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Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party will win an overwhelming victory in Britain’s election with a majority of 86 seats in parliament to deliver Brexit on Jan. 31, an exit poll showed Thursday.

The exit poll showed Johnson’s Conservatives would win a landslide of 368 seats, more than enough for a very comfortable majority in the 650-seat parliament and the biggest Conservative national election win since Margaret Thatcher’s 1987 triumph.

Labour were forecast by the poll to win 191 seats, the worst result for the party since 1935. The Scottish National Party would win 55 seats and the Liberal Democrats 13, the poll said.

The Brexit Party were not forecast to win any.

“That would be a phenomenal victory for the Conservative Party and Boris Johnson will feel completely vindicated with the gamble that he took,” said John Bercow, the former speaker of the House of Commons.

“That would be an absolutely dramatic victory,” he said.

Sterling surged after the exit poll, hitting its highest against the euro since July 2016, shortly after the Brexit referendum. Versus the dollar it jumped 2.3% to $1.3480.

Official results will be declared over the next seven hours.

In the last five national elections, only one exit poll has got the outcome wrong — in 2015 when the poll predicted a hung parliament when in fact the Conservatives won a majority, taking 14 more seats than forecast.

If the exit poll is accurate and Johnson’s bet on a snap election has paid off, he will move swiftly to ratify the Brexit deal he struck with the European Union so that the United Kingdom can leave on Jan. 31, 2020 — 10 months later than initially planned.

Britain’s paralysis 

Johnson called the first Christmas election since 1923 to break what he said was the paralysis of Britain’s political system after more than three years of crisis over how, when or even if to leave the European Union.

The face of the “Leave” campaign in the 2016 referendum, 55-year-old Johnson fought the election under the slogan of “Get Brexit Done,” promising to end the deadlock and spend more on health, education and the police.

The exit poll was produced by three broadcasters — the BBC, ITV and Sky — who teamed up to jointly produce similar surveys in the last three elections, held in 2010, 2015 and 2017.

In 2010 and 2017, their exit polls accurately predicted the overall outcome and were close to forecasting the correct number of seats for the two main parties.

Johnson’s strategy was to breach Labour’s so-called “Red Wall” of seats across the Brexit-supporting areas of the Midlands and northern England where he cast his political opponents as the out-of-touch enemies of Brexit.

Brexit far from over

While a majority will allow Johnson to lead the United Kingdom out of the club it first joined in 1973, Brexit is far from over: He faces the daunting task of negotiating a trade agreement with the EU in just 11 months.

After Jan. 31, Britain will enter a transition period during which it will negotiate a new relationship with the EU27.

This can run until the end of December 2022 under the current rules, but the Conservatives made an election promise not to extend the transition period beyond the end of 2020.
 

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The recent U.S. seizure of suspected Iranian guided missile parts headed to rebels in Yemen highlights Iran’s continued far-reaching involvement in the war-torn country, experts say. 
  
U.S. officials said earlier this month that a U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard boarding team seized a small boat in the northern Arabian Sea that was carrying sophisticated weapons to Iranian-backed rebels in Yemen. 
  
Iran has not commented on the seizure, but the country has in the past denied sending weapons to Houthi rebels.   
  
Some experts believe the incident shows Iran’s escalating efforts to defy international obligations and to destabilize Yemen and the broader region. 
 
“This is one additional piece of evidence that Iran continues to violate multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions in exporting arms, which it’s not allowed to do,” said James Phillips, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation in Washington.  

A U.N. resolution adopted in 2007 prohibits Iran from supplying and exporting weapons outside the country unless approved by the Security Council. Another U.N. resolution, adopted in 2015, bans the supply of weapons to Houthi rebels in Yemen. 
 
Since the war in Yemen began in 2015, Iran has been backing Houthi rebels who control much of northern Yemen. Houthis have been fighting forces loyal to the internationally recognized government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. 
 
The Houthis reportedly have been using parts smuggled from Iran to build their advanced arsenal. Iran’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which was designated a terrorist organization by the Trump administration earlier this year, has been accused of providing weapons and expertise to Houthi rebels. 

Substantial amount of weapons 
 
Although the size of the recently seized shipment remains unclear, experts charge that over the years, Iran has delivered a substantial amount of weaponry to its Houthi allies in response to what Tehran sees as growing Saudi Arabian influence in the country. 
 
“The weapon cache discovered in that yacht is only a small example of what IRGC Quds Force is sending to Yemen to be used by Houthi rebels,” said Babak Taghvaei, a Malta-based military analyst with knowledge of Iran’s involvement in regional conflicts, including the one in Yemen. 
 
He told VOA that a Saudi-led coalition had on several occasions seized Iranian-made weapons that were intended for the Houthis. 
  
Saudi Arabia and several Arab countries have been engaged in the Yemeni war since its inception, with the aim of removing Houthi rebels. The conflict therefore is seen as a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran. 
 
While the recent seizure marked the first time such sophisticated components had been taken en route to Yemen, U.S. warships have intercepted and seized Iranian arms likely bound for Houthi fighters many times in recent years. 

“The seizure of these weapons will help the U.S. and its allies to find out about technology and material used for production of these weapons, and how to protect their forces from their danger,” analyst Taghvaei said. 
  
Additional US forces? 
 
Despite growing tensions between Tehran and Washington, experts rule out the likelihood of any direct confrontation between the two sides in the Persian Gulf region. 
 
However, Nicholas Heras, a Middle East researcher at the Center for a New American Security, said he thought the U.S. could increase its military presence in the Middle East, for two purposes. 
 
“The first is to reassure nervous partners such as Saudi Arabia that the U.S. is serious in protecting their territory and also their key economic assets, such as oil pipelines,” he told VOA. 
 
“The second purpose is to send a signal to Iran that if the U.S. decides that it is time to escalate against Iran and [its] malign activities in the broader Middle East, the U.S. has the muscle capable to do it,” Heras added. 

In recent months, the U.S. has beefed up its military presence in the region, deploying additional troops, ships, aircraft and other military supplies in response to what U.S. officials say is a growing threat from Iran. 
 
‘Spoiler’ in Yemen 
 
Some experts also say the recent seizure is yet more evidence that Iran acts as a “spoiler” in Yemen, especially since Saudi Arabia reportedly has been engaged in informal talks with the Houthis about a potential cease-fire. 
 
“Riyadh is seeking border security as a part of this process, and the continued Iranian arming of the Houthis — in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions — is Tehran’s way of putting its thumb on the scale,” said Jason Brodsky, an Iran expert based in Washington. 
 
“In the end, this seized cache is just another reminder of Iran’s power projection throughout the region,” he told VOA. 

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Boeing Co on Thursday abandoned its goal of winning approval this month from the Federal Aviation Administration to unground the 737 MAX after Chief Executive Dennis Muilenburg met with senior U.S. aviation officials.

The announcement came after a congressional hearing on Wednesday in which numerous lawmakers prodded the FAA to take a tougher line with Boeing as it continues to review the plane that has been grounded since March after two fatal crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia that killed 346 people.

FAA Administrator Steve Dickson said on Wednesday he would not clear the plane to fly before 2020 and disclosed the agency has an ongoing investigation into 737 production issues in Renton, Washington. He added there are nearly a dozen milestones that must be completed before the MAX returns to service.

Approval is not likely until at least February and could be delayed until March, U.S. officials told Reuters.

Muilenburg and Boeing’s commercial airplanes chief, Stan Deal, met with Dickson and “committed to addressing all of the FAA’s questions,” the company said, adding it will work to support the agency’s “requirements and their timeline as we work to safely return the Max to service in 2020.”

Dickson told Muilenburg, according to an email sent to lawmakers by the FAA, that “Boeing’s focus should be on the quality and timeliness of data submittals for FAA review. He made clear that FAA’s certification requirements must be 100% complete before return to service.”

Boeing had said last month it expected the FAA would allow it to resume 737 MAX deliveries in December.

The company previously warned a significant delay in MAX approval could force it to cut or halt production of the aircraft, a move that would have repercussions across its global supply chain.

Boeing’s shares closed 1.1% lower at $346.29 on Thursday.

Separately, American Airlines Group Inc said on Thursday it was extending cancellations of 737 MAX flights through April 6. American, the largest U.S. airline, had previously canceled about 140 flights a day through March 4 and now expects to resume 737 MAX passenger flights on April 7.

Gary Kelly, the CEO of Boeing’s largest 737 MAX customer, Southwest Airlines Co, said he was “concerned” about what Boeing decides to do with its production line. Southwest was supposed to have 75 MAX jets in service this year and, like other airlines, it has had to cancel routes and scale back growth plans as it operates a slimmer fleet.

Kelly said it is “likely” the airline will again need to push back its restart date from March.

In an email to congressional staff earlier on Thursday disclosing the meeting between Dickson and Muilenburg, FAA official Philip Newman said Dickson is “concerned that Boeing continues to pursue a return-to-service schedule that is not realistic due to delays that have accumulated for a variety of reasons.

More concerning, the administrator wants to directly address the perception that some of Boeing’s public statements have been designed to force FAA into taking quicker action.”

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The U.S. Senate on Thursday unanimously passed a resolution that recognizes as genocide the mass killings of Armenians a century ago, a historic move that infuriated Turkey and dealt a blow to the already problematic ties between Ankara and Washington. 

Turkey condemned the measure, which passed a month after an official visit to the White House by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who enjoys a special rapport with President Donald Trump, amid mounting issues that have soured the relationship between the two NATO allies. 

Trump had cast his November 13 meeting with Erdogan as “wonderful” despite no concrete breakthrough on deep disagreements about issues such as Ankara’s purchase of Russian weapons systems and diverging views on Syria policy. 

The Democrat-led House of Representatives passed the resolution by an overwhelming majority in October. But Republican senators had blocked a vote in the Senate since the Erdogan meeting. 

‘Tribute’

“This is a tribute to the memory of 1.5 million victims of the first #Genocide of the 20th century and bold step in promotion of the prevention agenda. #NeverAgain,” Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan tweeted. 

The resolution, which is nonbinding, asserts that it is U.S. policy to commemorate as genocide the killing of 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Empire from 1915 to 1923. The Ottoman Empire was centered in present-day Turkey. 

Turkey accepts that many Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire were killed in clashes with Ottoman forces during World War I, but contests the figures and denies that the killings were systematically orchestrated and constituted genocide. 

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu called the decision a “political show,” while presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said Ankara strongly condemned and rejected the measure. 

“History will note these resolutions as irresponsible and irrational actions by some members of the U.S. Congress against Turkey,” Fahrettin Altun, Turkey’s communications director, said on Twitter. 

Sticking with S-400

Congressional aides said the White House did not want the legislation to move ahead while it was negotiating with Ankara on sensitive issues. However, since the visit, Erdogan repeatedly said Turkey had no intention of dropping the Russian S-400 air defense missile systems it bought, crushing any hopes for progress. 

For decades, measures recognizing the Armenian genocide have stalled in Congress, stymied by concerns about relations with Turkey and intense lobbying by Ankara. 

“I’ve invested, like, decades of my life,” said Aram Hamparian, executive director of the Armenian National Committee of America. “So it was a sense of relief and a bit of a vindication that … [the United] States recognized the history of the Armenians, but also put up a firewall against foreign countries coming into our democracy and dictating to us.” 

Congress has been united in its opposition to Turkey’s recent policy actions. Republican senators have been incensed with Turkey’s purchase of the S-400, which the United States says poses a threat to its F-35 fighter jets and cannot be integrated into NATO defenses. 

Syrian incursion

They have also moved to punish Turkey for its October 9 incursion into Syria. A U.S. Senate committee backed legislation on Wednesday to impose sanctions on Turkey, pushing Trump to take a harder line on the issue. Many lawmakers blame Trump for giving a green light to Ankara for its military offensive. 

To become law, that legislation would have to pass the House of Representatives — which passed its own Turkish sanctions bill 403-16 in October — and be signed by 
Trump. 

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Ninety-eight percent of The Weinstein Co.’s creditors are joining a tentative settlement that plaintiffs say includes $25 million for over two dozen actresses and former employees who claim Harvey Weinstein sexually harassed them, a lawyer said Thursday. 

The attorney, Karen Bitar, provided the estimate to U.S. District Judge Paul A. Engelmayer as she said the deal would cover “the overwhelming“ number of individuals and entities potentially owed money. 

Additional money, she said, would be set aside for anyone who did not accept the terms of the settlement. The agreement, which would be limited to $500,000 per person, would require court approval that is unlikely to come before the spring. 

The Weinstein Co. is currently proceeding in bankruptcy court, where any deal would face review. 

Canosa lawsuit

The discussion of the deal revealed by lawyers a day earlier arose during a hearing in Manhattan pertaining to a lawsuit filed against the company and the disgraced movie mogul by former Weinstein consultant Alexandra Canosa. 

Canosa, who has not joined the proposed settlement, has alleged that Weinstein on multiple occasions from 2010 to 2017 raped, sexually abused, intimidated and harassed her during what he maintained were business meetings in New York, Los Angeles, Malaysia and Budapest. 

Scores of women have accused the movie mogul of sexual misconduct. He has denied nonconsensual sex allegations. He faces a January 6 trial on rape and sexual assault charges in state court, where he has pleaded not guilty. 

Engelmayer agreed that depositions needed before a trial in Canosa’s case against Weinstein could wait to be taken until several weeks after his criminal trial ends. The testimony would include questioning of Canosa and Weinstein by lawyers in the case as they prepare to present evidence to a jury. 

‘Most courageous client’

Canosa’s lawyer, Thomas Giuffra, said outside court that most women who have sued Weinstein were agreeing to settle because the statute of limitations applied to their cases. 

“They’re getting a half-million [dollars] for an out-of-statute case,” he said. 

Canosa, he said, was determined to fight on. At least two other women were doing the same, he added. 

“They assumed we would just go along with the herd,” he said of other lawyers. “She’s the most courageous client I’ve ever had.” 

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The deadly shooting by a Saudi national last week at the Naval Air Station Pensacola in Florida has raised questions about radicalization in Saudi Arabia’s military ranks.

Mohammed Alshamrani, 21, a lieutenant in the Royal Saudi Air Force, opened fire in a classroom at the naval base, killing three U.S. sailors and wounding eight others before he was killed by police.
 
Alshamrani had reportedly shown signs of radicalization and embraced extremist ideology as early as 2016.
 
Vetting process
 
If reports about Alshamrani’s early radicalization are true, “then it raises more questions over what is the vetting process,” said Colin Clarke, a senior research fellow at the Soufan Center in New York.
 
“Clearly it is not effective enough, because this person would have been identified as someone who was making extremist remarks or holding religiously radical viewpoints,” Clarke told VOA.  
 
Considered a major U.S. ally in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia has been sending students to the United States for military training for decades.
 
According to the U.S. State Department, more than 5,500 temporary visas were issued to Saudi military personnel in 2019 alone. As of last week, 852 Saudi nationals were in the U.S. for Pentagon-sponsored training on security cooperation, The Washington Post  reported.
 
In response to the Friday attack, the Pentagon has suspended nonclassroom training for all Saudi Arabian military students presently in the U.S.  
 
U.S. defense officials also have ordered a review of the vetting process for all international students enrolled at U.S. military facilities.
 
Experts charge that moving forward, the vetting process for international military trainees should be more comprehensive to ensure that prospective students aren’t radicalized and don’t have ties with terror groups.
 
“Vetting might have to extend to a close examination of individuals’ social media accounts,” analyst Clarke said.
 
Anti-Americanism
 
Saudi Arabia is a major recipient of U.S. military aid and assistance. Riyadh is the top buyer of U.S. weapons. Between 2013 and 2017, Saudi Arabia’s  purchases accounted for nearly 18% of all U.S. arms sales, or about $9 billion, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

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But despite this close security cooperation, some experts, such as F. Gregory Gause, a professor of international affairs at Texas A&M University who monitors developments in Saudi Arabia, think there is an anti-American sentiment among many Saudi military personnel.
 
“I would assume that some amount of anti-Americanism is widespread in the Saudi military, as it is in Saudi public opinion and Arab public opinion generally,” he said.
 
Gause told VOA, “The more important question on this particular issue is not anti-Americanism, but radicalization into jihadist beliefs.”  
 
“Saudi government has, since the mid-2000s, been very careful to try to stamp it out at home, through a combination of repression and changed rhetoric,” he added.
 
Religiosity, not extremism
 
While some experts admit that religiosity exists among many Saudi military personnel, they maintain that it is not necessarily linked to extremist ideology.
 
“There is a level of religiosity in the Saudi military because it is part of the Saudi society, which is already religious,” said Abdullah Ghadwi, a journalist at the Okaz newspaper in Riyadh.
 
“However, this does not mean that extremism exists in the Saudi military,” he told VOA. However, “the Florida incident is a unique case.”
 
The Florida shooter was one of the remnants of “jihadist movements that the Saudi authorities are working to eradicate,” Ghadwi noted.
 
Wahhabism
 
Saudi Arabia is the birthplace of Wahhabism, a strict Sunni doctrine credited with inspiring the radical ideology of the Islamic State terror group.
 
Analyst Clarke said, “Saudi Arabia is the number one exporter of religious extremism and radical ideology across the world, and every now and then it comes back to bite them or another country, in this case it is the United States.”
 
He said thousands of Saudi nationals have traveled to conflict zones to become foreign fighters with terrorist groups.
 
But in its 2018 Country Reports on Terrorism, released in November, the State Department said, “Saudi Arabia continued to enact domestic religious sector reforms, including the development of more stringent guidance and approval for Saudi religious personnel traveling overseas to conduct proselytization.”  
 
“As part of what Saudi Arabia describes as its ‘moderate Islam’ initiative, Saudi clerics and religious attachés sent abroad were vetted for observance to principles of tolerance and peaceful coexistence and were forbidden from undertaking proselytization efforts beyond host country Sunni Muslim communities,” the report added.
 
Continued cooperation
 
Ghadwi, the Okaz newspaper journalist, said the Pensacola attack could be a way to raise the level of security and counterterrorism cooperation between Washington and Riyadh.
 
“Most likely the Florida shooting incident won’t affect the course of security cooperation between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, rather it increases it,” he said.
 
“Saudi Arabia is affected by this extremist ideology like the United States, and therefore the two parties will continue to eradicate it,” Ghadwi added.

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Environmentalists and climate change activists worldwide are hailing Time magazine’s decision to make Greta Thunberg its 2019 Person of the Year. The teenage activist has attracted the world’s attention with her eloquent calls on political and industrial leaders to make courageous decisions on climate change. Her actions have inspired young people worldwide to fight for the protection of the planet. But as VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports, there are critics who say Thunberg’s mission and her celebrity status are all wrong

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Top American officials say the U.S. is hopeful that the recent prisoner exchange will lead to a broader discussion on consular affairs between the U.S. and Iran.

In an interview with VOA on Wednesday, Brian Hook, the U.S. special representative for Iran, recalled some of the emotional moments of witnessing the release of Xiyue Wang, a Chinese American detained in Iran, and said Wang will be “working with us and doing everything we can to get out people like Bob Levinson and then the Namazis and others.”

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Wang was freed Saturday after being held in Iran since 2016 on spying charges, in return for the U.S. releasing Iranian scientist Masoud Soleimani.

Hook said Wang is “in excellent condition” and is at Ramstein Air Force Base with his wife and son.

While the top U.S. envoy said the rare prisoner exchange between the two nations is “a good first step” toward more dialogue, he called Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif’s proposal via a tweet for “a comprehensive prisoner swap” not helpful.

“We don’t think it’s all that helpful for any sort of talking about prisoners in public. We just try to do this in quiet diplomacy and bring Americans back home,” Hook said.

The following are excerpts from the interview.

VOA: First, congratulations on bringing detained American home. You were there to witness the release of Xiyue Wang, the Princeton Ph.D. candidate. Could you please share with us your firsthand story and some of the most memorable moments?

Hook: It was a big day for American diplomacy, but it was an even bigger day for Xiyue Wang. And so the United States has been working on releasing all Americans who are detained in Iran for the last three years. We’ve been working to win their release. We’ve been trying to get a consular dialogue going with Iran so that we can get Americans out. And then about three or four weeks ago, we started getting some more positive signals from the Iranians, and then working through the Swiss, I’ve been working with the Swiss, was able to negotiate the release of Xiyue Wang. And so when we were in Zurich, it was a really powerful moment to welcome Xiyue back home and out of Iranian custody, out of Iranian prison.

He is a brave and amazing man. He is currently at Ramstein Air Force Base with his wife and son. They’re now reunited. And I think he’s getting great medical care there. He is in excellent condition. And he emerged from this, he’s very strong. He’s, I really admire his toughness and when he’s ready, after we get through I think just the period of just the medical evaluation and reuniting with his family, then he’ll be coming back to the United States.

VOA: What was his first ask when he met you?

Hook: He just said it’s great to be an American. Those were his first words. And it was a very emotional moment, very powerful. And I really admire him. And I know his wife, Hua, and she’s at Princeton. And she has been tireless in advocating for his release and I had met with her. We’ve spoken by phone a number of times.

Now, there are other families who also have loved ones in Iran who are, we are still trying to get out.

One of the things that Xiyue made very clear to me was he wants to get all of them out. And I know that he’ll be working with us and doing everything we can to get out people like Bob Levinson and the Namazis and others. And we work on it every day.

VOA: Xiyue Wang was born in Beijing. He’s now a U.S. citizen. His wife is a Chinese citizen. During the process, did the Chinese government provide any help or play any role in securing his release?

Hook: Not that I’m aware of. I’m not aware of any role that China played securing his release.

VOA: After the recent swap of Xiyue Wang and Soleimani, Iran’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif tweeted that Iran is fully ready for a comprehensive prisoner exchange. What is your take? How serious is the U.S. taking his pitch?

Hook: Foreign Minister Zarif unfortunately has a long history of creating a sense of false hope with American families. On a regular basis, he says things that we then follow up and test the offer, and then we discovered that there is no offer.

Now we were able to get a successful exchange this time, and it was a fair negotiation. So we’re very pleased with the outcome. We don’t conduct trying to get our hostages out of Iran in public. And so I didn’t, I didn’t talk to the media or to anybody during the last three or four weeks when I was negotiating the release of Xiyue Wang. That is the proper way to handle this.

So we don’t think it’s all that helpful for any sort of talking about prisoners in public. We just try to do this in quiet diplomacy and bring Americans back home.

But I am going to follow up with the Iranians, this was a good first step. I’ll work through the Swiss, the Swiss have been fantastic. They are protecting power. We don’t have an ambassador in Iran. So we rely on the Swiss to represent us in Iran. And they were great. Markus Leitner, the Swiss ambassador to Iran, was a great partner in helping to get Xiyue Wang out of prison. I’ll continue to work with him and the Iranians.

It is a good first step, and I hope this leads to bigger and better things.

VOA: Does the recent swap open any door?  Is there any indication that Iranians may be willing to come to the table to discuss all outstanding issues?

Hook: I don’t think the diplomats in Iran that I met with have any mandate from the supreme leader [Ayatollah Ali Khamenei] to talk to the Americans. I was certainly open to having a conversation with them, but that’s been American policy. The president, the secretary of state have all made clear that we’re, we want to resolve our diplomatic differences bilaterally, through diplomacy, not through military force, which is what Iran has been choosing, and they’ve been making the wrong choice because their economy is in a free fall and the regime is becoming more diplomatically isolated.

But unfortunately, look, I think there are a lot of people in Iran’s foreign ministry that would like to talk to United States and would like to come to the table, but the supreme leader doesn’t give them much of a leash. And I think that became clear in Zurich. And so we hope at some point the supreme leader will start making better choices for his own people instead of making bad choices.

VOA: Is the U.S. advocating for a regime change in Tehran?

Hook: For the 1 millionth time, I’ve said this, the United States policy is a change in behavior. It is not a change in regime. And everybody knows that we have a list of 12 demands. Most of them are based on U.N. Security Council resolutions that were passed unanimously, with votes by China and Russia. These were the international standards before the failed Iran nuclear deal. We are trying to restore those standards. Most of the things that we’re asking for you can find in a U.N. Security Council resolution. It’s not an unrealistic list. It’s very realistic.

And those who think it’s too ambitious, I would ask those people to identify what of the 12 things they would like Iran to keep doing? Do they want Iran to keep enriching nuclear material? Do they want Iran to be proliferating ballistic missiles and sending billions of dollars to Assad and to the Houthis so that they can bomb other countries? This is the right list, this is the right approach. We’re very pleased with the success of our maximum pressure campaign.

VOA: Do you see a Berlin Wall moment in Iran, given the ongoing protests?

Hook: It’s very hard to predict how things go in any country around the world. We do know that Iran is facing its deadliest political unrest in the history of the 40 years of the Islamic Republic. And so we stand with the Iranian people. The Iranian regime has murdered as many as 1,000 Iranians. And the supreme leader calls his own people thugs. And now you’re seeing the regime has lost almost every constituency supporting its revolutionary policy. And now they cling to power with just brute force. And so, we know the Iranian people are demanding the same things that we are, and other nations around the world: stop prioritizing proxies over people. The Iranian people want a better life and they’re tired of all their money being spent in foreign wars.

VOA: For many years, the U.S. has been asking for a consular dialogue with Iran. Has there been any progress? What is the U.S. asking for? What are the sticking points?

Hook: “When I met with Iran’s deputy foreign minister 2 1/2 years ago, Abbas Araghchi, I asked for a consular dialogue and he said no. There have been other times, we’ve asked for it repeatedly and Iran keeps saying no. We’re gonna continue to ask for it.

As I said, I’m really pleased that we were able to make a fair deal with the regime over the release and the exchange of Soleimani for Xiyue Wang. So let’s make this a first step, and I hope that the regime takes advantage of this moment, and let’s build on it.

VOA: Thank you so much for talking to VOA.

Hook: Thank you.

VOA’s Tom Bagnall contributed to this report.

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For the first time since the early 20th century, more Americans are choosing to die at home rather than in a hospital.

A report published in the New England Journal of Medicine Wednesday found deaths in nursing homes also have declined.

Researchers studied data on natural deaths complied by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Center for Health Statistics from 2003 to 2017.

In that period, the number of people dying at home increased from 543,874 (23.8%) to 788,757 (30.7%).  

At the same time, the number of deaths in a hospital fell from 905,874 (39.7%) in 2003 to 764,424 (29.8% ) in 2017.

“It’s a good thing. Death has become overly medicalized over the last century,” said the study’s lead author, Dr. Haider Warraich of the Veterans Affairs Boston Healthcare System.  

The rise of home hospice services has helped more people spend their last days at home, Warraich said.

“I have met many patients who just want to spend one day at home, around their dog, in their bed, able to eat home food,” he said.

Hospice provides terminally ill patients with end-of life care, including pain management and emotional support for the patients as well as their families.

In 2003, 5,395 people died in hospice, in 2017, the number rose to 212,652.

The study found the cause of death also reflected where the person died.

Cancer patients were most likely to die at home, and dementia patients in a nursing home.

The rise in at-home deaths “reflects that perhaps we’re able to honor more people’s wishes and help them pass away in a place that’s most familiar to them,” Warraich said.

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An anti-terrorism court in Pakistan on Wednesday indicted Hafiz Saeed, the suspected planner of the 2008 attacks on the Indian city of Mumbai, along with his four senior aides on terror financing charges. 

Saeed, the founder of the outlawed Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militant group and the head of its banned charity wing, Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), has been designated as a global terrorist by the United States for his alleged role in the Mumbai strikes that killed more than 170 people. 

The Islamist cleric was present in the court in the eastern city of Lahore when the charges against him and his partners were read. The court will conduct the next proceedings on Thursday. 

Saeed and his associates rejected as baseless the prosecution’s charges that they were using JuD charities and trusts to raise funds to finance terrorism.

Saeed has also consistently denied his involvement in the Mumbai attacks. 

Indian authorities accuse him and his LeT of planning and executing the carnage. The Islamist cleric maintains he had ended his association with LeT before it was outlawed by the Pakistani government in 2002.

Washington has placed both LeT and JuD on its list of global terrorist groups, offering $10 million for information that would help bring Saeed to justice.

Wednesday’s indictment comes ahead of a meeting of the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF) in February to decide whether to blacklist Pakistan for not doing enough to curb money laundering and terror financing, as well as activities of groups such as LeT and JuD on its soil. The agency is leading the fight against the funding of terrorism and money laundering. 

If Islamabad fails to deliver on commitments under an action plan agreed to with FATF, the agency could move Pakistan to its blacklist, fueling economic troubles for the country because it would make it extremely difficult for Pakistan to deal with global financial institutions and bring in much needed foreign investment.

Pakistan has long been accused of harboring militant groups plotting attacks in Afghanistan and India. 

Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government, however, has vowed not to allow anyone to use Pakistani soil against another country. 

Authorities have recently intensified a crackdown on outlawed groups and taken control of JuD-run welfare hospitals as well as religious seminaries across the country. 

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The United States has taken a more positive stance on Iranian offers of prisoner swaps since the two sides carried out a rare exchange in Zurich through Swiss mediation on Saturday.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has been among several officials to express a readiness for more prisoner swaps with Washington since Saturday’s exchange, which involved Iran freeing Chinese American academic Xiyue Wang in exchange for the U.S. releasing Iranian scientist Masoud Soleimani. 

In a Monday tweet, Zarif said “After getting our hostage back this week, fully ready for comprehensive prisoner exchange. The ball is in the US’ court.” 

In further comments reported Tuesday by state news agency IRNA, a Zarif aide spoke of wanting to continue working on prisoner swaps with the United States but said there had not yet been a directive to do so. The aide, Mohsen Baharvand, also said he sat at a table with U.S. Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook during Saturday’s prisoner exchange at a Zurich airport hanger but declined what he said was Hook’s request for a conversation. 

Speaking later Tuesday at a Foundation for Defense of Democracies forum in Washington, Hook confirmed that he sat at the table with Baharvand and welcomed the reported comments by the Iranian foreign ministry official responsible for American affairs. 

“Those were positive comments. And let’s see if we can build on it,” Hook said. In reference to the completed prisoner swap, he said: “I am hopeful that this is a first step and … can lead to the release of all innocent Americans who are currently detained in Iran. It does show that there is a way for the United States and Iran to reach an agreement.” 

In a separate interview with U.S. network NPR, Hook said his team was “ready” to work on the next prisoner exchange. “I am going to ask for a consular dialogue with the Iranians so that we can get the remaining Americans out,” he said. 

Washington and Tehran have used Switzerland as a mediator for such consular dialogue, as the two sides have had no diplomatic relations since Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution that brought to power Islamist clerics hostile toward America. The two nations had not carried out a prisoner swap since a 2016 exchange under President Donald Trump’s predecessor Barak Obama. 

Hook’s positive attitude toward the latest Iranian offers contrasted a more skeptical and critical tone adopted by the Trump administration over the past year. As recently as Saturday, a senior U.S. official told reporters the administration “never believed” that public comments by Zarif in favor of prisoner swaps “were very serious.” 

Baharvand told IRNA Tehran is seeking the release of around 20 Iranians held by the United States, which has detained a number of Iranians for violating its sanctions against Iran in recent years. 

Washington has been seeking the release of several Americans whom Iran has acknowledged jailing for national security offenses that U.S. officials have dismissed as fabricated. They include Navy veteran Michael R. White and three Iranian-American dual nationals — father and son Siamak and Baquer Namazi and Morad Tahbaz. 

U.S. officials also have been pressing Iran to resolve the case of Robert Levinson, a retired FBI agent who went missing in Iran on a 2007 visit that U.S. media later revealed was part of a rogue CIA mission. Levinson’s family has said it believes Iran has been detaining him secretly since his disappearance and has sued the nation in a U.S. court for $1.5 billion in damages. 

Iranian officials repeatedly have denied knowledge of Levinson’s whereabouts in public statements. 

In an interview with an NBC affiliate network on a Saturday visit to Florida, President Trump said his administration was working “very hard” on Levinson’s case. “We’re getting certain signals that he may be alive,” Trump said. 

Levinson’s wife and seven children have said there have been no signs of life from him since his captors sent a video and photos of him looking gaunt and disheveled in 2010 and 2011 respectively. 

“President Trump’s remarks were very significant, especially about our husband and father being alive. It was so positive, and we welcome it,” the Levinson family said in an email to VOA Persian. “It’s clear that the president and his team have a personal commitment to helping hostages, including Bob Levinson. That commitment and the momentum around the case are unlike what we have seen before, and it means so much to our family.” 

Former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Bill Richardson, who has secured multiple releases of Americans detained by authoritarian governments, told VOA Persian that he has been pressing Iranian officials for information about Levinson, particularly after Tehran notified the world body last month that there was an “open case” about Levinson in Iran’s Revolutionary Court system. 

Iranian officials later downplayed that notification, calling it a routine move for a “missing person” case. “I don’t quite accept that. I think there is more to it. And we’re going to keep digging,” Richardson said. “The problem is that the information is held very tightly by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. So it’s hard to get information from other sources in the Iranian government, like the foreign ministry.” 

Richardson said he has discussed the Levinson case with Iranian officials attending U.N. meetings in New York, where he spoke with Zarif in September. The former U.S. diplomat also had been communicating with those officials and the Trump administration for more than a year to try to coordinate the release of Xiyue Wang. 

“Now that we’ve established a bit of trust on the prisoner issue, hopefully the Iranians soon will shed some light on Levinson,” Richardson said. “But I think it’s critically important that the U.S. government make this a major priority.”  

This article originated in VOA’s Persian Service. Nike Ching contributed from the State Department and Patsy Widakuswara contributed from the White House.

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