Seven children and four women were among 14 civilians, killed when a roadside bomb blew up their bus in northwestern Burkina Faso, the government said.
“The provisional toll is 14 dead,” a statement said, adding that 19 more people were hurt, three of them seriously in Saturday’s blast.
The explosion happened in Sourou province near the Mali border as students returned to school after the Christmas holidays, a security source said.
“The vehicle hit a homemade bomb on the Toeni-Tougan road,” the source told AFP.
“The government strongly condemns this cowardly and barbaric act,” the statement said.
No one claimed responsibility for the attack but jihadist violence in Burkina Faso has been blamed on combatants linked to both al-Qaida and Islamic State groups.
Meanwhile, the army reported an assault against gendarmes at Inata in the north on Friday, saying “a dozen terrorists were neutralized.”
The deaths came the week after 35 people, most of them women, died in an attack on the northern city of Arbinda and seven Burkinabe troops were killed in a raid on their army base nearby.
Burkina Faso, bordering Mali and Niger, has seen frequent jihadist attacks which have left hundreds of people dead since the start of 2015 when Islamist extremist violence began to spread across the Sahel region.
In a televised address on Tuesday President Roch Marc Christian Kabore insisted that “victory” against “terrorism” was assured.
The entire Sahel region is fighting a jihadist insurgency with help from Western countries, but has not managed to stem the bloodshed.
Five Sahel states — Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Chad — have joined forces to combat terrorism in the fragile region that lies between the Sahara and the Atlantic.
Increasingly deadly Islamist attacks in Burkina have killed more than 750 people since 2015, according to an AFP count, and forced 560,000 people from their homes, U.N. figures show.
 
 
 

…

Spain’s Socialist leader Pedro Sanchez failed on Sunday in a first attempt to get parliament’s backing to form a government, leaving him two days to secure support to end an eight-month political gridlock.
Sanchez has been acting prime minister since a first inconclusive election in April and November did not produce a conclusive result. He needed an absolute majority of at least 176 votes in his favor in the 350-seat house to be confirmed as prime minister but failed to get it.
He obtained 166 votes in favor and 165 against, with 18 abstentions, while one lawmaker did not attend.
On Tuesday, Sanchez will only need a simple majority – more “yes” than “no” votes. He is likely to get that after securing a commitment from the 13 lawmakers of Catalonia’s largest separatist party, Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC), to abstain.
Earlier this week, Socialist Party leader Sanchez and Pablo Iglesias, head of the far-left party Unidas Podemos, restated their intention to form the first coalition government in Spain’s recent history.
The two parties together have 155 seats, short of a majority, so Sanchez is reliant on the votes of small regional parties.
In a sign of how close the race could be on Tuesday, a member from the small regional party Coalicion Canaria, Ana Oramas, voted against Sanchez instead of abstaining as her party had agreed on Friday.
During Sunday morning’s debate, Sanchez stressed that a Socialist-Podemos coalition would take a progressive approach.
Sanchez and Iglesias have said they will push for tax hikes on high-income earners and companies and also intend to roll back a labor reform passed by a previous conservative government.
The morning was marked by tension during the speech of Mertxe Aizpurua of pro-independence Basque party EH Bildu.
Aizpurua called the conservative and right wing parties People’s Party, Vox and Ciudadanos “Francoists”, a reference to late dictator Francisco Franco, and criticized the Constitution and King Felipe.
She was met with boos and shouts of “murderers”.
 

…

The Senate seems certain to keep President Donald Trump in office thanks to the overwhelming GOP support expected in his impeachment trial. But how that trial will proceed — and when it will begin — remains to be seen.
Democrats are pushing for the Senate to issue subpoenas for witnesses and documents, pointing to reports that they say have raised new questions about Trump’s decision to withhold military aid from Ukraine.
Once the House transmits the articles of impeachment, decisions about how to conduct the trial will require 51 votes. With Republicans controlling the Senate 53-47, Democrats cannot force subpoenas on their own.
For now, Republicans are holding the line behind Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s position that they should start the trial and hear arguments from House prosecutors and Trump’s defense team before deciding what to do.
But small cracks in GOP unity have appeared, with two Republican senators criticizing McConnell’s pledge of “total coordination” with the White House during the impeachment trial.
Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski said she was “disturbed” by the GOP leader’s comments, adding that there should be distance between the White House and the Senate on how the trial is conducted. Maine Sen. Susan Collins, meanwhile, called the pledge by McConnell, R-Ky., inappropriate and said she is open to seeking testimony.
Democrats could find their own unity tested if and when the Senate reaches a final vote on the two House-approved impeachment charges — abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
It would take 67 votes to convict Trump on either charge and remove him from office, a high bar unlikely to be reached. It’s also far from certain that all 47 Democrats will find Trump guilty.
Democratic Sen. Doug Jones of Alabama said he’s undecided on how he might vote and suggested he sees merits in the arguments both for and against conviction.
A look at senators to watch once the impeachment trial begins:
Murkowski
In her fourth term representing Alaska, Murkowski is considered a key Senate moderate. She has voted against GOP leadership on multiple occasions and opposed Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court in 2018.
Murkowski told an Alaska TV station last month there should be distance between the White House and the GOP-controlled Senate in how the trial is conducted.
“To me it means that we have to take that step back from being hand in glove with the defense, and so I heard what leader McConnell had said, I happened to think that that has further confused the process,” she said.
Murkowski says the Senate is being asked to cure deficiencies in the House impeachment effort, particularly when it comes to whether key witnesses should be brought forward to testify, including White House acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and former national security adviser John Bolton.
“How we will deal with witnesses remains to be seen,” she said, adding that House leaders should have gone to court if witnesses refused to appear before Congress.
Collins

FILE – Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, is surrounded by reporters as she heads to vote at the Capitol in Washington, Nov. 6, 2019.The four-term senator said she is open to calling witnesses as part of the impeachment trial but calls it “premature” to decide who should be called until evidence is presented.
“It is inappropriate, in my judgment, for senators on either side of the aisle to prejudge the evidence before they have heard what is presented to us,” Collins told Maine Public Radio.
Senators take an oath to render impartial justice during impeachment — an oath lawmakers should take seriously, Collins said.
Collins, who is running for reelection and is considered one of the nation’s most vulnerable GOP senators, also faulted Democrats for saying Trump should be found guilty and removed from office. “There are senators on both sides of the aisle, who, to me, are not giving the appearance of and the reality of judging that’s in an impartial way,” she said.
Jones
Jones, a freshman seeking reelection in staunchly pro-Trump Alabama, is considered the Democrat most likely to side with Republicans in a Senate trial. In a Washington Post op-ed column, Jones said that for Americans to have confidence in the impeachment process, “the Senate must conduct a full, fair and complete trial with all relevant evidence regarding the president’s conduct.”
He said he fears that senators “are headed toward a trial that is not intended to find the whole truth. For the sake of the country, this must change.”
Unlike what happened during the investigation of President Bill Clinton, “Trump has blocked both the production of virtually all relevant documents and the testimony of witnesses who have firsthand knowledge of the facts,” Jones said. “The evidence we do have may be sufficient to make a judgment, but it is clearly incomplete,” he added.
Jones and other Democrats are seeking testimony from Mulvaney and other key White House officials to help fill in the gaps.
Mitt Romney, R-Utah.
Romney, a freshman senator and on-again, off-again Trump critic, has criticized Trump for his comments urging Ukraine and China to investigate Democrat Joe Biden, but has not spoken directly about he thinks impeachment should proceed.
Romney is overwhelmingly popular in a conservative state where Trump is not beloved, a status that gives Romney leverage to buck the president or at least speak out about rules and procedures of a Senate trial.
Cory Gardner, R-Colo.

FILE – Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., listens during a hearing to review the FY 2020 State Department budget request, April 10, 2019.Gardner, like Collins is a vulnerable senator up for reelection in a state where Trump is not popular. Gardner has criticized the House impeachment effort as overly partisan and fretted that it will sharply divide the country.
While Trump is under water in Colorado, a GOP strategist says Gardner and other Republicans could benefit from an energized GOP base if the Senate, as expected, acquits Trump of the two articles of impeachment approved by the House. An acquittal “may have a substantial impact on other races in Colorado, up to and including Sen. Cory Gardner’s re-election,” Ryan Lynch told Colorado Public Radio.
Martha McSally, R-Ariz.
McSally, who was appointed to her seat after losing a Senate bid in 2018, is another vulnerable Republican seeking election this fall. She calls impeachment a serious matter and said she hopes her constituents would want her to examine the facts without partisanship. The American people “want us to take a serious look at this and not have it be just partisan bickering going on,” she told The Arizona Republic.
Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn.
A three-term senator and former governor, Alexander is retiring next year. A moderate who’s respected by both parties as an old-school defender of Senate prerogatives, Alexander has called Trump’s conduct “inappropriate,” but says he views impeachment as a “mistake.”
An election, which “is just around the corner, is the right way to decide who should be president,” Alexander said last fall. “Impeachment has never removed a president. It will only divide the country further.”
 

…

U.S. President Donald Trump spoke publicly Saturday about the killing of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani.  It was the first time the president has spoken about Soleimani,  the leader of Iran’s elite Quds Force, since U.S. defense officials confirmed Soleimani had been killed in a U.S. airstrke late Friday in Iraq at Baghdad’s airport.  
Trump said  Soleimani’s killing was long overdue and warned Iran it risked more strikes if it continues to target Americans.
“We took action last night to stop a war,” Trump said at his home in Mar-a-Lago, Florida. “However, the Iranian regime’s aggression in the region, including the use of proxy fighters to destabilize its neighbors must end and it must end now.”
Trump tweeted Saturday that the U.S. has identified 52 sites in Iran, representing the 52 American hostages taken by Iran many years ago, that it would strike “very fast and very hard” should Iran attack any U.S. personnel or assets.

Iran is talking very boldly about targeting certain USA assets as revenge for our ridding the world of their terrorist leader who had just killed an American, & badly wounded many others, not to mention all of the people he had killed over his lifetime, including recently….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)
Funeral Procession
Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Baghdad Saturday to mourn the deaths of Soleimani and the  Iraqi military leaders, who were killed in the airstrike, which has significantly increased tensions in the volatile Middle East region.
Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi joined marchers in a funeral procession, many of whom chanted slogans such as “Death to America” and “America is the Great Satan.”
Also among the mourners were many men dressed in black military fatigues who were fiercely loyal to Soleimani.  
After being transported Saturday to the Iranian province of Khuzestan, Soleimani’s body goes to Iran’s holy Shi’ite city of Mashhad on Sunday and then to Tehran before he is buried Tuesday in his hometown of Kerman.
Soleimani’s background

FILE – Gen. Qassem Soleimani, center, attends a graduation ceremony of a group of the guard’s officers in Tehran, Iran, June 30, 2018.The 62-year-old was Iran’s most distinguished military commander and the architect of Iran’s growing influence in the Middle East.
His killing has forced Washington and its allies in the region, primarily Israel and Saudi Arabia, into uncharted territory on how to confront Iran and its proxy militia groups throughout the region.
NATO, which has been training Iraqi security forces on how to prevent the Islamic State militant group from regaining strength, has suspended its training missions in Iraq. 
NATO spokesman Dylan White said in a statement Saturday, “The safety of our personnel in Iraq is paramount,” without specifying why the training activities were suspended.
Amid escalating tensions in the region, the Pentagon said more than 3,500 additional U.S. troops would be dispatched to Kuwait, joining some 14,000 U.S. troops already in the region.
On Saturday, hundreds of soldiers from Fort Bragg, North Carolina, filed into planes and deployed to Kuwait. Video released by the Army showed soldiers filing into planes, while Humvees were seen being loaded and chained in place, according to an Associated Press report.

Burning debris are seen on a road near Baghdad International Airport, which according to Iraqi paramilitary groups were caused by three rockets hitting the airport in Iraq, January 3, 2020, in this image obtained via social media.Details
U.S. officials have yet to provide details about the attack that killed Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy commander of Iranian-backed Iraqi militias known as the Popular Mobilization Forces.
U.S. National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien told reporters late Friday that Soleimani’s travel plans played a role in the timing of the airstrike.
O’Brien said Soleimani had just come from Damascus where he was planning attacks on U.S. military personnel diplomats.
U.S. Democratic lawmakers question whether the attack was intended to deflect attention from Trump’s expected impeachment trial and whether it was legal.

…

Ride-share company Uber and on-demand meal delivery service Postmates have sued to block a broad new California law aimed at giving wage and benefit protections to people who work as independent contractors. 
 
The lawsuit filed Monday in federal court in Los Angeles argues that the law set to take effect Wednesday violates federal and state constitutional guarantees of equal protection and due process. 
 
Uber said it would try to link the lawsuit to another legal challenge filed in mid-December by associations representing freelance writers and photographers. 
 
The California Trucking Association filed the first challenge to the law in November on behalf of independent truckers. 
 
The law creates the nation’s strictest test by which workers must be considered employees and it could set a precedent for other states. 
Worker statements
The latest challenge includes two independent workers who wrote about their concerns with the new law. 
 
“This has thrown my life and the lives of more than a hundred thousand drivers into uncertainty,” ride-share driver Lydia Olson wrote in a Facebook post cited by Uber. 
 
Postmates driver Miguel Perez called on-demand work “a blessing” in a letter distributed by Uber. He said he used to drive a truck for 14 hours at a time, often overnight. 
 
“Sometimes, when I was behind the wheel, with an endless shift stretching out ahead of me like the open road, I daydreamed about a different kind of job — a job where I could choose when, where and how much I worked and still make enough money to feed my family,” he wrote. 
 
The lawsuit contends that the law exempts some industries but includes ride-share and delivery companies without a rational basis for distinguishing between them. It alleges that the law also infringes on workers’ rights to choose how they make a living and could void their existing contracts. 
 
Democratic Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez of San Diego countered that she wrote the law to extend employee rights to more than a million California workers who lack benefits, including a minimum wage, mileage reimbursements, paid sick leave, medical coverage and disability pay for on-the-job injuries. 
Previous Uber efforts
 
She noted that Uber had previously sought an exemption when lawmakers were crafting the law, then said it would defend its existing labor model from legal challenges. It joined Lyft and DoorDash in a vow to each spend $30 million to overturn the law at the ballot box in 2020 if they didn’t win concessions from lawmakers next year. 
 
“The one clear thing we know about Uber is they will do anything to try to exempt themselves from state regulations that make us all safer and their driver employees self-sufficient,” Gonzalez said in a statement. “In the meantime, Uber chief executives will continue to become billionaires while too many of their drivers are forced to sleep in their cars.” 
 
The new law was a response to a legal ruling last year by the California Supreme Court regarding workers at the delivery company Dynamex. 

…

Austria’s Foreign Ministry is facing a “serious cyberattack,” it said late Saturday, warning another country could be responsible. 
 
“Due to the gravity and nature of the attack, it cannot be excluded that it is a targeted attack by a state actor,” the ministry said in a statement shortly before 11 p.m. (2200 GMT), adding that the attack was ongoing. 
 
“In the past, other European countries have been the target of similar attacks,” the statement continued. 
 
Immediate measures had been taken and a “coordination committee” set up, it said without elaborating. 
 
The attack came as Austria’s Greens on Saturday gave the go-ahead to a coalition with the country’s conservatives at a party congress in Salzburg, removing the last obstacle to the unprecedented alliance. 
 
The German government’s IT network in 2018 was hit by a cyberattack. 
 
Last year, the EU adopted powers to punish those outside the bloc who launch cyberattacks that cripple hospitals and banks, sway elections, or steal company secrets or funds. 

…

The death toll has risen to at least 24 and 23 more people are listed as injured in the collapse of a building in Cambodia that trapped workers under rubble, officials said Sunday. 
The seven-story concrete building collapsed Friday in the coastal town of Kep, about 160 km (100 miles) southwest of Phnom Penh. It occurred a year after another construction site collapsed, 
killing 28 people in Preah Sihanouk province. 
“Twenty-four people have died so far,” Kep Governor Ken Satha told Reuters. “Three of the bodies are not yet at hospital. They have not been pulled out yet.” 
An unknown number of workers remained trapped, Satha said, 
adding that authorities had detained a Cambodian couple, the 
owners of the building, for questioning. 
Prime Minister Hun Sen said Saturday that rescuers were still struggling to reach those missing in the rubble. 
Cambodia is undergoing a construction boom to serve growing 
crowds of Chinese tourists and investors. 

…

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has canceled a visit to Montenegro amid a dispute over a new Montenegrin religious-rights law. 
 
“I decided not to go, and that was agreed with [Serbian Patriarch] Irinej,” Vucic said Saturday at a news conference in Belgrade. “We respect their independence.” 
 
Vucic had been planning to visit Serbian churches in Montenegro on Orthodox Christmas, which is celebrated January 7. Montenegrin officials had said the visit would add fuel to the existing tensions in the small Balkan state. 
 
Last month, Montenegro’s parliament passed a law under which religious communities must prove property ownership from before 1918, the year when predominantly Orthodox Christian Montenegro joined the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. 

FILE – Police guard the parliament building in Podgorica, Montenegro, Dec. 26, 2019, during a protest against a then-proposed law regarding religious communities and property.Serbs say the new law will lead to the impounding of Serbian Orthodox Church property in Montenegro. Montenegrin officials have repeatedly denied the claim. 
 
In 2006, Montenegro split from much larger Serbia following a referendum. About one-third of the small Balkan country’s 620,000 citizens declared themselves Serbs and want close ties with Belgrade. 
 
On Saturday, Vucic also accused Montenegrin and unspecified Western officials of launching “a hysteric campaign of lies” when he announced the visit. 
 
He said he canceled it because of possible “clashes” that would “hurt the Serbian people in Montenegro.” 
Daily protests
 
Led by Orthodox priests and fueled by Serbian state media, daily protests have been staged in Montenegro by thousands of Serbs demanding that the law be annulled. 
 
Serbian ultranationalists have also held protests against Montenegro’s pro-Western government in the Serbian capital, Belgrade. 
 
Thousands of soccer hooligans tried to burn the Montenegrin flag, threw flares and chanted “Set it on fire” during a protest Thursday in front of the Montenegrin Embassy in Belgrade. 

FILE – The Montenegrin flag at the Montenegrin Embassy is targeted with fireworks by Serbian ultranationalists during a protest against a religious-rights law adopted by Montenegro’s parliament last month, in Belgrade, Serbia, Jan. 2, 2020.Montenegrin Prime Minister Dusko Markovic called the embassy attack an “uncivilized” act and said it was “stunning” Serbian police did not protect the embassy during the incident, as well as at other recent protests. 
 
Vucic said the embassy was protected and accused Markovic of “telling notorious falsehoods,” though he did not appear to comment on the flag burning itself. 
 
U.S. Ambassador to Montenegro Judy Rising Reinke expressed shock over the attack. 
 
“Shocked at the image of the desecrated #Montenegro flag at the country’s Belgrade Embassy,” she said Friday on Twitter. “Attack on a diplomatic mission is absolutely unacceptable. Difference of opinions must be resolved through dialogue, not violence or acts of vandalism.” 
Vucic responds
 
In his comments to the press Saturday in Belgrade, Vucic took aim at the U.S. ambassador’s remarks. 
 
“U.S. Ambassador to Montenegro [Judy Rising Reinke] was vocal yesterday, saying she was horrified by the scenes she witnessed in. Right, but [Rising Reinke] is not horrified by what’s happening in Montenegro? She is not horrified when people are getting arrested just for carrying the Serbian flag?” Vucic said. “There are 30% of them there. She is not horrified that the Serbian language is not permitted there? She is not horrified that [the Montenegrin government] is stealing [the Serbian Orthodox] Church property? She is not horrified by any of that.” 
 
The embassy attack in Belgrade followed a basketball game between Serbia’s Red Star and Germany’s Bayern Munich. 
 
Many of those taking part were members of the Serbian soccer fan group known as “delije.” 
 
Members of delije, Serbian for “tough boys,” are known for their close ties with Serbia’s ruling nationalist party and the secret police. 
 
Members of delije were behind attacks against Western embassies in Belgrade in 2008, when the U.S. Embassy in Belgrade was set on fire as police stood close by. The group was protesting against Kosovo’s declaration of independence from Serbia. 
 The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

…

Demonstrators chanting “No war on Iran” rallied Saturday in Washington, New York and other U.S. cities to protest the assassination of a top Iranian military commander in a U.S. drone strike. 
 
Outside the White House, around 200 people gathered as part of a wave of rallies called by left-leaning organizations. They chanted slogans including, “No justice, no peace, U.S. out of the Middle East.” 
 
Organizers said demonstrations were convened in 70 U.S. cities to denounce the killing of General Qassem Soleimani early Friday in Baghdad on orders from President Donald Trump. The attack has prompted fears of a major conflagration in the Middle East. 
 
“We will not allow our country to be led into another reckless war,” one speaker outside the White House said. 

Antiwar activists demonstrate outside the Trump International Hotel in Washington, Jan. 4, 2020.The protesters later headed toward the Trump International Hotel, which is just down the street from the presidential mansion. 
 
“Need a distraction? Start of a war,” read a sign held by Sam Crook, 66. 
 
Trump faces trial in the Senate following his impeachment by the House of Representatives in the Ukraine scandal. 
 
Crook described himself as concerned. 
 
“This country is in the grip of somebody who’s mentally unstable, I mean Donald Trump, that is. He’s not right in the head,” Crook told AFP. 
‘Childish reaction’
 
“He’s crazy and has a childish reaction to everything. And I’m afraid he’s going to inadvertently — he doesn’t really want to, I think — but I think he could easily start some sort of a real conflagration in the Middle East,” Crook added. 
 
Shirin, 31, an Iranian American who would not give her last name, said she was worried about the possibility of war with Iran, which has vowed revenge for the death of Soleimani. 
 
“We already spent trillions of dollars fighting unjust wars in Iraq and, you know, the longest war today in Afghanistan. And what do we have to show for it?” she said. 
 
She argued that the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq caused instability throughout the region and strengthened Iran, “which is now, you know, a major political, social and cultural force in Iraq.” 

Activists march in Times Square to protest recent U.S. military actions in Iraq, Jan. 4, 2020, in New York.At Times Square in New York, demonstrators marched with signs crying out against the prospect of war with Iran and calling for the withdrawal of the 5,000-odd U.S. troops in Iraq. 
 
“War is not a re-election strategy,” read one sign in that procession. 
 
Demonstrators also marched in cities including Chicago and Los Angeles. 

…

Indonesian rescue teams flew helicopters stuffed with food to remote flood-hit communities Saturday as the death toll from the disaster jumped to 60 and fears grew about the possibility of more torrential rain. 
 
Tens of thousands in Jakarta were still unable to return to their waterlogged homes after some of the deadliest flooding in years hit the enormous capital region, home to about 30 million. 
 
In neighboring Lebak, where half a dozen people died, police and military personnel dropped boxes of instant noodles and other supplies into remote communities inaccessible by road after bridges were destroyed. 
 
“It’s tough to get supplies in there … and there are about a dozen places hit by landslides,” Tomsi Tohir, the police chief of Banten province, where Lebak is located, told AFP. “That is why we’re using helicopters although there aren’t any landing spots.” 
 
Local health center chief Suripto, who goes by one name, said injured residents were flowing into his clinic. 
 
“Some of them were wounded after they were swept away by floods and hit with wood and rocks,” he said. 

People queue up to receive food at an aid distribution point for those affected by the floods in Jakarta, Indonesia, Jan. 4, 2020.Around Jakarta, more than 170,000 people took refuge in shelters across the massive urban conglomeration after whole neighborhoods were submerged. 
 
Torrential rains that started on New Year’s Eve unleashed flash floods and landslides. 
 
Indonesia’s disaster mitigation agency said Saturday that two people were also killed after flash floods and landslides hit a village in North Sulawesi on Friday. 
 
The agency said Saturday that the total death toll had climbed to 60 with two people still missing. 
 
“We’ve discovered more dead bodies,” said National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Agus Wibowo. 
‘Trauma healing’ 
Jakarta shelters filled up with refugees, including infants, resting on thin mats as food and drinking water ran low. Some had been reduced to using floodwater for cleaning. 
 
“We’re cleaning ourselves in a nearby church but the time has been limited since it uses an electric generator for power,” said Trima Kanti, 39, from one refuge in Jakarta’s western edges. 

Rescuers search for missing people at a village affected by a landslide in Cigudeg, West Java, Indonesia, Jan. 4, 2020.In hard-hit Bekasi, on the eastern outskirts of Jakarta, swamped streets were littered with debris and crushed cars lying on top of each other — with waterline marks reaching as high as the second floors of buildings. 
 
On Friday, the government said it would start cloud seeding to the west of the capital — inducing rain using chemicals sprayed from planes — in the hope of preventing more rain from reaching the city region. 
 
Water has receded in many areas and power was being restored in hundreds of districts. 
 
The health ministry has said it deployed 11,000 health workers and soldiers to distribute medicine, hygiene kits and food in a bid to stave off outbreaks of hepatitis A, mosquito-borne Dengue fever and other illnesses, including infections linked to contact with dead animals. 
 
Visiting hard-hit Lebak, Muhadjir Effendy, coordinating minister for human development and cultural affairs, said the government would help rebuild destroyed schools and construct temporary bridges, while offering assistance to victims. 
 
“We’re also asking for [nongovernmental organizations] to help with trauma healing,” Muhadjir told reporters Saturday. 
Electrocution, drowning 
Around Jakarta, a family that included a 4- and a 9-year-old died of suspected gas poisoning from a portable power generator, while an 8-year-old boy was killed in a landslide. 
 
Others died from drowning or hypothermia, while one 16-year-old boy was electrocuted by a power line. 

A man navigates an inflatable boat at a flooded neighborhood in Jakarta, Indonesia, Jan. 4, 2020.Jakarta is regularly hit by floods during the rainy season, which started in late November. But this week marked Jakarta’s deadliest flooding since 2013 when dozens were killed after the city was inundated by monsoon rains. 
 
Urban planning experts said the disaster was partly due to record rainfall. But Jakarta’s myriad infrastructure problems, including poor drainage and rampant overdevelopment, have worsened the situation, they said. 
 
Indonesian President Joko Widodo has announced a plan to move the country’s capital to Borneo island to take pressure off Jakarta, which suffers from some of the world’s worst traffic jams and is fast sinking because of excessive groundwater extraction. 

…

American pop singer Pink says she is donating $500,000 to help fight the deadly wildfires that have devastated parts of Australia.
“I am totally devastated watching what is happening in Australia right now with the horrific bushfires,” Pink tweeted Saturday to her 32.2 million Twitter followers. “I am pledging a donation of $500,000 directly to the local fire services that are battling so hard on the frontlines. My heart goes out to our friends and family in Oz.”
The death toll in the wildfire crisis is now up to 23 people. The fires are expected to be particularly fierce throughout the weekend.
The wildfires, which have been raging since September, have already burned about 5 million hectares (12.35 million acres) of land and destroyed more than 1,500 homes.

…

U.S. President Donald Trump launched a new coalition to secure evangelical voter support for his re-election, delivering a rally-style speech in front of thousands of cheering Christians in a Miami megachurch on Friday.
 
“We have God on our side,” Trump said at the King Jesus International Ministry, a predominantly Latino church that also goes by its Spanish name Ministerio Internacional El Rey Jesús.
 

The ministry is one of the largest Hispanic churches in the United States. Trump’s rally there acknowledged the power of evangelical and Latino voting blocs as his campaign tries to shore up support ahead of the November presidential election. Evangelical voters made up a substantial part of Trump’s base in 2016 and could pave the way toward securing the president’s re-election in 2020.
 
The president hit familiar campaign themes, boasting about policies that further the evangelical agenda, including restricting abortions, appointing conservative judges and his recent executive order to extend Title VI protections to Jews. Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 bans discrimination on the basis of race, color, and national origin in institutions receiving federal funding, including colleges and universities.  
 
Trump also announced that he will soon be taking action to “safeguard students and teachers’ First Amendment rights to pray in our schools.”
Evangelicals for Trump
 
Politically, evangelicals are relatively homogeneous and unified as they consistently champion four causes: pro-life policies, confirmation of conservative judges to the federal judiciary, religious freedom mainly for Christians and pro-Israel policies, said Professor Quardricos Driskell, an adjunct professor of religion and politics at the George Washington University.
 
“These four single issues make this group the most active supporters of not only Trump but most conservative Republican voters,” Driskell added.
 

Yet, like any group, evangelicals are not monolithic. Driskell said that a distinction has to be made between evangelicals and white evangelicals –  with a tendency for more “comprehensive group-think” among white evangelicals who overwhelmingly voted for Trump in 2016 vs. black or Latino evangelicals.  
 
There are also evangelicals uneasy with both the president’s demeanor and policies. After online publication the Christian Post recently issued an editorial supporting Trump, editor Napp Nazworth resigned in protest.
 
“There is a large contingent of evangelicals who agree that our faith shouldn’t be associated with a president who separates immigrant children from their families, betrays our allies in Syria, inspires racists, and pays hush money to porn stars,” Nazworth said.
 Into the fold
 
Trump has put effort into bringing evangelicals into the fold, including by appointing Paula White, a televangelist from Florida whom he calls a longtime friend and personal pastor, as head of the White House Faith and Opportunity Initiative. White introduced Trump at the rally as “a man of God” and lead a prayer session for him.
The “Evangelicals for Trump” coalition launch is yet another effort to solidify backing for the president, even when there are signs of erosion of support, including the explosive December 19 Christianity Today editorial that argued for Trump to be removed from office.
 
“By branding all evangelicals as Trump supporters, the campaign is trying to force those in that demographic who do not fully agree with the president’s policies to be pulled along because it is better to vote for President Trump than a Democrat,” said Shannon Bow O’Brien who teaches presidential politics at the University of Texas at Austin.
 

There was no shortage of Trump lines hitting on opposition Democrats, whom he accused of waging war on the faithful.
 
“Every Democratic candidate running for president is trying to punish religious believers and silence our churches,” Trump said to applause from the crowd, many of them sporting MAGA red caps and Trump campaign attire. “This election is about the survival of our nation,” he said.
 
Trump also singled out Democratic Congresswomen Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib and Alexander Ocasio-Cortez, describing them as anti-Semitic. “These people hate Israel. They hate Jewish people,” Trump said.
 
Critics accuse Trump of weaponizing religion. “Faith and belief are highly personal things that should never be utilized as a partisan tool for electoral advantage,” O’Brien said.
 
Ahead of the president’s remarks, Florida Democrats issued a letter signed by 12 Christian leaders from five Florida counties that appealed to the president: “We cannot stand idly by while you attempt to co-opt our religion for your political gain and claim support from our community.”

…

US President Donald Trump said he ordered the Friday’s airstrike that killed a top Iranian commander in Iraq at Baghdad’s airport to prevent imminent attacks against Americans in the region. US analysts discuss the move and its impact on Iran, and US policies in the Middle East region. VOA’s Steve Hirsch has more from Washington

…