【Move to another page】
Quote
https://ift.tt/30YbTLV
26 january Photo26th january, 26th january 2020, republic day quotes in hindi
January 26, 2020 at 02:00AM
【Move to another page】
Quote
https://ift.tt/2sWn6A3
Heavy Rain Causes Flooding, Landslides in Brazil; 30 Killed
Two days of heavy rains caused flooding and landslides in southeast Brazil that have killed at least 30 people, authorities said Saturday.
Civil Defense officials said 17 people were listed as missing and 2,600 were evacuated from their houses in Minas Gerais state, which had been buffeted by 48 hours of torrential rains.
Deaths were reported in the capital of Belo Horizonte and in the state's interior. On Friday, Belo Horizonte received the greatest quantity of rain ever registered in 24 hours in the city.
State Governor Romeu Zema will fly over the affected areas on Sunday to evaluate damages.
More rain is expected in Minas Gerais as well as other parts of Brazil, including Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo.
The announcement of the deaths came the same day as mourners elsewhere in Minas Gerais observed the first anniversary of a deadly mining dam collapse.
【Move to another page】
Quote
https://ift.tt/37sLEQb
US Border Patrol Allows Replanting After Bulldozing Garden
The U.S. Border Patrol, reacting to a breach it discovered in a steel-pole border wall believed to be used by smugglers, gave activists no warning this month when it bulldozed the U.S. side of a cross-border garden on an iconic bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean.
On Saturday, after a public apology for "the unintentional destruction," the agency allowed the activists into a highly restricted area to plant sticky monkey-flowers, seaside daisies and other native species in Friendship Park, which was inaugurated by first lady Pat Nixon in 1971 as a symbol of bilateral bonds. The half-acre plaza separating San Diego and Tijuana has hosted cross-border yoga classes, festivals and religious services.
The garden's rebirth is the latest twist in a sometimes adversarial, sometimes conciliatory relationship between security-minded border agents and activists who consider the park a special place to exercise rights to free expression.
"It's hard to reconcile because we have two different agendas, but we're both in the same place, so we're trying our best," said Daniel Watman, a Spanish teacher who spearheads the garden for the volunteer group, Friends of Friendship Park.
During an art festival in 2005, David Smith Jr., known as "The Human Cannonball," flashed his passport, lowered himself into a barrel and was shot over the wall on the nearby beach, landing on a net with U.S. Border Patrol agents nearby. In 2017, professional swimmers crossed the border from the U.S. in the Pacific Ocean and landed on the same beach, where a Mexican official greeted them with stamped passports and schoolchildren cheered.
Some events rejected
The Border Patrol has been less receptive to events that carry an overtly political message or that, in its view, take things too far. In 2017, it rejected the Dresdner Symphony Orchestra's plans for a cross-border concert named "Tear Down This Wall." It also nixed a "Let Them Hug" signature campaign to allow "touch time" across the border on weekends.
Agents briefly opened a heavy steel gate several times a year but ended the practice after an American man and Mexican woman wed in a cross-border ceremony in 2017. They were furious to learn later that the groom was a convicted drug smuggler whose criminal record prohibited him from entering Mexico.
Friends of Friendship Park, which advocates for "unrestricted access to this historic meeting place," said the garden was created in 2007, shortly before a second barrier created a buffer enforcement zone that the Border Patrol opens to the public on weekends only. People can barely touch fingertips through a steel mesh screen during those weekend encounters.
The Border Patrol said in a statement after the garden was bulldozed that it was being used "as cover to hide smuggling activities." It released photos that showed a padlock on the Mexican side, which smugglers apparently used to keep the roughly 18-inch (46-centimeter) opening to themselves.
Walls are often breached. Manny Bayon, president of the National Border Patrol Council union local that represents San Diego-area agents, said some have cut through President Donald Trump's new wall of high, concrete-filled steel bollards. Smugglers use cordless grinders that cost about $100.
Friends of Friendship Park met January 15 with Douglas Harrison, the Border Patrol's interim San Diego chief, and settled on a plan to resurrect the garden. Harrison said the intent was to trim it, not destroy it.
"We take full responsibility, are investigating the event, & look forward to working with [Friends of Friendship Park] on the path forward," Harrison said on Twitter.
Compromise
A compromise called for the garden to be set back 4 feet (1.2 meters) from the wall to give agents better visibility, with minimal planting on the next 4 feet to better facilitate temporary removal when construction crews replace the existing barrier with Trump's wall.
There was a last-minute misunderstanding Saturday when Watman said the group's willingness to set the garden back came with permission to plant over a larger space, which the agents on duty wouldn't allow. Watman agreed to shrink his blueprint and take it up later.
"Things are always up in the air somewhat," he said. "There's a little bit of playing it by ear."
The Border Patrol released a statement Saturday that said it values "the friendships we have built over the years with the community."
"We are confident that this relationship will continue as we move into a new era of the bi-national garden," it said.
【Move to another page】
Quote
https://ift.tt/2TTFSmR
In Recording, Trump Asks How Long Ukraine Can Resist Russians
President Donald Trump inquired how long Ukraine would be able to resist Russian aggression without U.S. assistance during a 2018 meeting with donors that included the indicted associates of his personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani.
"How long would they last in a fight with Russia?" Trump is heard asking in the audio portion of a video recording, moments before he calls for the firing of U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch. She was removed a year later after a campaign to discredit her by Giuliani and others, an action that is part of Democrats' case arguing for the removal of the president in his Senate impeachment trial.
A video recording of the entire 80-minute dinner at the Trump Hotel in Washington was obtained Saturday by The Associated Press. Excerpts were first published Friday by ABC News. People can be seen in only some portions of the recording.
The recording contradicts the president's statements that he did not know the Giuliani associates Lev Parnas or Igor Fruman, key figures in the investigation who were indicted last year on campaign finance charges. The recording came to light as Democrats continued to press for witnesses and other evidence to be considered during the impeachment trial.
On the recording, a voice that appears to be Parnas' can be heard saying, "The biggest problem there, I think where we need to start is we got to get rid of the ambassador." He later can be heard telling Trump: "She's basically walking around telling everybody, 'Wait, he's gonna get impeached. Just wait.' "
Trump responds: "Get rid of her! Get her out tomorrow. I don't care. Get her out tomorrow. Take her out. OK? Do it."
Ukraine came up during the dinner in the context of a discussion of energy markets, with the voice appearing to be Parnas' describing his involvement in the purchase of a Ukrainian energy company.
The group then praises Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, to which the president says: "Pompeo's going to be good. He's doing a good job. Already he's doing a good job."
At the beginning of the video, Trump is seen posing for photos before entering the blue-walled dining room. A voice that appears to be Fruman's is heard saying that "it's a great room" before a chuckle. "I couldn't believe myself."
Also visible in the video are the president's son Donald Trump Jr. and former counselor to the president Johnny DeStefano. Jack Nicklaus III, the grandson of the golf icon, and New York real estate developer Stanley Gale also attended the event for a pro-Trump group.
President's complaints
Just a few minutes into the conversation, Trump can be heard railing against former President George W. Bush, China, the World Trade Organization and the European Union. "Bush, he gets us into the war, he gets us into the Middle East, that was a beauty," Trump says. "We're in the Middle East right now for $7 trillion." He later says: "China rips us off for years and we owe them $2 trillion." The president blames the WTO because it "allowed China to do what they're doing."
"The WTO is worse" than China, he declares. "China didn't become great until the WTO."
Trump also seemed to question the U.S. involvement in the Korean War: "How we ever got involved in South Korea in the first place, tell me about it. How we ended up in a Korean War."
Trump provided the guests with an update ahead of his first meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, revealing that he'd settled on a date and location. One of the people in attendance sought to pitch a different location: Songdo, South Korea, which is 70% owned by Gale International and features a Nicklaus-designed golf course.
"You know that Kim Jong Un is a great golfer," Trump is heard telling the guests, who roar with laughter.
Trump also discussed the border crisis and plans for a border wall with Mexico, insisting that he wants to build a concrete wall but had heard from law enforcement officials that it wasn't viable. "You do have to be able to see through the wall, I think," Trump says. He says drug dealers would throw heavy bundles of drugs over the wall, which could kill Border Patrol agents.
"They have a catapult and they throw it over the wall, and it lands on the other side of the wall and it can hit people. Can you imagine you get hit with 100 pounds?" the president says. "The whole thing is preposterous. I would've loved to have seen to see a concrete wall, but you just can't do that."
Election, media
Toward the end of the dinner, the discussion turns to the upcoming election and media.
"Magazines are dead," Trump says.
"I think cable TV is OK. If we ever lost an election, cable TV is dead," he says, the partygoers laughing. "Can you imagine if they had a normal candidate? It's all they talk about. If they had Hillary, crooked Hillary, their ratings would be one-fifth."
Trump says that he believes he would have had a harder time in 2016 if Bernie Sanders had been the Democratic nominee.
Near the end of the dinner Parnas can be heard presenting what he says is a gift to Trump from "the head rabbi in Ukraine" and rabbis in Israel drawing a parallel between Trump and the messiah. "It's like messiah is the person that's come to save the whole world. So it's like you're the savior of the Ukraine."
"All Jew people of Ukraine, they are praying for you," Fruman says, as Parnas tells Trump to show the gift to Jared Kushner, the president's Jewish son-in-law and senior adviser, to explain its meaning. In the video, it appears Fruman is seated across the narrow part of the rectangular table and one seat over from the president.
Trump also tells the assembled guests that it is "ridiculous" and "wrong" that he can't hold political fundraisers inside the White House, saying it would save the government money compared to driving him the four blocks to his hotel.
【Move to another page】
Quote
https://ift.tt/3aByx14
Andrew McCarthy: Trump impeachment trial should let him justify why he wanted Bidens investigated A trial is not a trial in the American tradition if prosecutors are permitted to level a serious accusation and then deny the accused the right to mount a defense.
January 26, 2020 at 08:07AM
【Move to another page】
Quote
https://ift.tt/3aGbz97
Pompeo Derides Journalist; NPR Defends Reporter
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo lashed out in anger Saturday at an NPR reporter who accused him of shouting expletives at her after she asked him in an interview about Ukraine. In a direct and personal attack, America's chief diplomat said the journalist had ``lied'' to him and he called her conduct ``shameful.''
NPR said it stood by Mary Louise Kelly's reporting.
Pompeo claimed in a statement that the incident was ``another example of how unhinged the media has become in its quest to hurt'' President Donald Trump and his administration. Pompeo, a former CIA director and Republican congressman from Kansas who is one of Trump's closest allies in the Cabinet, asserted, ``It is no wonder that the American people distrust many in the media when they so consistently demonstrate their agenda and their absence of integrity.''
It is extraordinary for a secretary of state to make such a personal attack on a journalist, but he is following the lead of Trump, who has repeatedly derided what he calls ``fake news'' and ridiculed individual reporters. In one of the more memorable instances, Trump mocked a New York Times reporter with a physical disability.
Question about Yovanovitch
In Friday's interview, Pompeo responded testily when Kelly asked him about Ukraine and specifically whether he defended or should have defended Marie Yovanovitch, the U.S. ambassador in Kyiv whose ouster figured in Trump's impeachment.
``I have defended every State Department official,`` he said. ``We've built a great team. The team that works here is doing amazing work around the world. ... I've defended every single person on this team. I've done what's right for every single person on this team.''
This has been a sensitive point for Pompeo. As a Trump loyalist, he has been publicly silent as the president and his allies have disparaged the nonpartisan career diplomats, including Yovanovitch, who have testified in the impeachment hearings. Those diplomats told Congress that Trump risked undermining Ukraine, a critical U.S. ally, by pressuring for an investigation of Democrat Joe Biden, a Trump political rival.
Yovanovitch, who was seen by Trump allies as a roadblock to those efforts, was told in May to leave Ukraine and return to Washington immediately for her own safety. After documents released this month from an associate of Trump's personal attorney suggested she was being watched and possibly under threat, Pompeo took three days to address the matter and did so only after coming under harsh criticism from lawmakers and current and former diplomats.
After the NPR interview, Kelly said she was taken to Pompeo's private living room, where he shouted at her ``for about the same amount of time as the interview itself,'' using the ``f-word'' repeatedly. She said he was not happy to have been questioned about Ukraine.
No apology
Pompeo, in his statement, did not deny shouting at Kelly and did not apologize. Instead, he accused her of lying to him when setting up the interview, which he apparently expected would be limited to questions about Iran, and for supposedly agreeing not to discuss the post-interview meeting.
Kelly said Pompeo asked whether she thought Americans cared about Ukraine and if she could find the country on a map.
``I said yes, and he called out for aides to bring us a map of the world with no writing,'' she said in discussing the encounter on NPR's ``All Things Considered.'' ``I pointed to Ukraine. He put the map away. He said, `People will hear about this.' ''
Pompeo ended Saturday's statement by saying, ``It is worth nothing that Bangladesh is NOT Ukraine."
Nancy Barnes, NPR's senior vice president of news, said in a statement that ``Kelly has always conducted herself with the utmost integrity, and we stand behind this report.''
【Move to another page】
Quote
https://ift.tt/2Goqmax
Spacewalking Astronauts Plug Leak in Cosmic Ray Detector
Spacewalking astronauts plugged a leak in a cosmic ray detector outside the International Space Station on Saturday, bringing it another step closer to new life.
It was the fourth spacewalk since November for NASA's Andrew Morgan and Italy's Luca Parmitano to fix the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer. They installed new coolant pumps last month to revive the instrument's crippled cooling system and needed to check for any leaks in the plumbing.
Parmitano quickly discovered a leak in one of the eight coolant lines — the first one he tested — and tightened the fitting. ``Our day just got a little more challenging,'' Mission Control observed.
The line still leaked after a mandatory one-hour wait, and Parmitano tightened it again. Finally, success — the leak was gone. ``Let us all take a breath,'' Mission Control urged. By then, the astronauts were already halfway into their planned six-hour spacewalk.
Mission Control acknowledged the leak added some unwanted ``drama'' to the spacewalk. ``Everybody's hearts stopped,'' Mission Control told the astronauts. Parmitano wondered aloud what the flight surgeon in Houston saw when the leak erupted — he said his heart rate ``either flat-lined or spiked, one of the two.''
Back to work soon
Barring further trouble, the $2 billion spectrometer — launched to the space station in 2011 — could resume its hunt for elusive antimatter and dark matter next week, according to NASA.
NASA has described the spectrometer spacewalks as the most complicated since the Hubble Space Telescope repair missions a few decades ago. Unlike Hubble, this spectrometer was never intended for astronaut handling in orbit, and it took NASA years to devise a repair plan.
Despite their complexity, the first three spacewalks went well. Morgan and Parmitano had to cut into stainless steel pipes to bypass the spectrometer's old, degraded coolant pumps, and then splice the tubes into the four new pumps — no easy job when working in bulky gloves. The system uses carbon dioxide as the coolant.
Besides checking for leaks Saturday, the astronauts had to cover the spectrometer with thermal insulation.
``We are very excited for you to be finishing off all of the amazing work that you've already put into this AMS repair,'' astronaut Jessica Meir radioed from inside as the spacewalk got underway, ``and I think everyone's excited to the prospects of what AMS has to offer once you guys finish off the work today.''
The 7½-ton (6,800-kilogram) spectrometer was launched to the space station on NASA's next-to-last shuttle flight. Until it was shut down late last year for the repair work, it had studied more than 148 billion charged cosmic rays. The project is led by Samuel Ting, a Nobel laureate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Good for as much as 10 years
The repairs should allow the spectrometer to continue working for the rest of the life of the space station, or another five to 10 years. It was designed to operate for three years and so already has surpassed its expected lifetime.
NASA's two other astronauts on board, Meir and Christina Koch, performed two spacewalks over the past 1½ weeks to upgrade the space station's solar power system.
Altogether, this station crew has gone out on nine spacewalks.
【Move to another page】
Quote
https://ift.tt/2NZLLer
Republic Day speechrepublic day speech in hindi, republic day status, 26 january image, 26 january photo, 26th january, speech on republic day in hindi, 26th january 2020
January 26, 2020
【Move to another page】
Quote
https://ift.tt/2vi9PCI
Concerns Grow About Coronavirus Challenge
Chinese President Xi Jinping has earned the praise of U.S. President Donald Trump and other world leaders for his handling of the coronavirus outbreak, which has killed 41 people and sickened more than 1,200. The disease has spread to about 15 countries, including the United States and France.
"China has been working very hard to contain the Coronavirus. The United States greatly appreciates their efforts and transparency. It will all work out well. In particular, on behalf of the American People, I want to thank President Xi!" Trump said in a tweet Friday.
The appreciation is the result of some impressive measures that include isolating nearly 40 million people across 18 cities and towns in the most affected province, Hubei. In two weeks, the government has requisitioned military doctors and has begun building two hospitals to house 2,300 patients in Hubei.
Xi is also reaching out to world leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, as part of an image management drive, because Chinese travelers are being named as carriers of the disease. He said China is ready to work with the international community to effectively curb the spread of the pneumonia cases caused by the new strain of coronavirus to uphold global health security.
Still, there are rising concerns that the challenge the disease presents may be much bigger than is evident from official reports. Despite some energetic action from the central government in Beijing, there are questions about delayed responses since the disease surfaced in mid-December.
Economic impact
Addressing the concerns is important because of the risk that the disease might severely damage the Chinese economy.
"Should the virus break out to a full-blown pandemic, it will certainly have a major impact on the economy," Max Zenglein, head of economic research at the Mercator Institute for China Studies in Berlin, told VOA.
"At this stage, it is already likely to affect consumption- and travel-related services during China's major holiday season. A clear picture should emerge within the next two weeks when the country's economy returns to normal following the Chinese New Year," he said.
Though Xi and other Chinese leaders have called for total transparency in reporting on the response to the virus, they also have made a point of emphasizing the need to "safeguard social stability." The idea is to avoid the public panic that can occur if available information paints a grim scenario.
Officials in Wuhan city, where the highest number of infections has been reported, have punished eight people for wrongly reporting the situation on social media. This was seen as a signal to social media users not to challenge official information.
"In general, the government is using the traditional Chinese Communist Party approach," Fu King-wa, associate professor at the University of Hong Kong's Journalism and Media Studies Center, was quoted as saying in media reports. The goal is "to control the information, to control the media, to control the narrative and to give the people the idea that the government is handling the issue."
Disease features
The disease is exhibiting some sinister features, suggesting the actual extent of infections may be much larger than the Chinese government has reported. Many of the patients have been found without such telltale symptoms as coughing, fever and pneumonia. They have had other symptoms, such as a sense of tightening in the chest, which could be confused with other ailments. China's National Health Commission is struggling to determine the right kind of guidance it can give to doctors for making diagnoses.
Two of the five most recent cases of infection in Beijing have involved people who had no exposure to people from Hubei province. That has raised questions about whether there is another source. Different groups of scientists have suggested different animals, ranging from bats to snakes to mink, as the "reservoir" of the coronavirus.
There also is an ongoing battle to come up with a vaccine, but this may take a long time.
Millions of Chinese are traveling from their homes as part of the ongoing Spring Festival celebration. The extent of the infection rate could change as they begin to return home over the next four to five days, having mingled in crowds at bus stops, railway stations and airports. Transmission rates are highest in crowds.
【Move to another page】
Quote
https://ift.tt/38BcYvV
CNN's Jeffrey Toobin complains about 'white men' filling Trump's legal team CNN Chief Legal Analyst Jeffrey Toobin blasted President Trump's legal team on Saturday, arguing that its composition -- all white men -- highlighted how Democrats cared more about diversity.
January 26, 2020 at 05:45AM
【Move to another page】
Quote
https://ift.tt/2RNON6K
Dan Gainor: In impeachment trial coverage, liberal media heap praise on Schiff and Democrats prosecuting Trump Liberal media hail Rep. Adam Schiff as a hero for leading the prosecution of President Trump in his Senate impeachment trial.
January 26, 2020 at 05:29AM
【Move to another page】
Quote
https://ift.tt/38KWaCR
Schiff stands by 'head on a pike' remark in Senate impeachment speech amid GOP furor Lead House impeachment manager Adam Schiff dismissed the GOP hubbub over his "head on a pike" remarks as a mere distraction from President Trump's impeachable conduct.
January 26, 2020 at 05:23AM
【Move to another page】
Quote
https://ift.tt/30TWhsR
Iraqi Protest Camps Burned and Broken, but Not Beaten
As Baghdad darkened Friday evening, teenage boys carrying shields made of barrels cut in half charged into a growing crowd. Riot police were moving forward across a bridge, pushing back protesters with gunfire and tear gas. Smoke from burning tires curled into the night.
Written in white letters on the barrels was: "Attention, martyrs are advancing."
By morning, two more young men were dead in Baghdad. In Basra, tents were burned at a sit-in camp, and protesters in Karbala prepared for another day of clashes.
Amid the chaos that night, a single tweet tipped the scale. The once defiantly strong anti-government movement in Iraq weakened considerably.
Prominent cleric Muqtada al-Sadr effectively withdrew his support for the demonstrations, and those of his followers attending packed up their tents and left the camps.
Without Sadr's support, protesters said, some of Iraq's many militias and divisions of security forces will try to end the almost four-month-long sit-ins and rallies in Iraq that have threatened the status quo.
Baghdad protesters soon lost control of surrounding neighborhoods and retreated to Tahir Square, the epicenter of their demonstration. On Saturday, they were joined by other protesters, rallying again inside the square.
It is estimated at least 600 people have been killed and 20,000 people have been wounded in the protests across Iraq since October.
Demonstrators in Karbala continued to occupy the city's main square on Saturday, but security forces are growing increasingly bold, they said, and clashes wounded several people on both Friday and Saturday.
"This was a betrayal to the people who are simply asking for their rights," said Ali Mikdam, who has been camping in Tahrir Square since October. "But we won't stop protesting.
"If we have to, we will fight."
In a protest tent in Karbala on Saturday, a young man played a video of a teenage boy on his phone, saying it was taken last week and the boy was 14 years old.
In the video, a hand gently slaps the boy's face and his eyes flutter. His face droops and we hear a moan in the background. The boy is dead.
"We couldn't get to a hospital," said another man as the tent grew crowded.
The young men were quick to share tales of recent clashes. A few blocks away, gunfire could be heard from a roadblock put up by protesters earlier in the day.
Security forces were shooting, said Ali Hassan, 27, and they would soon move in with tear gas to clear the roadblock.
Hassan tried to run a clothing store before the demonstrations began but ended up so poor he didn't even have shoes and was run out of business. Now protesters are running out of money for food and the demonstrations are becoming more dangerous.
"Tensions are rising between the government and the people," Hassan said. "If we have to, we will fight."
From the beginning, protesters have called for new leadership, jobs, health care, security, and an end to widespread corruption and extreme poverty. Now they also want their dead to be recognized as martyrs, meaning patriots and heroes of Iraq.
And while all the young men in the tent say they are prepared to stay and fight if need be, many add that even if they wanted to go, they don't think they could do it safely.
Ali Khafagi, 30, was a barber before he quit to work as a medic in the Karbala protest. Thousands of people have been arrested in connection with protests, and many are still in jail, said Khafagi.
"Inside the demonstrations we are safe because it makes the government look bad if they arrest us here," he explained. "But if I leave, they may follow me home and take me."
【Move to another page】
Quote
https://ift.tt/36uRC1z
26 january speech in hindirepublic day speech in hindi, 26 january image, 26 january shayari
January 25, 2020 at 08:00PM
【Move to another page】
Quote
https://ift.tt/2NTk5rF
Joshua Rogers: I saw a woman do THIS on a train -- and it impacts my marriage today Let old memories stir up old emotions and reckless optimism.
January 26, 2020 at 12:58AM
【Move to another page】
Quote
https://ift.tt/3aC5SJr
Vietnam Explores Increasing Foreign Military Cooperation to Resist China
Vietnam indicates in a recent defense white paper it will pursue stronger military ties abroad as China challenges its maritime sovereignty claims, and analysts expect that to mean more exercises with Western-leaning foreign powers and brisker purchases of foreign weapons.
The Southeast Asian country will "promote defense cooperation" abroad to handle mutual security challenges, the Ministry of National Defense paper released in November says.
As conditions are right, the English-language paper says, "Vietnam will consider developing necessary, appropriate defense and military relations with other countries … for mutual benefits and common interests of the region and international community."
The document stresses more defense cooperation among 10 Southeast Asian nations and calls settling differences with China a "long-term, difficult and complex process involving multiple countries and parties." The two Asian neighbors, which have centuries of border disputes, now contest sovereignty over tracts of the South China Sea.
The paper should signal more procurement of advanced weapons from countries such as Russia and joining more multinational defense exercises, analysts believe. One such event was the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations bloc's first maritime exercises with China's chief rival, the United States, in September.
"If we read between the lines, we can see the Vietnamese hinting at the possibility that they may deepen cooperation with other powers, but how far they can go they don't say specifically in the paper," said Nguyen Thanh Trung, Center for International Studies director at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Ho Chi Minh City.
Vietnam and China
Brunei, China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam contest all or parts of the 3.5-million-square-kilometer South China Sea. They value the waterway, which stretches from Taiwan west to Singapore, for its fisheries and energy reserves.
China has taken a military and technological lead during the past decade by using landfill to build out small islets under its control. Some now support hangars and airstrips.
Chinese maritime activity angers Vietnam especially because China controls the Paracel Islands, a 130-islet archipelago claimed by both sides. The two sides faced off in deadly sea battles in the 1970s and 1980s, fanning Vietnamese resentment, already strong from a two-war land border dispute.
A Chinese energy survey ship sparked a standoff with Vietnam last year as it patrolled near an oil and gas block on the Vietnamese continental shelf, also within China's maritime claim.
The white paper dovetails with a 2018 Communist Party Central Committee resolution calling for becoming what domestic media outlet VnExpress International calls "a powerful maritime nation."
More joint exercises
The paper, the first since 2009, follows from Vietnam's gradual accumulation of 28 partnerships with foreign countries, some with a military dimension. India and Vietnam signed a deal in 2018 to step up defense cooperation, and Vietnamese military personnel already train at Australian defense institutions.
The paper's wording implies that Vietnamese officials feel confident they can join any future U.S. military exercises with ASEAN, Nguyen said.
Vietnam will not engage one country to strike another, the white paper says, a pledge that precludes any treaty alliances, said Collin Koh, maritime security research fellow at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. Foreign military bases are also considered unlikely.
The white paper doesn't rule out a tighter defense relationship with Washington, said Carl Thayer, emeritus professor with the University of New South Wales in Australia.
"You might want to read it as a very nuanced way of 'you push us too far, we'll go closer to the U.S.' but it's not that explicit in there," Thayer said, although when U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper visited Vietnam in November, he talked up what the U.S. Embassy called a "defense partnership."
Arms sales
Foreign defense cooperation may augur more deals to buy arms from Russia, India and eventually the United States, analysts believe.
In 2018 the country signed a deal to order more than $1 billion from its long-time submarine and aircraft supplier Russia. Two years earlier, India extended $500 million in credit for any military purchases. China, also a political rival of India, protested that idea.
Trump administration officials have explored selling weapons to Vietnam. In 2018 the U.S. State Department indicated it wanted to Vietnam to buy more weapons from the United States despite price tags that the country might find hard to pay, military news outlet DefensenNews reported. Four years ago Washington lifted an embargo on lethal arms sales to Vietnam, ending a remnant from U.S. Vietnam War.
The white paper doesn't mention specific defense expenditures, nor does it bore down into details of Vietnam's disputes with China or name the fellow communist government as a target."
I think in a way this white paper is trying to strike a balance between the need to send a signal and yet at the same time trying not to appear too provocative toward certain parties," Koh said.
【Move to another page】
Quote
https://ift.tt/2tGXkjU
Coronavirus Outbreak Raises Health, Economic Concerns in Asia
Southeast Asia's proximity to China and dependence on that nation for a major share of its economy is raising concerns that the coronavirus outbreak that started there will not only have health impacts but harm the region's economies.
The outbreak, which has so far caused 41 deaths in China, and caused the country to quarantine 16 cities, is causing comparisons to the 2003 spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, which decreased the value of the global economy by $40 billion."
Now that the Wuhan coronavirus has been found to be able to be transmitted from human to human, the economic consequences could be extremely concerning for the Asia-Pacific region," Rajiv Biswas, IHS Markit Asia Pacific chief economist, said."
Sectors of the economy that are particularly vulnerable to a SARS-like virus epidemic that can be spread by human-to-human transmission are retail stores, restaurants, conferences, sporting events, tourism and commercial aviation," he said.
Observers agree that tourism could be one of the hardest-hit industries, in part because of the millions of Chinese who usually travel now, during the Lunar New Year, and in part because China has grown so much in the last two decades that many neighboring nations depend on it for tourism.
That is only one of the economic differences between China today and the China of the SARS virus in 2003.
China has since then become a member of the World Trade Organization and the second-biggest economy in the world. Its supply chain has become more integrated with the rest of the world than it has ever been, and it has become the biggest trading partner for many countries in the region.
The 2003 virus decreased China's economic growth rate, but its effect was the same for Malaysia, Singapore, and Vietnam, Biswas said.
This time around Chinese tourism matters even more to Southeast Asia.
After Hong Kong, nations for which Chinese visitors' spending accounts for the biggest share of gross domestic product are, from most to least, Cambodia, Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, and Malaysia, according to statistics released by Capital Economics, a London-based research company, Friday. In many of these nations, businesses catering to tourists display signs in Chinese, accept China's yuan currency, and use that country's WeChat for mobile payments.
Major tourism events in the region add to the threat that the virus and its economic impact will spread, such as the Tokyo Summer Olympics, Biswas said. Vietnam will also host the Vietnam Grand Prix Formula One race this year, while Malaysia will host the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.
Singapore is an island nation that depends heavily on foreign trade, including to facilitate trade and investment in China. Selena Ling, head of treasury research and strategy at Singapore's OCBC Bank, said Friday she was expecting Singapore's economy to stage a modest recovery from 2019, but that may change.
She said "the recent coronavirus outbreak originating from China to other countries including Singapore may impart some uncertainty to near-term business and consumer sentiments."
That could mean slower growth in the first quarter of 2020, she said.
【Move to another page】
Quote
https://ift.tt/2TWUuBO
Joseph Monroe Segars
Postcard Cathy:
【Move to another page】
Quote
https://ift.tt/2NXErQw
Daniel Hoffman: Olympians and kids with cancer — two groups of people who inspire us all Here's some well-deserved applause for the kinship between the sports world and children battling cancer.
January 25, 2020 at 09:00PM
【Move to another page】
Quote
https://ift.tt/2NZRpgu
US Veteran, Father of Veteran: Death of Soleimani Makes World Safer
CALIFORNIA CITY/ELIZABETHTOWN, KY — An Iranian lawmaker offered a $3 million reward to anyone who would kill U.S. President Donald Trump. This is just the latest in the conflict between the two countries, triggered by the U.S. president ordering an airstrike earlier this month that killed the commander of Iran's elite Quds Force, Qassem Soleimani. Trump said Soleimani was "plotting imminent and sinister attacks on American diplomats and military personnel."
However, the move caused citizens from both countries to take to the streets and Democrats to criticize the president, saying Trump's actions put the U.S. at the brink of war.
"I think his decision to kill Soleimani was correct," said David Haines, an U.S. Army veteran who was injured by a type of roadside bomb called an explosively formed penetrator, or EFP, a destructive bomb that even penetrates armored vehicles.
He remembered being on reconnaissance when the EFP hit his vehicle.
"I felt some burning in my hands, but then I didn't realize what was going on until some of the other soldiers in the vehicle started screaming and I realized that I had fingers dangling off of my right hand and my left hand was actually locked back and I couldn't move it," he said.
Haines said he was the lucky one. One soldier in the vehicle died in the explosion, three others lost at least one limb.
WATCH: US Veteran, Father of Veteran: Death of Soleimani Makes World Safer
According to the U.S. Defense Department, 861 servicemen were injured and 196 troops killed by EFPs from 2005-2011.
From the injuries Haines sustained, he now lives with one leg a little bit shorter than the other, hands that are not as functional or strong as before and nerve damage in both hands.
He is able to work, and on the weekends, Haines volunteers by preserving and building hiking trails around his home in Elizabethtown, Kentucky. It is not only community service but a form of therapy for Haines.
"Service and having a purpose was part of what I needed to put back into my life that I'd lost when I left the military," Haines said.
Grieving father
California resident Patrick Farr also lost much from the Iraq War. His 21-year-old son Clay was a soldier in Iraq on patrol when an EFP hit his vehicle.
"My son was driving the vehicle. The boy sitting behind my son was killed and the soldier in the passenger's seat, he was severely wounded but died three years later from those wounds," Farr said.
When he learned of his son's death, he contacted a friend in the military to get more information.
"My friend asked me an odd question, and he asked me how I felt about cremation. I told him I never talked to Clay about it, but I said 'you telling me my son's mutilated?' And he said 'yes, he's pretty bad,'" Farr said as he filled with emotion remembering that conversation.
Farr said he gets up every morning with his son on his mind and goes to bed every night with him in mind.
Clay Farr was 16 years old when the September 11th terrorist attacks happened. From that moment, he wanted to join the military. When he turned 18, he enlisted.
Farr said his son had wanted to reenlist when his tour was up.
"What he had told me was it was so bad over there that he couldn't turn his back on it," Farr said.
"When I heard the news of General Soleimani being eliminated, I felt a form of justice for that Soleimani who was directly responsible for my son's death." Farr continued, "I believe the world is a better place now without General Soleimani, and the United States citizens are a bit safer now."
Soleimani and Iraq
U.S. officials said Soleimani was the head of Iran's Quds Force that taught Iraqi militants how to make and use deadly roadside bombs against U.S. troops after the invasion of Iraq. Iran has denied the claim.
Farr has no doubt in his mind of Iran and Soleimani's connection to the death of American soldiers in Iraq.
"I think the intelligence community, people at the State Department, the Treasury Department, the Department of Justice all worked for years and years and years gathering that intelligence that allowed the president to view that intelligence, make a decision," Farr said.
He and Haines are just two of a group of veterans and family members who sued Iran in 2016 in a U.S. federal court, alleging the deaths and injuries were connected to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The Quds Force is a branch of the IRGC with Suleimani at the helm.
"It's the ultimate form of justice," Farr said.
The plaintiffs in the trial could get compensation from a U.S. fund set aside for the victims of state-sponsored terrorism.
Critics of Trump's actions
Not everyone shares Farr and Haines' views on Iran. There have been demonstrations in the U.S. against President Trump's actions and policies toward Iran. Many of the Americans who oppose Trump's actions said he has put America's safety at risk by placing the country on the brink of war with Iran.
Members of Congress including U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi accused Trump of acting recklessly without first informing Congress of his planned action against Soleimani.
"We must avoid war. And the cavalier attitude of this administration — it's stunning. And the president, for him to say, 'Oh I inform you by reading my tweets,' no, that's not the relationship that our founders had in mind in the Constitution of the United States when they gave power to the White House to do one thing in terms of our national security and to the Congress to declare war and to allocate resources and the rest," Pelosi said.
The Democrat-controlled House of Representatives passed a resolution to stop Trump from further military action in Iran. The resolution is now awaiting action in the Republican-controlled Senate.
In the midst of the political firestorm, Haines warns Americans to take a more global perspective.
"I think Americans are looking at other Americans as bigger enemies than some of the people we have outside of our country, but Americans need to realize that there are people that hate us far more than our fellow Americans out there and Soleimani was one of those guys."
【Move to another page】
Quote
https://ift.tt/38HFawX
Keith Guthrie (diplomat)
Postcard Cathy: /* Career */
【Move to another page】
Quote
https://ift.tt/36osI3N
Mixed-phenotype acute leukemia
Chhandama: added Category:Hematologic malignant neoplasms using HotCat
【Move to another page】
Quote
https://ift.tt/38JlbhL
Happy New Year in Mandarin
January 25, 2020 at 10:00AM
【Move to another page】
Quote
https://ift.tt/2tSeCKT
Trump's Lawyers Ready to Argue That Abuse of Power Is Not Impeachable
As U.S. President Donald Trump's lawyers begin three days of opening statements in his impeachment trial on Saturday, they'll push a widely disputed theory: that abuse of power is not an impeachable offense.
The first of two articles of impeachment against Trump alleges that Trump abused the powers of his office by asking Ukraine to undertake investigations of his political rivals that would benefit his 2020 re-election. While Democrats say the president's conduct meets the constitutional threshold for impeachment, Trump's lawyers insist Trump didn't commit a crime and can't be impeached.
However, some of the president's own allies, including former Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz and Attorney General William Barr, have espoused the opposite view in the past, arguing that presidents can be removed from office for abuse of power even if they haven't committed a crime.
The issue was underscored by House impeachment manager Jerrold Nadler on Thursday as he argued for Trump's removal from office for abuse of power. "Everyone except the president and his lawyers believe that presidents can be impeached for abuse of power," Nadler said.
In August 1998, as a federal grand jury was investigating then-Democratic President Bill Clinton, Dershowitz went on CNN to argue that impeachment did not require criminal conduct.
"It certainly doesn't have to be a crime," Dershowitz said then. "If you have somebody who completely corrupts the office of the president and who abuses trust and who poses great danger to our liberty, you don't need a technical crime."
These days, Dershowitz, who has joined the Trump defense team as a "constitutional representative," argues that impeachment requires "criminal-like conduct."
"Congress must find one of the specified crimes and misdemeanors," Dershowitz said in an interview with VOA. "And if they don't, then the president is not subject to impeachment regardless of what they think about his performance in office."
What Constitution says
Under the U.S. Constitution, a president may be removed from office if convicted in an impeachment trial of "Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors."
Rooted in English law, the language of "high crimes and misdemeanors" was left undefined in the Constitution, generating a controversy that has continued to this day about what constitutes an impeachable offense.
Legal experts say a president can't be impeached for mere maladministration. Yet most agree that abuse of power is an impeachable offense. In recent decades, judges have been removed on noncriminal grounds.
While a proponent of sweeping presidential powers, Barr nonetheless subscribes to the legal consensus on the topic.
In 2018, Barr, then a lawyer in private practice, argued that while a sitting president can't be indicted, there is a constitutional "remedy" for presidential abuse of power: impeachment.
"The fact that the president is answerable for any abuses of discretion and is ultimately subject to the judgment of Congress through the impeachment process means that the president is not the judge in his own cause," Barr wrote in a memo to then-Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.
Others who have supported the idea include Trump ally Republican Senator Lindsey Graham and George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley.
'Doesn't even have to be a crime'
In 1999, while serving as a House manager in the Clinton impeachment trial, Graham rejected the idea that impeachable offenses must involve criminal violations.
"What's a high crime?" Graham asked. "How about if an important person hurts somebody of low means? Doesn't even have to be a crime. It's just when you're using your office and you're acting in a way that hurts people, you committed a high crime."
In December, Turley testified on the constitutionality of impeachment before the House Judiciary Committee as the sole Republican-invited legal scholar.
Although all three prior presidential impeachment inquiries involved explicit criminal allegations, Turley said that "it is possible to establish a case for impeachment based on noncriminal allegation of abuse of power."
Trump's lawyers pooh-pooh this scholarly consensus as a "novel theory" that would weaken the presidency by encouraging politically motivated impeachment.
"By limiting impeachment to cases of 'Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors,' the framers of the Constitution restricted impeachment to specific offenses against "already known and established law," Trump lawyers wrote in a 110-page memo to the Senate.
The president's legal team will present "multiple schools of thought on what is and is not an impeachable offense," Jay Sekulow, a longtime Trump attorney, said Thursday. "We're not afraid to put out both of those schools of thought because our position is you still have to meet basic fundamental constitutional obligations, and they haven't."
【Move to another page】
Quote
https://ift.tt/3aCoKYR
Amid Impeachment Drama, Balkan Dispute Gets High-Level US Attention
While Washington obsesses about tensions with Iran and the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump, a pair of high-ranking administration officials has been crisscrossing Europe and the Western Balkans in pursuit of a solution to a dispute that most Americans have barely noticed.
The high-level focus on the quarrel between Serbia and its former province of Kosovo has left some analysts struggling to explain how the issue fits into a Trump administration foreign policy driven by crises in North Korea and Iran and defined by the slogan "America First."
Trump himself has demonstrated a personal interest in the issue, tweeting approvingly on the eve of the impeachment trial's opening about the establishment of direct flights between the two countries:
Everyone said it couldn't be done. But for the first time in a generation, there will be direct flights between Serbia and Kosovo. Another win. Thanks to @WHNSC Ambassador Robert O'Brien and Ambassador @RichardGrenell! pic.twitter.com/0qSLryG96B
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 21, 2020
Earlier this week, as U.S. senators argued over the ground rules for the impeachment trial, White House national security adviser Robert O'Brien was at the World Economic Forum in Davos, meeting with the presidents of Serbia and Kosovo.
Following @realdonaldtrump's successful effort to broker a deal to open up air travel between Serbia and Kosovo, NSA Robert O'Brien had cordial meetings with Presidents Aleksandar Vučić and Hashim Thaçi on the sidelines of #Davos. pic.twitter.com/JHYSUQHNCq
— NSC (@WHNSC) January 21, 2020
U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell, who also serves as White House special envoy for the Kosovo-Serbia talks, has meanwhile been visiting the two countries' capitals – Belgrade and Pristina – urging officials to resume a dialogue on the normalization of relations and to focus on economic development.
A third official, the State Department's special envoy to the Western Balkans, Matthew Palmer, has also been deeply involved in the diplomatic effort.
Belgrade has never formally recognized Kosovo, which declared its independence from Serbia in 2008, and has campaigned to keep it out of international organizations, including Interpol. Kosovo has retaliated by imposing a 100 percent tariff on all Serbian goods, which it says will not be lifted until Serbia recognizes it as a country.
In his meetings this week, Grenell urged both countries to compromise.
"The tariffs must be dropped. That is unacceptable, and I also bring the same request here, which is the de-recognition campaign must stop," he said in Belgrade, after a meeting Friday with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic. "What we'll do is continue moving in this direction of concentrating on the economy, concentrating on growing jobs."
Neither the White House nor State Department responded to requests for comment on the thinking behind the high-level engagement.
Ripe for resolution
Analysts contacted by VOA see little strategic value for the United States in throwing so much diplomatic muscle at the issue. But they suggest the problem is ripe for a resolution and could provide the administration with an easy foreign policy success.
"So far as I can tell, the administration is beating the bushes for a success somewhere in the world. There is no real strategic interest," said Daniel Serwer of Johns Hopkins University in an email exchange with VOA's Albanian service.
Damon Wilson, a vice president at the Atlantic Council, a global affairs research group in Washington, offered VOA's Serbian service a similar analysis, noting the frustrating lack of progress on some of the administration's biggest foreign policy concerns, including Iran and North Korea.
"You don't get easy wins in the Western Balkans, either, and yet in the Western Balkans we are dealing with democratic states that want to be part of the strategic West, that have a shared vision of the future of the region as a prosperous part of Europe," he said. "This gives us something to work with, and while it might look hard, it actually looks relatively easy when you compare it to Iran, North Korea, Venezuela."
Wilson added that the issue gives the United States a chance to show that "we are going to be engaged, we are not leaving a vacuum in the Western Balkans, we've got a role to play, we want to play that role and we are going to do it."
James Hooper, a former U.S. diplomat and executive director of the Washington-based Balkan Action Council, said a breakthrough on the issue would allow Trump to show he is not distracted by the impeachment drama and give him an achievement to highlight as he seeks re-election in November.
But Wilson warned against attaching too much significance to the initiative as an election boon, saying, "It's not exactly a vote-getter out there in Iowa," where Republicans and Democrats will cast the first votes to select their presidential candidates early next month.
Chance for progress
Regardless of the motive, Hooper sees an opportunity to make real progress on a dispute that has held back progress in both countries.
"This is a real opportunity because Washington is paying attention and Grenell is a serious person and he has a lot of influence in the White House," he said.
Alon Ben-Meir, a professor at New York University, said both Kosovo and Serbia would be wise to take advantage of that opportunity.
"They are neighbors. They have to deal with one another. There is interdispersement of population. Many Serbs live in Kosovo. It is time for them to recognize certain facts on the ground that they cannot change," he said.
So far, however, there is little indication they will do so. Serbia immediately rejected Grenell's proposals while Pristina has yet to deliver a clear response.
"I don't accept to draw an equality mark between the tariffs and the revoking of the campaign against recognition," said Vucic, the Serbian president. "America and Pristina … want Kosovo's independence recognized. We do not. So it is logical that we have differing positions."
Ivana Konstantinovic from VOA's Serbian service contributed to this report.
【Move to another page】
Quote
https://ift.tt/3aGQ2NC
Tens of Thousands Turn Out in Baghdad for Anti-US Protest
Tens of thousands of people poured into a central Baghdad square Friday for what had been billed as a "million-man" march, carrying Iraqi flags and signs and shouting "No, No America."
Many wore white fabric, symbolizing their determination to see the U.S. military either leave Iraq, or be expelled. "
We want the invaders out," said Ra'ad, a protester and father who does piecemeal work to feed his five children. "If the politicians don't make them leave the military will."
Prominent Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr called for a "million-man" march to demand the expulsion of American forces after the U.S. killed Qassem Soleimani, Iran's most powerful general, in a Jan. 3 airstrike at the Baghdad airport. Six others died in the airstrike, including Iraqi Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy commander of a Shi'ite militia groups known as the Popular Mobilization Forces.
Iran retaliated with airstrikes on U.S. bases in Iraq, and both sides have threatened grave consequences if they are struck again.
Shi'ite politicians subsequently used their majority in parliament to push through a resolution calling for the U.S. military to be expelled from Iraq, while Sunni and Kurdish politicians, representing the country's two largest minorities, boycotted the vote. Iraq's president, a Kurd, declared that "the vote is not good for Iraq."
Despite the vote, the United States has said it has no plans to leave the country and the Iraqi government has given no indication that it can or will try to force the U.S. troops out.
At the rally, some men expressed their anger by burning a paper American flag, while others carried signs saying, "I am an Iraqi against the presence of America."
Some signs said more directly, "Death to America" or "Death to Israel."
Anti-government protesters in Iraq have rallied every day since early October to demand government action on basic human needs like jobs, security and health care. At least 600 people have died in these demonstrations, but protesters say they are not giving up.
Friday's protest was not related to those protests and was held in a different part of Baghdad.
Ambulances were lined up outside the rally, but by 2:30 p.m. the day remained peaceful. Gunshots rang out late the night before in the area, but no deaths or injuries were reported. "
It's not good for our economy to have the U.S. here," said Ra'ad, the protester. "They come here and they take our resources out."
【Move to another page】
Quote
https://ift.tt/2tFU1JM
France's Government Introduces Pension Bill Amid New Protests
Tens of thousands of French took to the streets Friday for another day of protests as the government unveiled its controversial legislation to reform the country's pension system.
Rock music and giant union balloons were out in force at the Place de la Republique, where protesters gathered to march to Concorde, the iconic square of the French Revolution. But their numbers were sizably down from last month's demonstrations. Representatives from moderate unions — now in negotiations with the government — were noticeably absent.
But students, lawyers and retirees were on the street. So were Paris Opera employees like Shirley Coquaire.
Coquaire operates heavy equipment at the opera. The current system allows her to retire at 57. Under the government's plan, she said, she'll retire much later and get a smaller pension.
Civil servant Nathalie Wiseur, 52, sported the red vest of the hardline CGT labor union. She's been part of the pension protests since they started in early December.
Wiseur said it was important to keep protesting for the sake of future generations. She said she supported the current hardening of strike action to include blockages of highways and factories, as long as they're peaceful.
The government plans to replace 42 separate pension schemes with a single point-based system and introduce a minimum pension. Health Minister Agnes Buzyn, charged with the reforms, said they would give all French the same pension rights.
The government argues the reforms are vital to respond to a growing and longer-living elderly population. But they have triggered France's largest transport strike in history, which marked another day Friday.
Jean Grosset, who heads the Observatory for Social Dialogue at the Jean Jaures Foundation, a Paris think tank, said the government has done a bad job of communicating its reforms to the public. It may prevail, he said, but it will pay a price.
The government has backed down somewhat in some cases; for instance, it has scrapped the goal of changing the retirement age from 62 to 64. But other analysts believe it's been largely successful in getting what it wants.
The bill next goes to parliament, which is controlled by President Emmanuel Macron's centrist party and is almost certain to approve it.
Hardline unions have vowed to keep protesting, but polls show public support is waning.
Parisienne Diane Le Tourneur said she was sick of the protests and strikes. She said they're hurting businesses and France needs pension reforms. The demonstrators need to start thinking about what's good for the country, she said, and less about themselves.