Australian firefighters used cooler conditions Christmas Day to try and contain bushfires ahead of hot, dry weather later in the week, as leaders and communities thanked them for sacrificing time with their families over the holidays.In the state of New South Wales (NSW), which saw entire towns devastated by fires over the weekend, state premier Gladys Berejiklian and the head of the NSW rural fire service, Shane Fitzsimmons, attended a breakfast organized by volunteers in the small town of Colo, 90km (55 miles) northwest of Sydney.“Community volunteers provided food, company, conversation, wrapped presents & hampers to share for crews heading into the field,” Fitzsimmons tweeted. “It was just lovely & spirits were high.”Christmas Day offered cooler conditions in many parts of the country as firefighters, many of them volunteers, spent the day trying to contain blazes.An aerial scene shows firefighters extinguishing wildfires in the Adelaide Hills, Australia, Dec. 24, 2019, in this image made from video.Intense heat is forecast to return again by the weekend, especially in Australia’s south, where temperatures are expected to exceed 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit).The last few months have seen more than 900 homes lost across the dry continent, according to authorities, even though the southern hemisphere summer has not yet reached its midpoint.The fires have destroyed more than 3.7 million hectares (9.1 million acres) across five states and at least six people have died in NSW and two in South Australia during the bushfire emergency.Prime Minister Scott Morrison used a Christmas message to thank volunteers for their willingness to spend the day away from their families.“As we look forward to next year and as we celebrate this Christmas I want to thank all of those who serve our nation,” Morrison said in a video shared on social media Wednesday morning.Morrison has faced sustained political pressure as the bushfires have raged, following his decision to take a family holiday to Hawaii last week and his conservative Liberal-National coalition government’s climate policies.
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Month: December 2019
Sudan’s Protesters Mark Anniversary of Uprising with Calls for Justice
Sudan this month marks one year since protests over prices turned into a monthslong demonstration that led the military to oust former president Omar al-Bashir after three decades in power. The coup was followed by a deadly crackdown on protesters before a deal was made on a transitional government. But, as Naba Mohiedeen reports from Khartoum, protesters are still demanding justice for those killed.
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Trump Impeachment Looms as 2020 Election Issue
U.S. President Donald Trump was assured of a place in history this month when the U.S. House of Representatives voted to impeach him over his efforts to pressure Ukraine to investigate political rival Joe Biden. Trump is expected to be acquitted in an impeachment trial early next year in the Republican-controlled Senate, but the political fallout from the impeachment drama will be a factor in the 2020 presidential election. VOA National Correspondent Jim Malone has more from Washington.
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Typhoon Phanfone Brings Misery to Philippines on Christmas Day
Typhoon Phanfone pummeled the central Philippines on Christmas Day, bringing a wet and miserable holiday season to millions in the mainly Catholic nation.Thousands were stranded at shuttered ports or evacuation centers at the height of the festive season Wednesday, and residents cowered in rain-soaked homes as Phanfone leapt from one small island to another for the second day. The typhoon toppled houses and trees and blacked out cities in the Philippines’ most storm-prone region, but no deaths were reported.Though weaker, Phanfone was tracking a similar path as Super Typhoon Haiyan, the country’s deadliest cyclone on record, which left more than 7,300 people dead or missing in 2013.Residents rest in an evacuation center, as Typhoon Phanfone makes landfall, in Borongan, Eastern Samar province, central Philippines, Dec. 24, 2019.Thousands strandedMore than 10,000 people spent the night in schools, gyms and government buildings hastily converted into evacuation centers as the typhoon made landfall Tuesday, civil defense officials said.”It was frightening. The glass windows shattered and we took cover by the stairs,” Ailyn Metran told AFP after she and her 4-year-old child spent the night at the local state weather service office where her husband works.A metal window frame flew off and landed on a car parked outside the building, she said.With just two hours’ sleep, the family returned to their home in the central city of Tacloban early Wednesday to find their two dogs safe, but the floor was covered in mud and a felled tree rested atop a nearby house.The weather office said the typhoon strengthened slightly overnight Tuesday and was gusting at 195 kilometers (121 miles) an hour, velocities that can knock down small trees and destroy houses made of light materials.More islands in storm’s pathMore islands along the storm’s projected path are expected to be hit with destructive winds and intense rainfall before it blows out into the South China Sea early Thursday, the weather office added.More than 25,000 people trying to get home for the traditional Christmas Eve midnight dinner with their families remained stranded at ports on Christmas Day with ferry services still shut down, the coast guard said.Scores of flights to the region also remained canceled, though the populous capital Manila, on the northern edge has so far been spared.The Philippines is the first major landmass facing the Pacific cyclone belt.As such, the archipelago gets hit by an average of 20 storms and typhoons each year, killing scores of people and wiping out harvests, homes and other infrastructure and keeping millions perennially poor.A July 2019 study by the Manila-based Asian Development Bank said the most frequent storms lop 1 percent off the Philippine economic output, with the stronger ones cutting output by nearly 3 percent.
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Trump Marks Christmas Eve with Church Service, Calls to Troops
President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump attended a music-filled Christmas Eve service at a Southern Baptist Convention-affiliated church before celebrating the holiday with dinner in the ballroom of his private club.The pastor of Family Church in West Palm Beach, Florida, Jimmy Scroggins, and his family greeted the Trumps as they arrived moments into a “Candlelight Christmas Celebration.” The Trumps received applause and cheers while taking reserved seats in the church’s third pew. Brief sermons and readings by clergy were interlaced with traditional Christmas songs, as theatrical smoke billowed and fake snow descended from the rafters.Attending Family Church was a change of pace for the Trumps, who had attended holiday services in the past at Bethesda-by-the-Sea, the Episcopal Church in Palm Beach at which they were married in 2005.The Trumps then returned to his private club, where they were greeted by applause as they entered for Christmas Eve dinner. Trump, less than a week after being impeached by the House, did not respond when asked by a reporter if he prayed for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at church, but he said, “We’re going to have a great year.”President Donald Trump. left, and first lady Melania Trump greet lead pastor Jimmy Scroggins, his wife, Kristin, and their son and daughter-in-law, James, right, and Reilly as they arrive at the Family Church Downtown for a Christmas Eve service.Trump was seen briefly speaking attorney Alan Dershowitz, a prominent Trump defender on cable news, who was dining in the ballroom. The Harvard Law School professor emeritus has been the subject of discussions about joining the president’s impeachment legal team.Trump earlier called military service members stationed across the world to share greetings ahead of the Christmas holiday.Speaking Tuesday by video conference from his private club in Florida, where he is on a more than two-week vacation, Trump said, “I want to wish you an amazing Christmas.” The group included Marines in Afghanistan, an Army unit in Kuwait, a Navy ship in the Gulf of Aden, an Air Force base in Missouri and a Coast Guard station in Alaska.Trump praised the armed forces for their efforts this year to eliminate the last of the Islamic State group’s territorial caliphate and for killing IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. He also touted economic successes at home and a pay raise for troops kicking in in the new year.“You make it possible for us to do what we have to do,” Trump said, thanking them for their service.Trump briefly fielded questions from troops, including an invitation to attend the homecoming of the USS Forrest Sherman when the destroyer returns next year to its home port of Norfolk, Virginia.President Donald Trump makes a video call to troops stationed worldwide at the Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach Fla., Dec. 24, 2019.Trump was asked what he’d bought Mrs. Trump for Christmas. A “beautiful card,” he said, and admitted that he was “still working on a Christmas present.”“You made me think. I’m going to have to start working on that real fast,” he said.On Tuesday evening, the first lady answered calls from children across the country as part of North American Aerospace Defense Command’s Operation NORAD Tracks Santa program. Press secretary Stephanie Grisham said Mrs. Trump spoke with several children and heard items on their Christmas lists.Grisham said Mrs. Trump “reminded the kids to put milk and cookies out for Santa, and wished each child and their families a very merry Christmas.”The president has been largely out of the spotlight since delivering a speech to conservative students in nearby West Palm Beach on Saturday, spending his days golfing on his private course and greeting the well-heeled members of his clubs.
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Pope Urges Faithful to be Transformed by Christ’s ‘Crazy Love’ for All
Pope Francis assured the faithful on Christmas Eve that God loves everyone — “even the worst of us” — as he celebrated the joyous birth of Christ after a less-than-joyful year of scandals and opposition.With a choir singing the classic Christmas hymn “The First Noel,” Francis walked down the center aisle of St. Peter’s Basilica late Tuesday and unveiled a statue of the newborn Jesus lying in a nativity scene at the foot of the altar.Francis said the birth of Jesus, which Christians commemorate on Christmas Day, was a reminder of God’s unconditional love for everyone, “even the worst of us.”“God does not love you because you think and act the right way,” he said. “You may have mistaken ideas, you may have made a complete mess of things, but the Lord continues to love you.”At the same time though, he called for the faithful to allow themselves to be transformed by Jesus’ “crazy love” and to stop trying to change others.“May we not wait for our neighbors to be good before we do good to them, for the church to be perfect before we love her, for others to respect us before we serve them. Let us begin with ourselves,” he said.Pope Francis leads a Christmas Eve mass in St Peter’s Basilica to mark the nativity of Jesus Christ, Dec. 24, 2019, at the Vatican.Reform-minded papacyFrancis has frequently emphasized his call for “personal conversion” in his reform-minded papacy, believing that true reform cannot be imposed from on high, but discerned from within. He has similarly denounced the “holier-than-thou” attitude of doctrinal and legal purists, who have chafed at his progressive openings to gays, divorcees and people on the margins.Those critics have seized on the sexual abuse and financial scandals that have buffeted the papacy of the 83-year-old Jesuit pope.The scandals are likely to follow Francis into 2020, with developments in a corruption investigation involving hundreds of millions of dollars in donations to the Holy See and the release of a report on what the Vatican knew about ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, who was defrocked for sexually abusing adults and minors.Francis’ late-night Mass kicks off a busy few days for the pope, including a Christmas Day speech, noontime prayers, a New Year’s Eve vigil and a Jan. 1 Mass.
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Ex-Cambodia Daily Reporter: ‘No Clue’ What Triggered Criminal Charges
It was in the spring of 2017 that veteran Cambodia Daily reporters Aun Pheap and Zsombor Peter traveled to the country’s Ratanakiri province, home to the sole commune that Prime Minister Hun Sen’s ruling CPP party had failed to win in earlier elections.Aiming to find out why the rural province’s isolated Pate commune was the nation’s sole backer of the opposition Sam Rainsy Party (SRP) in 2012, Pheap and Peter spent a day asking random locals about upcoming polls and interviewing then-incumbent SRP commune chief Romam Yuot.Shortly after publishing the article, the reporters were faced with charges of “inciting the people,” while their employer was hit with a $6.3 million tax bill and a prime minister’s order to pay up or “pack up.”Long known for diligent reporting on government corruption and human rights violations — along with extensive exposes on illegal logging and labor violations in the country’s garment sector — the Cambodia Daily published its final print edition Sept. 4.With the first incitement hearing slated for Wednesday, Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF), which ranks Cambodia 143rd out of 180 countries in its 2019 World Press Freedom Index, has called for immediate withdrawal of the “absurd, trumped-up charges.”RSF, like other international free press advocates, says charges levied against Pheap and Peter likely have nothing to do with their 2017 news reports filed from Pate, but only to serve as an example to others.“This whole fabricated process [is] clearly a way for the Hun Sen clan to notify journalists that this would be what they risk if they dare to report independently,” said Daniel Bastard, RSF’s Asia-Pacific expert, who also warned that the looming trial is bound to have the effect of greater self-censorship among journalists.“Scheduling the initial hearing on Dec. 25 is an additional mean trick of the kind you expect from the most authoritarian regimes, which often take advantage of the end-of-year holidays in many democratic countries to violate human rights without too much publicity,” said the RSF statement. “Well-known Chinese blogger Wu Gan was sentenced to eight years in prison on 26 December 2017. And it was on 25 December 2009 that a Beijing court sentenced Liu Xiaobo, a Nobel peace laurate and RSF Press Freedom laureate, to 11 years in prison.”Pheap, 55, who has since fled to the U.S., and Peter, 41, who continues covering Southeast Asia from outside Cambodia, face up to two years in prison if convicted.We caught up with Peter, a Canadian journalist who continues writing for the Cambodian Daily online and is a regular contributor to VOA, its sister outlet, RFA, and other publications.VOA: Are these charges about your reports on a given commune voting against Hun Sen’s continued leadership, or are they really about reports on illegal logging?Zsombor Peter: I have no clue. I wish I could give you a more satisfying answer. If I could, that would mean I knew who all were truly behind this case. But I simply don’t know, so it’s all just a guess. That’s one of the most frustrating things about this case —not knowing who is really suing us. The people who filed the complaint are just puppets.The puppet masters could be the illegal logging syndicates we’ve upset with our investigative reporting, ruling-party politicians scared of honest election coverage, or both.What I am sure of is that the charge against Pheap and I is not only baseless, but absurd, conjured out of thin air. Two of the three people accusing us of incitement spoke with us willingly; the third was never even approached for an interview. How can that be “incitement to commit a felony”? What’s more, no one has ever explained what felony we were allegedly inciting people to, because the lie of this case is so transparent that they can’t come up with one. All that is to say that the case is purely politically motivated.VOA: Aun Pheap has relocated to the U.S., but you continue to report from the region. Has the recent announcement of a trial date created problems for you personally and/or professionally? Are you now forced to keep a lower profile?ZP: The case has caused me trouble since the charge was laid in October 2017. Pretrial detention is common practice in Cambodia, in politically motivated cases especially, so the possibility of arrest became very real at that point. That makes a return risky, especially to report. So that’s eight years of country knowledge I built up that I can’t use. And, as a reporter who still covers Southeast Asia, that means fewer job opportunities. If I’m convicted, that also raises the possibility of being extradited back to Cambodia to serve my sentence.VOA: What advice might you have for other reporters faced with these types of politically motivated charges? Would you advocate staying put and continuing to report despite the threat of imprisonment or worse? Or, would you encourage reporters to find a safe space to report from a reasonably safe distance?ZP: I left Cambodia in October 2017, when I was charged. So I’m in no position to give advice on whether others should leave or stay put.VOA: If you could make a prepared statement to the court about these charges, what would it be?ZP: I would not make a prepared statement for this “court.” I would reserve a prepared statement for a real court, a court where the facts might make a difference. The fact that this case has progressed to trial without a shred of evidence is proof enough that this is not a court.VOA: If you could return to Cambodia and report on any topic you like without fear of reprisal, what would it be?ZP: I would report on the same things I was reporting on before I left Cambodia, which over eight years were many. They would include the illegal logging business and all other forms of corruption; the government’s repression of peaceful dissent; labor rights abuses, mainly in the garment sector, and human rights abuses more broadly; Cambodia’s balancing act with China on one hand and Europe and the U.S. on the other; and the government’s damming of the Mekong River and its tributaries. I also reported often on Cambodia’s ongoing battle with malaria drug resistance and UXO contamination and would want to pick that up as well.
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US Supreme Court Set to Rule on Cases Involving Trump Financial Records in 2020
In 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court is set to rule on several cases involving the financial records of President Donald Trump and the Trump Organization, which have been demanded by Democrats investigating corruption and foreign meddling in the U.S. election. White House correspondent Patsy Widakuswara takes a look back at the cases involving the president’s businesses and how he tries to shield his finances from scrutiny
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Russia Extends Detention of American Accused of Spying
A Russian court on Tuesday extended the pre-trial detention of an American being held on espionage charges.Former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, who holds US, British, Canadian and Irish citizenship, has been jailed in Russia since he was arrested at a Moscow hotel on December 28 last year.The Moscow court extended his detention until March 29, 2020 but did not clarify why it was doing so.Just before the ruling, Whelan tried to read a statement but was stopped by security guards. Instead, it pressed the two pieces of paper to the wall of his glass cage that contained the statement he wanted to read. It proclaimed his innocence and asked U.S. President Donald Trump and other world leaders to “please act” on his behalf.An American diplomat visited Whelan in prison Monday and called on Russian authorities to allow the prisoner to speak to his family.”It’s two days before Christmas,” Bart Gorman, the U.S. Charge d’Affaires, said. “A holiday Paul Whelan will spend alone in Lefortovo [Prison]. In the past 12 months, Paul has not heard his parents’ voices. Bring Paul some Christmas cheer and let him call home.”The U.S. Embassy in Moscow and the State Department have been increasingly critical of Moscow, demanding it provide evidence against him and accusing Russia of hindering consular access to him.
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Militants in Burkina Faso Kill 35 Civilians in Attack on Town
Officials in Burkina Faso say soldiers killed 80 Islamic militants who launched simultaneous attacks on a military post and the northern town of Arbinda Tuesday.The militants killed at least 35 civilians, mostly women, before they were beaten back. Seven soldiers were also killed.President Roch Marc Kabore has declared two days of national mourning. His government calls the militants cowards.Burkinabe forces used fighter jets against the Islamists during the fight near the border with Mali, lasting several hours.Islamic militants in Mali, under pressure from French forces, have spilled across the border into Burkina Faso, killing hundreds of people and sending thousands fleeing from their homes. The militants frequently use hit-and-run attacks on motorcycles.Meanwhile, The New York Times reports the Trump administration is considering a complete pullout of U.S. forces from West Africa as part of a global reshuffling of American troops across the globe.”We’ve begin a review process where I’m looking at every theater, understanding what the requirements are that we set out for, making sure we’re as efficient as possible with our forces,” Defense Secretary Mark Esper said earlier this month.Between six and 7,000 U.S. forces are currently in Africa. Several hundred of them are in such West African nations as Niger, Chad, and Mali to assist French forces in training West African security forces in confronting Boko Haram and the various al-Qaida terrorist group spinoffs.According to the Times, Esper is questioning whether such missions are worth it, believing these militant groups generally lack the ability or strength to attack U.S. forces, despite the 2017 ambush in Niger that killed four U.S. soldiers.The New York Times says Esper has given the U.S. Africa Command until next month to come up with a withdrawal plan.The Pentagon has not yet commented on the newspaper report.
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Ivory Coast Issues Arrest Warrant for Presidential Candidate
Authorities in Ivory Coast have issued an arrest warrant for Guillaume Soro, prompting the ex-rebel leader and presidential hopeful to divert his plane to another country instead of returning home.The arrest warrant is certain to escalate political tensions ahead of the 2020 election in the West African nation. Soro’s supporters took to the streets Monday to protest and police used tear gas on them.Soro, who served as prime minister from 2007 to 2012, had planned to return home after more than six months abroad.Public Prosecutor Adou Richard announced on state television Monday night that Soro was accused of “presumption of an attack on state security,” without giving details. Soro also is suspected of embezzling public funds and money laundering, Richard said.The charges were announced hours after several of Soro’s top associates were detained by security forces following a news conference in Abidjan.“Arresting Soro won’t resolve the problem, the crisis in Ivory Coast,” said Soro supporter Bernard Koffi. “On the contrary, it makes the crisis worse because we don’t know what wrong he is supposed to have done.”Ivory Coast erupted in civil war in 2002 and remained divided into a rebel-controlled north and loyalist south until a 2007 peace deal.Soro and his allies helped President Alassane Ouattara come to power when then-President Laurent Gbagbo refused to step down during the violent 2010-2011 election that left more than 3,000 people dead.Soro later fell out of favor with Ouattara while serving as parliament speaker and ultimately stepped down.He is the first candidate to publicly declare his intention to run for president under the banner of his party, Générations et Peuples Solidaires, or GPS.Ouattara was believed to be serving his final term but recently indicated he might consider seeking a third term if Gbagbo decides to run.
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Botswana Sees Dramatic Rise in Reported Rape Cases
Police in Botswana say reported incidents of rape have nearly doubled in the past year. Activists say successful anti-rape campaigns have made victims more confident about reporting when they are attacked. But the higher recorded levels of rape also have spurred activists in Botswana to demand more action against sexual assault.Thirty-two-year-old “Mpho Modise” – not her real name – was attacked and raped by two men while walking home earlier this year.”Even up to now it is still on me. Sometimes I try to forget about it but, when it comes to my mind, I feel the pain,” said Modise. “I tried to look for people to counsel me, but still the pain is still on me.”Police say there were 1,600 reported cases of rape in the first three quarters of 2019 – almost double compared to that period for each of the previous two years.Activists like Desmond Lunga of Men and Boys for Gender Equality, say the increase is due to victims feeling more comfortable about reporting attacks due to increased campaigning against rape. “The first thing that we have been doing as activists is to encourage people to report,” said Lunga. “There has been a lot of rape happening, but people have not been reporting. As we see the numbers increasing, sometimes it is also to say people are seeing this and are able to go and report.”Despite this trend, social worker Kgomotso Jongman says rape remains difficult to deal with, due to the fact that in most cases, the perpetrator is known to the victim.”The majority of the people who were raped, were raped by family members or people closer to the family or people that they know,” said Jongman. “That is something that I found very strange and very disturbing.”Lorato Moalusi of the Botswana Gender Based Violence Prevention and Support Center says more research is needed on the causes behind the widespread sexual assaults.”The scourge of rape is high. Botswana has done very well in trying to control HIV but, if we are not going to try and control sexual violence, we will lose all the gains that we made,” said Moalusi. “The silence must be broken, the silence is too loud.”Botswana’s vulnerable are hoping that more accurate rape statistics will spur the nation to take more action.
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Hong Kong Protesters Clash with Police During Christmas Eve Confrontations
Hopes for a peaceful Christmas were dashed in Hong Kong Tuesday after riot police fired tear gas and protesters set fire at various locations across the city that has been roiled by civil unrest for more than six months.Large crowds had gathered in several shopping malls and a busy tourist area in response to online calls to voice their discontent with the government and to demand greater democracy.The anti-government movement in Hong Kong, sparked by a controversial extradition law, has entered the seventh month and shows no signs of abating. Protesters say they will not give up unless the government meets their political demands, which include universal suffrage and an independent investigation into police brutality. After 9 p.m. local time, police fired several rounds of tear gas in a popular tourist area, Tsim Sha Tsui, to disperse protesters — including outside the luxury Peninsula Hotel. Hundreds had gathered to disrupt traffic earlier and riot police warned they were taking part in an illegal assembly.A riot police officer shoots a tear gas to disperse anti-government demonstrators protesting on Christmas Eve in Hong Kong, Dec. 24, 2019.The gas covered a large area, engulfing buses and other traffic in the tourist spot adorned with Christmas illuminations. Families with young children were seen covering their faces as they hurried away. Police ordered people gathered on the scenic harbor front to leave, although many appeared to be just celebrating Christmas. As riot police pushed along the seafront, a young child dressed in a Santa Claus costume looked frightened while clinging to his mother’s shoulders.Scores of black-clad protesters got into a stand-off with police officers near the Peninsula by hiding behind opened umbrellas. Later in the evening, protesters placed large objects including wooden crates and bus signs across a thoroughfare and set them on fire.Hong Kong police said in a late night statement that protesters threw fuel bombs at the Tsim Sha Tsui Police Station at 11 p.m. local time and warned members of the public to stay away from the area. They said protesters occupied a thoroughfare and set barricades on another street and police used crowd management vehicles to disperse “rioters” — eyewitnesses said water cannon were used on the crowds. The statement also said police warned the rioters “to stop their illegal acts.”In the busy Mong Kok shopping district, protesters ignited objects at an entrance to the metro station. Other protesters targeted an HSBC bank by smashing its glass panels and setting fire to the front of the building. HSBC had suspended the account of non-profit platform Spark Alliance that raised funds for protesters. Some sprayed-painted the message, “Don’t forget Spark Alliance,” onto the outer walls.Plainclothes police officers arrest protesters in a mall during Christmas Eve in Hong Kong, Dec. 24, 2019.Hong Kong police last week froze the equivalent of about $9 million held by Spark Alliance and arrested its four members — moves decried by critics as an attempt to clamp down on the city’s protest movement and smear its reputation.HSBC Bank said the activities of Spark Alliance’s corporate account did not match the client’s stated business purposes. The bank maintained last week that the closure of the group’s account was “completely unrelated to the Hong Kong police’s arrest of the four individuals” and “unrelated to the current Hong Kong situation.” After clashes broke out Tuesday night, the metro company closed down stations at Mong Kok and Tsim Sha Tsui early, saying the move was necessary to protect the safety of passengers and staff. The metro system had planned to extend its service hours on Christmas Eve.On Christmas Eve, police officers also clashed with protesters inside several upscale shopping malls, using pepper spray and beating people with batons as both sides shouted verbal abuse at one another. Local media reported that one man fell inside a shopping center in out-of-town Yuen Long while escaping police officers. In Harbor City shopping mall in Tsim Sha Tsui, black-clad protesters got into a fight with people they suspected were undercover officers earlier in the evening. They threw objects at riot police officers who entered the mall while police pointed their crowd control weapons at the demonstrators. Plainclothes officers used batons to beat protesters while yelling at them. Several people were subdued. Many shops pulled down their shutters.
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Report: US Considers Pulling Troops from West Africa
The Pentagon is looking into reducing or even withdrawing US troops from West Africa, part of a worldwide redeployment of military forces, the New York Times reported Tuesday. There are between 6,000 and 7,000 US troops in Africa, mainly in West Africa but also in places like Somalia.The U.S. presence includes military trainers as well as a recently built $110 million drone base in Niger, the Times said. A withdrawal would also end U.S. support for French military efforts in Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso in their war along with local troops against Al-Qaeda and Islamic State group jihadists.The Pentagon supports them by providing intelligence, logistical support and aerial refueling at an annual cost to the Pentagon of some $45 million a year, the Times said.France has had a major military presence in Mali since 2013, when it launched an intervention against Al-Qaeda-linked jihadists who had overrun the country’s north.
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Trump Rails Against Democratic Lawmakers Amid Standoff Over Senate Impeachment Trial
U.S. President Donald Trump berated Democratic lawmakers over his impeachment Tuesday as a legislative standoff continues over a Senate impeachment trial.”They treated us very unfairly and now they want to be treated fairly in the Senate,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida.Trump also took aim specifically at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for indefinitely postponing the sending of the articles of impeachment to Republican-controlled Senate so a trial can begin.”She hates all of the people that voted for me and the Republican Party,” he declared. “She’s doing a disservice to the country.”On a near straight party line vote, the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives approved two articles of impeachment against Trump last Wednesday, making him only the third U.S. president to be impeached in the country’s 243-year history. He is accused of abusing the power of the presidency to benefit himself politically and then obstructing congressional efforts to investigate his actions.Last week, U.S. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell dismissed calls by Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer to hear testimony from four officials during a Senate impeachment trial, including former National Security Adviser John Bolton and Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney. The officials had refused to testify during the House impeachment inquiry of the president.On Monday, however, McConnell softened his position, saying Republicans have not ruled out calling witnesses in Trump’s impeachment trial.”We haven’t ruled out witnesses,” McConnell told “Fox & Friends.” on Monday. “We’ve said, ‘Let’s handle this case just like we did with President Clinton.’ Fair is fair.”In addition to testimony from key witnesses, Schumer said Monday he also wants relevant emails and other documents that “will shed additional light on the administration’s decision-making regarding the delay in security funding to Ukraine.””It’s hard to imagine a trial not having documents and witnesses,” Schumer said, “If it does’nt have documents and witnesses, it’s going to seem to most of the American people that it is a sham trial. Not to get at the facts.”Trump’s impeachment stems from a July call with Ukraine’s president in which Trump asked for an investigation into Joe Biden, a former vice president and a leading Democratic rival to Trump in the 2020 presidential election.Pelosi has said she will not send the articles of impeachment to the Senate or choose impeachment prosecutors until the Senate agrees on rules governing the process.The Senate is not authorized to begin a trial until it receives the articles from the House.Despite Trump’s assertion that McConnell has complete leeway over a trial and McConnell’s December 17 assertion that “I’m not impartial about this [trial] at all,” the U.S. Constitution maintains that each senator should take seriously his or her oath to “do impartial justice.”Trump has insisted he did nothing wrong in his push to get Ukraine to investigate Biden and his son Hunter Biden’s lucrative work for a Ukrainian natural gas company. Trump had also called for a probe into a debunked theory that Ukraine meddled in the 2016 election.Trump made the appeal for the Biden investigations at a time when he was temporarily withholding $391 million in military aid Kyiv wanted to help fight pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.The U.S. president eventually released the money in September without Zelenskiy launching the Biden investigations, proof, Republicans have said, that Trump had not engaged in a reciprocal quid pro quo deal, the military aid in exchange for the Biden probe.Trump has on countless occasions described his late July call with Zelenskiy as “perfect,” when he asked him to “do us a favor,” to investigate the Bidens and Ukraine’s purported role in the 2016 election. As the impeachment controversy mounted, Trump has subsequently claimed the “us” in his request to Zelenskiy referred not to him personally but to the United States.
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Putin Says Russia is Leading World in Hypersonic Weapons
President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that Russia has got a strong edge in designing new weapons and that it has become the only country in the world to deploy hypersonic weapons.
Speaking at a meeting with top military brass, Putin said that for the first time in history Russia is now leading the world in developing an entire new class of weapons unlike in the past when it was catching up with the United States.
The Russian leader noted that during Cold War times, the Soviet Union was behind the United States in designing the atomic bomb and building strategic bombers and intercontinental ballistic missiles.
“Now we have a situation that is unique in modern history when they are trying to catch up to us,” he said. “Not a single country has hypersonic weapons, let alone hypersonic weapons of intercontinental range.”
The Pentagon and the U.S. military services have been working on the development of hypersonic weapons in recent years, and Defense Secretary Mark Esper said in August that he believes “it’s probably a matter of a couple of years” before the U.S. has one. He has called it a priority as the military works to develop new long-range fire capabilities.
The U.S. also has repeatedly warned Congress about hypersonic missiles being developed by Russia and China that will be harder to track and defeat. U.S. officials have talked about putting a layer of sensors in space to more quickly detect enemy missiles, particularly the more advanced hypersonic threats. The administration also plans to study the idea of basing interceptors in space, so the U.S. can strike incoming enemy missiles during the first minutes of flight when the booster engines are still burning.
Putin said that the first unit equipped with the Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle is set to go on duty this month, while the air-launched Kinzhal hypersonic missiles already have entered service.
The Russian leader first mentioned the Avangard and the Kinzhal among other prospective weapons systems in his state-of-the-nation address in March 2018.
Putin said then that the Avangard has an intercontinental range and can fly in the atmosphere at a speed 20 times the speed of sound. He noted that the weapon’s ability to change both its course and its altitude en route to a target makes it immune to interception by the the enemy.
“It’s a weapon of the future, capable of penetrating both existing and prospective missile defense systems,” Putin said Tuesday.
The Kinzhal, which is carried by MiG-31 fighter jets, entered service with the Russian air force last year. Putin has said that the missile flies 10 times faster than the speed of sound, has a range of more than 2,000 kilometers (1,250 miles) and can carry a nuclear or a conventional warhead. The military said it’s capable of hitting both land targets and navy ships.
The United States and other countries also have worked on designing hypersonic weapons, but they haven’t entered service yet.
The Kremlin has made military modernization its top priority amid tensions with the West that followed the 2014 Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea.
Putin on Tuesday described a buildup of NATO’s forces near Russia’s western borders and the U.S. withdrawal earlier this year from the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty among top security threats.
He argued that Russia must have the best weapons in the world.
“It’s not a chess game where it’s OK to play to a draw,” he said. “Our technology must be better. We can achieve that in key areas and we will.”
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu reported Tuesday that the military this year has received 143 warplanes and helicopters, 624 armored vehicles, a submarine and eight surface warships. He said that the modernization of Russia’s arsenals will continue at the same rapid pace next year, with 22 intercontinental ballistic missiles, 106 new aircraft, 565 armored vehicles, three submarines and 14 surface ships to enter duty.
Putin noted that the work to develop other prospective weapons, including the Sarmat heavy intercontinental ballistic missile, the Poseidon nuclear-powered underwater drone and the Burevestnik nuclear-powered cruise missile was going according to plan.
The Burevestnik has stoked particular controversy. The U.S. and the Soviet Union worked on nuclear-powered rocket engines during the Cold War, but they eventually spiked those projects considering them to be too hazardous.
The Burevestnik reportedly suffered an explosion in August during tests at a Russian navy range on the White Sea, killing five nuclear engineers and two servicemen and resulting in a brief spike in radioactivity that fueled radiation fears in a nearby city. Russian officials never named the weapon involved in the incident, but the U.S. said it was the Burevestnik.
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Typhoon Phanfone ruining Christmas for thousands of Filipinos
Typhoon Phanfone smashed into the central Philippines on Tuesday, leaving thousands of people unable to get home for the Christmas holidays and forcing many others to evacuate in the face of the onslaught.The tropical storm was upgraded to a typhoon shortly before it made landfall on Christmas Eve in the mainly Catholic nation, but early reports indicate there had been no casualties so far.It struck the southern tip of the impoverished island of Samar in the afternoon with gusts of up to 150 kilometers (90 miles) an hour that snapped branches off trees and knocked down power pylons and mobile phone relay towers.”[There are] no signs of heavy damage except for houses made of light materials,” Ben Evardone, the governor of Eastern Samar province, told AFP, adding there were no casualties there.Just under 1,700 people were evacuated from coastal areas as well as those prone to flooding and landslides, according to early official tallies seen by AFP.”Some families are reluctant to evacuate because they want to celebrate Christmas at home, but local officials will force them out if they refuse to heed our warnings,” regional civil defense official Reyden Cabrigas earlier told AFP.The state weather service said homes made of wood, straw or bamboo risked “heavy damage,” though there were so far no reports of giant waves crashing onto coastal communities as the state weather service earlier warned.Phanfone, Laotian for “animal,” was forecast to cut across the central islands through Christmas Day Wednesday before roaring out to the South China Sea.All boats on the storm’s projected path through the central islands were ordered to stay in port and many commercial flights were cancelled, stranding thousands of people who were trooping to their hometowns.Though much weaker, Phanfone was tracking a similar path as Super Typhoon Haiyan — the country’s deadliest cyclone on record which left more than 7,300 people dead or missing in 2013.More than 23,000 ferry passengers trying to get home for the Christmas holidays have been stranded at ports as shipping shut down, the coast guard said Tuesday.The state weather service said Phanfone would bring moderate to strong winds over the capital Manila on Christmas Day.The Philippines is the first major landmass facing the Pacific cyclone belt.As such, the archipelago gets hit by an average of 20 storms and typhoons each year.Strong winds and associated dangers such as floods, landslides, and — more rarely — giant walls of seawater kill scores of people each year, wipe out harvests and destroy roads, bridges, power lines and other infrastructure.A July 2019 study by the Manila-based Asian Development Bank said the most frequent storms lop one percent off the Philippine economic output, with the stronger ones cutting output by nearly three percent.
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Cameroonian Girls on Nigeria Border Married Off to Escape Boko Haram
Cameroonian girls are married before the age of 18 but the highest rate is along the border with Nigeria where 60% of girls go into child marriage. One of the reasons parents give for marrying off their daughters early is to protect them from the militant Islamist group Boko Haram. Moki Edwin Kindzeka has this report by Anne Nzouankeu in Krawa, Cameroon.
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Senegal, a Muslim Country that Can’t Get Enough Christmas
Senegal, home to the largest mosque in West Africa and with a 95 percent Muslim population, is widely recognized for its strict adherence to Islam. And yet each year at Christmas, streets and city squares are aglow with holiday lights and storefronts filled with tinsel and Christmas trees. So, how do Senegalese people reconcile their devotion to Islam with their love of the Christian holiday? Street vendors carrying skull caps and prayer beads weave in and out traffic in Dakar’s busy Sandaga Market.It’s a typical weekday in this Muslim majority country, where taxi drivers often pull over to pray on the sidewalk and mosques can be found just about everywhere even on the beach.But in December, Senegal’s vendors also peddle shimmering tinsel, metal ornaments, and plastic Christmas trees.
Senegal is a Muslim Country that Can’t Get Enough Christmas video player.
Christmas lights are displayed at Dakar’s city center, Senegal, Dec. 18, 2019. (Annika Hammerschlag/VOA)This time of year, Christmas decorations light up Dakar’s city squares and storefronts. At La Parisienne bakery, snowflakes are glued to the windows and nutcrackers adorn countertops.
Business director Abibou Dadh said his customers love the decorations. “Senegal’s Christians also celebrate Muslim holidays such as Eid al-Adha, the Festival of the Sacrifice, known as Tabaski,” he said.
“These days Christians celebrate Tabaski and our Christian brothers accompany us by celebrating it with us,” he said. “So it is normal for us Muslims to try to accompany Christians, to celebrate Christmas with them. We are a united people. We are all the same. There is no difference. Certainly each respects the other in his difference and in his religion.” Eugenie Avehoe takes orders at Patisseries des Ambassades in Dakar, Senegal, Dec. 19, 2019. (Annika Hammerschlag/VOA)At restaurant Patisseries des Ambassades, the servers wear Santa Claus hats and aprons. Outside, Abdou Diop is dressed in a Santa Claus suit and sitting on a sleigh. Behind him a horse-drawn cart rolls along the street.It’s 80 degrees and sunny, but Diop said the heavy costume and beard don’t bother him. When he was little, he said his parents would take him to sit on Santa’s lap — a fond memory.He said, it demonstrates the social inclusion that’s so prevalent in their country. They’re united, they’re one. When Muslims celebrate their holidays, the Christians participate, and vice versa. It shows the social cohesion and the strength of Senegal.While Muslim Senegal’s Christmas is limited to the commercial and secular, it is still a celebration of the Christian holiday and the unity of this West African nation.
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Trump: US Ready to Deal with N. Korean ‘Christmas Gift’
President Donald Trump says the U.S. is ready deal will any “Christmas Gift” that North Korea has threatened to deliver amid stalled nuclear negotiations between the two nations.”Maybe it’s a present where he sends me a beautiful vase as opposed to a missile test right. I may get a vase,” Trump told reporters Tuesday.North Korea has called on the U.S. to make concessions in the nuclear talks and warned earlier this month it is “entirely up to the U.S. what Christmas gift it will select to get”The nuclear negotiations have been stalled since February with North Korea seeking sanctions relief before giving up any of its nuclear capability, a path the United States has so far rejected.Last month, North Korea conducted its fourth launch of 2019 of what it called a “super-large, multiple-rocket launch system,” and warned it may soon launch a “real ballistic missile” in the vicinity of Japan.North Korea last tested an intercontinental ballistic missile in November 2017, and conducted a nuclear test in September 2017.In April 2018, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un announced a self-imposed moratorium on ICBM and nuclear tests, saying North Korea “no longer need[s]” those tests.Recently, North Korean officials have issued reminders that North Korea’s pause on ICBM and nuclear tests was self-imposed and can be reversed.
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Analysts: Xi’s Praise of Loyal Macau Won’t Appeal to Hong Kong, Taiwan
In his address to the 20th Handover Ceremony in Macau last Friday, Chinese President Xi Jinping seemingly committed a gaffe that appeared to reveal his intention of setting the implementation of “one country, two systems” in Macau as a good example for neighboring Hong Kong and even Taiwan.
But analysts say that proving the scheme works by awarding the former Portuguese colony with favorable “economic goodies” won’t impress people in Hong Kong and Taiwan, who demand greater democracy.
“China wants to promote the ‘one country, two systems’ scheme, which has proved to be a total failure in Hong Kong. I don’t think China can keep fooling people in Hong Kong and Taiwan, none of which will accept the scheme,” Democratic Progressive Party legislator Wu Ping-jui said in Taipei.
The Macau model
Last Friday, Xi said that Macau tells a story of the success in implementing the ‘one country, two systems,’ addressing a celebration of the 20th anniversary of the city’s return to China
Chinese President Xi Jinping, front left, and his wife Peng Liyuan, front right, wave after arriving at Macao Airport, Dec. 18, 2019.“The people in Macau have whole-heartedly embraced the ‘one country, two systems.’ Let’s recognize that the ‘one country, two systems’ is the best system for Hong Kong [sic] to maintain its long-term prosperity and stability,” Xi said.
Although Xi went on to say “after the return of Hong Kong and Macau to China, the handling of matters in those two special administrative regions is completely China’s domestic affairs,” his earlier reference to Hong Kong instead of Macau is widely seen as indirectly “scolding” rebellious Hong Kong and venting his “dissatisfaction with the situation in Hong Kong,” said Sin Chung Kai, treasurer of the Democratic Party in Hong Kong.
Sin, formerly a legislator, said that Hong Kongers have long accepted the Macau model as a success for Beijing, which wants to accommodate its big spenders outside its borders in Macau while prospering the casino city’s population of 650,000 people to earn the world’s second-highest gross domestic product per person in terms of purchasing power.
One country v.s. two systems
But the flaw in the Macau model is the widening the wealth gap in the city and its lackluster success in implementing the political scheme, whose principle of one country has completely overshadowed the emphasis on two systems either in Macau or Hong Kong, Sin said.
“In reality, the disparity in Macau is serious… I don’t think the Macau people are very happy about the development although they don’t have much resistance because they’ve already been used to the influence of Beijing,” Sin said.
According to Ho Lat Seng, Macau’s chief executive, Xi has given his full support to the casino city’s development in Hengqin, an island west of Macau and south of Zhuhai, as part of Beijing’s massive plan to develop the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area into a world-class urban cluster that could rival global cities also situated on bays, such as San Francisco, New York or Tokyo.
Economic goodies?
But during his three-day visit in Macau, the Chinese leader didn’t announce new policies or “economic goodies,” aimed at diversifying Macau’s gaming-dependent economy and developing it into a financial center to replace Hong Kong as the media had previously speculated.
Nevertheless, any such attempt of using Macau to dwarf Hong Kong will only prove to be futile as the former British colony has long established itself as a fully internationalized city with advanced financial expertise and a talent pool, according to Sin.
“Well, if I say Macau is a financial money-laundry hub, I think people will agree. But if you say Macau is a financial hub, I think people will laugh,” he said.
Sin said the fact that Beijing continues to misjudge Hong Kongers by focusing on economic incentives and ignoring their demands for free speech, the rule of law and democratic values is why Beijing will have a hard time winning the hearts and minds of Hong Kongers or putting an end to its months-long political turmoil.
He said it also highlights clashing values between Hong Kongers and their fellow countrymen on the mainland.
Clashing values
“They [mainlanders] talk about development; they talk about how great the country is… They talk about G2 etc… But people in Hong Kong won’t be proud of these things. So, it is a clash of value systems,” he said.
In other words, Macau can never replace Hong Kong, a noted Chinese writer Ngan Shun Kau argued in a column on the Stand News, a Chinese-language news website.
On the contrary, Hong Kong would completely replace Macau, had the proposal to set up casinos on Lantau Island — the largest island in Hong Kong located at mouth of the Pearl River — been implemented two decades ago. Hong Kong would be a more popular destination for mainland tourists and gamblers, he said.
Macau’s casino money is, in particular, of little attraction to Taiwan, which is already a high-tech powerhouse and a beacon of democracy in Asia, DPP’s Wu said.
“China has to find a place to showcase [the success] of the ‘one country, two systems’ or provide an excuse to the scheme’s failure in Hong Kong or the Communist Party’s rule of China,” Wu said.
“It’s a very stubborn political organization, which is trying to use the [Macau] model to build narratives for the world and its domestic audience. These are typical characteristics of an authoritarian regime,” he added.
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Russia Frees 24 Japanese Fishermen Seized Near Disputed Islands
Russia has released five Japanese fishing boats and their 24 crewmen after detaining them for a week for allegedly violating fishing agreements near a group of disputed islands. The five ships and their crews were accused of exceeding their catch quota for octopus when they were detained on December 17. The boats were released after a Russian court ordered the crews to pay a fine of $100,000. The ships were seized near a group of islands in Japan’s northern region of Hokkaido. Known in Russia as the Southern Kuriles, the islands were seized by forces of the former Soviet Union in the final days of World War Two. Japan continues to claim the island chain, which it calls the Northern Territories. The ongoing dispute over the islands has kept Moscow and Tokyo from reaching a formal peace treaty ending World War II.
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Al-Shabab Extremist Attack on Somali Base Kills 3 Soldiers
Officials in Somalia say al-Shabab extremists killed three soldiers during an attack on a military base in the southwest on Monday.
The assault on the Gofgadud base in the Bay region by the al-Qaida-affiliated extremist group marks the latest setback for Somalia’s army, which is expected to take over responsibility for the country’s security from an African Union force next year.
Col. Ahmed Yusuf, a Somali military officer, told The Associated Press that Somali troops made a brief tactical withdrawal amid heavy artillery shelling before regaining control of the base. He said six al-Shabab fighters were killed in the army’s counter-attack that forced the extremists to withdraw.
Al-Shabab claimed responsibility for the attack, asserting that it killed or wounded more than 30 soldiers.
Years of conflict and al-Shabab attacks, along with famine, shattered Somalia, which is home to more than 12 million people.
The Horn of Africa nation has been trying to rebuild since establishing its first functioning transitional government in 2012. Al-Shabab was pushed out of the capital, Mogadishu, and other major cities several years ago but still carries out suicide attacks across Somalia.
With a federal government established, pressure is growing on Somalia’s military to assume full responsibility for the country’s security.
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Venice Flood Damage to St. Mark’s Cathedral Totals Millions
“Every stone is a treasure,” says the technical director of St. Mark’s Basilica’s vestry board, indicating the prized gold-leaf mosaics overhead, the inlaid stone pavement and the marble clad walls of the 923-year-old masterpiece.And many are vulnerable to the infiltration of sea water during the lagoon city’s ever-higher tides.Constructed atop two previous churches on a site that early Venetians believed was among the most secure in the Canal City, St. Mark’s Basilica suffered at least 5 million euros ($5.5 million) in damage during last month’s devastating great tides. The first, on Nov. 12, was the highest in 53 years, followed by two above 1.5 meters (4.9 feet), a series of severe inundations never before recorded.Though the highest was seven centimeters less than the famed 1966 flood of 1.94 meters, St. Mark’s chief caretaker, Carlo Alberto Tesserin, said, ”We say this was the worst.’’Unlike other natural disasters, like, say, an earthquake that leaves images of collapsed bell towers and fallen walls, fresh damage from the Venice floods is so far not visible to the naked eye.”Someone who comes to Venice to see the high water, and who goes to St. Mark’s Square the next day, sees tables in the square, says, Hey, look, the orchestra is playing. Nothing is wrong here.' While, in reality, what is hidden, is everything we have verified in these days,'' said Tesserin, who submitted the damage estimate earlier this month to city and national officials.Peaking at 1.87 meters (6.14 feet) above sea level, last months’ great tide was accompanied by wind gusts of up to 120 kph (around 75 mph) that pushed the waters even higher, flooding through the windows in St. Mark's crypt of patriarchs. The gale-force gusts buffeted the Basilica's domes, tearing away lead tiles, Tesserin said. Both floodwaters entering from the windows and the ripping away of lead tiles were firsts in the Basilica's history.People walk on an interior mosaic floor of the St. Mark's Basilica in Venice, Italy, Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2019.Witnesses reported waves in St. Mark's Square never before seen. The Venice Patriarch told a news conference that they were like waves at the seashore, a first in his experience despite having witnessed‘the piazza full of water many times.’'”It was the first time that I was truly afraid,” said Giuseppe Maneschi, the vestry board technical director. The assault was three-pronged: Water was entering from the piazza, through the narthex; from the crypt windows, while also pushing up from below the Basilica. Maneschi worked with others to move precious objects, like a standing crucifix, higher.The crypt remained under water for nearly 24 hours, while two more exceptional floods over 1.5 meters kept the Basilica closed for a week. Before re-opening, workers washed the Basilica floors four times with fresh water — a necessary treatment but one that carries risks as the salt is abrasive against pavement stones, Maneschi said.Salt, not water, is the real culprit. The brackish water is absorbed by the marble columns or cladding and into the brick structure, creeping higher and higher up the Basilica walls and supporting columns. As the water dries, the granules of salt expand to create multiple tiny explosions inside the stone, brick and marble, that weaken their structure.”Even at a height of 12 meters (nearly 40 feet), we have salt that comes out, that crystallizes,” Maneschi said. 'The disaster is inside, where we cannot see. But we can monitor with new technology.’'Past damage, compounded over the years, is evident throughout the Basilica in brittle marble benches and cladding eaten away over the years, in some places exposing the brick walls. Gauze has been placed over vulnerable sections of peacock mosaics in the pavement, which also suffers under the footfalls of around 5 million visitors a year.Now, architects suspect that concrete barriers built in the 1990s to prevent water from entering the crypt from beneath the Basilica were damaged by the force of last month's floods.Tesserin said that they believe the water flooding in from the crypt windows was actually a blessing in disguise, creating pressure that prevented the lagoon rising beneath the Basilica from shattering those concrete barriers, called "vasca,'' or Italian for "tub.''A man works in the St. Mark's Basilica crypt in Venice, Italy, Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2019.Workers last week were removing the crypt's marble flooring, which lies 20 centimeters (eight inches) below sea level, to observe whether there are indeed cracks allowing water to infiltrate.The Venice landmark includes 130 different kinds of marble -- some which no longer exist -- that tell the story of ancient conquests. Treasures, like the Madonna Nicopeia that accompanied Byzantine armies to battle, populate every corner, more than the average admirer can possibly assimilate in one visit. But the real prize, Tesserin notes, are its 8,500 square meters (91,500 square feet) of mosaics.It may seem crazy to a modern eye that such a precious Basilica was established at Venice's lowest point. The piazza outside floods at 80 centimeters (around 30 inches), and water passes the narthex into the church at 88 centimeters (reinforced from a previous 65 centimeters), floods the Zen Chapel at 1.2 meters and the baptistery goes under at 1.3 meters.But Tesserin said that when the third Basilica was built,‘it was in the position that was considered most safe.” It has become vulnerable with the passage of centuries, due to the subsidence, or sinking of the land, accompanied by a sea level that has risen 12 centimeters over the last 50 years, and climate change, which has made forecasting high tides in Venice more difficult.Damage can be seen on the bottom of a column of precious Aquitaine marble in the narthex. The capitals are carved with images of lions and eagles, indicating they are of imperial origin and not religious, and therefore believed to have been sacked from Constantinople during the fourth Crusade, Maneschi said. Analysis only this year indicates that the capitals were made even more ornate by gold leaf covering and lapis lazuli inserts — which have long disappeared.The base of one of the decorative columns is badly corroded. But the dark Aquitaine marble prized by ancient civilizations can no longer be found.”The day it falls, we will replace it with another marble. But as long as it resists, we will keep this,” Maneschi said.
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