. 
 
“This is a severe use of government power against people who have very little,” Garza said. “Our leaders say there’s only so much money to go around. But then you see numbers in the billions appropriated for something that almost no one in the community wants.” 

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Catalogs, those glossy paper-and-ink offerings of outdoor apparel, kitchenware and fruit baskets, are not yet headed for the recycling bin of history. 
Until recently, the future appeared grim for the mailbox-stuffers. A one-two punch of postal rate increases and the Great Recession had sharply cut their numbers. Common wisdom had everything retail-related moving online.
But a catalog-industry rebound appears in the works, fueled in part by what might seem an unlikely group: younger shoppers who find it’s sometimes easier, more satisfying and even nostalgic, flipping pages rather than clicking links. 
Industry experts say that all those catalogs crammed into mailboxes this holiday season are a sign that mailings have stabilized — and may be growing — after a decline of about 40% since the Great Recession.
New companies are mailing catalogs. And even dyed-in-the-wool online retailers like Amazon and Bonobos are getting into the act.
“They’re tapping out on what they’re able to do digitally,“ said Tim Curtis, president of CohereOne, a direct marketing agency in California. “They’ve got to find some new way to drive traffic to their websites.”
Drop in numbers
Catalog retailers slashed mailings, and some abandoned catalogs altogether, after a major U.S. Postal Service rate increase and the start of the recession in late 2007. Catalog numbers dropped from about 19 billion in 2016 to an estimated 11.5 billion in 2018, according to the American Catalog Mailers Association.
The industry still faces challenges, but there’s reason for some optimism, said Hamilton Davison, president of the mailers association. 
Millennials who are nostalgic for vinyl records and all things vintage are thumbing through catalogs and dog-earing the pages. It’s a new demographic roughly from 22 to 38 that’s helping to breathe some new life into the sector, industry officials say.
In fact, millennials are more likely than baby boomers to visit a store based on mailings, according to the U.S. Postal Service inspector general. 
Sarah Johnson says she loves flipping through catalogs at her convenience — but gets her hackles up when retailers fill her email inbox. 
“Promotion emails drive me crazy,” said Johnson, 29, of Vernal, Utah. “When there’s a catalog lying on the table, it feels like it’s my choice to pick it up and flip through it. When it arrives in my inbox it feels like it’s imposing on me.”
Easier assessment
Angela Hamann, another millennial, says she prefers catalogs because it’s easier than scrolling through webpages to evaluate a retailer’s offering. 
“It’s a great way to assess what a company has to offer without making a bunch of clicks,” said Hamann, 37, of New Gloucester, Maine.
During the downturn, catalog retailers reduced the size of the catalogs, slashed the number of pages and became selective about their mailings, said Jim Gibbs of The Dingley Press, in Lisbon, Maine, which prints and mails about 330 million catalogs a year. 
But catalogs never died off, as some began predicting during the dot-com bubble. Catalog naysayers didn’t understand that a webpage is useless unless shoppers know about it, and catalogs are an important tool for driving customers online, Gibbs said.
These days, retailers like Amazon, Wayfair and Walmart are boosting their mailings, helping to offset companies that abandoned catalogs, and dozens of smaller companies are also getting into the act, Davison said. There’s also a trend toward postcard fliers being mailed by companies like Shutterfly, Curtis added.
The tactile feel of catalogs creates a more meaningful connection, Curtis said. Consumers, meanwhile, routinely delete emails or skim over online promotions without a second thought, he said.
Like the old days
For some, there’s no escaping the sentimental aspect.
In Austin, Texas, tech company worker Mike Trimborn described himself as a “nearly 100% online shopper” who sees catalogs as an “exercise in futility.” But he waxed nostalgic when he received a toy catalog from Amazon in the mail this holiday season. 
Trimborn, 42, said his sons, ages 9 and 11, marked up the Amazon catalog just like he marked up the big Sears catalog as a kid. 
“It was such a fun experience when I was a kid. To be able to give that to my kids was a surprise,” he said.

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Lebanon’s new prime minister consulted Saturday with parliamentary blocs, discussing the shape of the future government, and said afterward that legislators all had one concern: to get the country out of its “strangling“ economic crisis. 
Hassan Diab, a university professor and former education minister, will have to steer Lebanon out of its worst economic and financial crisis in decades. He’s also taking office against the backdrop of nationwide protests against the country’s ruling elite. 
“Lebanon is in the intensive care unit and needs efforts” by all sides, from political groups to protesters, Diab said. 
Consultations began a day after scuffles broke out in Beirut and other areas between supporters of outgoing Prime Minister Saad Hariri and Lebanese troops and riot police. The ex-premier’s supporters were protesting Diab’s nomination. At least seven soldiers were injured. 
Urgency
Diab told reporters later that all members of Parliament encouraged him to form a cabinet “as soon as possible.“ Cabinets usually take months to form in Lebanon because of bargaining among rival groups. 
Diab said he hoped to form a government of about 20 ministers made up of independents and technocrats within few weeks. “It’s time to work and we ask God to make us successful,” he said. 
He added that the situation in Lebanon could not stand any delays amid its worst economic and financial crisis since the end of the 1975-90 civil war. 
Lebanese banks have imposed unprecedented capital controls in recent weeks. Thousands have lost their jobs and the economy is expected to contract in 2020. 
Diab began his meetings Saturday at Parliament with Speaker Nabih Berri, then held talks with former prime ministers, including caretaker Hariri. He later met with blocs at the legislature. 
Militant Hezbollah and its allies had previously insisted that a new government consist of politicians and experts, but on Saturday, Diab said “all parties agree with me regarding a government made up of independents and experts, including Hezbollah.” 
Legislator Paula Yacoubian, who backs the protest movement, said Diab told her “the government will be fully made up of independents and that he will step down if there is going to be members of the state’s political parties.” 
She added: “I heard very nice talk similar to what the people have been demanding.” 
Protesters’ demand
The protesters have been demanding a government that does not include members of political parties whom they blame for widespread corruption. Diab said he would meet with the protesters in the coming days, without elaborating. 
Earlier Saturday, Hariri cautioned supporters against violent protests, saying: “The army is ours and police forces are for all Lebanese.” 

An anti-government protester, right, leads a chant as activists gather outside the state-run electricity company in Beirut, Lebanon, Dec. 21, 2019.Shortly before sunset Saturday, scores of protesters, including Hariri supporters, closed two major intersections in Beirut, demanding that Diab step aside and saying he failed to win wide support from Sunni legislators. 
Saturday’s protests were peaceful, unlike those of the night before, when stones and firecrackers were hurled at security forces. 
The new prime minister won a majority of lawmakers’ votes after receiving backing from powerful Hezbollah and its allies, which have a majority of seats in Parliament. 
However, he lacks the support of major Sunni figures, including the largest Sunni party, headed by Hariri. That’s particularly problematic for Diab, who, as a Sunni, doesn’t have the backing of his own community. And under Lebanon’s sectarian power-sharing agreement, the prime minister must be Sunni. 
The head of Hezbollah’s 12-member bloc, Mohammad Raad, said the group wants a government that preserves what the Lebanese have achieved in “victories during the confrontation with the Israeli enemy and to maintain our national sovereignty, our maritime [oil and gas] wealth and land and to prevent the enemy from undermining its sovereignty and the national dignity.” 
Anti-corruption efforts
A lawmaker from the bloc led by the Shiite Amal group — headed by Berri, the Parliament speaker — said the incoming government should focus on fighting corruption. 
“It should be an emergency government that works on solving the economic, financial, social and banking crisis,“ Anwar al-Khalil said after the meeting with Diab. 
Samir al-Jisr of Hariri’s bloc said they would not take part in Diab’s government. 
Hezbollah’s ally, Gebran Bassil, who heads the largest bloc in Parliament, said the future government “is not Hezbollah’s Cabinet but of all Lebanese and it is not against anyone.” 
Michel Moawad, a harsh critic of the militant group, said Diab told him the new government will not be controlled by “Hezbollah and will not be confrontational.” 
Hezbollah had backed Hariri for prime minister from the start, but the group differed with him over the shape of the new government. 
Lebanon’s sustained, leaderless protests erupted in mid-October and forced Hariri’s resignation within days. But politicians were later unable to agree on a new prime minister. Protests and paralysis have worsened the economic crisis. 

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Russia and Ukraine announced terms of a new gas transit deal on Saturday, under which Moscow will supply Europe for at least another five years via its former Soviet neighbour and pay a $2.9 billion settlement to Kyiv to end a legal dispute.
The deal is a major breakthrough for both countries, which have been seeking to resolve disputes over Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region and the Crimea peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014.
Under the new agreement, Russia’s Gazprom, which supplies over a third of Europe’s gas needs, would use an agent to book the transit of 225 billion cubic metres (bcm) of the fuel via Ukraine over five years.
Of the total, 65 bcm would be shipped in 2020, falling to 40 bcm in 2021 and in each of the subsequent years, Gazprom said. The Russian gas company would also pay Ukraine the $2.9 billion before Dec. 29, in line with the amount proposed in arbitration rulings between Gazprom and Ukrainian energy firm Naftogaz in 2018.
In exchange, Ukraine is expected to sign a legal settlement and withdraw all outstanding claims, also before Dec. 29, aiming to resolve the issue before the existing supply deal expires.
Russia’s Gazprom and Ukraine’s Naftogaz had gone to an arbitration court in Stockholm in a number of disputes over gas prices and transit fees dating back to 2014.
The presidents of Russia and Ukraine met in Paris on Dec. 9 to discuss options for a settlement over Donbass and terms for the new gas transit deal. The talks, known as the Normandy summit, were brokered by France and Germany.
Ukrainian Energy Minister Oleksiy Orzhel said on Saturday that under the new deal both parties had an option to extend the five-year term by another 10 years. He added that the transmission tariff for the Russian gas would rise.
The deal comes as U.S. President Donald Trump signed legislation on Friday that included provisions to impose sanctions on companies laying pipe for Nord Stream 2, a project that aims to double gas capacity from Russia along the northern Nord Stream 1 pipeline route to Germany.
Nord Stream 2, which will run along the Baltic sea floor, will enable Russia to bypass Ukraine and Poland to deliver gas. The group behind Nord Stream 2 said on Saturday it aimed to complete the pipeline as soon as possible, after a major contractor suspended pipe-laying activities due to the U.S. sanctions.
 

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Venice’s Hotel Association is urging tourists to visit the lagoon city without fear of high waters. Hoteliers say there have been many cancellations for Christmas and New Year’s, and that bookings have dropped more than 45 percent following the exceptional high tide of November 12. They add that the city is as beautiful as ever and that all museums, shops and restaurants are functioning properly, as is transportation.
The Venice Hotel Association is calling on tourists all over the world to come to see for themselves the beauty of a city that has always lived with high tides, which hoteliers stressed, come and go. They fear that the many cancellations received by hotels following the extraordinary high tide of Nov. 12 has scared tourists away.

FILE – The ‘Acqua Alta,’ a term used to describe Venice’s exceptional tide peaks, is seen outside the city’s Luna Baglioni Hotel during November flooding. (Sabina Castelfranco/VOA)Venice’s hotel association president, Vittorio Bonacini, said that tide certainly caused many problems in the city, with its hotels alone suffering $33 million in structural damage. He explained that the exceptionally high tide, which peaked at 187 centimeters (74 inches) and caused the worst flooding in the city in 50 years, was brought on by four factors: a rare lunar attraction, sirocco winds, extremely low atmospheric pressure on the high Adriatic Sea and winds blowing from the east at more than 126 kilometers (79 miles) an hour.
 
Bonacini added that the convergence of those factors was a lethal mix for the configuration of Venice and that the pictures captured at the time reminded everyone of just how fragile the city and its environment are. Bonacini said that what the pictures did not show is that the event lasted a mere one-and-a-half hours and that the tide had begun to recede after 3 hours.
Bonacini said that for centuries Venice has lived and experienced high water or “acqua alta,” regulated by the cycles of the tides which rise and recede every 6 hours.

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

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A mysterious figure who used a rare narwhal tusk to help subdue a knife-wielding extremist on London Bridge last month has been identified as a civil servant in Britain’s Justice Ministry.
 
Darryn Frost ended his silence Saturday, telling Britain’s Press Association that he and others reacted instinctively when Usman Khan started stabbing people at a prison rehabilitation program at a hall next to the bridge on Nov. 29.
 
Frost used the rare narwhal tusk to help subdue Khan even though the attacker claimed to be about to detonate a suicide vest, which turned out to be a fake device with no explosives. The intervention of Frost and others help keep the death count to two. He said another man used a chair as a weapon in the desperate struggle.
 
“When we heard the noise from the floor below, a few of us rushed to the scene,” the 38-year-old said. “I took a narwhal tusk from the wall and used it to defend myself and others from the attacker. Another man was holding the attacker at bay with a wooden chair.”
 
He said Khan had a large knife in each hand and pointed at his midriff.
 
“He turned and spoke to me, then indicated he had an explosive device around his waist,” Frost said. “At this point, the man next to me threw his chair at the attacker, who then started running towards him with knives raised above his head.”
The confrontation quickly moved onto London Bridge, where Frost and others – including one man who sprayed Khan with a fire extinguisher – managed to fight the attacker to the ground until police arrived.
 
The extremist, who had served prison time for earlier terrorism offenses, was shot dead by police moments later after he threatened again to detonate his vest.
 
Frost said he was withholding many details out of respect for the victims and their families and because of the ongoing investigation. He paid tribute to Saskia Jones and Jack Merritt, the two young people stabbed to death when the attack started.
 
“In reading about their lives and work I am convinced they represent all that is good in the world, and I will always feel the deep hurt of not being able to save them,” he said.
 
Frost praised those wounded in the attack and said some had refused treatment until the more severely hurt were cared for.
 
“That consideration and kindness filled me with hope on that dark day,” he said.
 

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Three people died during clashes between demonstrators and police in northern India on Saturday, raising the nationwide death toll in protests against a new citizenship law to 17.
O.P. Singh, the chief of police in Uttar Pradesh state, said the latest deaths have increased the death toll in the state to nine. “The number of fatalities may increase,” Singh said.

He did not give further details on the latest deaths.
Police said that over 600 people in the state have been taken into custody since Friday as part of “preventive action.”
Protesters are angered by a new law that allows Hindus, Christians and other religious minorities who are in India illegally to become citizens if they can show they were persecuted because of their religion in Muslim-majority Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan. The law does not apply to Muslims.

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A court in Pakistan Saturday sentenced a 33-year-old scholar, accused of blasphemy, to death after a trial that lasted six years and was mired by delays due to multiple changes in judges and the murder of a defense lawyer.
 
Junaid Hafeez was charged with insulting the religious beliefs of Muslims of Pakistan, claiming the Quran was derived from Mesopotamian folk tales, and keeping material in his computer that included derogatory remarks about the prophet of Islam.
 
The initial police report also accused him of running two Facebook groups that posted blasphemous content.
 
His family and lawyers claimed the charges against him are fabricated and a result of politics at the university where he was teaching as a visiting lecturer.
 
Hafeez’s father told German news outlet Deutsche Welle that his son was disliked by a conservative Islamist student organization at Bahauddin Zakariya University in Multan, one of the biggest cities in the southern Punjab region, because of his liberal views.

Junaid Hafeez is seen in an undated photo published on the website of Bahauddin Zakariya University.“In 2013, the university advertised a post for a lecturer. The members of the Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba organization told him to not apply for the job as they wanted their own people to get it,” Hafeez-ul Naseer told Deutsche Welle earlier this year, adding that fake blasphemy charges were logged when his son refused.
The independent nonprofit group Human Rights Commission of Pakistan expressed dismay at Saturday’s verdict, saying, “In five years, at least eight judges have heard Mr Hafeez’s case, making a fair trial virtually impossible.”
On the other hand, the prosecutor, Chaudhry Ziaur Rehman, said the case was decided on merit.
“Three students of the English department and a Ph.D. professor gave testimony as to how the defendant committed blasphemy,” he said.
Hafeez, who was indicted in 2014, was kept in jail in solitary confinement because of threats to his life. The issue was so sensitive in religiously conservative Pakistan that even his trial was held inside the jail.  
 
In addition, lawyers defending Hafeez faced serious threats. In 2014, defense counsel Rashid Rehman was threatened during a hearing of the trial in front of the judge.
 
One month later, he was murdered.
 
One of the lawyers, Zulfiqar Sidhu, who publicly threatened Rehman in a press conference in 2014, aided the prosecution in this case.
 
Human rights groups from around the world have demanded swift a remedy for Hafeez.
 
“Junaid’s lengthy trial has gravely affected his mental and physical health, endangered him and his family and exemplifies the misuse of Pakistan’s blasphemy laws. The authorities must release him immediately and unconditionally and drop all charges against him,” Amnesty International said in a statement issued in September.
 
Multiple governments from around the world, including the United States government, also demanded relief for him.
 
“In Pakistan, Professor Junaid Hafeez remains in solitary confinement on unsubstantiated charges of blasphemy,” U.S. Vice President Mike Pence told a religious freedom summit in Washington earlier this year.  
 
A Fulbright scholar, Hafeez briefly attended Jackson State University in the U.S. state of Mississippi before returning to Pakistan in 2010. He was often accused by Islamist student groups on campus of being too liberal.
 
Human rights activists claim that blasphemy accusations in Pakistan are often misused to target religious minorities, threaten, blackmail, or settle other scores.
 
Pakistan’s Supreme Court, in a judgment last year acquitting a Christian woman, Aasia Bibi, in a blasphemy case said fake accusations against were leveled against her after a fight between her and some Muslim women.
 
The issue is so explosive that scores of people in Pakistan have been murdered by individuals or lynched by a mob over mere accusations of blasphemy over the years.  
 
In 2017, an angry mob in a university in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province not only killed a student, Mashaal Khan, over suspicion of blasphemy, but defiled and dragged his body around. Police could not find any evidence of blasphemy against him, but his friends claimed he was a frequent critic of the university administration over mismanagement.
 
In 2011, a powerful political figure, Salman Taseer, was gunned down by his own bodyguard for supporting a Christian woman, Aasia Bibi, facing a blasphemy trial, and demanding a change in the country’s blasphemy laws.
 
The gunman Mumtaz Qadri was hailed as a hero by many in the country and dozens of lawyers were willing to fight his case free of charge.
 

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