Criticism mounted in Kyiv Monday over a controversial prisoner swap with Russian-backed separatists, as it emerged that among the captives exchanged by Ukraine were five riot policemen accused of killing protesters during the 2014 Maidan uprising.

The policemen were members of a Berkut militia unit that is now disbanded.

Relatives of those killed during the uprising had urged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy not to include the policemen in the exchange. After the handover, which took place Sunday, the Ukrainian leader defended his decision, saying it was necessary in order for Ukraine to secure the return of several of its reconnaissance soldiers.

A total of 200 captives were exchanged between the two warring sides.

“It was a hard decision. It was a political decision,” Zelenskiy told reporters at Kyiv’s Boryspil International Airport, as he met 76 freed Ukrainians.  

His remarks failed to assuage the relatives of protesters who were killed in 2014.

As the exchange began, 200 people protested at a detention center in the capital, Kyiv, where three of the riot police were held.

“This country has no future,” Volodymyr Golodnyuk, the father of a 19-year-old protester killed in the uprising, said on Facebook. In an open letter to Zelenskiy, the victims’ families warned the release of the suspects could lead to a “wave of protests.”

Nearly two dozen civil society groups were also critical of the policemen’s release, issuing a joint statement warning that “the decision at the request of the Kremlin undermines the values of the rule of law, justice and dignity, and can divide society by sowing hatred between different groups of Ukrainians.”

Oleg Sentsov, a Ukrainian filmmaker who Russia handed over to Ukraine in a September exchange, criticized Sunday’s swap. He said Kyiv was giving up “real murderers” while other Ukrainians remained in captivity in Russia and rebel territory. “All that Ukrainians fought for is turning to ash,” Sentsov said.

About 100 demonstrators were killed during the monthslong 2014 revolution, which ended in the ouster of pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych.

The Berkut was among militias accused of the worst violence. Members of the Russian-trained Alfa Team have also been accused of involvement in the killings. Many of the slain protesters died from precise shots to the head or neck, while others were gunned down in closer quarters by less expert shooters armed with AK-47 assault rifles.

A dozen Ukrainian soldiers were among those released by pro-Russian separatists.  They had been captured during skirmishes in the conflict, which started in 2014, and has so far claimed around 14,000 lives, making it the bloodiest war in Europe since the 1990s.

In order to gain the release of 76 captives — some of them pro-Kyiv activists and bloggers — Ukraine had to free 124 prisoners it was holding. Two contributors to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, VOA’s sister broadcaster, were also released.  

This is the second prisoner exchange between Ukraine and Russia this year.

The first swap in September of 70 captives prompted hopes that Moscow and Kyiv were ready for serious talks to end the more than five-year war in the Donbas region. That exchange included the release of 24 Ukrainian sailors captured in a naval clash.

When Zelenskiy was elected in April, he pledged to move quickly to engineer the release of Ukrainians held captive by Russian-backed forces. A former TV comedian, Zelenskiy won a landslide electoral victory on a promise to end the war.

Sunday’s prisoner swap was brokered during peace talks this month between the leaders of Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany amid renewed efforts to reach a cease-fire.

The exchange was made at a checkpoint on the front line of the conflict, overseen by armed troops from both sides.

Live footage streamed by Ukraine’s presidential office showed buses with prisoners parked at a crossing point. The office of Ukraine’s president tweeted, “The mutual release of detained persons is completed …76 of ours are safe in Ukraine-controlled territory … details later.”

French President Emmanuel Macron, who hosted the Paris talks, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel welcomed the prisoner exchange. In a joint statement, they said “further work will still be necessary to allow the exchange of all prisoners linked to the conflict.”

In a statement published on Twitter, the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv also welcomed the “return of liberated captives from Russian-controlled Donbas.” It added, “Recognizing that Russia’s ongoing aggression confronts Ukraine’s leadership with difficult choices, we stand in solidarity with our Ukrainian partners and the many Ukrainians who remain in captivity in Russia and Crimea.”

pic.twitter.com/ttcCVXdGCh

— U.S. Embassy Kyiv (@USEmbassyKyiv) December 29, 2019

This second prisoner swap is also viewed as an encouraging sign that the conflict can be brought to a peaceful conclusion. But seasoned analysts are skeptical, arguing that there is little incentive for the Kremlin to agree to a deal.

Zelenskiy’s peace strategy has been strongly criticized by Ukrainian war veterans and nationalists, but opinion polls suggest it still has strong backing by many Ukrainians.

“Today’s prisoner exchange in Donbass will bring relief to the persons involved and their families, but it will not bring the settlement any closer,” tweeted Dmitri Trenin, director of the Moscow Carnegie Center. “The conflict is much more likely to become frozen than resolved.”

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From: MeNeedIt

Bolivia’s interim president says her government is expelling the Mexican ambassador over an alleged attempt by members of Bolivia’s former government to leave refuge in the Mexican Embassy and flee the country.

Interim President Jeanine Anez said Ambassador Maria Teresa Mercado had been given 72 hours to leave the country.

A group of nine former officials in the government of deposed Bolivian President Evo Morales sought refuge in the Mexican embassy after Morales’ stepped down under pressure last month.

The acting Bolivian government has initiated criminal charges against the officials for sedition, terrorism and electoral fraud and has refused to allow them safe passage out of the country.

The Bolivian government has accused Spanish diplomats of trying to help the nine officials leave the Mexican embassy on Friday and says the Spaniards arrived at the embassy accompanied by a group of hooded men. Spain has denied the charges but the six Spanish diplomats departed Bolivia on Sunday after the Bolivian government asked them to leave.

“A serious violation has been committed against Bolivian sovereignty and democracy, which must be respected,” Anez said.

The Mexican government said Mercado had always followed the principles of Mexican foreign policy and international law.

“We consider this to be a political decision,” the government said in a written statement.

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From: MeNeedIt

Democratic congressman John Lewis, an icon in the fight for civil rights, announced Sunday he has stage 4 pancreatic cancer.

“I have been in some kind of fight — for freedom, equality, basic human rights — for nearly my entire life. I have never faced a fight quite like the one I have now,” Lewis said in a statement.

“So I’ve decided to do what I know to do and what I have always done: I am going to fight and jeep fighting…we still have many bridges to cross,”

Lewis said he is “clear-eyed” about the prognosis and that his doctors tell him he has a fighting chance.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tweeted that “generations of Americans” have Lewis in their thoughts and prayers, saying she knows he will be well.

The 79-year-old Lewis has represented the 5th Congressional District in Georgia since 1986 and has been a stalwart for liberal causes and human rights.

But Lewis is best known has a tireless fighter for civil rights — he marched with Martin Luther King in the early 1960s, sat down at segregated lunch counters, and was the victim of police nightsticks and billy clubs, suffering from a fractured skull.

Lewis was an original Freedom Rider, traveling on busses across the south as part of the battle for integration.

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From: MeNeedIt

“Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” stayed on a strong glide path in North American theaters, taking in an estimated $73.6 million for the three-day weekend, industry watcher Exhibitor Relations reported Sunday.

The Disney film, marketed as a grand finale of the nine-film “Skywalker Saga,” has had mixed reviews and was down considerably from last weekend’s lofty $177.4 million opening.

But it has compiled a strong domestic total of $364.5 million.

It again maintained a big lead over the No. 2 film, Sony’s “Jumanji: The Next Level,” an action sequel starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Kevin Hart, which had $34.4 million in North American ticket sales for the Friday-through-Sunday period.

In third for the second straight week was Disney’s “Frozen II,” at $17 million. The animated musical film has Broadway star Idina Menzel voicing Queen Elsa in her latest adventures.

Louisa May Alcott’s classic novel “Little Women” has been brought to the screen many times — no fewer than seven, by Variety’s count — but the new version from director Greta Gerwig has drawn strong reviews and netted $16.2 million to place fourth in its debut this weekend.

The film stars Saoirse Ronan, Florence Pugh, Timothee Chalamet, Emma Watson and Laura Dern, in the story of the joys and struggles of four sisters during the US Civil War.

In fifth was new Fox/Disney release “Spies in Disguise,” at $13.4 million. The animated children’s film features the voices of Will Smith and Tom Holland.

Rounding out the top 10 were:

“Knives Out” ($9.9 million)

“Uncut Gems” ($9.4 million)

“Bombshell” ($4.8 million)

“Cats” ($4.8 million)

“Richard Jewell” ($3 million)
 

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From: MeNeedIt

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki on Sunday condemned Russian President Vladimir Putin for blaming Poland for the outbreak of World War II, saying Moscow was lying to deflect attention from recent failures.

Poland’s foreign ministry had already summoned the Russian ambassador in protest on Friday, recalling that the war began with a Soviet-German alliance and that Poland lost around six million citizens in the conflict.

“President Putin has lied about Poland on numerous occasions, and he has always done it deliberately,” Morawiecki said in a statement.

“This usually happens when Russian authorities feel international pressure related to their activities…. In recent weeks Russia has suffered several significant defeats,” he added.

As examples, Morawiecki mentioned that the European Union had prolonged sanctions against Russia over its annexation of Crimea, Russian athletes were suspended for four years for doping, and Russia “failed in its attempt to take complete control over Belarus.”

“I consider President Putin’s words as an attempt to cover up these problems. The Russian leader is well aware that his accusations have nothing to do with reality — and that in Poland there are no monuments of Hitler or Stalin,” Morawiecki said.

“Such monuments stood here only when they were erected by the aggressors and perpetrators — the Third Reich and Soviet Russia.”

Ahead of the German invasion of Poland on Sept. 1, 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union agreed to carve up eastern Europe between them in a secret clause of the infamous Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.

The Soviets attacked Poland on Sept. 17, 1939, and occupied part of its territory before Hitler launched a surprise attack against the USSR in 1941.

Earlier this month, Putin blamed the Western powers and Poland for World War II, pointing to various treaties signed with Nazi Germany before the conflict began in 1939.

He later also accused Poland of anti-Semitism, claiming a pre-war Polish ambassador promised to put up a statue of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler in Warsaw for his pledge to send Jews to Africa.

The row comes as bilateral tensions are running high, with NATO and EU member Poland fearing what has been described as Russian military adventurism and imperialist tendencies.

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From: MeNeedIt

The Israeli Security Cabinet on Sunday voted to withhold $43 million of tax funds from the Palestinians, saying the money has been used to promote violence, Israeli media reported.

The sum represents funds that Israel says the Palestinians have used to pay the families of Palestinians who have been jailed or killed as a result of attacking Israel, according to various reports.

Israel says the so-called Martyrs’ Fund rewards violence. The Palestinians say the payments are needed to help vulnerable families who have been affected by violence and Israeli occupation.

Under past agreements, Israel collects customs and other taxes on behalf of the Palestinians and transfers the money to the Palestinian Authority. These monthly transfers, about $170 million, are a key source of funding for the budget of the authority, which administers parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Israel last year passed a law deducting parts of these transfers that it said were supporting militants’ families. Sunday’s decision was a continuation of that policy.

In February, after Israel withheld $140 million, the Palestinians said they would reject all transfers to protest the Israeli policy. But six months later, with the Palestinian Authority in a deep financial crisis, the sides worked out a deal to resume most of the transfers.

Palestinian official Hanan Ashrawi denounced the latest Israeli move, calling it a “blatant act of theft and political extortion.”

“This is a clear violation of Palestinian rights and signed agreements as well as a criminal act of collective punishment exacted for cynical domestic Israeli political reasons,” she said.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office declined comment.

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From: MeNeedIt

The first one occurred 19 days into the new year when a man used an ax to kill four family members, including his infant daughter. Five months later, 12 people were killed in a workplace shooting in Virginia. Twenty-two more died at a Walmart in El Paso in August. 
 
A database compiled by The Associated Press, USA Today and Northeastern University shows that there were more mass killings in 2019 than in any other year dating to at least the 1970s, punctuated by a chilling succession of deadly rampages during the summer. 
 
In all, there were 41 mass killings, defined as when four or more people are killed, excluding the perpetrator. Of those, 33 were mass shootings. More than 210 people were killed. 
 
Most of the mass killings barely became national news, failing to resonate among the general public because they didn’t spill into public places like massacres in El Paso and Odessa, Texas; Dayton, Ohio; Virginia Beach, Virginia; and Jersey City, New Jersey. 
 
Most of the killings involved people who knew each other — family disputes, drug or gang violence, or people with beefs who directed their anger at co-workers or relatives. 

In many cases, what set off the perpetrator remains a mystery. 
 
That’s the case with the very first mass killing of 2019, when a 42-year-old man took an ax and stabbed to death his mother, stepfather, girlfriend and 9-month-old daughter in Clackamas County, Oregon. Two others, a roommate and an 8-year-old girl, escaped; the rampage ended when responding police fatally shot the killer. 
 
The perpetrator had had occasional run-ins with police over the years, but what drove him to attack his family remains unknown. He had just gotten a job training mechanics at an auto dealership, and despite occasional arguments with his relatives, most said there was nothing out of the ordinary that raised significant red flags. 
 
The incident in Oregon was one of 18 mass killings in which family members were slain, and one of six that didn’t involve a gun. Among other trends in 2019: 
 
— The 41 mass killings were the most in a single year since the AP/USA Today and Northeastern database began tracking such events back to 2006, but other research going back to the 1970s shows no other year with as many mass slayings. The second-most killings in a year prior to 2019 was 38 in 2006. 
 
— The total of 211 people killed in this year’s cases is still eclipsed by the 224 victims in 2017, when the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history took place in Las Vegas. 
 
— California, with some of the most strict gun laws in the country, had the most mass slayings, with eight. But nearly half of U.S. states experienced a mass slaying, from big cities like New York to tiny towns like Elkmont, Alabama, with a population of just under 475 people. 
 
— Firearms were the weapons used in all but eight of the mass killings. Other weapons included knives and axes, and at least twice, the perpetrator set a mobile home on fire, killing those inside. 
 
— Nine mass shootings occurred in public places. Other mass killings occurred in homes, workplaces or bars. 

James Densley, a criminologist and professor at Metropolitan State University in Minnesota, said the AP/USA Today/Northeastern database confirms and mirrors what his own research into exclusively mass shootings has shown. 

“What makes this even more exceptional is that mass killings are going up at a time when general homicides, overall homicides, are going down,” Densley said. “As a percentage of homicides, these mass killings are also accounting for more deaths.” 
 
He believes it’s partially a byproduct of an “angry and frustrated time” that we are living in. Densley also said crime tends to go in waves, with the 1970s and 1980s seeing a number of serial killers, the 1990s marked by school shootings and child abductions, and the early 2000s dominated by concerns over terrorism. 
 
“This seems to be the age of mass shootings,” Densley said. 
 
He and James Alan Fox, a criminologist and professor at Northeastern University, also expressed worries about the “contagion effect,” the focus on mass killings fueling other mass killings. 
 
“These are still rare events. Clearly the risk is low but the fear is high,” Fox said. “What fuels contagion is fear.” 
 
The mass shootings this year include the three in August in Texas and Dayton that stirred fresh urgency, especially among Democratic presidential candidates, to restrict access to firearms. 
 
While the large death tolls attracted much of the attention, the killings inflicted a mental and physical toll on dozens of others. The database does not have a complete count of victims who were wounded, but among the three mass shootings in August alone, more than 65 people were injured. 
 
Daniel Munoz, 28, of Odessa was caught in the crossfire of the shooting that took place over a 10-mile (16-kilometer) stretch in West Texas. He was on his way to meet a friend at a bar when he saw a gunman and the barrel of a firearm. Instinctively, he got down just as his car was sprayed with bullets. 

Munoz, who moved to Texas about a year ago to work in the oil industry, said he had actually been on edge since the Walmart shooting, which took place just 28 days earlier and about 300 miles (480 kilometers) away, worried that a shooting could happen anywhere at any time. 
 
He remembers calling his mother after the El Paso shooting to encourage her to have a firearm at home or with her in case she needed to defend herself. He would say the same to friends, telling them before they went to a Walmart to take a firearm in case they needed to protect themselves or others during an attack. 
 
“You can’t just always assume you’re safe. In that moment, as soon as the El Paso shooting happened, I was on edge,” Munoz said. 
 
Adding to his anxiety is that, as a convicted felon, he’s prohibited from possessing a firearm. 
 
A few weeks later, as he sat behind the wheel of his car, he spotted the driver of an approaching car wielding a firearm. 
 
“My worst nightmare became a reality,” he said. “I’m the middle of a gunfight and I have no way to defend myself.” 
 
In the months since, the self-described social butterfly steers clear of crowds and can only tolerate so much socializing. He still drives the same car, still riddled with bullet holes on the side panels, a bullet hole in the headrest of the passenger seat and the words “evidence” scrawled on the doors. His shoulder remains pocked with bullet fragments. 

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From: MeNeedIt

President Donald Trump retweeted a post that included the alleged name of the anonymous whistleblower whose complaint ultimately led to Trump’s impeachment by the House. 

Just before midnight Friday, Trump retweeted a message from Twitter user @Surfermom77, an account that claims to be a woman named Sophia who lives in California. The account shows some indications of automation, including an unusually high amount of activity and profile pictures featuring stock images from the internet. 

By Saturday morning, the post seemed to have disappeared on many users’ feeds, suggesting Trump had deleted it, though it could still be found in other ways, including on a website that logs every presidential tweet.

The retweet then reappeared Saturday night. Twitter told The Associated Press that an outage with one of its systems caused tweets on some accounts, including Trump’s, to be visible to some but not others.

Trump has repeatedly backed efforts to unmask the whistleblower. But his Friday night retweet marks the first time he has directly sent the alleged name into the Twitter feed of his 68 million followers.

Unmasking the whistleblower, who works in the intelligence field, could violate federal protection laws that have historically been supported by both parties. 

Phone conversation

 The whistleblower filed a complaint in August about one of Trump’s telephone conversations with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and other dealings with the Eastern European nation. The complaint prompted House Democrats to launch a probe that ended with Trump’s impeachment earlier this month. The matter now heads to the Senate, where the Republican majority is expected to acquit the president.

The central points from the whistleblower’s complaint were confirmed during the House impeachment hearings by a string of diplomats and other career officials, many of whom testified in public. The White House also released a transcript of Trump’s July 25 phone call with Zelenskiy, in which he asks for help investigating former Vice President Joe Biden and the Democratic National Committee. 

Speculation about the whistleblower’s identity has been circulating in conservative media and on social media for months. 

U.S. whistleblower laws exist to protect the identity and careers of people who bring forward accusations of wrongdoing by government officials. The Associated Press typically does not reveal the identity of whistleblowers. 

President’s position

Trump insists he did nothing wrong in his dealings with Ukraine and has asserted that the whistleblower made up the complaint, despite its corroboration by other officials. Trump also argues that he has a right to face his accuser and has called on the whistleblower to step forward.

For months, an array of right-wing personalities, amateur pro-Trump internet sleuths and some conservative news outlets have published what they claim to be details about the whistleblower, including name and career history. The president himself has also been inching closer to outing the individual; earlier this week, Trump shared a tweet linking to a Washington Examiner article that included the alleged name.

@Surfermom77, the Twitter handle on the post Trump retweeted, describes herself as a “100%Trump Supporter” and California resident. The account had nearly 79,000 followers as of Saturday afternoon. Some of its previous posts have denounced Islam and sharply criticized former President Barack Obama and other Democrats.

@Surfermom77 has displayed some hallmarks of a Twitter bot, an automated account. A recent profile picture on the account, for instance, is a stock photo of a woman in business attire that is available for use online. 
 
That photo was removed Saturday and replaced with an image of Trump. 
 
A deeper look at @Surfermom77’s account shows the user previously used two other stock photos as profile pictures, including one of a model wearing an orange hat used by a hat retailer. 
 
@Surfermom77 has also tweeted far more than typical users, more than 170,000 times since the account was activated in 2013. @Surfermom77 has posted, on average, 72 tweets a day, according to Nir Hauser, chief technology officer at VineSight, a technology firm that tracks online misinformation. 
 
“That’s not something most humans are doing,” Hauser said. 
 
While many bots only repost benign information like cat photos, others have been used to spread disinformation or polarizing claims, as Russian bots did in the leadup to the 2016 election. 
 
Many jobs

In past years, @Surfermom77 has described herself as a teacher, historian, documentary author and model. Attempts to reach the person behind the account by telephone on Saturday were unsuccessful. An email address could not be found. 
 
Facebook has a policy banning posts that name the alleged whistleblower. But Twitter, which doesn’t have such a rule, has not removed the tweet from @Supermom77 or tweets from others who have named the alleged whistleblower. 
 
“The tweet you referenced is not a violation of the Twitter rules,” the company wrote in a statement emailed to The Associated Press. 
 
Some details about the whistleblower that have been published online by Trump’s supporters have been inaccurate or misrepresented. 
 
For example, a photo shared widely on social media last month was circulated by Facebook, Reddit and Twitter users who wrongly claimed it showed the whistleblower with Obama’s staffers outside the White House as Trump moved in. 
 
The individual in the photo actually was R. David Edelman, a former special assistant to Obama on economic and tech policy. Edelman debunked the claim on his Twitter account and told the AP he received threats online as a result of the false claims. 

‘Completely inappropriate’
 
Michael German, an FBI whistleblower who left the agency after reporting allegations of mismanagement in counterterrorism cases, said outing government whistleblowers not only puts them at personal risk but also discourages other government officials from stepping forward to expose possible wrongdoing. 
 
German, now a fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University Law School, said the ease with which the alleged whistleblower’s identity has been spread online shows the need for greater legal protections for whistleblowers. 
 
He added that it’s “completely inappropriate for the president of the United States to be engaged in any type of behavior that could harm a whistleblower.” 

…

From: MeNeedIt

North Korea began a closely watched ruling party meeting led by Kim Jong Un, state media reported Sunday, amid signs Pyongyang is set to announce a firmer stance toward the United States. 
 
Kim is widely expected in the next week to announce the details of his “new way” for North Korea, following the expiration of its self-imposed end-of-year deadline for the U.S. to offer a better proposal in stalled nuclear talks. 
 
State media coverage of the Workers’ Party of Korea meeting offered few hints about the country’s direction. 
 
The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) mentioned an “anti-imperialist” stance and the building up of national defense but gave no other details. 
 
“The plenary meeting goes on,” KCNA said, apparently indicating a multiday meeting. 
 
Talks boycotted

North Korea has boycotted nuclear talks for months and recently threatened to resume long-range missile and nuclear tests. An official said earlier this month that denuclearization was off the negotiating table. 
 
Those threats — mostly made by lower-level officials — were widely seen as an attempt to increase pressure on the U.S. ahead of North Korea’s deadline. 

Kim’s annual New Year’s speech is expected to offer much firmer evidence of the country’s direction in 2020. In his speech last year, he warned of a “new way” if the talks didn’t progress. 
 
North Korea also threatened to deliver a “Christmas gift” to the U.S., leading many analysts to predict a North Korean holiday missile test. But Christmas passed with no signs of what that “gift” might be. 
 
There are multiple possible explanations for why North Korea has refrained from a major provocation, including last-minute progress between Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump or a warning from China, which typically frowns on North Korean missile and nuclear tests. 

No ‘cold feet’
 
“But Kim, nevertheless, probably did not get cold feet,” said Duyeon Kim, a senior adviser for Northeast Asia and nuclear policy at the International Crisis Group. 
 
“North Korea’s course of action after the year-end deadline will be far more significant than a gift timed to coincide with what it sees as an American holiday. After all, anything can happen in the remaining six days of 2019 after Christmas. And presents can be delivered any time the giver feels so compelled,” Kim said. 

Even without a North Korean launch or other provocation, tensions have been high, especially after Japan’s public broadcaster NHK erroneously reported Friday that North Korea had launched a missile that landed in the waters east of Japan. The broadcaster later apologized for the false report, saying it was a media training alert. 

A tense moment also occurred late Thursday when Camp Casey, a U.S. Army base in South Korea, accidentally blasted an emergency siren instead of taps, a bugle call typically played at military bases at the end of the day. 
 
The false alarms are even more notable considering the relative silence from North Korea during the last couple of weeks, after having ramped up threats in early December. 

‘Deafening’ silence
 
“It has been the uneasy calm before the storm,” said Robert Carlin, a former U.S. intelligence official with decades of experience researching North Korea. 
 
“The air was certainly heavy with Pyongyang’s warnings earlier. But then, beginning on December 15, these abruptly stopped and the North became extremely quiet, preternaturally quiet,” Carlin said in a post on 38 North, a website specializing in North Korea.

“The silence, in fact, has been deafening,” he said. 

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From: MeNeedIt

The Australian government announced Sunday that it would compensate volunteer firefighters in the state of New South Wales (NSW), as the country’s intense bushfire season rages on. 

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said payments of up to A$6,000 would be available for eligible firefighters who had spent more than 10 days in the field this fire season. 

“I know that our volunteer firefighters in NSW are doing it tough, especially in rural and regional areas,” Morrison said in a statement. “The early and prolonged nature of this fire season has made a call beyond what is typically made on our volunteer firefighters.” 

The conservative leader has previously said compensation for volunteers was not a priority, but he has faced increasing political pressure as widespread fires continue to burn. 

On Tuesday, he announced government workers could receive additional paid leave for volunteering. 

While there are different rules across Australia’s states, volunteers tend to negotiate time off directly with their employers. 

Eight fatalities

Bushfires have destroyed more than 4 million hectares (9.9 million acres) in five states since September, and eight deaths have been linked to the blazes. 

Cooler conditions in many areas during Christmas week helped contain some blazes, but the fire risk has increased in parts of the country in the final few days of 2019. 

On Sunday, organizers of a major music festival in the state of Victoria canceled the event, citing extreme weather conditions expected Monday. 

“After consultation with local and regional fire authorities and other emergency stakeholders, it is clear that we have no other option,” the organizers wrote on Facebook. 

The event was meant to run until New Year’s Eve, and 9,000 people were already camping at the site when the announcement was made. 

A total fire ban is in place for all of Victoria on Monday because of forecast high temperatures and strong winds creating an “extreme” fire risk across most of the state. 

…

From: MeNeedIt

The World Health Organization reports investigations into potential health threats and the quick response by WHO and partners to global emergencies has protected millions of the world’s most vulnerable people this year from disease and death.

In 2019, the World Health Organization and partners have responded to 51 emergencies in more than 40 countries and territories and have investigated 440 potential health threats in 138 countries and territories.  

After the headlines evoking these emergencies have faded away, the work of helping the victims of manmade and natural disasters recover carries on out of the media spotlight.  

Executive Director of WHO Emergencies Program, Michael Ryan, says the unseen work of sustaining fragile health systems in conflicts and other emergencies does not stop.

“In Bangladesh, we work with partners to address the health needs of nearly one million Rohingya refugees living in the crowded camps in Cox’s Bazar,” said Ryan. “The mortality rate in this highly vulnerable population has remained at low levels…These crude death rates remain well below what is considered acceptable in this situation…And, that is down to a lot of hard work by a lot of people.”  

Ryan says WHO and partners have provided health services to more than 10 million people in Yemen.   He says over one million children have been protected from vaccine-preventable diseases and more than 100,000 have been treated for severe acute malnutrition.

“In Uganda, Ebola transmission was prevented after cases crossed from DRC on two separate occasions,” said Ryan. “And, the preparedness work that has been going on in surrounding countries…Uganda, with the support of the international community spent $18 million on preparedness and stopped Ebola twice.” 

The World Health Organization estimates more than one billion dollars will be spent to root out the deadly Ebola virus, which has been circulating in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo since August 2018.  The latest number of reported cases stands at 3,366, including 2,227 deaths.

Other emergencies to which WHO has responded over the past year include the cyclone in Mozambique, conflict emergencies in Syria and South Sudan, floods in Iran, an earthquake in Albania, and a deadly measles outbreak on the small Pacific island of Samoa.

…

From: MeNeedIt

A NASA robotic rover is nearing completion ahead of a journey next year to search for evidence of past life on Mars and lay the groundwork for the space agency’s mission to send humans into deep space.

The U.S. space agency on Friday showed off its Mars 2020 rover, whose official name will be chosen early next year. NASA will in February ship the rover to Florida’s Kennedy Space Center where its three sections will be fully assembled. A July launch will send the rover to a dry lake bed on Mars that is bigger than the island of Manhattan.

The four-wheeled, car-sized rover will scour the base of Mars’ Jezero Crater, an 820-foot-deep (250-meter-deep) crater thought to have been a lake the size of Lake Tahoe, once the craft lands in February 2021. The crater is believed to have an abundance of pristine sediments some 3.5 billion years old that scientists hope will hold fossils of Martian life.

“The trick, though, is that we’re looking for trace levels of chemicals from billions of years ago on Mars,” Mars 2020 deputy project manager Matt Wallace told Reuters. The rover will collect up to 30 soil samples to be picked up and returned to Earth by a future spacecraft planned by NASA.

“Once we have a sufficient set, we’ll put them down on the ground, and another mission, which we hope to launch in 2026, will come, land on the surface, collect those samples and put them into a rocket, basically,” Wallace said. Humans have never before returned sediment samples from Mars.

The findings of the Mars 2020 research will be crucial to future human missions to the red planet, including the ability to make oxygen on the surface of Mars, Wallace said. The Mars 2020 Rover is carrying equipment that can turn carbon dioxide, which is pervasive on Mars, into oxygen for breathing and as a propellant.

LESSONS FROM CURIOSITY

If successful, Mars 2020 will mark NASA’s fifth Martian rover to carry out a soft landing, having learned crucial lessons from the most recent Curiosity rover that landed on the planet’s surface in 2012 and continues to traverse a Martian plain southeast of the Jezero Crater.

The Soviet Union is the only other country to successfully land a rover on Mars. China and Japan have attempted unsuccessfully to send orbiters around Mars, while India and Europe’s space agency have successfully lofted an orbiter to the planet.

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From: MeNeedIt