Activists: Heavy Fighting, Airstrikes Near Syrian Capital

Syrian opposition activists are reporting heavy clashes between government forces and insurgents east of Damascus, and at least a dozen airstrikes.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and Syria-based activist Mazen al-Shami said Monday’s fighting was concentrated inside a military installation near the suburb of Harasta, where a government force has been trapped for a day.

The Observatory said the Syrian air force conducted at least a dozen airstrikes on Harasta and nearby suburbs. Al-Shami reported dozens of airstrikes. He said the government brought in reinforcements overnight and is trying to reach the trapped force.

The Observatory said three days of violence in the suburbs of Damascus known as eastern Ghouta has killed 35 civilians, as well as 24 government troops and 29 insurgents.

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Israel’s Likud Party Members Vote to Annex Settlements

The ruling Likud Party’s central committee has unanimously endorsed a resolution calling for the annexation of Israeli West Bank settlements.

 

Although the committee is only an advisory body, its decisions reflect the prevailing opinions in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s party.

 

Several leading politicians, including lawmakers and Cabinet ministers, joined Sunday night’s vote to “impose Israeli law on all liberated areas of settlement in Judea and Samaria.” Netanyahu remained silent.

 

Most of the international community considers Israel’s West Bank settlements, built on land captured in the 1967 Mideast war, illegal.

 

The Palestinians called the vote “an outrageous violation” of international resolutions.

 

The vote followed President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital — a move that has drawn heavy international criticism.

 

 

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Cameroon President Vows to ‘Deal’ with Separatists

Cameroon President Paul Biya says he will destroy all terrorists whom he says are fighting to separate his country or using it as a hiding place for armed attacks on neighboring states. In a message, Biya reiterated he was open for dialogue with the disgruntled English speaking minority in the bilingual country but that his military would deal with armed separatists fighting for the independence of the English speaking regions.

President Paul Biya says it is his duty to ensure public order, social peace, the unity of the nation and Cameroon’s integrity, and so he has issued instructions that all those who have taken up arms, who perpetrate or encourage violence should be fought relentlessly and held accountable for their crimes before the courts of law.

“It is my firm belief that fast-tracking our decentralization process will enhance the development of our Regions,” he said. “To that end, I have ordered the implementation of the necessary measures to speedily give effect to this major reform. We will contribute towards consolidating the rule of law and open a new page in our democratic process.”

Many Cameroonians had expected Biya to be lenient towards armed insurgents and invite them to the negotiation table.

Biya said he requested the government engage in constructive dialogue with English speakers to seek solutions to their demands. But he added that he will destroy all those who have taken arms against the state, which he reiterated will remain one and indivisible.

He however pledged to make Cameroon a decentralized unitary state by implementing decentralization as spelled out in the country’s constitution.

Rene Emmanuel Sadi, Cameroon’s minister of territorial administration and decentralization, says the decentralization Biya spoke about encounters many challenges.

“We started implementing this process effectively since 2010, but of course we can ascertain the fact that the there are still some difficulties, there are still some problems,” he said. “The councils complain that the resources put at their disposal do not allow them to respond to the needs of the populations and to the implementation of their projects.”

Until a few years ago, Cameroon was referred to as a peace haven because it had never experienced major challenges. But the Boko Haram insurgency on its northern border with Nigeria that started four years ago has killed more than 25,000 people, and displaced millions of people in Cameroon, Chad, Nigeria and Niger according to the United Nations.

The spillover of the carnage in the Central African Republic (CAR) is also felt on the central African state’s border with CAR with repeated cases of kidnappings for ransom and attacks by armed men.

Adolph Deben Tchoffo, governor of Cameroon’s English speaking north west region, says he supports Paul Biya’s determination to eliminate the armed separatists so that schools can reopen and businesses pick up in the English speaking areas of Cameroon more than one year after they were hampered by the crisis.

“We are begging for peace and we are leaving no stone on turned to maintain long lasting security, securing the population, asking the population to mobilize themselves to support government to make sure the economic activity, the social activity in the region comes back to normalcy,” he said.

Biya said Cameroonians desire greater participation in managing their affairs, especially at the local level and as such he will make sure the constitution is respected fully.

Cameroon will hold local council, parliamentary and presidential elections in 2018. Many hope the polls will be transparent. Biya has been president for 35 years, winning in elections opposition political parties say are always rigged to favor him.

 

 

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California Begins Recreational Marijuana Sales

More than two decades after California became the first U.S. state to legalize medical marijuana use, on January first it becomes the final West Coast state to legalize pot for recreational purposes — a move approved by California voters in November 2016, in a referendum known as Prop 64.

While this is good news for cannabis enthusiasts, those with visions of unencumbered marijuana use in the California sunshine will find that reality is not quite so cut-and-dried — meaning, simple — referring to the processing of tobacco leaves.

Most importantly, while seven U.S. states and the District of Columbia have legalized recreational marijuana use, the U.S. federal government still considers it a controlled substance, classified with heroin and LSD as illegal drugs. Elsewhere, 29 states have legalized medical marijuana, and Maine and Massachusetts are set to legalize recreational pot in 2018.

Federal versus state law

Former White House spokesman Sean Spicer told reporters in February 2017 that the Department of Justice may be looking into legal marijuana use in the future.

“When you see something like the opioid addiction crisis blossoming around so many states… the last thing we should be doing is encouraging people,” Spicer said.

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, an opponent of legalized pot, said in November that he is taking a close look at federal enforcement of anti-drug laws that include marijuana. “Good people don’t smoke marijuana,” he said at a Senate hearing in 2016.

Federal and state laws come more into play in California, which has several U.S. Border Patrol checkpoints, at which federal agents, mainly searching for illegal immigrants, are also empowered to seize pot stashes and prosecute the owners.

The Associated Press quotes Ronald Vitiello, acting deputy commissioner of the federal Customs and Border Protection agency, as calling drug seizures at border checkpoints an “ancillary effect”of enforcing immigration laws.

In addition to 34 permanent checkpoints along the U.S. border with Mexico, Border Patrol operates more than 100 “tactical” stops that may appear or disappear as needed, as far as 161 kilometers inside the U.S. border.

AP reports that people found with pot at those checkpoints are typically photographed and fingerprinted, and their stashes seized. The report says those people often aren’t charged with a crime, however, because pot possession in small amounts is considered a low-priority offense.

The checkpoints are legal. Border Patrol agents say they help catch illegal immigrants who have made it past the U.S. border and might disappear into a large city; and the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that agents can question people at checkpoints even if they have no reason to believe anyone inside the car is in the country illegally.

Bureau of Cannabis Control

Meanwhile, California has created its own Bureau of Cannabis Control to regulate the growing and sale of cannabis.

Bureau spokesman Alex Traverso told the Los Angeles Times that about eight enforcement officers will be in place by January 1.

The bureau has issued fewer than 200 temporary business licenses so far, although cities such as Los Angeles and San Francisco are expected later to issue their own local licenses, which will be required to get a state permit. Only a few dozen retail outlets are expected to be up and running by January 1.

Many localities inside California have not yet approved recreational pot use — and some may choose not to do so at all. Cannabis Control did not start issuing licenses to sell recreational cannabis until mid-December, so many applications are still in the works.

San Diego, San Jose, Oakland, Berkeley and Eureka are among the towns where pot stores can open on January 1.

Still proponents of legalized pot say bringing the drug out into the open makes it possible to tax sales of cannabis — which lawmakers hope will result in $1 billion a year in new tax revenue for the state. The money will come from a 15 percent state excise tax on every cannabis purchase. Local governments can place additional taxes on top of that — or they can ban pot shops entirely, if they choose.

Daniel Yi, a spokesman for the L.A.-area dispensary Med Men, says he expects an eighth of an ounce of pot to go for about $35 when two Med Men shops begin selling to recreational users on January 2. He told Reuters news agency that three other locations will probably not begin selling to recreational users for a few more weeks.

Keeping out of trouble

Further moves to keep control on the industry include guidelines for retailers, and age and use limits for consumers.

Pot sales will be restricted to people who are age 21 or older, but anyone visiting the state who is of age may buy and consume marijuana at legal outlets. Prop 64 specifically prohibits marketing of pot products to minors.

Pot shops cannot be within 180 meters (600 feet) of a school and they must maintain 24-hour surveillance. They also cannot open before 6 a.m. and must close by 10 p.m.

California anti-smoking laws make it illegal to smoke pot in places where regular tobacco smoking is banned. Employers may still subject employees to drug tests to ensure a drug-free workplace.

Drivers are being warned not to drive after using pot. While it is harder to measure a person’s intoxication level after smoking pot than it is after alcohol consumption, Hound Labs of Oakland is developing what it says is a “marijuana breathalyzer” for cops and employers to gauge whether a person has been using while driving or on the job.

L.A. County Sheriff Jim McDonnell says he worries about people getting behind the wheel while high.

“The public’s perception is that weed is innocuous, that this is something they did 40 years ago and it is no big deal,” he told the Los Angeles Times. “Well, today’s marijuana is not yesterday’s marijuana. The active ingredient, THC, is so much higher today than back 40 years ago.”

As for food products containing THC, Californians will be able to consume them in any public place where food is normally consumed. The publishers of Mother Jones magazine say at least one of their readers wrote in to ask if there will be cannabis ice cream — and the answer, they say, is yes. Medical marijuana users have been consuming it for years. But there’s a catch: the amount of THC allowable in such items is limited to 10 milligrams per serving.

One other effect of the new pot law is that it will reduce penalties on people who have been convicted for pot crimes in the past. In addition to making pot more available, the law that legalized it, known as Prop 64, also makes pot crimes once viewed as felonies into lower-level misdemeanors. That means some people currently in California jails for selling or possessing pot could see their sentences reduced.

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State TV: 10 More Dead in Iran Protests

Iranian state television said Monday 10 people were killed overnight during anti-government protests that have emerged in areas across the country since late last week.

The report did not offer additional details to go along with the death toll.

Earlier Monday, the ILNA news agency quoted an Iranian lawmaker as saying two people were shot dead overnight in the southwestern town of Izeh, but that he did not yet know who was responsible for the shootings.

The current unrest began with a relatively small protest this past Thursday in Mashhad, Iran’s second-largest city, and the main base for the opponents of moderate president Hassan Rouhani, before spreading to other parts of the country.

In his first public response to the protests, Iranian state media quoted Rouhani on Sunday as acknowledging that Iranians have the right to protest and criticize his government. But Rouhani said social unrest and destruction of public property are unacceptable. He also said Trump had “no right” to sympathize with the Iranian people. The Trump administration labels the Iranian government as the world’s top state sponsor of terrorism — a charge Tehran rejects — and issued travel bans that have blocked Iranians from getting U.S. visas.

Stephen Zunes, chairman of Middle East Studies at the University of San Francisco, said the real power in Iran is in the hands of “reactionary clerics” such as Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and that reformers like Rouhani are unable to move Iranian society to one that meets the needs of its people.  He told VOA the big question now is whether the protests will have real momentum.

“It appears to have been spontaneous, not very well organized, and while most Iranians want change, generally you do need to have a greater strategic thinking and leadership in order to force major reforms, much less a change of government,” Zunes said.

Timeline of Unrest in Iran

The protests after the Iran’s 2009 elections were prompted by accusations of fraud in the presidential election, and voters demanded the votes be recounted. Those protests had strong leadership from then-presidential candidates Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi.

Iran’s economy has improved since its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, in which Iran limited its enrichment of uranium in exchange for the end of some international sanctions. Iran now sells its oil on the global market and has signed deals to purchase tens of billions of dollars’ worth of Western aircraft.

But that improvement has not reached the average Iranian. Unemployment remains high, and official inflation has crept up to 10 percent. A recent increase in egg and poultry prices by as much as 40 percent, which a government spokesman has blamed on a cull over avian flu fears, appears to have been the spark for the economic protests.

“The protesters are demanding a better life,” said Hooshang Amirahmadi, founder and president of the American-Iranian Council and a professor of public policy at Rutgers University. “They are saying they want a huge change, they want a radical change. They are not going to leave the streets until they get it.”

Protests have increased in frequency and intensity over past few months because of economic change — prices going up, inflation, banks under pressure, people worried about deposits disappearing, according to Alex Vatanka, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute.

“Rouhani, I think this is a wake-up call for him. Rouhani really has taken the people who voted for him for granted. Nobody really genuinely thought he was a reformist but hoped that he would at least take certain steps to move in that direction. He’s done none of it,” Vatanka said. “In fact, since his re-election in May, he’s turned toward the right. That has just infuriated those reformists who sort of bought the idea that gradual reform in the Islamic Republic is possible.”

But Behnam Ben Taleblu, a senior Iran analyst for the Foundation for Defense and Democracies, told VOA he believes the protesters are using anger about the economy as a way to express general grievances over the government.

“What is true is that the Iranian people want accountability, respect, justice. And they want their government to put their interests — national interests — ahead of the narrow, factional or regime interests,” Behnam said.

He also said many Iranians are angered over what they believe is pointless intervention in regional affairs.

“The average Iranian is looking at the political fights it’s picking in the region and saying ‘why do we need that?’ And they’re worried about their basic lot in life — and coming to the reality that this government cannot deliver. That’s why you heard slogans like ‘Not Gaza, Not Lebanon. My life for Iran.'”

VOA’s Carla Babb, Margaret Besheer, Michelle Quinn and Victor Beattie contributed to this report

This report was produced in collaboration with VOA Persian.

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LIVE BLOG: Iran Protests Stretch to 5th Day

1/1/18 7:44 a.m. — 

1/1/18 7:26 a.m. — Iran State TV reports 12 killed in protests

Jan 1. (AP) — At least 12 people have been killed in the ongoing protests in Iran, and armed protesters have tried to take over police stations and military bases, state TV reported Monday.

 

The protests began Thursday in Mashhad over economic issues and have since expanded to several cities, with some protesters chanting against the government and the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Hundreds of people have been arrested.

 

The state TV report said 10 were killed during clashes Sunday night, without elaborating. Two demonstrators were killed during a protest in western Iran late Saturday.

 

“Some armed protesters tried to take over some police stations and military bases but faced serious resistance from security forces,” state TV reported. It did not say where those attacks occurred.

 

1/1/18 6:50 a.m. — AFP: Rouhani Says Citizens will ‘Deal With This Minority’

President Hassan Rouhani said Monday that the Iranian people would “respond to rioters and lawbreakers” protesting around the country in recent days. 

“Our nation will deal with this minority who chant slogans against the law and people’s wishes, and insult the sanctities and values of the revolution,” he said in a statement on his official website.

“Criticism and protest are an opportunity not a threat. The nation will themselves respond to the rioters and lawbreakers.”

1/1/18 6:36 a.m. — Protests in Izeh, Khuzestan Province

1/1/18 6 :11 a.m. 

1/1/18 5:40 a.m. — State TV says 10 killed “in several cities”:

Jan. 1 (Reuters) – Ten people were killed during the street protests in Iran on Sunday, state television said on Monday without giving details.

“In the events of last night, unfortunately a total of about 10 people were killed in several cities,” it said, while showing footage of damage from anti-government demonstrations. 

1/1/18 4:51a.m. — AP reports that Iranian state TV says 10 people have been killed amid nationwide protests, without elaborating.

1/1/18 3:22 a.m. — Reuters: Two killed in protests in southwest

DUBAI, Jan 1 (Reuters) – Two people were killed in Iran’s protests in a southwestern town, ILNA news agency on Monday quoted a local parliament member as saying.

That brought to at least four the number of fatalities in the most serious unrest in the country since 2009.

1/1/18 3:00 a.m. —  AP: Israeli minister wishes Iranian protesters ‘success’

JERUSALEM (AP) — A senior Israeli minister has wished Iranian protesters “success” but insists his country is not involved in the mass demonstrations that erupted in recent days.

In a radio interview on Monday, Intelligence Minister Yisrael Katz said Israel is “not getting involved, but I certainly wish the Iranian people success in the struggle for freedom and democracy.”

Israel has long viewed Iran as its greatest security threat because of Tehran’s nuclear program, its support for regional militants and Iranian leaders’ frequent calls for Israel to be eliminated. Iran has long accused Israel, the United States and Britain of meddling in its internal affairs and working to overthrow its government.

1/1/18 1:43 a.m. — AFP, quoting local media, reports that new protests were held in Iran overnight:

Police used tear gas and water cannon to disperse a small protest in Tehran’s Enghelab Square on Sunday evening, according to unverified social media videos.

Protesters in the small northwestern town of Takestan torched a school for clergy and government buildings, the ILNA news agency said, while the state broadcaster said two people had died in Dorud after crashing a stolen fire engine.

There were also reports of protests in the cities of Izeh (southwest), Kermanshah and Khorramabad (west), Shahinshahr (northwest) and Zanjan (north).

Dec. 31, 2017 Live Blog

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Israeli Minister Encourages Iran Protests, Says Israel is not Involved

Israel’s intelligence minister on Monday voiced encouragement for Iranian anti-government protesters but added that Israeli policy was not to get involved in Tehran’s internal affairs.

Four days of demonstrations in Iran have posed the boldest challenge to its clerical leadership since pro-reform unrest in 2009. At least four people have been killed as some confrontations with police turned violent.

“I can only wish success to the Iranian people in the struggle for freedom and democracy,” Israeli Intelligence Minister Israel Katz said in an Army Radio interview.

“If the people succeed in achieving freedom and democracy, many of the threats on Israel and the entire region today will disappear.”

Israel has long voiced alarm over the Shi’ite power’s nuclear program and its support for Islamist guerrillas in Lebanon and the Palestinian territories – concerns shared by Sunni Arab states.

Asked why Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was not following U.S. President Donald Trump’s example in offering more open endorsement for the protesters, Katz said: “Israel has undertaken not to get involved in this internal affair.”

Trump’s tough approach to Tehran, which has included the threat of U.S. sanctions, had disrupted the Iranian government’s “illusion of economic betterment,” he said.

On Sunday, an Iranian official blamed “foreign agents” for a clash in which two protesters were killed.

Katz dismissed such allegations as standard fare from “a mendacious and propagandistic regime.”

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UN Urges DR Congo Leader to Keep Promise to Step Down

UN chief Antonio Guterres has urged Democratic Republic of Congo President Joseph Kabila to abide by an agreement to leave power, after at least eight people died in protests against his rule.

Kabila, in power since 2001, signed a deal with opposition groups a year ago agreeing to step town once his current term ends and new elections are held. 

But violence has swelled in the giant, troubled African nation after the date of the new vote was pushed back to December 2018, prompting fears that Kabila may seek to extend his reign.

“The secretary-general urges all Congolese political actors to remain fully committed to the 31 December 2016 political agreement, which remains the only viable path to the holding of elections, the peaceful transfer of power and the consolidation of stability in the DRC,” Guterres’ office said in a statement late Sunday. 

Eight people were killed on Sunday and dozens arrested as Congolese security forces cracked down on protesters who defied a government ban to demonstrate in Kinshasa and other cities. 

Troops fired tear gas into churches and bullets in the air to break up gatherings at Catholic masses, in one case arresting 12 altar boys leading a protest in the capital.

“The secretary-general calls on the government and national security forces to exercise restraint and to uphold the rights of the Congolese people to the freedom of speech and peaceful assembly,” Guterres’ statement said. 

DR Congo, rich with mineral wealth but plagued by violence, has not had a peaceful transition of power since independence from Belgium in 1960.

Kabila succeeded his assassinated father Laurent Kabila in 2001 and refused to step down at the end of his second and final term in December 2016.

Elections had been due to take place by the end of this year under a church-mediated deal but were further delayed, and the poll is now scheduled for December 23, 2018.

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Flowers and Sunshine Greet Thousands for 129th Rose Parade

The roses are ready, and the skies will be blue in Southern California on New Year’s Day.

Only a few clouds are expected in Pasadena as the city celebrates the 129th Rose Parade, and temperatures are expected to reach a high of the mid-70s.

Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to line a street to watch floats decked out with hundreds of thousands of flowers.

It has rained on the Rose Parade only once in the past 67 years — that was in 2006 — and it has never been canceled because of weather.

Actor Gary Sinise is this year’s grand marshal.

Spectators started lining the 3.5-mile (5.6-kilometer) route on Sunday, many of them camping overnight to watch the floats that will start drifting by in the morning.

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Trump Welcomes New Year With Lavish Party at Private Club

Bidding farewell to 2017 with a lavish party at his private club, President Donald Trump predicted 2018 will be a “tremendous year.”

Trump said Sunday that the stock market will continue to rise and that companies are going to continue to come into the U.S., at “a rapid clip.” He also cited several accomplishments, including the tax overhaul, opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling, and repealing the individual mandate from the national health care law.

“It will be a fantastic 2018,” a tuxedoed Trump said, as he entered the gilded ballroom at Mar-a-Lago, accompanied by first lady Melania Trump and son Barron.

Asked for his reaction to North Korea leader Kim Jon Un’s remarks about having a nuclear button on his desk, Trump responded by saying, “We’ll see.”

Guests gathered in the decorated ballroom included senior White House advisers Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, Trump’s sons Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

Since taking office, President Trump has made frequent visits to his for-profit properties. He has refused to divest from his real estate and hotel empire, drawing criticism from ethics experts.

Earlier in the day, Trump capped 2017 with a video self-tribute touching on what he sees as the high points of his achievements and rhetoric from his first year in office. He gave a plug to American exceptionalism, too.

In the video running 3 minutes, scenes of Trump with military personnel, Border Patrol agents and other world leaders are set to a stirring soundtrack as he declares of his country: “We gave birth to the modern world and we will shape tomorrow’s world with the strength and skill of American hands.”

Trump cited his success in placing a justice on the Supreme Court, his efforts to cut regulations and his big win on overhauling taxes, which he falsely described as the “largest tax cut in the history of our country.”

Trump offered the video with a New Year’s Eve message: “What a year it’s been, and we’re just getting started. Together, we are MAKING AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! Happy New Year!!”

He later offered another Twitter message, loaded with his signature bombast: “As our Country rapidly grows stronger and smarter, I want to wish all of my friends, supporters, enemies, haters, and even the very dishonest Fake News Media, a Happy and Healthy New Year. 2018 will be a great year for America!”

The White House said Trump been briefed on New Year’s Eve security precautions around the country and will continue to monitor those efforts.

Trump offered his condolences Sunday to the victims of a shooting in suburban Denver that killed one sheriff’s deputy and wounded six other people, including four deputies. He tweeted: “We love our police and law enforcement – God Bless them all!”

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2018 Starts With Record Cold in Parts of US

Bone-chilling cold gripped the middle of the U.S. as 2018 began Monday, breaking low temperature records, icing some New Year’s celebrations and leading to at least two deaths attributed to exposure to the elements.

The National Weather Service issued wind chill advisories covering a vast area from South Texas all the way to Canada and from Montana and Wyoming in the west through New England to the northern tip of Maine.

Dangerously low temperatures enveloped eight Midwest states including parts of Kansas, Missouri, Illinois and Nebraska along with nearly all of Iowa, Minnesota, South Dakota and North Dakota.

The weather service said a temperature of 15 below zero (-9.44 Celsius) was recorded in Omaha before midnight Sunday, breaking a record low dating back to 1884, and the temperature was still dropping early New Year’s Day. That reading did not include the wind chill effect. Last week, Omaha officials cited the forecast in postponing the 18th annual New Year’s Eve Fireworks Spectacular that draws around 30,000 people.

It was even colder in Des Moines early Monday at 20 below zero (-29 Celsius) and wind chill dipping to 31 below zero (-35 Celsius). Des Moines city officials had closed a downtown outdoor ice skating plaza and said it won’t reopen until the city emerges from sub-zero temperatures.

The wind chill dipped to 36 below zero (-38 Celsius) in Duluth, Minnesota, a city known for its bitter cold winters. Steam rose up from Lake Superior as a ship moved through the harbor where ice was forming from the bitter cold.

An Indianapolis woman was in critical condition after she became confused in the snow and ice and turned her vehicle the wrong direction, driving 150 feet on a retention pond before her vehicle fell through the ice, according to WISH TV. She managed to make an emergency call but the phone went dead when the ice cracked.

The Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s office said two bodies found on Sunday showed signs of hypothermia. They included a man in his 50s found on the ground in an alley and a 34-year-old man. Autopsies are being performed on both men.

Milwaukee’s annual Polar Bear Plunge at Bradford Beach on Lake Michigan Monday could be even more dangerous than usual, a city official told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. The wind chill was expected to be about 9 below zero (-13 Celsius) by the time of the event at noon.

“You’re going to get hypothermic,” said Milwaukee Fire Battalion Chief Erich Roden. “Everybody wants to do the polar plunge once in their life; it’s a bucket list item. Unfortunately, it’s something that can cause a lot of harm.”

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White House ‘Very Concerned’ About Iran Blocking Social Media

The Trump administration says it is “very concerned” about Tehran blocking Iranians from communicating via social media platforms in a bid to dampen several days of nationwide anti-government protests.

Iran blocked access to messaging app Telegram and photo-sharing app Instagram on Sunday, with state media saying the moves were meant to maintain peace. Iranians had been using the apps to communicate about the street demonstrations, the biggest outpouring of public discontent with Iran’s clerical leaders since 2009 protests against the results of a disputed presidential election. 

The current unrest began with a relatively small protest this past Thursday in Mashhad, Iran’s second-largest city, and the main base for the opponents of moderate president Hassan Rouhani, before spreading to other parts of the country.

In an interview with VOA Persian on Sunday, Deputy Assistant to the President for Strategic Communications Michael Anton said there is not much the U.S. government can do about Iran’s social media clampdown. But he said the Trump administration expects U.S. and other Western companies to halt any concessions to the Iranian government. 

“(They should) not bow to any demands for censorship or curtailment of information,” Anton said. “(They should) continue doing business the way they always have, and let information flow freely into Iran.” He added that U.S. officials will be watching how those companies handle the issue. 

Telegram in particular is very popular in Iran, with more than 50 percent of the country’s 80 million population said to be active on the app.

Telegram CEO Pavel Durov, a Russian entrepreneur whose company has offices in London, posted a tweet on Sunday, saying Iran had blocked access to the service after his refusal to shut down communication channels that he said were being used for peaceful protests.

 

In an online statement, Durov said it is unclear if the blocking of Telegram will be permanent or temporary. He said Telegram would “rather get blocked in a country by its authorities than limit peaceful expression of alternative opinions.”

In a separate report published on Sunday, the Associated Press said U.S. tech giant Facebook, which owns Instagram, declined to comment about Iran’s blocking of the photo-sharing app.

U.S. President Donald Trump criticized the Iranian government in a Sunday tweet for “clos(ing) down the Internet so that peaceful demonstrators cannot communicate”. 

In his VOA Persian interview, Anton said the Trump administration is coordinating with its allies in Europe, the Americas and elsewhere to apply pressure on Tehran to allow the protests to continue and to address the protesters’ complaints about the high cost of living, government corruption and lack of democratic freedoms. 

“We want to let them know that the world’s civilized nations stand with them and are in favor of their just grievances being addressed and against the destabilizing behavior and oppression of the regime,” Anton said.

In his first public response to the protests, Iranian state media quoted President Hassan Rouhani on Sunday as acknowledging that Iranians have the right to protest and criticize his government. But Rouhani said social unrest and destruction of public property are unacceptable. He also said Trump had “no right” to sympathize with the Iranian people. The Trump administration labels the Iranian government as the world’s top state sponsor of terrorism — a charge Tehran rejects — and issued travel bans that have blocked Iranians from getting U.S. visas.

The protests after the Iran’s 2009 elections were prompted by accusations of fraud in the presidential election, and voters demanded the votes be recounted. Those protests had strong leadership from then-presidential candidates Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi.

Iran’s economy has improved since its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, in which Iran limited its enrichment of uranium in exchange for the end of some international sanctions. Iran now sells its oil on the global market and has signed deals to purchase tens of billions of dollars’ worth of Western aircraft.

But that improvement has not reached the average Iranian. Unemployment remains high, and official inflation has crept up to 10 percent. A recent increase in egg and poultry prices by as much as 40 percent, which a government spokesman has blamed on a cull over avian flu fears, appears to have been the spark for the economic protests.

“The protesters are demanding a better life,” said Hooshang Amirahmadi, founder and president of the American-Iranian Council and a professor of public policy at Rutgers University. “They are saying they want a huge change, they want a radical change. They are not going to leave the streets until they get it.”

Protests have increased in frequency and intensity over past few months because of economic change — prices going up, inflation, banks under pressure, people worried about deposits disappearing, according to Alex Vatanka, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute.

“Rouhani, I think this is a wake-up call for him. Rouhani really has taken the people who voted for him for granted. Nobody really genuinely thought he was a reformist but hoped that he would at least take certain steps to move in that direction. He’s done none of it,” Vatanka said. “In fact, since his re-election in May, he’s turned toward the right. That has just infuriated those reformists who sort of bought the idea that gradual reform in the Islamic Republic is possible.”

But Behnam Ben Taleblu, a senior Iran analyst for the Foundation for Defense and Democracies, told VOA he believes the protesters are using anger about the economy as a way to express general grievances over the government.

“What is true is that the Iranian people want accountability, respect, justice. And they want their government to put their interests — national interests — ahead of the narrow, factional or regime interests,” Behnam said.

He also said many Iranians are angered over what they believe is pointless intervention in regional affairs.

“The average Iranian is looking at the political fights it’s picking in the region and saying ‘why do we need that?’ And they’re worried about their basic lot in life — and coming to the reality that this government cannot deliver. That’s why you heard slogans like ‘Not Gaza, Not Lebanon. My life for Iran.'”

Carla Babb, Margaret Besheer, Michelle Quinn contributed to this report

This report was produced in collaboration with VOA Persian 

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