【常速英语广播5分钟】英语新闻20191222,23

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VOA NEWS

December 23, 2019

This is VOA news. I'm Marissa Melton.

Republicans and Democrats are still at an impasse over President Trump's impeachment trial as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi continues to hold out on delivering the articles of impeachment to the Senate. AP correspondent Julie Walker reports.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell doesn't want new testimony, Minority Leader chuck Schumer does, leaving open the possibility of a protracted delay.

President Trump complained about the hold up Saturday. "It's so unfair, it's so unfair. She has no case."

But Schumer says they have even more evidence.

"This email is explosive. A Trump administration official, one that we requested is saying stop the aid, 91 minutes after Trump called Zelensky and said keep it hush-hush."

That email from senior White House budge official Michael Duffey, who Schumer wants to testify.

Julie Walker, New York.

At least 23 people have been killed in nearly two weeks of demonstrations and violence after India parliament passed the Citizenship Amendment Act, which critics have deemed anti-Muslim.

The new law allows Hindus, Christians and other religious minorities or in India illegally to become citizens if they can prove they were persecuted because of their religion in Muslim-majority Bangladesh, Pakistan or Afghanistan. The new law, however, does not apply to Muslims.

Since the protests escalated, authorities in several parts of the country have imposed a rule prohibiting more than four people from gathering at one place. It also closed metro stations in the capital to prevent people from mobilizing and shut down the Internet and text messaging services in many places.

Afghanistan's incumbent President Ashraf Ghani has apparently won a second five-year term. That's according to preliminary results announced Sunday for the disputed September 28 presidential vote.

Ghani's main challenger received 39.52 percent of the vote. Ghani took 51 percent.

VOA news.

Voters in Croatia are going to the polls Sunday for a presidential election. Incumbent President Kolinda Grabar Kitarovć, a conservative, is being challenged by leftist former Prime Minister Zoran Milanović and right-wing singer Miroslav Škoro.

Political analysts say there will probably be a runoff vote in January.

The pre-Christmas election comes just days before Croatia begins its first six-month term at the held of the European Union's rotating presidency, starting January 1.

A senior United Nations official reports more than a million Palestinians are living in crisis conditions in Israeli-occupied territories. He is pushing a $348 million plan to address Palestinians' critical humanitarian needs. Lisa Schlein [from, for vo] reports for VOA from Geneva.

The U.N.'s recently launched 2020 Humanitarian Response Plan aims to assist 1.5 million of the 2.4 million Palestinians in the occupied territories. Most are residents of Gaza, who are in particularly dire straits.

The humanitarian coordinator for occupied Palestinian territory, Jamie McGoldrick, says nearly half of Gaza's population is unemployed. That figure includes 7 out of 10 young people under age 30 who have no jobs. Among them, he says, are more than 400,000 university graduates who cannot find work.

Lisa Schlein reporting for VOA from Geneva.

In Britain, Queen Elizabeth II attended church near her rural retreat as her husband Prince Philip spent his second night in a London hospital. AP correspondent ??? reports.

Palace officials have not provided an update on the 98-year-old prince's condition following the announcement on Friday he was being admitted to hospital as a precautionary measure due to a pre-existing condition.

It's not clear if Philip will be released in time to join the rest of the royal family for Christmas at Sandringham, the queen's country estate in Norfolk.

The queen has not altered her holiday routine and went to church on Sunday as normal, joined by her son Prince Edward.

???, London.

Thousands of Iraqis took to the streets Sunday ahead of a midnight deadline to name an interim prime minister.

Protesters on Sunday decried the likely pick former Higher Education Minister Qusay al-Suhail, who is opposed by critics for his ties to Iran.

Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi resigned Friday, saying he would stay on until a successor is approved.

At least 460 people have died and tens of thousands of others have been wounded since the demonstrations erupted in October in Baghdad and in Shiite-majority areas.

I'm Marissa Melton. You're listening to VOA news.

VOA NEWS

December 22, 2019

This is VOA news. I'm David Byrd.

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The resolution would have extended for one year cross-border aid deliveries from Turkey and Iraq to four million civilians in Syrian who have been victimized by the conflict that began there in 2011.

Meanwhile, a war-monitoring group said Saturday at least 12 people were killed and several others injured in artillery and air strikes in Idlib province. The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 36 people were hurt in the strikes.

Since Thursday, at least 67 jihadists and 15 rebel soldiers have died. Fifty-seven government and loyalist forces have also been killed, including seven in a car bombing by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group, a former Al-Qaeda affiliate.

Also Saturday, near simultaneous attacks hit three government-run oil and gas installations in Homs. It is believed the attacks were carried out by drones but no one has claimed responsibility.

A Pakistani court on Saturday convicted a Muslim professor of blasphemy and sentenced him to death for allegedly spreading anti-Islamic ideas.

Junaid Hafeez has been in jail for six years awaiting trial since he was arrested in 2013.

His defense attorney, Abdul Ahad, said the conviction was baseless and that the verdict would be appealed.

This is VOA news.

The death toll continued to rise in India's Saturday as protests against a new citizenship law continued.

As Reuters' Emer McCarthy reports, the state of Uttar Pradesh has seen some of the worst rioting.

Officials said more than 1,500 protesters have been arrested since parliament passed the law on December 11, with India's most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, seeing the worst violence.

Rights activists in the state said police had raided their houses and offices to prevent them from planning fresh demonstrations.

Uttar Pradesh is ruled by Narendra Modi's nationalist party and had long seen clashes between majority Hindus and minority Muslims.

The law aims to grant citizenship to minorities faiths from Muslim-majority Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh, deemed as suffering persecution there. But critics say it discriminates against Muslims and threatens India's secular ethos.

That's Emer McCarthy reporting.

A company that operates ships laying sections of a new German-Russian pipeline says it's stopping that work after President Trump signed legislation threatening sanctions. AP's Charles De Ledesma reports.

Trump on Friday signed the bill earlier passed by the Senate that provides the sanctions against individuals and companies involved in laying the Nord Stream 2 pipeline under the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany.

Now Switzerland-based Allseas has said in anticipation of the enactment of the National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, it's suspended its Nord Stream 2 pipelay activities.

The U.S. has been an outspoken opponent of the pipeline, which will transport natural gas about 750 miles. Critics argue it will increase Europe's dependence on Russia for energy.

I'm Charles De Ledesma.

French President Emmanuel Macron has called on transport unions to suspend strikes over pension reform during the Christmas holidays to avoid travel disruption.

But as Reuters' David Doyle reports, Christmas travelers had an anxious wait at Paris's Saint Lazare train station on Saturday.

On the last weekend before Christmas, Saint Lazare station sees a surge of people as Parisians leave the capital to be with their families. But with the national rail operator running reduced services, including half the usual number of its high-speed trains, commuters were left staring hopefully at departure boards.

President Emmanuel Macron aims to streamline the generous state pension system and prod people to work until the age of 64, past the legal retirement age of 62. But talks have failed with French unions and on Thursday they said the strikes would continue over the Christmas holidays.

Negotiations are due to resume in January.

That's Reuters' David Doyle reporting.

For more, be sure to visit our website voanews.com. You can also follow us on the VOA mobile app. I'm David Byrd, VOA news.

VOA NEWS

December 15, 2019