The U.N. General Assembly has voted overwhelmingly to condemn the American economic embargo of Cuba for the 28th year, rejecting U.S. concerns about human rights on the Caribbean island.
 
The vote in the 193-member assembly on Thursday was 187-3 with the U.S., Israel and Brazil voting “no” and Ukraine and Colombia abstaining. Last year, the assembly voted 189-2 with no abstentions.
 
General Assembly resolutions are not legally binding and are unenforceable, but they reflect world opinion and the vote has given Cuba an annual stage to demonstrate the isolation of the U.S. on the embargo.
 
The United States imposed the embargo in 1960 following the revolution led by Fidel Castro and the nationalization of properties belonging to U.S. citizens and corporations. Two years later it was strengthened.

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The Trump administration is sanctioning three Nicaraguan officials accused of human rights abuses, election fraud and corruption.

The U.S. Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control on Thursday announced the sanctions, which block the officials from doing business with U.S. entities.

The officials are Ramon Antonio Avellan Medal, deputy director of the Nicaraguan National Police; Lumberto Ignacio Campbell Hooker, acting president of the Nicaraguan Supreme Electoral Council; and Roberto Jose Lopez Gomez, director of the Nicaraguan Social Security Institute.

Hundreds of Nicaraguans have been killed, jailed or forced into exile since protests against President Daniel Ortega erupted in April 2018.

Ortega officials have called opposition protesters “terrorists” and consider the demonstrations tantamount to an attempted coup.

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U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his German counterpart stressed the importance of the NATO alliance Thursday, saying that trans-Atlantic cooperation was critical in bringing about the fall of the Berlin Wall 30 years ago and is still relevant today.

Their strong defense of the alliance came after French President Emmanuel Macron claimed in an interview that a lack of U.S. leadership is causing the “brain death” of NATO.

Speaking after visiting the German village of Moedlareuth with Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, which was divided into two during the Cold War, Pompeo told reporters it was the “remarkable work” of democratic nations that “created freedom and brought millions of people out of very, very difficult situations.”

“I think NATO remains an important, critical, perhaps historically one of the most critical, strategic partnerships in all of recorded history,” Pompeo told reporters in Leipzig.

Maas also weighed in, saying he did “not believe NATO is brain dead,” adding “I firmly believe in international cooperation.”

Pompeo started his day visiting American troops in southern Germany in an area where he served as an Army officer during the Cold War.

Pompeo, who served as a tank platoon leader on the border with Czechoslovakia and East Germany in the 1980s, chatted with troops at the Grafenwoehr training area and nearby Vilseck and attended a live-fire exercise before heading north to Moedlareuth.

During the Cold War, Moedlareuth was split down the middle by the border between East and West Germany, with the southern part in Bavaria and the northern part in Thuringia, a partition that gave rise to its nickname, “Little Berlin.”

Hundreds of thousands of Americans were stationed in West Germany during the Cold War, and the country was one of the U.S.’s closest allies. That relationship continued after the Nov. 9, 1989, fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of communism, but ties have become strained recently under the presidency of Donald Trump over a series of issues.

Pompeo is visiting five German cities on the two-day trip. In Berlin, he will deliver a speech highlighting the U.S. role in helping eastern and central Europe “throw off the yoke of communism,” according to the U.S. State Department.

He will also unveil a statue of Ronald Reagan on an upper-level terrace of the U.S. Embassy, overlooking the site in front of the landmark Brandenburg Gate where the Berlin Wall once stood. That is also where the former U.S. president gave his famous 1987 speech beseeching then-Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to “open this gate” and “tear down this wall.”
 

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Days of severe rains in central Somalia have killed at least 21 people and displaced more than a quarter million more as rivers burst their banks, flooding villages and towns.  Mohamed Sheikh Nor reports from Beledweyne, Somalia.

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James Dean hasn’t been alive in 64 years, but the “Rebel Without a Cause” actor has been cast in a new film about the Vietnam War.

The filmmakers behind the independent film “Finding Jack” said Wednesday that a computer-generated Dean will play a co-starring role in the upcoming production. The digital Dean is to be assembled through old footage and photos and voiced by another actor.

Digitally manipulated posthumous performances have made some inroads into films. But those have been largely roles the actors already played, including Carrie Fisher and Peter Cushing, who first appeared together in “Star Wars” and were prominently featured in the 2016 spinoff “Rogue One.”

But the prospect of one of the movies’ most beloved former stars being digitally resurrected was met with widespread criticism after the news was first reported by The Hollywood Reporter. Chris Evans, the “Captain America”actor, was among those who called the plans disrespectful and wrongheaded.

“Maybe we can get a computer to paint us a new Picasso. Or write a couple new John Lennon tunes,” said Evans on Twitter. “The complete lack of understanding here is shameful.”

Rights to Dean’s likeness were acquired by the filmmakers and the production company Magic City Films through CMG Worldwide. The company represents Dean’s family along with the intellectual property rights associated with many other deceased personalities including Neil Armstrong, Bette Davis and Burt Reynolds.

Mark Roesler, chairman and chief executive of CMG, defended the usage of Dean and said the company has represented his family for decades. Noting that Dean has more than 183,000 followers on Instagram, Roesler said he still resonates today.

“James Dean was known as Hollywood’s ‘rebel’ and he famously said ‘if a man can bridge the gap between life and death, if he can live after he’s died, then maybe he was a great man. Immortality is the only true success,’” said Roesler. “What was considered rebellious in the `50s is very different than what is rebellious today, and we feel confident that he would support this modern day act of rebellion.”

Adapted from Gareth Crocker’s novel, “Finding Jack” is a live-action movie about the U.S. military’s abandonment of canine units following the Vietnam War. Directors Anton Ernst and Tati Golykh are to begin shooting Nov. 17. In an email, Ernst said they “tremendously” respect Dean’s legacy.

“The movie subject matter is one of hope and love, and he is still relevant like the theme of the film we are portraying,” said Ernst. “There is still a lot of James Dean fans worldwide who would love to see their favorite icon back on screen. There would always be critics, and all we can do is tell a great story with humanity and grace.”

Dean had just three leading roles before he died in a car crash in 1955 at the age of 24: “Rebel Without a Cause,” “East of Eden” and “Giant.”

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Twitter said Wednesday that it was rolling out a feature that lets users follow topics the way they do people, starting with sports and K-pop, as part of its efforts to bring in and keep more users on the service. 
 
The new “Topics” option was expected to be available to Twitter users on mobile devices powered by Android or Apple software or through web browsers by Nov. 13. 
 
“We are starting with topics that have the most volume on Twitter for now — sports, K-pop — and you’ll see us add in even more on a week-to-week basis,” Twitter told AFP. 
 
Twitter earlier this year disclosed plans to provide users the option of following any of a small number of interests. 

Accent on conversations
 
The feature was to be rolled out internationally as the messaging platform prioritizes being an online venue for conversations rather than a pulpit for one-way broadcasting to the masses. 
 
“We are basically rewriting the entire conversation service,” Twitter product team leader Kayvon Beykpour said during a briefing at the company’s San Francisco headquarters in August. 
 
Twitter has always let users follow accounts, but the new feature will let users opt into following certain sports teams or categories on a curated list. 
 
For example, sending or interacting with tweets about a team might prompt a query over whether the user wants to “follow” that team or be kept in the know about what is being said on Twitter on the topics, the company explained at the briefing. 

‘Mute’ option
 
There will be an ability to “mute” topics to avoid seeing the score of a sporting match, for example. 
 
Topics people follow will show up in their profiles as long as they are signed up for the interest. 
 
Subjects designated “interests” by Twitter are meant to be lasting — such as football or cricket — rather than passing hot topics, according to Twitter. 

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When France’s president wants to carry European concerns to the world stage to find solutions for climate change, trade tensions or Iran’s nuclear ambitions, he no longer calls Washington. He flies to Beijing.

President Emmanuel Macron’s visit to China this week suggests that the United States risks being sidelined on the global stage under President Donald Trump. One moment spoke volumes: Chinese President Xi Jinping sampling French wines, which Trump’s administration recently slapped with heavy new tariffs.

Macron portrayed himself as an envoy for the whole European Union, conveying the message that the bloc has largely given up on Trump, who doesn’t hide his disdain for multilateralism.

Just as the Trump administration formally launched the process of pulling out of the 2015 Paris climate agreement, France and China issued a “Beijing call” on Wednesday for increased global cooperation in fighting climate change and better protecting biodiversity. Both countries have deplored the U.S. withdrawal.

“One country’s isolated choice can’t change the course of the world. It only leads to marginalization,” Macron said.

While China’s president tasted French wines and high-quality beef at an import fair in Shanghai, Macron was pushing for a broader opening of the Chinese market to European products.

“I think he discovered Languedoc wine. He wasn’t familiar with it, he liked it. He tasted a Burgundy and a classic Bordeaux wine,” Macron told reporters. 
 
Xi said the two leaders were sending “a strong signal to the world about steadfastly upholding multilateralism and free trade, as well as working together to build open economies.”

‘Mutual trust’

During his first state visit to China in January 2018, Macron vowed to return every year in an effort to establish “mutual trust.”

Since then, Xi has traveled to France, when China signed an agreement in March to buy 300 aircraft from European plane maker Airbus.

This time, Macron traveled east, bringing with him an ambitious agenda that includes establishing a joint stance on reforming the World Trade Organization, fighting climate change and saving the nuclear accord with Iran. 
 
After Trump pulled the U.S. out of the 2015 U.N. nuclear pact, France and China reiterated their support for the hard-fought deal both countries had helped negotiate.

In Beijing, Macron described recent Gulf tensions as “the negative impact of the non-respect of a multilateral agreement. … The American error has been to leave (the pact) unilaterally.”

“Strong multilateralism is more efficient than shrill unilateralism,” Macron said, praising China’s support for de-escalation of the tensions as the Europeans try to save the nuclear deal with Iran. 
 
“China and France are together with the Europeans and Russians,” he said. “We are convinced that we should increase our joint efforts to bring Iran back into compliance.”

‘Stable, cooperative trade rules’

On trade, the EU often joins U.S. criticism of China’s protectionist policies, government subsidies and other restrictive practices.

But whereas Trump has responded by aggressively imposing tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars worth of goods from China, Europe and elsewhere, bypassing rules set by the WTO, the EU considers that a trade war is not the appropriate response. 

“We must get stable and cooperative trade rules at the international level,” Macron said, referring to a plan to reform the WTO. Trump complains that the WTO, which is tasked with resolving trade disputes, is weak and ineffective as China flouts its rules and it takes years to address trade complaints.

Macron said it is Europe and China’s shared responsibility to make proposals to reform the WTO, because it would be a “fundamental error” to wait for “those who are calling into question the multilateral system.”

Besides the tariffs on China, the U.S. has hit EU steel, aluminum and agricultural products with tariffs, drawing retaliation from the 28-country bloc. And the Trump administration is due to decide this month whether to impose tariffs on Europe’s massive auto exports, a move that would significantly escalate tensions that are already hurting the global economy.

Eswar Prasad, a Cornell University economist and former head of the International Monetary Fund’s China division, said “the Trump administration’s antipathy to multilateralism, its repudiation of many international agreements, and hostility toward even longstanding allies, have all eroded U.S. economic and geopolitical influence.”

“The U.S. is now seen by other countries as an unreliable and untrustworthy partner, leaving them to maneuver around the U.S. by striking bilateral and multilateral deals that protect and advance their own interests,” Prasad said.
 

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Iran resumed uranium enrichment at its underground Fordow  nuclear facility by injecting uranium gas into centrifuges, Iran’s Tasnim news agency quoted the country’s Atomic Energy Organization (AEOI) as saying on Thursday.

“After all successful preparations … injection of uranium gas to centrifuges started on Thursday at Fordow … all the process has been supervised by the inspectors of (the) U.N. nuclear watchdog,” Tasnim reported, quoting the AEOI’s statement.

A 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and major powers bans Fordow from producing nuclear material. But, with feedstock gas entering its centrifuges, the facility — built inside a mountain — will move from the permitted status of research plant to being an active nuclear site.

“The process will take a few hours to stabilize and by Saturday, when International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors will again visit the site, a uranium enrichment level of 4.5% will have been achieved,” AEOI’s spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi told state TV.  Ninety percent purity is required for bomb-grade fuel.

Iran has gradually scaled back its commitments to the deal, under which it curbed its nuclear program in exchange for the removal of most international sanctions, after the United States reneged on the agreement last year.

Under the pact, Iran agreed to turn Fordow into a “nuclear, physics and technology center” where 1,044 centrifuges are used for purposes other than enrichment, such as producing stable isotopes, which have a variety of civil uses.

“All the centrifuges installed in Fordow are IR1 types. Uranium  gas (UF6) was injected to four chains of IR1 centrifuges (696 centrifuges),” Kamalvandi said. “Two other remaining chains of IR1 centrifuges (348 centrifuges) will be used for producing and enriching stable isotopes in the facility.”

U.S. President Donald Trump exited the deal, saying it was flawed to Iran’s advantage. Washington has since renewed and intensified sanctions on Iran, slashing the country’s economically vital crude oil sales by more than 80%. The measure will further complicate the chances of saving the accord, which European powers have called on Iran to respect.

Responding to Washington’s “maximum pressure” policy, Iran has bypassed the restrictions of the deal step-by-step — including by breaching both its cap on stockpiled enriched uranium and on the fissile level of enrichment.

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Sakshi Chauhan has not left her house in a quiet inner-city slum in the Indian capital for the past six days on her doctor’s orders.

The 22-year-old call center operator is recovering from a severe throat infection and the thick smog now blanketing New Delhi has made even breathing dangerous.

“The moment I step outside, I can’t breathe properly,” she said. “I have never seen this level of pollution in my entire life.”

The 20 million residents of New Delhi, already one of the world’s most polluted cities, have been suffering for weeks under a toxic haze that is up to 10 times worse than the upper limits of what is considered healthy. The pollution crisis is piling public pressure on the government to tackle the root causes of the persistent haze.

Air pollution in New Delhi and northern Indian states peaks in the winter as farmers in neighboring agricultural regions set fire to clear land after the harvest and prepare for the next crop season. The pollution in the Indian capital also peaks after Diwali celebrations, the Hindu festival of light, when people set off fireworks.

A declared public health emergency has remained in place in the city for the past five days. Schools have stayed closed and authorities have been handing out free anti-pollution masks to children.

New Delhi’s government has introduced a system that restricts many private vehicles from taking to the roads for two weeks. It has ordered firefighters to sprinkle water from high-rise buildings to settle the dust, tried to snuff out garbage fires and ordered builders to cover construction sites to stop dust from enveloping the area.

India’s health minister earlier played down the health consequences of the dirty air, insisting it is mainly a concern for those who have pre-existing lung conditions. Doctors in the capital, however, say many of their patients these days are complaining of ailments that stem from the filthy air they breathe.

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Dr. Salil Sharma, a throat specialist, said that 95% of the patients he has been treating over the last 10 days are sick because of the foul air.

“I have patients from all age groups and most of them are nonsmokers who complain of breathlessness, chest congestion, fatigue and weakness,” Sharma said. “In some cases, I had to put some patients on a ventilator because they couldn’t breathe.”

“We are right in the middle of a health emergency,” he said.

A study published in The Lancet estimated that in 2017, air pollution killed 1.24 million Indians — half of them younger than 70, lowering the country’s average life expectancy by almost 1.7 years.

India’s Supreme Court on Monday said the capital choking every year “could not be allowed in a civilized country.”

In a ruling that followed petitions filed by activists, the top court’s judges ordered an immediate halt to the practice of farmers burning their fields in the neighboring states surrounding the capital.

Some people distraught over the pollution are considering leaving the city for good.

Devendra Verma, a street vendor, did not go to work for three days last week. He said he was too weak to leave his house as filthy air made him feel fatigued.

“The city is not livable anymore,” he said. “Sometimes I think I should pack my bags and leave Delhi for once and all.”

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Brazil’s carbon emissions have remained stable despite an increase in deforestation because they were offset by a larger use of clean energy sources such as ethanol and wind power, a report said on Tuesday.

Brazilian emissions of gases blamed for global warming reached 1.939 billion tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) in 2018, 0.3% more than seen in 2017, according to SEEG, the most comprehensive study on the topic in the country.

Emissions from the energy sector fell 5% last year when compared to the previous year to 407 million tons of CO2e as renewable power continues to increase its share in the energy mix.

In contrast, emissions from the destruction of forests rose 3.6% to 845 million tons of CO2e, leading that source to increase its share in total Brazilian emissions to 44%, more than the combined participation of the industrial and energy sectors.

Clean energy contribution, however, is unlikely to avoid a larger carbon dioxide increase for 2019, as deforestation sharply increased this year to the highest level in a decade.

And while emissions were stable, there is no compensation for the losses to wildlife as hundreds of species are extinguished as fires rage.

The data places Brazil as number 7 in the ranking of the world’s largest emitters of heat-trapping gases, which is led by China followed by the United States and the European Union.

“Brazil should be in a much better position. Its energy matrix is getting even cleaner than it was. If it stopped deforestation, its emissions would be a third of that,” said Tasso Azevedo, the study’s coordinator.

“There will be a significant increase,” said Ane Alencar, science director at Ipam, the organization collaborating with data on land use changes for the SEEG study.

Deforestation leads to some curious findings. Unlikely other countries where states with higher concentration of industries lead emissions numbers, in Brazil that ranking is led by Pará and Mato Grosso states, for example, countries partly located in the Amazon, with industrialized Sao Paulo state in a distant fourth place.

Livestock activity contributed to those states’ increase in emissions numbers, besides deforestation.

“There is a large difference in the origin of emissions in Brazil when compared to most countries,” said Ricardo Abramovay, an economist at the University of Sao Paulo.

“While in countries such as United States and Japan a change to a society with less emissions will require large investments to modify production models and consumption habits, in Brazil we only need to cut deforestation, a very small investment,” he said.

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Mexico’s Congress approved a raft of constitutional changes on Tuesday that include permitting the right to a recall vote on the president, overriding opposition concerns it may open the door to allowing re-election of the country’s leader.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has pressed for the recall provision, arguing it should serve as a democratic check on his record. The president’s term is limited to six years and he has said several times he will not seek to change that.

The opposition argued he wanted a recall vote to put himself onto an electoral ticket again midway through his term. To avoid that, the Senate agreed last month that any recall vote must be held after the legislative elections in 2021.

Concluding the approval process, the lower house of Congress voted by 372-75 to endorse the constitutional changes, which also establish the rules for conducting referendums on issues of public interest.

Under the changes, the recall vote would be organized by the national electoral institute, provided it had the support of at least 3% of voters on the Mexican electoral register.

To become law, the measures must still be approved by a majority of state legislatures. The president’s ruling party controls a majority of Mexico’s state congresses.

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A global team of more than 11,000 scientists is warning that the planet “clearly and unequivocally faces a climate emergency.”

In a report published Tuesday in the journal Bioscience warns in no uncertain terms that the world would face “untold human suffering” if it does not make deep and lasting shifts in human activities that contribute to climate change.

The study, called the “World Scientists’ Warning of a Climate Emergency,” was led by ecologists Bill Ripple and Christopher Wolf of Oregon State University, and climate scientist William Moomaw of Tufts University, along with scientists from universities in South Africa and Australia. The signatories to the report represent several fields of study and come from 150 countries.

“Despite 40 years of global climate negotiations, with few exceptions, we have generally conducted business as usual and have largely failed to address this predicament,” the study says. “Climate change has arrived and is accelerating faster than many scientists expected.”

It is the first time a large group of scientists have collectively used the world “emergency” in reference to climate change.

The report identified six areas that need to be addressed immediately.

They include:

• Cutting fossil fuel use by imposing carbon taxes and using energy more efficiently
• Stabilizing global population growth by strengthening women’s rights and making family planning services “available to all people”
• Cutting emissions of pollutants like soot and ethane
• Moving to a more plant-based diet
• Preventing the loss of biodiversity and the destruction of forests
• Moving the global economic focus away from growth of wealth to sustainability and income equality

The scientists said it will most likely take strong actions by the public to move politicians toward adopting lasting policy changes.

“We believe that the prospects will be greatest if decision-makers and all of humanity promptly respond to this warning and declaration of a climate emergency, and act to sustain life on planet Earth, our only home,” the paper said.

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