The Dec. 22 parliamentary elections in Uzbekistan highlighted the complex mix of change and inertia that characterizes this Central Asian country today.
In Almalyk, an industrial town in the Tashkent region, leading journalist Dilfuza Ruziyeva said corruption is still deeply rooted, even so close to the country’s capital.
“There is very little accountability and transparency despite reform efforts and bold statements from Tashkent,” said Ruziyeva, the chief editor of the local newspaper.

Yet modest changes abound. Uzbekistan’s politicians, however befuddled they sometimes seem by the new need to respond to voters, were compelled to acknowledge and then commit to address citizens’ growing demands.
Indeed, Uzbekistan’s political class, which has long had a sense of insulation and impunity, now seems to recognize, sometimes quite explicitly, that it owes the public real answers to real problems.
Take
Alisher Qodirov, who leads Milliy Tiklanish (National Revival Party), told VOA that “for the longest time, we punished those who wanted change and pushed for progress. We tortured them, we killed them … we kicked them out. We must learn to honor the human being, ideas and human rights. Only then can Uzbekistan move forward as a society and state.”
His party claims to be the most critical of the government among the five parties that were permitted to contest the election. In fact, none of the state-sanctioned parties really opposes the policies of President Shavkat Mirziyoyev; what has changed is that the lack of real opposition can now be openly discussed.

At a pre-election debate Dec. 19, VOA asked party leaders whether they should place a higher value on security or freedom. All five leaders replied that both were important and made sure to claim to be against torture and the abuse of human rights.
Yet they offered few, if any, specific policy proposals for achieving a more balanced system. Indeed, all five struggled to explain more specific policy positions, much less differences, perhaps because so little sets them apart, and because the president, not the parties or the legislature, sets the agenda for the country. Reforms happen when Mirziyoyev wants them.

Adolat (Justice Party) leader and former presidential candidate Narimon Umarov bluntly says the political elite “did what we had to do” during the rule of the late dictator Islam Karimov, and urges citizens to “focus on the present and future now.” He says Uzbek politicians should feel “challenged in every way” by public expectations, while adding that he is personally “hopeful and energized.”
Aktam Haitov, leader of Mirziyoyev’s own Liberal Democratic Party (O’zLiDep), argues that the party deserves credit for the progress so far. O’zLiDep says it is pushing for deeper reforms in agriculture and to empower the private sector, precisely reflecting Mirziyoyev’s stated policy goals.
Ulugbek Inoyatov is a teacher who became education minister and has been widely criticized for not being effective in that role. Now, he leads Uzbekistan’s People’s Democratic Party and acknowledges that “the election campaign was a learning process for me.”
Inoyatov’s party did not have prescriptions for every problem, and its program still lacks substance. But he stresses the benefits of the improved process: “This campaign and our engagement with the people around the country is helping us to strengthen our focus,” he said.
It is easy to dismiss the electoral process, as many international observers have. Uzbekistan is neither a constitutional democracy nor on the way to becoming one. But by creating an opening for social mobilization, for citizens to question authorities, and by forcing the politicians to respond to public expectations and demands, the process marked a step toward more diverse politics.

More questions on more issues were openly aired than at any time in recent memory, including by the media. At live debates, the press corps was aggressive. And not surprisingly, the party representatives on stage seemed nervous, confused and at times forgot why they were even there.
It was long forbidden to discuss the government’s refusal to allow visits to Uzbekistan by thousands of overseas Uzbek natives, citizens and non-citizens alike. Some fear they are on blacklists, while others are simply denied entry. But during the election debate, the leaders of all five parties felt compelled to say that the country is — or should be — open to these compatriots.  
The next challenge will be to see whether the newly elected parliament can exercise more meaningful oversight of the administration.
Akmal Burhanov, a reelected MP, is calling for an end to the practice whereby legislators also operate businesses or even serve simultaneously as regional governors. Those who are elected today should work as lawmakers only if they are to provide an effective check on the government, he said.

That is why the biggest tests are yet to come. The parliament is more representative than ever before for instance, nearly one-third of its members are women, the most in its history. But as the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe noted the day after the contest, “The elections showed that the ongoing reforms need to continue and be accompanied by more opportunities for grassroot civic initiatives.”

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In a defining week for President Donald Trump on the world stage, national security adviser Robert O’Brien was a constant presence at the president’s side as the U.S. edged to the brink of war with Iran and back again.
The contrasts with O’Brien’s predecessor along the way — in secret consultations at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, in the Oval Office and in basement deliberations in the White House Situation Room — could not have been more stark.
While former national security adviser John Bolton spent decades as a conservative iconoclast in the public arena, O’Brien is far from a household name. While Bolton had strong opinions he shared loudly in the Oval Office, O’Brien has worked to establish an amiable relationship with Trump.
And while Bolton’s trademark mustache was a target of Trump’s mockery, the president is drawn to O’Brien’s low-key California vibe and style.
“Right out of central casting,” Trump says of O’Brien.

FILE – President Donald Trump and Robert O’Brien, the new national security adviser, board Air Force One at Los Angeles International Airport, Sept. 18, 2019, in Los Angeles.Rapport with Trump
For all the differences between the two men, though, O’Brien ended up signing off on the same course of action that Bolton had long endorsed: a strike to take out Iran’s top general, Qassem Soleimani. The decision drew retaliatory missile strikes from Tehran.
The way that O’Brien steered the Trump White House through the process endeared himself to the president and widened his rapidly growing influence in the West Wing.
“He’s a deal guy and the president’s a deal guy,” said Jared Kushner, a senior White House adviser. “A lot of people inside the foreign policy establishment are good at explaining why things are wrong but are petrified to put things in play and take calculated risks.”
The Iran drama was set in motion when Trump summoned O’Brien from Los Angeles to the president’s Palm Beach spread, where Trump was spending a two-week winter holiday. While other top aides, including Secretary of State Michael Pompeo and acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, consulted with the president from afar, Trump wanted O’Brien at his side.
“Robert was calm, cool and collected, constantly keeping the president updated,” Kushner said.
More than a half-dozen current and former administration officials and Republicans close to the White House contributed to this account. Many spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.
Rise of a new voice
Trump has long been known for tuning out old voices in favor of new ones, but O’Brien’s rise in the president’s inner circle has been rapid. The 53-year-old O’Brien, who has handled scores of complex international litigation, has a corner office on the first floor of the White House, a few steps from the Oval Office.
A sharp-dressing Republican lawyer who worked in the administrations of Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, O’Brien was appointed by Trump in May 2018 to be the nation’s top hostage negotiator. He successfully worked for the release of several Americans, including pastor Andrew Brunson, who spent two years in a Turkish prison. O’Brien also traveled to Sweden to lobby for the release of rapper A$AP Rocky, imprisoned on an assault charge.
Bolton, Trump’s third national security adviser, fell out of favor with the president after a series of sharp disagreements, including over North Korea and Iran policies. He was forced out in September. Trump’s previous national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, never developed a personal rapport with the president, who tuned out on McMaster’s long-winded briefing style.
Bolton had frequently tussled with Pompeo and Defense Department officials and, at times, frustrated the president with his sharp clashes and bureaucratic knife-fighting.

FILE – Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, back left, and National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien head to the Oval Office of the White House, in Washington, Nov. 25, 2019.Honest, collaborative
O’Brien, in contrast, makes it a point to collaborate with the State Department and the Pentagon. People familiar with his work style describe an honest broker who is diplomatic but direct. He is known to present the views of Pompeo and top defense and intelligence officials to the president as he would brief a legal client.
Colleagues say he doesn’t try to push his own foreign policy ideas on the president and is more deferential to the views from other agencies than was Bolton. He has a plaque on his desk that says, “There is no limit to what a man can do or where he can go if he doesn’t mind who gets the credit.” It’s a replica of the one President Ronald Reagan kept on his desk in the Oval Office.
Administration officials, at least for now, point to a new camaraderie in the latest incarnation of Trump’s national security team: Pompeo and Defense Secretary Mark Esper were West Point classmates; Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has grown close to Trump; and O’Brien, unlike Bolton, has not tried to pull an end run around others in the decision-making process.
“I think he’s very comfortable with the idea of the job as a staff job, which I think is the model,” said former Sen. Jim Talent, a Missouri Republican who met O’Brien more than a decade ago when they were advising Mitt Romney’s 2008 presidential campaign. “Obviously when the president asks for his advice, he gives his personal opinion.”

FILE – Then-Defense Secretary Jim Mattis speaks beside President Donald Trump during a briefing in the Cabinet Room at the White House in Washington, Oct. 23, 2018.Critics see ‘yes’ men without gravitas
Where Republicans see as collegial team, some Democratic critics worry that Trump is surrounding himself with advisers too eager to accede to his views.
New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the administration’s national security team seems to lack “discerning voices.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., lamented this past week that Trump’s current team lacked the gravitas of earlier advisers, including former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and McMaster, both retired generals.
“People like Mattis and McMaster, who disagree with the president because he’s so erratic, leave — leaving a bunch of ‘yes’ people, who seem to want to do whatever the president wants,” Schumer said recently on the Senate floor.
After the drone strike on Soleimani, there was a deliberate effort to give the Iranians some space to react without committing the U.S. to a military response. Even as Trump delivered fire and brimstone warnings, the rest of his national security team gave indications that not every Iranian response would send American missiles flying. When Tehran’s rockets left no casualties in attacks on U.S. bases in Iraq, the crisis abated, at least for the moment.
While former advisers such as Mattis and McMaster, attempted to check some of the president’s impulses, O’Brien has been regarded as enabling some of Trump’s high-risk inclinations.
O’Brien’s style has been to offer pros and cons before ultimately agreeing with Trump’s decisions, including the moves to abruptly withdraw U.S. troops from Kurdish-held territory in Syria and the military raid that killed Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
O’Brien has established good relationships at the White House and on Capitol Hill, said Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah.
“Every time I talk to the president about him — and his name comes up a fair amount when the president and I are talking — the president just always speaks glowingly about him,” said the Utah senator. He added that O’Brien “has a client. He doesn’t have his own agenda that he’s pursuing.”

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A night of vigils for the victims of a Ukrainian passenger airliner mistakenly shot down by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps erupted into anti-government protests nationwide Saturday. The eventual acceptance of responsibility for the downed airline after days of cover-up by the Iranian regime angered people who protested in cities across the country against Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, and the IRGC.

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U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday tweeted support for the Iranian people, in Farsi and in English, as they took to the streets after their government admitted unintentionally shooting down a Ukrainian jetliner, killing all 176 people aboard. 
“To the brave, long-suffering people of Iran, Trump began on Twitter: 

به مردم شجاع و رنج کشیده ایران: من از ابتدای دوره ریاست جمهوریم با شما ایستاده‌ام و دولت من همچنان با شما خواهد ایستاد. ما اعتراضات شما را از نزدیک دنبال می کنیم. شجاعت شما الهام بخش است.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 11, 2020
 

To the brave, long-suffering people of Iran: I’ve stood with you since the beginning of my Presidency, and my Administration will continue to stand with you. We are following your protests closely, and are inspired by your courage.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 11, 2020
He followed with words of caution for the Iranian government, warning its leaders against cracking down on the protests that erupted. 

دولت ایران باید به گروه‌های حقوق بشر اجازه بدهد حقیقت کنونی اعتراضات در جریان مردم ایران را نظارت کرده و گزارش بدهند. نباید شاهد کشتار دوباره ی معترضان مسالمت آمیز و یا قطع اینترنت باشیم. جهان نظاره گر این اتفاقات است.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 11, 2020

The government of Iran must allow human rights groups to monitor and report facts from the ground on the ongoing protests by the Iranian people. There can not be another massacre of peaceful protesters, nor an internet shutdown. The world is watching.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 11, 2020
On Saturday evening, police dispersed students who had converged on Amirkabir University in Tehran to pay tribute to the victims, after some among the hundreds gathered shouted “destructive” slogans, the Fars news agency said. 
Earlier, in the first official U.S. statement after Iran’s admission, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo posted on Twitter a video of the protests in Tehran. 
“The voice of the Iranian people is clear. They are fed up with the regime’s lies, corruption, ineptitude, and brutality of the IRGC under @khamenei_ir’s kleptocracy. We stand with the Iranian people who deserve a better future.” (Pompeo was using Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s Twitter handle in the tweet.) 

The voice of the Iranian people is clear. They are fed up with the regime’s lies, corruption, ineptitude, and brutality of the IRGC under @khamenei_ir’s kleptocracy. We stand with the Iranian people who deserve a better future. pic.twitter.com/tBOjv9XsIG
— Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) January 11, 2020
Even as top Iranian officials and the military issued apologies, protests against authorities spread across Iran, including in Tehran, Shiraz, Isfahan, Hamedan and Orumiyeh. 
“There are once again massive protests in Iran against the regime,” U.S. Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook told VOA News on Saturday, “and we stand with the brave Iranian people 100%. Protesters are chanting about the shameful actions of the IRGC and are ripping down posters of [Quds Force commander Qassem] Soleimani put up by the regime. They are saying Soleimani was a murderer and so is Khameini. The protesters are right!” 
The new demonstrations followed an Iranian crackdown on street protests that broke out in November against an increase in the price of fuel. Amnesty International has said that crackdown left more than 300 people dead. 
According to media reports, internet access was effectively cut off in multiple Iranian provinces ahead of memorials planned a month after the protests. 
Agence France-Presse, the Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report. 

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Oman’s venerable ruler, Sultan Qaboos Bin Said, who ruled his strategic Gulf emirate — adjacent to Iran — for nearly 50 years, has died after a long illness. The country’s royal family chose the late Sultan’s cousin, Haitham Bin Tariq, to succeed him, in accordance with his last testament.
Oman’s royal family met Saturday, following the death overnight of the late Sultan Qaboos, and appointed his cousin, Haitham Bin Tariq, to succeed him. The appointment was made after top family members and military officials read aloud the last testament of Sultan Qaboos.

A military honor guard fired a ceremonial cannon to honor the late Sultan as his successor presided over the official transition.
Many of the hundreds of Omanis who lined the route of Sultan Qaboos’ funeral cortege broke into tears and sobbed as his body was taken to a royal cemetery for burial. Qaboos, who succeeded his father in a bloodless coup in 1970, was the only ruler most Omanis had ever known.
Qaboos, who studied at Britain’s famous Sandhurst Military Academy, fought a leftist insurgency when he first came to power, and he then presided over one of the more stable nations in the turbulent region. The late Sultan had no children.
Oman’s new sultan, Haitham Bin Tariq, told those gathered to hear his inaugural speech he would follow the path of his predecessor in foreign policy, which he said included “peaceful coexistence between peoples and nations, good neighborly relations, non-interference in the internal affairs of others, respecting the sovereignty of all nations, and cooperation with everyone.”

Sultan Qaboos, whose family has governed Oman since 1741, made a point of keeping good relations with both Iran and all of his Gulf neighbors. He refused to take sides during Iran’s 8-year conflict with Iraq during the 1980s, and he maintained a neutral stance in the more recent conflict between Qatar and Gulf Cooperation Council neighbors Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
Oman played a key role in mediation between the U.S. and Iran during negotiations on the 2015 nuclear accord (JCPOA) between the G-5 countries, plus Germany.
Washington-based Gulf analyst Theodore Karasik tells VOA the “passing of Qaboos is a major moment in the region … because of the influence the sultan projected, most of the time very quietly.” Karasik adds that he expects to see “the same pragmatism” under the new Sultan Haitham.

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Authorities in Louisiana said Saturday said at least three people have died in connection with a severe storm that is sweeping across parts of the U.S. Gulf Coast and Southeast.
The Bossier Parish Sheriff’s Office said on its Facebook page that the bodies of an elderly couple were found near their demolished trailer by firefighters. A search for more possible victims was underway.
The Sheriff’s Office also said the roof of Benton Middle School was damaged and “that water damage from the sprinkler system has flooded many rooms.”
In Arkansas and Missouri, tornadoes destroyed homes and also caused damage in Oklahoma.
The national Storm Prediction Center said Friday more than 18 million people in Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas and Oklahoma were at an enhanced risk of storms Friday, including from strong tornadoes, flooding rains and wind gusts that could exceed 80 mph (129 kph), the speed of a Category 1 hurricane. The area included several major Texas cities including Dallas, Houston and Austin.
The storms also unleashed downpours that caused widespread flash flooding. Dallas police said one person died when a car flipped into Five Mile Creek west of downtown Dallas about 7 p.m.
Earlier in the afternoon, a tornado destroyed two homes near Fair Play, Missouri, about 35 miles (56 kilometers) northwest of Springfield. The Missouri State Highway Patrol said no injuries were reported.
Shortly before 3 p.m., a tornado stripped the shingles from the roof of a home near Tahlequah, Oklahoma, about 60 miles (96 kilometers) southeast of Tulsa. No injuries were reported there either.
What the NWS described as “a confirmed large and extremely dangerous tornado” roared through parts of Logan County, Arkansas, about 45 miles (72 kilometers) east of Fort Smith on Friday night.
At least three homes were destroyed by the Arkansas tornado, said Logan County Emergency Management Coordinator Tobi Miller, but no injuries were reported. Downed trees and power lines were widespread, she said.
Miller said the tornado skirted her home in Subiaco, Arkansas. She said she heard but couldn’t see the rain-wrapped twister in the dark.
Ahead of the storms, Dallas’ Office of Emergency Management asked residents to bring in pets, outdoor furniture, grills, “and anything else that could be caught up in high winds to reduce the risk of flying debris.”
Such strong winds are a key concern in an area at greatest risk: A zone that includes parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Arkansas, the Storm Prediction Center warned. Weather service meteorologists in northern Louisiana said that such a dire forecast for the area is only issued two to four times each year, on average.
In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott said boats, helicopters, medical and rescue teams had been placed on standby in case they are needed.
“I ask that all Texans keep those in the storm’s path and all of Texas’ first responders in their prayers as they deal with the effects of this storm,” Abbott said in a statement.
Wicked weather also will pose a threat to Alabama and Georgia as the system moves eastward on Saturday, forecasters said.
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey said Friday the state was making necessary preparations ahead of the potential weather.
“At the state level, we continue to closely monitor this storm system, while making all necessary preparations,” Ivey said in a statement. “I encourage all Alabamians to do the same, stay weather aware and heed all local warnings.”
On Alabama’s Gulf Coast, Baldwin County canceled school activities including sporting events for Saturday. The weather service warned of flooding and the potential for 10-foot-high (3-meter-high) waves on beaches, where northern visitors escaping the cold are a common sight during the winter.
Heavy rains also could cause flooding across the South and part of the Midwest.
Many streams already are at or near flood levels because of earlier storms, and heavy rains could lead to flash flooding across the region, forecasters said. Parts of Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, Missouri, Illinois and Indiana were under flash flood warnings or watches on Saturday.

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The French prime minister informed the unions behind a crippling railway strike over pension reform Saturday that he is open to backing down on one of the most controversial proposals: raising the full pension eligibility age to 64.
Prime Minister Edouard Philippe wrote to unions one day after the French government and labor representatives engaged in talks that had seemed to end in a stalemate after more than a month of strikes and protests.

Women sing against French President Emmanuel Macron during a demonstration Saturday, Jan. 11, 2020 in Paris.Philippe’s letter said that the plan to raise the full pension eligibility age from 62 to 64 – the unions’ major sticking point – was open to negotiation. It was the first time the French government overtly indicated room for movement on the retirement age issue. The overture could signal hope for ending the France’s longest transport strikes in decades.
However, Philippe said any compromise was contingent on first finding a way of paying for the pensions system in a country where a record number of people are over age 90.
On Saturday, protesters in Paris marched through the streets to denounce the French government’s plans.
In scenes that have become all too familiar to Parisians, demonstrators set fire to a kiosk near the Bastille square in the center of the French capital as a minority of demonstrators in the march got rowdy..
Police fired tear gas briefly as minor scuffles broke out.
Two days earlier, hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets nationwide to denounce the government’s pension proposals. The unions planned further actions for next week to keep up the pressure on the government.

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A magnitude 6.0 quake shook Puerto Rico on Saturday, causing further damage along the island’s southern coast, where previous recent quakes have toppled homes and schools.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake hit 8 miles (13 kilometers) south of Indios at a shallow depth of 6 miles (10 kilometers).
Puerto Rico’s Electric Power Authority said outages were reported across much of southern Puerto Rico and crews were assessing possible damage at power plants.

There were no immediate reports of injuries.
It was the strongest shake yet since a magnitude 6.4 quake struck before dawn on Tuesday, knocking out power across the island and leaving many without water. More than 2,000 people remain in shelters, many fearful of returning to their homes, and others unable to because of extensive damage.
Hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans are still without power and water, and thousands are staying in shelters and sleeping on sidewalks since Tuesday’s earthquake. That temblor killed one person, injured nine others and damaged or destroyed hundreds of homes and several schools and businesses in the island’s southwest region.

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North Korea will not resume nuclear talks unless the United States unconditionally accepts its demands, a senior North Korean official said Saturday.
“We have wasted our time with U.S. for more than a year and a half,” said Kim Kye Gwan, a North Korean vice foreign minister, according to the official Korean Central News Agency.

Kim, a senior diplomat, said Kim Jong Un’s relationship with U.S. President Donald Trump remains positive, noting that Kim recently received birthday greetings from Trump.
“But it is a personal thing and our chairman, who represents the state and works for the benefit of the state, will not make decisions based on his personal relationship,” Kim added.
“For dialogue to happen, the U.S. must unconditionally accept our demands. However, we know that the U.S. is not ready to do so, or cannot do so,” he added.
The North Korean diplomat did not say what North Korea is demanding. North Korea regularly complains about U.S. and international sanctions, as well as joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises and weapons sales.

Two years into dialogue with North Korea, the only apparent remnant is the occasional Trump-Kim letter. Even that relationship may be at risk, however, if North Korea resumes longer-range missile or nuclear tests, as it has been hinting.
“Personal relationships at the top can get a dialogue going, but personal relations alone don’t result in deals,” said Daniel DePetris, a fellow at Defense Priorities, a Washington-based research organization. “This is what Trump doesn’t appear to understand. He’s banking on his ‘friendship’ with Kim to lead the way to denuclearization.”
“Friendship or not, denuclearization left the barn a long time ago,” DePetris added.
Many analysts are pessimistic about the short-term chances for talks.
“North Korea has made clear it will not return to the talks unless the U.S. offers new proposals,” Kim Dong Yub, a North Korea expert at Kyungnam University’s Institute for Far Eastern Studies, said at a Seoul conference Friday.
 
The North Korean leader has not likely abandoned talks altogether, however, Kim said. “The U.S. is the only country that can help North Korea be a normal nation in the international community,” he added.
 

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El Salvador has passed a new law on internally displaced people that the U.N. refugee agency says will offer a new lease on life for tens of thousands of victims forcibly displaced by gang violence and organized crime.
The U.N. refugee agency reports gang violence has forcibly displaced an estimated 71,500 Salvadorans between 2006 and 2016 within their own country.  Over the last few years, the agency reports the malign grip of organized crime in El Salvador and other countries in Central America has sent an increasing number of people fleeing to the United States in search of protection.  
UNHCR spokeswoman Liz Throssell tells VOA internal displacement as a result of organized crime and criminal gangs continues to be an extremely serious problem in El Salvador and Honduras.
“So, what we are doing is we are welcoming the fact that the Salvadoran authorities are really taking this first step to address the problem of internal displacement,” Throssell said. “I think clearly, if there are efforts to prevent internal displacement, that is also going to have a knock-on effect to external displacement.” 
These are still early days, as El Salvador’s National Assembly just passed the law on Friday and has yet to be implemented.  The law aims to protect, aid and offer solutions to the tens of thousands of victims of forced displacement.  Under its provisions they would gain access to humanitarian aid and have basic rights restored, including effective access to justice.
Throssell says the law could have a lasting positive impact on the lives of the more than 70,000 uprooted by gang violence once it is signed into law by President Nayib Bukele.
“The law reflects the growing momentum in Central America and beyond to recognize and respond to the phenomenon of internal displacement,” Throssell said. “In Honduras, where an estimated 247,000 people have been displaced by violence within their own country, the National Congress is considering legislation similar to the law passed in El Salvador.” 
Throssell says Mexico also recognizes the serious impact of internal displacement and has expressed its commitment to pass similar legislation at the federal level.

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A 61-year-old man has died from pneumonia in the central Chinese city of Wuhan after an outbreak of a yet to be identified virus while seven others are in critical condition, the Wuhan health authorities said Saturday.
In total, 41 people have been diagnosed with the pathogen, which preliminary lab tests cited by Chinese state media earlier this week pointed to a new type of coronavirus, the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission said in a statement on its website.
Two of them have been discharged from the hospital and the rest are in stable condition, while 739 people deemed to have been in close contact with the patients have been cleared, it said.
The man, the first victim of the outbreak that began in December, was a regular buyer at a seafood market in the city and had been previously diagnosed with abdominal tumors and chronic liver disease, the health authority said.
Treatments did not improve his symptoms after he was admitted to hospital and he died Jan. 9 when his heart failed. He tested positive for the virus.
Outbreak centers on seafood market
The commission added that no new cases had been detected since Jan. 3.
The Wuhan health authority also said that the patients were mainly vendors and purchasers at the seafood market, and that to date no medical staff had been infected, nor had clear evidence of human-to-human transmission been found.
The World Health Organization said Thursday that a newly emerging member of the family of viruses that caused the deadly Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) outbreaks, could be the cause of the present outbreak.
Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that can cause infections ranging from the common cold to SARS. Some of the virus types cause less serious disease, while some like the one that causes MERS, are far more severe.
The outbreak comes ahead of the Lunar New Year holidays in late January, when many of China’s 1.4 billion people will be traveling to their home towns or abroad. The Chinese government expects passengers to make 440 million trips via rail and another 79 million trips via airplanes, officials told a news briefing Thursday.
Take precautions
The Wuhan health authority in its statement also urged the public to take more precautions against infectious diseases, and said it was pushing ahead with tests to diagnose the pathogen and as of Friday had completed nucleic acid tests.
Hong Kong’s Department of Health said in a separate statement Saturday that it strengthened checks and cleaning measures at all border check points, including the port, airport and the city’s high-speed rail station which receives passengers from Wuhan city.
In 2003, Chinese officials covered up a SARS outbreak for weeks before a growing death toll and rumors forced the government to reveal the epidemic. The disease spread rapidly to other cities and countries. More than 8,000 people were infected and 775 died.

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Climate change rallies have been held in Australia by thousands of protesters critical of the government’s handling of the bushfire crisis. A demonstration in Sydney has reportedly attracted 30,000 people, while events have also been held in other major cities. 
“Sack the prime minister,” protesters chanted as they turned on Australia’s conservative leader, Scott Morrison. He is accused of not taking global warming seriously and of underplaying its role in the bushfire emergency. Protesters believe that “fossil fuel loving politicians” have overseen “decades of climate destruction.”
They want the Morrison government to phase out the use of fossil fuels. That is unlikely given their immense value to the Australian economy. Coal generates much of the nation’s electricity and earns billions of dollars through exports to China, India and other countries.

Protesters hold placards during a climate change rally in Sydney, Jan. 10, 2020.The prime minister has previously defended his energy and climate policies as adequate and responsible, but at least one protester in Sydney is demanding he give a more sensitive response to the bushfire emergency.
“Humanely, with empathy. I think that is a huge thing,” the protester said. “I think the way Scott Morrison has handled this and his lack of empathy to the whole situation is embarrassing. I would like the firefighters to be funded more, I would like more schemes to be set up, and just money and to actually admit that climate change is real, like it is clearly happening and this is what we are doing about it. We are marching.”
Victoria State Premier Daniel Andrews had urged the organizers of a rally in Melbourne to postpone the protest because it would put pressure on police resources during the bushfire crisis. But despite that plea, and heavy rain, hundreds of people turned out to join a nationwide chorus of anger and frustration.
Dozens of fires continue to burn, mostly in southeastern Australia. Cooler conditions are forecast for the next week, which will help the firefighting effort. In New South Wales, Australia’s most populous state, 147 bush and grass fires are burning. Sixty-five have yet to be contained.
Since September, at least 27 people have died in Australia’s bushfires. More than 10 million hectares (24 million acres) of land — an area bigger than Portugal — have been scorched.

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Oman’s Sultan Qaboos bin Said, the Mideast’s longest-ruling monarch who seized power in a 1970 palace coup and pulled his Arabian sultanate into modernity while carefully balancing diplomatic ties between adversaries Iran and the U.S., has died. He was 79.
The state-run Oman News Agency announced his death early Saturday on its official Twitter account. Later Saturday, the Al Watan and Al Roya newspapers reported Qaboos’ successor, his cousin, Haitham bin Tariq al-Said, according to Reuters.
The sultan was believed to have been in poor health and traveled to Belgium for what the court described as a medical checkup last month. The royal court declared three days of mourning.
The news agency mourned the death of the Sultan and praised the “towering renaissance” he had presided over. It said his “balanced policy” of mediating between rival camps in a volatile region had earned the world’s respect.
Reclusive, educated in Britain
The British-educated, reclusive sultan reformed a nation that was home to only three schools and harsh laws banning electricity, radios, eyeglasses and even umbrellas when he took the throne.
Under his reign, Oman became known as a welcoming tourist destination and a key Mideast interlocutor, helping the U.S. free captives in Iran and Yemen and even hosting visits by Israeli officials while pushing back on their occupation of land Palestinians want for a future state.
“We do not have any conflicts and we do not put fuel on the fire when our opinion does not agree with someone,” Sultan Qaboos told a Kuwaiti newspaper in a rare interview in 2008.
Oman’s longtime willingness to strike its own path frustrated Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, longtime foes of Iran who now dominate the politics of regional Gulf Arab nations. How Oman will respond to pressures both external and internal in a nation Sultan Qaboos absolutely ruled for decades remains in question.
“Maintaining this sort of equidistant type of relationship … is going to be put to the test,” said Gary A. Grappo, a former U.S. ambassador to Oman. “Whoever that person is is going to have an immensely, immensely difficult job. And overhanging all of that will be the sense that he’s not Qaboos because those are impossible shoes to fill.”
The sultan had been believed to be ill for some time, though authorities never disclosed what malady he faced. A December 2019 report by the Washington Institute for Near-East Policy described the sultan as suffering from “diabetes and a history of colon cancer.”
Fashionable figure, outsized influence
Sultan Qaboos cut a fashionable figure in a region whose leaders are known for a more austere attire. His colorful turbans stood out, as did his form-fitting robes with a traditional curved khanjar knife stuck inside, the symbol of Oman. He occasionally wore a white turban out of his belief that he spiritually led Oman’s Ibadi Muslims, a more liberal offshoot of Islam predating the Sunni-Shiite split.
The sultan’s willingness to stand apart was key to Oman’s influence in the region. While home only to some 4.6 million people and smaller oil reserves than its neighbors, Oman under Sultan Qaboos routinely influenced the region in ways others couldn’t.
Oman’s oil minister routinely criticizes the policies of the Saudi-led OPEC oil cartel with a smile. Muscat hosts meetings of Yemen’s Houthi rebels, locked in a yearslong bloody war with Saudi Arabia. When Americans or dual nationals with Western ties are detained in Iran or areas under Tehran’s influence, communiques that later announce their freedom routinely credit the help of Oman.
Iran nuclear deal
The sultan’s greatest diplomatic achievement came as Oman hosted secret talks between Iranian and U.S. diplomats that led to the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers. The agreement, which limited Iran’s atomic program in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions, has come unraveled since President Donald Trump withdrew from it in May 2018.
As he grew older, Sultan Qaboos also grew increasingly reclusive. He is known to have had three major passions — reading, music and yachting.
He “read voraciously,” Grappo said, played the organ and lute. He created a symphony orchestra and opened a royal opera house in Muscat in 2011. His yacht “Al Said” is among the world’s largest and was frequently seen anchored in Muscat’s mountain-ringed harbor.
Sultan Qaboos was briefly married to a first cousin. They had no children and divorced in 1979.

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Taiwanese voters headed to the polls Saturday morning to pick a president in an election dominated by how the government should handle its political rival: China. Some are casting votes for the incumbent Tsai Ing-wen, who takes a tough stance toward Beijing. A lot are going instead for Han Kuo-yu, rising-star mayor who wants closer economic ties with China.
Voters lined up in thick crowds outside Taiwan’s polling stations Saturday morning in an early sign of strong turnout in a presidential election that will chart the future of the island’s relations with China.
The government in Beijing considers Taiwan part of its own territory that must eventually unify with China. But Taiwanese said in surveys last year they prefer today’s democratic self-rule over unification. Anti-China protests in Hong Kong over the past months raised fear among some Taiwanese voters of what life might be like under rule by Beijing. China has ruled Hong Kong for more than 20 years.

Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen arrives to cast her vote at a polling station during general elections in New Taipei City, Taipei, Taiwan, Jan. 11, 2020.Big issue: China
Saturday’s vote in Taiwan is widely expected to reflect sentiments toward China.
Chen Li-chin, a 43-year-old mother from suburban Taipei, decided to vote for incumbent Tsai Ing-wen because the president has shown a willingness to resist China.
Chen says what the government should do is protect Taiwan’s democracy and that’s the most important thing. She said that in comparing candidates, she prefers Tsai Ing-wen. Taiwan’s cooperative relations with China, she adds, can be done state to state as long as China doesn’t take Taiwan to be part of its own country.
Tsai, a 63-year-old U.S.-educated law scholar, advocates dialogue with China only if the communist leadership in Beijing drops conditions that Taiwan considers itself part of China.
She has spoken in favor of Hong Kong’s protesters and said Taiwanese cannot accept the “one country, two systems” type of rule that Beijing uses now to govern Hong Kong. Chinese President Xi Jinping advocate the same scheme for Taiwan in a speech a year ago this month.

Taiwan’s opposition Kuomintang Party presidential candidate Han Kuo-yu votes at a polling station during general elections in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, Jan. 11, 2020.Trade and investment
Tsai is running against Han Kuo-yu of the Nationalist party, also called the KMT. Han is the 62-year-old mayor of Taiwan’s chief port city Kaohsiung. He says he wants to start talks with China on trade and investment matters that would benefit Taiwan’s export-reliant economy. His party says that dialogue would not compromise Taiwan’s self-rule.
His policies follow from those of ex-president Ma Ying-jeou. Over Ma’s eight years in office before 2016, China and Taiwan signed more than 20 trade and investment deals while setting aside the political dispute. But by 2014 many Taiwanese feared Ma was getting dangerously cozy with China and staged mass street protests in Taipei.
Some voters, however, still see dialogue as the best solution. Hundreds of thousands of Taiwanese invest in China or sell goods to its vast consumer market.
Voter Tony Hong, a 67-year-old retired public servant from central Taiwan, had picked Han as his candidate.
He says that relations with China are of top importance and that of course the two sides should talk more. He calls dialogue an advantage in peace for both sides but says China should respect Taiwan’s freedom and democracy.
Parliament on ballot
Taiwanese will also elect a new 113-seat parliament Saturday. The legislature now controlled by Tsai’s Democratic Progressive Party allocates the foreign affairs budget and can pass laws related to China. Last month parliament approved a bill that outlaws infiltration by China through junkets, campaign contributions and other election influence.
Taiwan’s Central Election Commission halted campaigning Saturday. Campaign rallies, concerts and street parades with booming drumrolls lasted past 11 p.m. Friday. Election tampering or other major voting gaffes are rare in Taiwan. Local television networks showed both major candidates casting ballots with a smile and a wave.
Ballot counting is set to start when polls close at 4 p.m. Election results normally emerge within hours.

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The U.N. Security Council voted Friday to allow scaled-back cross-border humanitarian aid operations to continue into Syria, adopting a resolution just hours before the operations were due to expire.
Russia won its push to cut back the number of crossing points from four to two, and to guarantee they continue only for an additional six months, instead of the one year several other council members sought.“
We find ourselves in this situation because the Russian Federation has decided to use deprivation as a weapon against the Syrian people,” U.S. Ambassador Kelly Craft said. “This is a crisis of Russia’s making; it is theirs to own.”
The U.N. and its partners have been delivering aid via several border points since 2014, reaching about 4 million needy Syrians. But the government of Bashar al-Assad no longer wants the deliveries to continue, as they try to stamp out the last rebel strongholds.

Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia, seen in this Aug. 9 file photo, echoed one of his government’s ministers who said it is ‘another unfriendly move by the United States.’“ll these cries about imminent catastrophe, disaster, which the northeast faces if we close one cross-border point, is totally irrelevant because humanitarian assistance to that region is coming from within Syria for a long time, and it will continue to come,” Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told reporters. “What we are saying is that the situation on the ground has changed dramatically and we have to reflect it.”
Russia succeeded in getting the Yarubiyah crossing from Iraq into Syria closed, and dropping another crossing point from Jordan that has not been used recently. Two crossings from Turkey into northwestern Syria will remain.
In practical terms, Yarubiyah means medical aid for chronic illnesses, vaccines and trauma cases to about 1.4 million Syrians will not be able to get into northeastern Syria.  
Several council members were bitter about being forced to accept this compromise.
“We supported the resolution to save millions of lives in Idlib, but we strongly voice our discontent for how this result was achieved,” Estonian Ambassador Sven Jurgenson, a new council member, said. “Instead of cooperation, the preferred means of negotiations by the Russian Federation were blackmailing and presenting other parties with ultimatums.”

Karen Pierce, the U.K. ambassador to the United Nations, speaks during an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting on Syria at U.N. headquarters in New York, April 14, 2018.Britain’s envoy said that while a serious diplomatic effort was made to keep the crossings open, ultimately the deal is “a woefully inadequate response” to the situation on the ground.“
“The exclusion of any border crossing into northeastern Syria is, in our view, deeply regrettable and it puts the lives of thousands of civilians at risk in Syria,” Ambassador Karen Pierce said.  
The council tried last month to broker a compromise effort to extend the mission for another year and keep the two Turkish crossing points, as well as Yarubiyah in Iraq. But it failed after Russia cast its 14th veto since the crisis started in 2011, in order to further the interests of the Assad regime. At the time, China also joined Russia in vetoing.  
On Friday, Britain, China, Russia and the United States all abstained from the vote. All were unhappy with the final draft resolution, but none wanted to be seen to be blocking humanitarian aid operations.  
Until Friday, about 4 million Syrians were receiving aid via cross-border operations. In the northwest, they reached 2.7 million people and another 1.3 million in the northeast.
“We did everything to keep that alive so that these 2.7 million people will continue to get humanitarian aid,” Germany’s ambassador and co-author of the draft resolution said. But he warned that the decision “comes at a very heavy price.“
“Tomorrow morning, 1.4 million people in the northeast of Syria will wake up not knowing if they will be able to continue to get medical aid that they desperately need,” Ambassador Christophe Heusgen said. 

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The White House is considering dramatically expanding its much-litigated travel ban to additional countries amid a renewed election-year focus on immigration by President Donald Trump, according to six people familiar with the deliberations.
A document outlining the plans — timed to coincide with the third anniversary of Trump’s January 2017 executive order — has been circulating in the White House. But the countries that would be affected if it moves forward are blacked out, according to two of the people, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the measure has yet to be finalized.
It’s unclear exactly how many countries would be included in the expansion if it proceeds, but two of the people said that seven countries — a majority of them Muslim — would be added to the list. The most recent iteration of the ban includes restrictions on five majority-Muslim nations: Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen, as well as Venezuela and North Korea.
A different person said the expansion could include several countries that were covered in the first iteration of Trump’s ban, but later removed amid rounds of contentious litigation. Iraq, Sudan and Chad, for instance, had originally been affected by the order, which the Supreme Court upheld in a 5-4 vote after the administration released a watered-down version intended to withstand legal scrutiny.
Trump, who had floated a banning all Muslims from entering the country during his 2016 campaign, criticized his Justice Department for the changes, tweeting that DOJ “should have stayed with the original Travel Ban, not the watered down, politically correct version they submitted to S.C.”
Allies may be on proposed list
The countries on the proposed expansion list include allies that fall short on certain security measures. The additional restrictions were proposed by Department of Homeland Security officials following a review of security protocols and “identity management” for about 200 countries, according to the person.
White House spokesman Hogan Gidley declined to confirm the plan, but praised the travel ban for making the country safer.
“The travel ban has been very successful in protecting our country and raising the security baseline around the world,” he said in a statement. “While there are no new announcements at this time, common sense and national security both dictate that if a country wants to fully participate in U.S. immigration programs, they should also comply with all security and counter-terrorism measures, because we do not want to import terrorism or any other national security threat into the United States.”
Several of the people said they expected the announcement to be timed to coincide with the third anniversary of Trump’s first, explosive travel ban, which was announced without warning Jan. 27, 2017, days after Trump took office. That order sparked an uproar, with massive protests across the nation and chaos at airports where passengers were detained.
The current ban suspends immigrant and non-immigrant visas to applicants from the affected countries, but it allows exceptions, including for students and those who have established “significant contacts” in the U.S. And it represents a significant softening from Trump’s initial order, which had suspended travel from Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen for 90 days, blocked refugee admissions for 120 days and suspended travel from Syria.

FILE – People begin to gather before a rally protesting President Donald Trump’s travel ban on refugees and citizens of seven Muslim-majority nations, Jan. 29, 2017.First order blocked by courts
That order was immediately blocked by the courts, prompting a months-long effort by the administration to develop clear standards and federal review processes to try to withstand legal muster. Under the current system, restrictions are targeted at countries the Department of Homeland Security says fail to share sufficient information with the U.S. or haven’t taken necessary security precautions, such as issuing electronic passports with biometric information and sharing information about travelers’ terror-related and criminal histories.
Under the existing order, Cabinet secretaries are also required to update the president regularly on whether countries are abiding by the new immigration security benchmarks. Countries that fail to comply risk new restrictions and limitations, while countries that comply can have their restrictions lifted.
Trump ran his 2016 campaign promising to crack down on illegal immigration and spent much of his first term fighting lawsuits trying to halt his push to build a wall along the southern border, prohibit the entry of citizens from several majority-Muslim countries and crack down on migrants seeking asylum in the U.S., amid other measures.
He is expected to press those efforts again this year as he ramps up his reelection campaign and works to energize his base with his signature issue, inevitably stoking Democratic anger.
No Ban Act
Just this week, a coalition of leading civil rights organizations urged House leaders to take up the No Ban Act, legislation to end Trump’s travel ban and prevent a new one.
The bill introduced last year by Rep. Judy Chu, D-Calif., with Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., in the Senate, would impose limits on the president’s ability to restrict entry to the U.S. It would require the administration to spell out its reasons for the restrictions and specifically prohibit religious discrimination.

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