It's been a banner year for authoritarian leaders. Especially Vladimir Putin
Updated 0906 GMT (1706 HKT) December 29, 2019
In the global battle of ideas, Russian President Vladimir Putin has had a banner year.
Back in June, Putin made waves by declaring the death of Western liberalism.
Those remarks seemed timed to provoke debate ahead of the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan. But it wasn't just talk: In the months that followed, Putin would continue to set the example for authoritarian leadership.
Take, for example, Putin's policies toward his country's embattled and marginalized political opposition.
For much of the summer, the Russian capital of Moscow saw a wave of opposition demonstrations. For a time, unsanctioned rallies and solo protests seemed to gain momentum. Russian authorities even dropped criminal charges against a prominent investigative reporter after an unexpected public outpouring of support.
EU accused of seeking to cut funds for poor in post-Brexit cost savings
Plan to drop dedicated fund while defence spending rises dismissed as false economy
The European commission has been accused of seeking to cut EU funding for the continent’s poorest people by 50% to secure post-Brexit cost savings and extra funds for defence projects.
Jacques Vandenschrik, the president of the European Food Banks Federation, said the EU executive’s proposed spending plans for the next seven years posed a risk not only to the most vulnerable but to the stability of wider society.
EU institutions are currently hammering out the details of the bloc’s long-term budget, known as the multiannual financial framework (MFF). The UK’s withdrawal will leave a large hole to plug. Senior EU officials have described the negotiations over the commission’s proposed €1,135bn (£970bn) in spending commitments as the most difficult ever undertaken.
Trump and his supporters have claimed impeachment 'won't go anywhere'. The truth is it will change 2020 entirely
Right-wing commentators are claiming that 'outside DC, no one paid any attention to impeachment'. But they've got it all wrong — because they operate within a bubble themselves
Berny BelvedereMiami, Florida
Prior to yesterday, when the specter of impeachment was still hovering over Republican hearts like a death-summoning pall, some conservatives tried very hard to deny the political gravity of what it would mean for Donald Trump to become only the third US president in history to be impeached.
A recurring criticism of the Democratic impeachment effort from the Republican side was that it was merely symbolic — the Senate is under GOP control, so impeachment will obviously come to nothing (per the US Constitution, the House impeaches but the Senate convicts). Conservative author and commentator Ben Shapiro managed to get a right-wing two-for-one — by sneaking in a dig at taking climate change seriously — when he tweeted: “Impeachment is like the Paris Accords. Both accomplish nothing, but make everybody who supports them feel good.”
Bangladeshi Textile WorkersJust 11 Days a Year with Her Daughter
Women like Tasnia Begum work in Bangladesh's cities and sew clothes for Western consumers. Often, the only time they see their children is during the holidays.
Tasnia Begum has 11 days off. For the entire year. And because she wants to use every single minute of her time, she has decided to travel through the night. Normally, she says, she would never do such a thing. Traveling alone as a woman, after all, isn't altogether safe and could even be dangerous. But to make it as safe as possible, she has reserved seat Nr. 1, right behind the bus driver.
The ticket set her back 600 taka, the equivalent of around 6 euros or $6.68. It's about what the 25-year-old textile worker makes sewing T-shirts for two days. Her employer is a company that used to supply H&M and now sends its wares to Walmart. She works in a nameless textile factory in an industrial area in Chittagong, a cement-gray city of 2 million residents located on the Bay of Bengal. It is the second-largest textile production site in southern Bangladesh.
Ukraine begins prisoner swap with pro-Russian separatists
Ukrainian government forces and pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine have started an all-for-all prisoner swap, after which all remaining prisoners of the five-year conflict should return home, the office of Ukraine's president said on Sunday.
The agreement was concluded by Russian leader Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Paris in December.
The swap is taking place at a check point near the industrial town of Horlivka in the Donetsk region.
Russia's RIA news agency, citing a local official from the self-declared Donetsk People's Republic, said Kiev would hand over 87 separatists, while Donetsk would return 55 pro-central government fighters.
Kiev's forces have been battling separatists in the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine since 2014 in a conflict that has claimed more than 13,000 lives. Sporadic fighting continues despite a ceasefire agreement.
Monsey stabbing: Five people wounded at home of New York rabbi
At least five people have been stabbed at the house of a rabbi in New York state, police say.
The house in Monsey, north of New York City, was hosting a religious celebration when the attacker burst in, according to the Orthodox Jewish Public Affairs Council (OJPAC).
The suspect fled but was later taken into custody, police said. The motive was not immediately clear.
One of the victims was stabbed at least six times, OJPAC said in a tweet.
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