U.S. President Donald Trump continued to lash out at Democratic lawmakers over his impeachment Thursday as a legislative standoff continues over a Senate impeachment trial.
“The Radical Left, Do Nothing Democrats said they wanted to RUSH everything through to the Senate because ‘President Trump is a threat to National Security’ (they are vicious, will say anything!), but now they don’t want to go fast anymore, they want to go very slowly. Liars!,” Trump write on Twitter.

The Radical Left, Do Nothing Democrats said they wanted to RUSH everything through to the Senate because “President Trump is a threat to National Security” (they are vicious, will say anything!), but now they don’t want to go fast anymore, they want to go very slowly. Liars!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky., speaks with reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, Dec. 19, 2019.On Monday, however, McConnell softened his position, saying Republicans have not ruled out calling witnesses in Trump’s impeachment trial.
“We haven’t ruled out witnesses,” McConnell told “Fox & Friends.” on Monday. “We’ve said, ‘Let’s handle this case just like we did with President Clinton.’ Fair is fair.”
In addition to testimony from key witnesses, Schumer said Monday he also wants relevant emails and other documents that “will shed additional light on the administration’s decision-making regarding the delay in security funding to Ukraine.”
“It’s hard to imagine a trial not having documents and witnesses,” Schumer said, “If it does’nt have documents and witnesses, it’s going to seem to most of the American people that it is a sham trial. Not to get at the facts.”
Trump’s impeachment stems from a July call with Ukraine’s president in which Trump asked for an investigation into Joe Biden, a former vice president and a leading Democratic rival to Trump in the 2020 presidential election.
Trump has insisted he did nothing wrong in his push to get Ukraine to investigate Biden and his son Hunter Biden’s lucrative work for a Ukrainian natural gas company.  Trump had also called for a probe into a debunked theory that Ukraine meddled in the 2016 election.
Trump made the appeal for the Biden investigations at a time when he was temporarily withholding $391 million in military aid  Kyiv wanted to help fight pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.
The U.S. president eventually released the money in September without  Zelenskiy launching the Biden investigations, proof, Republicans have said, that Trump had not engaged in a reciprocal quid pro  quo deal, the military aid in exchange for the Biden probe.
Trump has on countless occasions described his late July call with Zelenskiy as “perfect,” when he asked him to “do us a favor,” to investigate the Bidens and Ukraine’s purported role in the 2016 election. As the impeachment controversy mounted, Trump has subsequently claimed the “us” in his request to Zelenskiy referred not to him personally but to the United States.
 
 
 

 
 
AP Photo transref:BKWS301, transref:BKWS302
 China’s imports of soybeans surged in November following the announcement of an interim trade deal with the United States. 
Imports rose 53.7% over a year earlier to 5.4 million tons, according to customs data.
Imports of U.S. soybeans more than doubled from the previous month to 2.6 million tons, according to AWeb.com, a news website that serves the Chinese farming industry. 
China cut off purchases of American soybeans, the country’s biggest import from the United States, after President Donald Trump raised import duties on Chinese goods in a dispute over Beijing’s technology ambitions and trade surplus. 
The two governments announced an interim “Phase 1” agreement in October but have yet to release details. U.S. officials say it might be signed as early as January.
U.S. officials said as part of that deal, Beijing will buy more American farm exports. Chinese officials have yet to confirm the possible scale of purchases.
Chinese government spokespeople said in September importers were placing orders for American soybeans but no details of purchases have been announced.
Chinese buyers use soybeans as animal feed and to crush for cooking oil.
Beijing bought more Brazilian soybeans, but no other supplier could fully replace the large scale of American supplies. That added to the strain on Chinese pig farmers who are struggling with an outbreak of African swine fever that has devastated herds.

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Israel’s governing Likud party was holding primaries Thursday, in the first serious internal challenge to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in his more than a decade in power.
Veteran politician Gideon Saar hopes to unseat Netanyahu, arguing that he would be better placed to form a government in national elections in March after Netanyahu failed to do so in two repeat elections this year.
Despite the shadow of corruption indictments hanging over him, Netanyahu remains popular among Likud members and the fiercely loyal party, which has had only four leaders since its inception in the 1970s, has stood firmly behind the long-serving leader. He is expected to defeat Saar handily and a win could strengthen his hand going into the next national vote.
“For years I have been working for you for the sake of our beloved country. Now I am asking for your support,” Netanyahu wrote on Facebook. “A big victory for me in the primaries will ensure a huge victory in the Knesset elections.”
Bump in support
Saar, who has garnered support from a handful of Likud backbenchers, had seen a bump in support in the lead-up to the vote, and he could benefit from stormy weather that may keep turnout low. If he wins, he would become Likud’s candidate for prime minister in the March polls.
“We are imbued with the spirit of victory,” lawmaker Yoav Kisch, Saar’s campaign manager, told Israeli Army Radio. “This candidacy is good for the party and I believe can also bring the change and the hope for a revolution in the Likud.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends the weekly Cabinet meeting in Jerusalem, Dec. 8, 2019.Netanyahu has portrayed Saar as inexperienced, while depicting himself as a security buff and master of international diplomacy. In what was seen as an embarrassment at a critical moment a day before the primary, Netanyahu was rushed off stage after a rocket was fired from Gaza, setting off an air raid siren, at a campaign rally in the southern city of Ashkelon Wednesday. A similar incident happened in September when Netanyahu was in the nearby city of Ashdod campaigning for the second general Israeli election of the year. 
Polls close at 11 p.m. and results are expected early Friday.
Charges against Netanyahu
Netanyahu faces charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust in three corruption cases in which he is accused of trading legislative or regulatory favors in exchange for lavish gifts or favorable media coverage. He denies wrongdoing and has waged an angry campaign against the media and law enforcement officials he said are bent on ousting him from office. His supporters have tried to paint Saar as part of the same conspiracy.
The indictments against Netanyahu came amid months of political deadlock in Israel, which after two inconclusive elections is headed toward a third unprecedented national vote in less than a year.
Netanyahu’s main rival, former military chief Benny Gantz was also unable to form a government and while the two professed eagerness to form a unity government, they differed on its composition and who would lead it, deepening the stalemate.
Recent polls show that with Saar as leader, Likud would make a more powerful bloc with its natural ultra-Orthodox and nationalist allies. Saar would also be in an easier position to create a national unity government with the centrist Blue and White party if, as expected, the upcoming March election produces a deadlock like the previous two rounds have.

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Firefighters battling wildfires in Australia’s most populous state attempted to make headway Thursday amid favorable conditions, before a heatwave hits this weekend.
Thousands of firefighters in New South Wales took advantage of cooler weather and continued to strengthen containment lines. More than 70 fires, however, were still burning across the state with areas in the south coast at the “watch and act” level issued by fire services. 
About 5 million hectares (12.35 million acres) of land have burned nationwide over the past few months, with nine people killed and more than 950 homes destroyed. New South Wales has received the brunt of the damage, with around 850 homes razed in the state.
Authorities are bracing for conditions to deteriorate as high temperatures return. Sydney is forecast to hit 31 degrees Celsius (88 Fahrenheit) Sunday before reaching 35 C (95 F) on Tuesday. The city’s western suburbs could reach 41 C (106 F) Sunday.
Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Rose Barr said a heatwave is building in southern parts of New South Wales before worsening on the weekend.
“Some areas are forecast to reach extreme heatwave conditions,” she said. “With the increasing heat and winds, the fire danger will worsen into the new week, with Monday and Tuesday most likely to be the most significant fire weather days.”
Fire danger ratings remained very high in northwestern New South Wales, and high in Sydney.
Meanwhile, South Australian firefighters Thursday were battling wildfires in Adelaide Hills, which has been downgraded to the “advice” level. 
South Australia state last week reported 86 homes destroyed after wildfires flared in catastrophic conditions. A return of extreme temperatures, however, are expected with Adelaide, the state capital, set to reach a sizzling 40 C (104 F) Friday to start a four-day heatwave, its second such hot spell in just over a week.
 

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Singapore police are investigating an Indian national for allegedly being involved in a public protest against Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s controversial citizenship law. 
Unauthorized public assemblies and protests over political situations in other countries are banned in Singapore.  
Hundreds of thousands of people have taken to Indian streets to protest the citizenship law enacted by Modi’s Hindu nationalist government that provides non-Muslim minorities from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan who moved there before 2015 a pathway to Indian citizenship. 
Singapore police said following a report on December 24 they were investigating a 32-year-old male Indian national for participating in “a public assembly without a police permit” at the Marina Bay waterfront financial and tourist district.  
“He allegedly carried out the activity in Marina Bay, to show his opposition to India’s Citizenship Amendment Bill,” police said in a statement late Wednesday. 
The statement did not give any more details of the assembly. Local media reported the man posted a picture of himself on social media with a placard “to express his unhappiness.” 
The police said organizing or participating in a public assembly without a police permit in Singapore is illegal and that they would not grant any permit for assemblies that advocate political causes of other countries. 

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Rebels in Myanmar’s Rakhine region said a captured official from Aung San Suu Kyi’s ruling party has died, two weeks after being taken for organizing protests against genocide accusations faced by Myanmar at the World Court. 
The Arakan Army rebels said Buthidaung National League for Democracy (NLD) Chairman Ye Thein, the most senior civilian official to die in the growing insurgency, was killed Monday in an attack on the rebels by Myanmar’s army. 
There was no independent confirmation. 
The incident underscored the increasing loss of government control in a region that came to world attention when 700,000 Rohingya Muslims fled to Bangladesh to escape an army crackdown on a different rebel group in 2017. 
The Arakan Army said its positions had come under attack from Myanmar’s army. 
“Due to big explosions, some detainees died and some were wounded. The NLD chairman from Buthidaung, Ye Thein, died on scene,” the Arakan Army said in the statement. It said he had been taken prisoner on December 11. 
Tens of thousands of people have been displaced in Rakhine since clashes between the Arakan Army and the army began around a year ago. 
The insurgents, whose forces are from the largely Buddhist Rakhine people, are fighting for greater autonomy. The say they have no links to the Rohingya rebel group whose attacks sparked the 2017 army crackdown that led to the accusations of genocide brought against Myanmar at the International Court of Justice by The Gambia. 
The Arakan Army is among several ethnic armed factions that have said they support the case against Myanmar. 
Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s de facto ruler, personally led Myanmar’s defense against the accusations at hearings in The Hague earlier this month. 
The army made no comment on the report of the NLD official’s death. NLD party spokesman Myo Nyunt said it was the responsibility of the Arakan Army. 

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Italian Education Minister Lorenzo Fioramonti told Reuters on  Wednesday that he had resigned after failing to obtain from the government billions of euros he said were needed to improve the country’s schools and universities. 
The resignation was a blow to the embattled government, whose ruling parties are at odds on issues ranging from eurozone reform to migrant rights. 
It also underscores the problems of the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement, Fioramonti’s party, which is trying to reorganize amid widespread internal dissatisfaction with its leader, Luigi Di Maio. This month three 5-Star senators jumped ship to join the right-wing League in opposition. 
Fioramonti told Reuters he had tendered his “irrevocable resignation” to Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte in a letter on Monday. 
Pledge to quit
Fioramonti said shortly after the government of 5-Star and the center-left Democratic Party was formed in September that he would quit unless education spending was raised by 3 billion euros ($3.3 billion) in the 2020 budget. 
Few believed him, even as the budget continued its passage through parliament and it became clear the government had little intention of hiking taxes or cutting spending to find the funds he demanded. The budget was approved on Monday ahead of a December 31 deadline. 
“It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that a minister keeps his word,” Fioramonti told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday. 
Fioramonti said he would still support the government in parliament, where he is a lower-house deputy. 
Italy spends 3.6% of gross domestic product on primary to university education, compared with an average of 5% among 32 countries in a report by the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development.
Fioramonti, a former economics professor at South Africa’s Pretoria University, has been one of Italy’s most outspoken ministers during his three months in office. His proposals for new taxes on airline tickets, plastic and sugary foods to raise funds for education were attacked by critics who said Italians were already overtaxed. 
Green policies
A vocal supporter of green policies, Fioramonti made headlines when he announced Italy would next year become the first country to make it compulsory for schoolchildren to study climate change and sustainable development. 
Earlier this month, he said Italian energy giant ENI should halt oil exploration and focus on renewable energy. 
“I have sometimes felt I could have had more support from my own party over my proposals on the environment,” Fioramonti said. “5-Star was born 10 years ago with a strongly green platform, but it seems to have got lost along the way.” 

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Syrian government troops, supported by Russian warplanes, have advanced on a rebel-held town in the northwestern province of Idlib, local sources said Wednesday. 
The offensive against the town of Maaret al-Numan in the southern prot of Idlib has caused a major influx of civilians to safer areas along the Syrian-Turkish border, a war monitoring group reported. 
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has researchers across the war-torn country, said that following intense fighting in the area, Syrian government forces took control of dozens of villages around the strategic town, killing dozens of people and forcing thousands of local residents to flee from their homes. 
“The town will most likely be handed over to Turkish military and Russian military police in the next few days, if not hours,” Rami Abdulrahman, director of the Syrian Observatory, told VOA, adding that rebels could not carry on the fight. 
There is an agreement between Turkey and Russia to remove all Islamist rebels from Maaret al-Numan and nearby towns in Idlib, he said.  
Center of contention
For years, Idlib has been a center of contention between Russia and Turkey, two powers that support opposite sides of Syria’s eight-year civil war. 
In September 2018, Moscow and Ankara reached an agreement that postponed a planned Syrian government offensive on Idlib and other areas near the Turkish border. 
As part of that agreement, Turkey was required to remove all extremist groups from the province, some of which are tied to the al-Qaida terrorist group. But Turkey allegedly has failed to implement its part of the deal. 
Turkey also has 12 military observation posts in the area as part of a de-escalation agreement between Turkey and Russia. 
On Tuesday, a Turkish military post reportedly was besieged by advancing Syrian troops. 
A Syrian opposition news channel, Orient News, reported that Islamist militants have been fighting government troops on several fronts, killing at least 10 soldiers on Wednesday. 
Key highway
Syrian troops loyal to President Bashar al-Assad have been pushing toward the town of Maaret al-Numan, which is located on a highway connecting the capital, Damascus, in the south, to the city of Aleppo in the north. The objective of Assad’s forces is to take full control of the strategic M5 highway. 
Idlib province, home to nearly 3 million people, is the last major stronghold of rebel forces fighting Syrian troops. The province is largely controlled by the Islamist militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a former al-Qaida affiliate in Syria. 
Syrian forces and their Russian allies launched a major offensive last week into the southern part of Idlib. The offensive came after weeks of aerial bombardment that displaced tens of thousands of people. 
The military escalation has caused dozens of civilian casualties and displaced 80,000 Syrians, the U.N. said this week. 
But local groups, including the Syrian Observatory, estimated that more than 100,000 civilians in Idlib already had been displaced. 

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As American families of all political stripes gather for the holidays, U.S. President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign is offering ready-made arguments supporters can deploy at the family dinner table.
On Christmas Eve, the campaign unveiled a website to help Trump supporters win arguments with any liberal family members who criticize the president or his job performance.
Psychologists typically advise avoiding politics to reduce stress over the holidays. By contrast, the president’s campaign suggests supporters should welcome debate on Trump and his policies.
Arranged by topics and accompanied by descriptive narrative and video clips, the arguments tout what the campaign sees as the president’s achievements on economic and domestic matters, as well as trade and international affairs.
Similar resources also are being offered to Democrats and liberals.
A contributing author to The Atlantic magazine recently offered liberals tips for debating with conservatives, urging them to steer clear of personal attacks and focus on facts, asserting, “Truth won’t stop being truth. Trump won’t stop being Trump.”
Researchers say political debate has a direct effect on family celebrations.
According to a recent study released last year by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, during periods of heightened political discord, Americans tend to avoid or cut short family holiday meals to prevent uncomfortable political confrontations with relatives.
For many, avoiding politics at the holiday table is sound advice. But adhering to it may be easier said than done.

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For many international students studying in the United States, returning to their home country for the winter holidays is not an option.
Students cite the cost of flights, and worries about renewing visas as the main reasons for not traveling. And some who live very far say it wouldn’t be worth the trip to go back just for a week or two.
“Right now I’m with my aunt in Georgia — Atlanta — this is my first time with her for the holidays,” said Calvina Hoff, a student at Livingstone College in North Carolina.
Calvina has spent three Christmas seasons in the United States with different family members from Liberia — aunts and uncles with whom she hadn’t celebrated back home.
Other students like Miriam Komuhendo, originally from Uganda but a first-year grad student at American University, have family visiting them from overseas.
“My sister came over to visit so we’re probably going to cook together have something to eat, maybe find the tree to decorate and put presents under it,” Miriam said.
“So we’re just going to see how it goes.”
But many international students don’t have family in the United States and will not have family from overseas coming to visit them.
Especially in a city like Washington, international students have found a large diaspora community that helps them feel at home.
“I’m staying with a family — they’re also from Brazil, but they’ve been living here for a really long time,” said Rebeca Oliveira Esteves, a student at American University originally from Brazil.
“They have a tradition of hosting a Christmas celebration with people who do not have their family here. Everyone can bring something to eat or to drink,” she noted.
“We kind of like built this family together … we all see ourselves as one family,” Nigerian student Augustine Achu explained, describing the community in Massachusetts where he’ll celebrate his holidays.
“They’re from the same tribe as me. We all come from the same state. That’s what I meant by relatives, not like they’re like family members, but here in the U.S. we kind of built this family together,” said Achu.
All of the students say the holidays are a time of nostalgia, when it’s comforting to be around people from the same cultural backgrounds as them. And although these students have found at least a slice of home in the United States, they all say they miss the celebrations back home, and their mothers’ cooking.

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Christmas festivities turned tense in Hong Kong late Wednesday when police fired tear gas and used pepper spray on anti-government protesters and made arrests amid a second day of hostile confrontations.
The latest clash came as the semi-autonomous city’s Beijing-appointed leader, Carrie Lam, condemned what she called “reckless and selfish rioters” for ruining the celebrations. The Hong Kong CEO said the government would “make sure those who break the law suffer the consequences.”

Plain clothed police officers arrest protesters in a mall during Christmas Eve in Hong Kong, Dec. 24, 2019.The clashes occurred as activists held flash mob protests in malls and shopping districts across Hong Kong on Christmas Day. Police also stopped and searched many young people dressed in black — the signature dress code of activists who have been involved in the anti-government movement since it started in June.
In Mongkok, a bustling downtown shopping district, riot police armed with shields exchanged insults with protesters, shoppers and passersby before firing multiple rounds of tear gas at them and making arrests. Officers were heard calling protesters “trash.” It was not clear if police were provoked.
Scores of people had gathered on the streets in the area, some waving U.S. and Hong Kong independence flags.
One man was pepper-sprayed after arguing with police. He was wrestled to the ground and arrested on suspicion of assaulting an officer, reported public broadcaster RTHK. Police used pepper spray again later as a crowd of onlookers heckled officers, it said.
An outdoor food stall was engulfed in the noxious gas as staff threw away fish balls, tofu and snacks that had been contaminated.

Debris burns on a street during a rally in Hong Kong, Dec. 25, 2019.Hundreds of riot police officers and police vehicles remained in the area as of late evening, as protesters continued to shout slogans to condemn the police. Journalists and passersby were stopped and searched.
There were also arrests and tense confrontations between police and protesters in upmarket shopping malls in the out-of-town Shatin and Kowloon Bay districts, after activists marched, some singing the protest’s unofficial anthem, “Glory to Hong Kong.” Many shops closed early.
Police were hostile to journalists, shoving some with shields and shooing them away. A number of journalists became drenched in pepper spray when police shot the irritant at them, reported RTHK.
Large numbers of riot police were standing guard in Tsim Sha Tsui, an area with luxury hotels and shops popular with tourists, stopping and searching mostly young people. On Christmas Eve, police shot multiple rounds of tear gas in the area, engulfing the tourist spot adorned with decorations.

Residents dressed for Christmas festivities react to tear gas as police confront protesters on Christmas Eve in Hong Kong, Dec. 24, 2019.At an upscale shopping mall, Times Square in Causeway Bay, some protesters dressed as snowmen, reindeer and Santa Claus, amusing passersby.
Large crowds had gathered in shopping malls since Christmas Eve in response to online calls to “go shopping” to voice their discontent with the government and to demand greater democracy.    
Wednesday’s scenes of chaos were already less intense than those on Christmas Eve, when tear gas and rubber bullets were fired in several locations and police severely beat activists in confrontations. Protesters blocked roads, vandalized businesses seen as pro-government and threw sporadic fuel bombs.
The anti-government movement in Hong Kong, sparked by a controversial extradition law, shows no signs of abating. Protesters say they will not give up unless the government meets their political demands, which include universal suffrage and an independent investigation into police brutality.   
The Christmas unrest broke out after a few weeks of relative calm in a city that has been roiled by the civil unrest that had seen more than 6,000 people arrested, some as young as 12. The brief period of calm came after violent clashes at two universities and after the pro-democracy camp last month won a landslide victory in local district elections, which yielded no direct political power.
Police said 105 people were arrested on Tuesday for allegedly taking part in an illegal assembly. They said the crowd, including teenagers as young as 13, shouted slogans, occupied pedestrian walkways and caused inconvenience to the public.  
A protester who gave his surname as Chan said police were overreacting to what were meant to be peaceful Christmas protests and their actions intimidated members of the public and instigated conflicts.
“The presence of so many riot police officers is itself a provocative gesture. Nothing would have happened if they weren’t there, and now they’re putting all the blame on protesters,” he said.

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Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny said Wednesday that one of his allies had been forcibly conscripted and sent to serve at a remote Arctic base in a move his supporters said amounted to kidnapping.
Ruslan Shaveddinov, a project manager at Navalny’s anti-corruption foundation, went missing on Monday after authorities broke into his Moscow flat and his phone’s SIM card was disabled.
On Tuesday, he resurfaced at a secret air defence base on the remote Novaya Zemlya archipelago in the Arctic Ocean, Navalny said.
“He has been unlawfully deprived of freedom,” President Vladimir Putin’s top opponent said in a blog post, calling the 23-year-old a “political prisoner.”
The Russian military insisted that Shaveddinov had been dodging the draft for a long time.
Russian men are eligible for conscription between the ages of 18 and 27 and serve one year’s military service. However, many find ways to avoid this in a highly corrupt, flawed system.
Navalny said Shaveddinov has a medical condition that disqualifies him for military service but he was forcibly drafted and sent to the Arctic base without basic training.
Vyacheslav Gimadi, a lawyer for Navalny’s foundation, said Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and commander-in-chief Putin were directly responsible for what he claimed was an act of “kidnapping.”
Navalny’s spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh, who is Shaveddinov’s partner, said the project manager had recently acted as a contact person for opposition lawmakers in Moscow city parliament.
“Perhaps this is the reason this has happened,” Yarmysh told AFP.
She said Shaveddinov had managed to call her from Novaya Zemlya using other people’s phones.
Navalny said Shaveddinov was not allowed to communicate with the outside world or use a phone, unlike other servicemen.
The military also assigned a man to follow Shaveddinov all the time, he added.
“The armed forces themselves don’t know what the hell they should do with him,” Navalny said.
Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters he did not know whether Shaveddinov had been dodging the draft, but said “If he had and was drafted in this manner then everything was done in strict accordance with the law.”
Authorities have been steadily ramping up pressure on Navalny and his allies in recent years.
The 43-year-old helped organize major protests against the government this summer when tens of thousands took to the streets of Moscow to demand fair elections.

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Christmas Day brought no respite for travelers in France as a transport strike entered its fourth week, ruining the plans of thousands to share a traditional meal and quality time with loved ones.
Many scrambled at the last minute to make alternative arrangements as the protest against pension reform saw thousands of trains cancelled or delayed — and taxis, ride-sharing services and car rental agencies unable to make up the shortfall.
Only a fraction of high-speed and inter-city trains ran on Christmas Eve, even fewer on the holiday itself. The main train stations in Paris were closed for the morning with suburban connections slashed and merely two out of 16 metro lines — the only driverless ones — providing any service.
Negotiations between the government and unions last week failed to find common ground, and strikers vowed there would be no holiday truce unless officials scrap plans to merge the current 42 pension schemes into one.
Talks are scheduled to resume on January 7.
The government says the overhaul is needed to create a fairer pension system.
But workers baulk at the inclusion of a so-called pivot age of 64 until which people would have to work to earn a full pension — two years beyond the official retirement age.
‘A moment of grace’
Others, especially railway workers, are angry at plans to do away with special regimes that make early retirement provisions for categories of employees who work unusual hours or do physically demanding jobs.
Paris Opera workers, who can retire at 42, are among those on strike.

Paris Opera dancers perform in front of the Palais Garnier against the French government’s plan to overhaul the country’s retirement system, in Paris, France, Dec. 24, 2019.On Tuesday, roughly 40 dancers in white tutus staged an elegant protest in Paris, performing Swan Lake to passersby on the steps outside the opera house with banners warning: “Culture in danger”.
“We wanted to offer a moment of grace,” said dancer Alexandre Carniato.
Unions are hoping for a repeat of 1995 when the government backed down on pension reform after three weeks of metro and rail stoppages just before Christmas.
But the action is taking a heavy toll on businesses, especially retailers, hotels and restaurants, during what should be one of the busiest periods of the year.
‘A turning point’
Industry associations have reported turnover declines of 30 to 60 percent from a year earlier, and the SNCF said Tuesday it had lost 400 million euros ($442 million) in potential earnings so far.
The strikers, too, are losing out, forfeiting their salary for days not worked — 21 days by Wednesday.
On Tuesday, the Info’Com-CGT union presented a cheque for 250,000 euros ($277,000) to striking workers of the RATP Paris rail service, from a fund containing public contributions.
“This is a turning point,” train driver Raffi Kaya told AFP at a union-organized Christmas lunch for strikers at Paris’ Gare de Lyon train station.
“It is starting to hurt financially. But we have gone too far to stop now.”
The man leading the government’s pension reform project, Laurent Pietraszewski, said Tuesday the government would be “willing to compromise” in the negotiations, set to last throughout January.
But he insisted there will be no revisiting the plan to do away with special retirement regimes.
A poll by the IFOP agency published Sunday showed public backing for the action dropping by three percentage points, though 51 percent of respondents still expressed support or sympathy for the strike, which is set to also cast a pall over New Years’ celebrations and the first working weeks of 2020.
 

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The relocation of a U.S. Marine Corps base to a less-crowded area of the southern Japanese island of Okinawa will take more than twice as much money and time as previously estimated because of the need to stabilize the reclaimed land it will be built on, Japan’s government said Wednesday.
The Defense Ministry said the relocation of U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma from densely populated Ginowanto Henoko on Okinawa’s eastern coast will cost 930 billion yen ($8.5 billion) and take 12 years, pushing its completion into the 2030s. That adds more than a decade to the plan, which has already been delayed by more than 20 years because of local opposition and other reasons.
Under an earlier plan agreed to by Tokyo and Washington in 2013, construction was to cost about 350 billion yen ($3.2 billion) and take five years, with completion expected in about 2022.
Most of the additional cost and time is required to stabilize and strengthen reclaimed land off the coast of Henoko that will be used for runways, the ministry said. It presented its new estimate to a panel of Japanese experts discussing the relocation plans.
Experts have found parts of the sea bottom at the planned reclamation site to be “as soft as mayonnaise” and needing to be reinforced.
Many Okinawans oppose the relocation, saying the base should be entirely removed from Okinawa. The heavy U.S. military presence on Okinawa has been a source of a long-running conflict between the island and Washington and Tokyo.
Opponents also say the relocation plan should be scrapped for environmental reasons because the site is a habitat for dugongs and corals.

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