Coronavirus Live Updates: An American Dies of the Virus in Wuhan, China

Coronavirus Live Updates: An American Dies of the Virus in Wuhan, China


With an rigorous flu time in full swing, hundreds of hundreds of coughing and feverish individuals have now overwhelmed unexpected emergency rooms about the United States. Now, hospitals are bracing for a probable spread of the new coronavirus that could convey a further surge of clients.

So much, only a dozen men and women in the United States have become infected with the coronavirus, but an outbreak could seriously pressure the nation’s hospitals.

“We’re conversing about the chance of a double flu pandemic,” in which a second wave commences in advance of the to start with is above, said Dr. Eric Toner, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Centre for Health Safety.

Public overall health gurus are also intently observing reserves of essential medical provides and prescription drugs, many of which are created in China. Some hospitals in the United States are currently “critically low” on respirator masks, according to Leading Inc., which secures professional medical supplies and devices on behalf of hospitals and wellness units.

“All the hospitals are taxed with a huge flu time and other bugs,” reported Dr. Mark Jarrett, the chief excellent officer for Northwell Well being, which operates 23 hospitals across Prolonged Island and elsewhere in New York. About 400 clients are coming to its emergency rooms just about every day with flulike symptoms.

“Everybody is at utmost capability,” Dr. Jarrett claimed.

Reporting and exploration were being contributed by Raymond Zhong, Jack Ewing, Steven Lee Myers, Claire Fu, Paul Mozur, Motoko Abundant, Hisako Ueno, Alexandra Stevenson, Austin Ramzy, Tiffany Might, Emily Palmer, Reed Abelson, Katie Thomas, Denise Grady and Consistent Méheut.



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A Deal That Has Two Elections, Rather Than Mideast Peace, as Its Focus

A Deal That Has Two Elections, Rather Than Mideast Peace, as Its Focus


It has a fantastic twist: The Palestinians do not have to say of course or no for four a long time. That usually means their bottom-line reaction would not appear until finally the pretty conclusion of Mr. Trump’s subsequent expression, if he is re-elected. In the meantime, Israel would freeze settlements in the territory that Mr. Trump has established apart for the Palestinians, a lot of it places the Israelis have tiny interest in.

That proviso defers all the difficult inquiries for several many years of negotiations — with their inevitable breakdowns and crises. But it presents Mr. Trump the marketing campaign-path conversing point that he has fulfilled a 2016 promise and proposed an true answer, rather than just a approach.

The proposal, of study course, aids Mr. Netanyahu by relocating the objective posts. The position of Jerusalem is established out in the Trump document, relatively than being a subject of negotiation. And though earlier presidents lectured Mr. Netanyahu about his creation of Jewish settlements in territories that are subject to negotiation, Mr. Trump’s system can make them a lasting attribute.

To critics, that is the lethal flaw.

Senator Christopher S. Murphy, Democrat of Connecticut, who was among the lawmakers briefed by Mr. Kushner at the White Dwelling, called it “a full abandonment of many years of U.S. Center East coverage.”

He was referring to the longtime American assistance for a deal that would include only modest changes to the Israeli borders drawn in 1967, the calendar year of the Arab-Israeli War, and by a approach produced in the Oslo Accords, which commenced in 1993 and mainly ended with the unsuccessful summit in 2000 at Camp David. The premise of those talks was that the Israelis and Palestinians would established up a sophisticated system and inch their way towards agreements on borders, settlements, political legal rights and the withdrawal of the Israeli army from Palestinian lands.

There were being a long time of talks, stalemates, “road maps to peace,” collapsed negotiations and intifadas.

Mr. Trump, the disrupter, has manufactured it obvious he does not think that method would function. On Tuesday, he mentioned that every president since Lyndon B. Johnson had tried using and unsuccessful to negotiate a peace deal. Normally the real-estate mogul, Mr. Trump has declared that he is extra fascinated in performing with current facts on the ground than on building processes.

So his system, 3 a long time in the producing, is considerably less about future negotiations and additional about cementing what exists these days and making bargains around the edges. If the Palestinians consider it, he prompt, riches would abide by. There would be a million new positions, he explained, and poverty would be reduce in 50 percent. Mr. Trump has supplied a similar incentive to the leader of North Korea, Kim Jong-un.



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Fire at Czech Asylum Kills at Least 8 and Injures 30 Others

Fire at Czech Asylum Kills at Least 8 and Injures 30 Others


PRAGUE — At minimum 8 persons had been killed and 30 many others injured in the Czech Republic soon after a fireplace broke out on Sunday at a household for people with mental disabilities, officers mentioned.

The fireplace transpired at a property in Vejprty, exactly where largely gentlemen with mental and other disabilities lived, hearth and rescue officials told the general public broadcaster Czech Tv. The town is on the country’s northwest border with Germany.

Prokop Volenik, a spokesman for the regional rescue assistance, explained a person of the hurt was in critical problem.

The result in of the fire was not promptly recognised. It was the 2nd-deadliest blaze in the country’s 30-yr put up-Communist history.

Prime Minister Andrej Babis identified as the blaze “a awful tragedy,” declaring on Twitter that the law enforcement and firefighters had been executing their utmost to investigate.

The blaze was noted just just before 5 a.m. local time. The newspaper Dennik N noted that the hearth begun in one area and that most of these killed experienced died from smoke inhalation.

Firefighters were able to comprise the fire and set it out inside hours, officials said.

In 2010, a fire at an deserted creating in Prague that was typically used by homeless individuals killed nine. In 1995, a resort fireplace in the cash killed 8.



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Little Clarity, Many Theories in Ukraine Airline Crash in Iran

Little Clarity, Many Theories in Ukraine Airline Crash in Iran


The mood in Tehran was tense on Wednesday early morning when Ukraine International Flight 752 took off, certain for Kyiv. Just hours previously, Iran experienced fired missiles at two bases in Iraq that home United States troops, and Iranian forces ended up on notify for an American counterstrike.

Absolutely nothing was strange about the plane’s takeoff and ascent, according to preliminary satellite facts. But minutes into the flight, the Boeing 737 was engulfed in flames as it plunged to the floor, killing at minimum 176 people on board.

In the most effective of conditions, figuring out the induce of an intercontinental airplane crash can choose a year or much more of difficult investigative get the job done and include investigators from various governments. Resolving what took place more than the skies of Tehran could show even additional challenging specified the tensions involving Iran, exactly where the aircraft went down, and the United States, wherever it was built by Boeing, a corporation in the midst of crisis after two before lethal accidents involving a further 737 design.

The speedy aftermath of the crash brought complicated and contradictory statements from Ukraine and Iran. Ukraine’s embassy in Iran to begin with issued a statement ruling out terrorism or a rocket assault. But the statement was afterwards taken out from the embassy’s web-site and replaced with 1 expressing it was as well early to attract any conclusions.

A spokesman for Iran’s armed forces, Abolfazl Shekarchi, said the crash was not a end result of any army motion.

“They are spreading propaganda that the Ukrainian flight was specific,” the Iranian news media quoted Mr. Shekarchi as saying. “This is ridiculous. Most of the travellers on this flight were our valued youthful Iranian gentlemen and females. Whatever we do, we do it for the protection and defense of our region and our men and women.”

Ordinarily, the region wherever a crash happens sales opportunities an investigation, and involves officials from the state exactly where the aircraft was generated, as very well as countries exactly where the victims have been from. With the United States and Iran engaged in an escalating, violent conflict, it was immediately clear cooperation could be fraught.

Nevertheless, the airline promised a total investigation, involving officials from Ukraine, Iran and Boeing. Mr. Zelensky said that he had purchased Ukraine’s prosecutor standard to open up a legal investigation into the crash and that the country’s entire civil aviation fleet would be checked.

“In international aviation we would like to believe that the complex authorities will rule the working day,” said Michael Huerta, a former administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration. “But provided that it’s Iran, we’ll have to hold out and see.”

On Wednesday afternoon, the Countrywide Transportation Security Board in the United States, which frequently normally takes component in aviation incident investigations in other parts of the environment, stated it had not but been questioned to participate.

The 737 still left Imam Khomeini Global Airport in Tehran at 6:12 a.m. Wednesday. There have been 176 individuals aboard, which include 9 crew associates, in accordance to the airline, which produced the names of the useless. The Iranian authorities stated 177, whilst some Iranian news corporations cited other figures.

The aircraft experienced achieved an altitude of just about 8,000 toes and a pace of much more than 300 miles an hour, in accordance to Flightradar24, which tracks aircraft by their radio indicators. Two to 3 minutes following takeoff, it abruptly ceased the computerized transmission of flight data, nevertheless it remained in the air for a several minutes longer. Mr. Abedzadeh said the airliner experienced not contacted the management tower about an crisis.

The Iranian College students News Company, a state-operate media firm, shared a video clip that it said confirmed the predawn crash, with an aircraft, apparently in flames, descending in the distance before a vivid burst stuffed the sky upon effects. The New York Times determined an additional online video that confirmed the crash from a distinct angle.

“It woke us up,” claimed Sajad Shirkhani, 29, who life near the crash web page. “We bought out of mattress and ran exterior, and all of the home windows on our household have been broken. We ran outdoors, we assumed we were being hit by a missile, that there was a war.”

The aircraft crashed on agricultural land in close proximity to the village of Khalaj Abad, about 10 miles northwest of the place the plane’s signal was previous logged by Flightradar24. The aircraft seems to have banked northwest and flown for several miles after its transponder stopped functioning.

Photographs and films from the crash website confirmed rescuers in a discipline littered with aircraft particles, smoldering fires and the belongings of travellers. An evaluation by The Occasions of pictures of particles, structural problems and blood spatter suggests that the plane was returning to the Tehran airport when it crashed.

There was disagreement on the breakdown of the victims’ nationalities, however that could be because some travellers held twin citizenship Iran’s tally included 147 Iranians and two Canadians, though Vadym Prystaiko, Ukraine’s minister of international affairs, mentioned there ended up 82 Iranians and 63 Canadians.

A further concept into the crash was that just one of the plane’s two engines unsuccessful. Qassem Biniaz, an official at the Iranian Ministry of Roadways and Urban Progress, advised the Islamic Republic News Company, the government’s formal information company, that an engine on the plane caught fireplace and that the pilot was not able to get back regulate.

The Fars Information Agency, a semiofficial Iranian media outlet, claimed in an short article about the crash that “Boeing 737 passenger planes are infamous for frequent specialized difficulties,” an obvious reference to the two crashes involving the company’s 737 Max. Later, Mr. Abedzadeh told Mehr that so significantly there was no evidence of complex challenges.

Industrial airliners are made to be able to fly even if one engine fails. Engine fires are quite popular on industrial jets, but rarely result in crashes.

An “uncontained” engine failure, in which components of an motor disintegrate, often spraying debris that can problems or even destroy a airplane, is rare. In 2018, a Southwest Airlines flight on its way from New York to Dallas professional these an emergency, killing a single human being.

The airplane that crashed in Iran, a 737-NG, was produced in 2016 and delivered immediately from the factory, the airline said, and it had most lately been through scheduled upkeep on Monday, two days prior to the crash. The airline supplied no theories as to what could possibly have occurred and declined to comment on regardless of whether it could have been shot down, but observed that the plane was currently being operated by a really experienced crew.

Even though airlines in the previous Soviet Union normally have bad security data, Ukraine Global Airlines claimed on its web page that its protection was audited and satisfied F.A.A. requirements for code-sharing flights with overseas companions. It experienced not previously knowledgeable a lethal crash, in accordance to a list of Ukrainian plane accidents compiled by the Flight Safety Foundation.





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Chinese Scientist Who Genetically Edited Babies Gets 3 Years in Prison

Chinese Scientist Who Genetically Edited Babies Gets 3 Years in Prison


BEIJING — A court in China on Monday sentenced He Jiankui, the researcher who stunned the international scientific community when he claimed that he had produced the world’s very first genetically edited babies, to a few yrs in prison for carrying out “illegal medical methods.”

In a shock announcement from a demo that was closed to the community, the court in the southern metropolis of Shenzhen identified Dr. He responsible of forging acceptance paperwork from ethics review boards to recruit couples in which the man had H.I.V. and the woman did not, Xinhua, China’s formal news agency, described. Dr. He had reported he was trying to reduce H.I.V. infections in newborns, but the point out media on Monday reported he deceived the subjects and the healthcare authorities alike.

Dr. He, 35, despatched the scientific entire world into an uproar last year when he declared at a conference in Hong Kong that he had made the world’s initially genetically edited babies — twin women. On Monday, China’s state media stated his work experienced resulted in a 3rd genetically edited child, who had been formerly undisclosed.

Dr. He pleaded responsible and was also fined $430,000, according to Xinhua. In a quick trial, the courtroom also handed down prison sentences to two other scientists who it mentioned experienced “conspired” with him: Zhang Renli, who was sentenced to two several years in prison, and Qin Jinzhou, who received a suspended sentence of just one and a fifty percent years.

The courtroom held that the defendants, “in the pursuit of fame and income, intentionally violated the pertinent nationwide regulations on scientific and medical study and crossed the bottom line on scientific and medical ethics,” Xinhua claimed.

Dr. He’s declaration made him a pariah amid scientists, forged a harsh gentle on China’s scientific ambitions and embroiled other researchers in the United States who were linked to Dr. He. Although Dr. He provided no proof and did not share any evidence or information that definitively proved he experienced completed it, his colleagues experienced mentioned it was attainable that he experienced succeeded.

American researchers who understood of Dr. He’s options are now under scrutiny. Dr. He’s former academic adviser, Stephen Quake, a star Stanford bioengineer and inventor, is going through a Stanford investigation into his conversation with his previous pupil. Rice University has been investigating Michael Deem, Dr. He’s Ph.D. adviser, for the reason that of allegations that he was actively associated in the undertaking.

Dr. Quake has mentioned he experienced practically nothing to do with Dr. He’s work. Mr. Deem has claimed he was existing for parts of Dr. He’s investigate but his legal professionals have denied that he was actively associated.

For the duration of the Hong Kong conference, Dr. He mentioned he made use of in vitro fertilization to generate human embryos that were resistant to H.I.V., the virus that brings about AIDS. He explained he did it by applying the Crispr-Cas9 enhancing system to deliberately disable a gene, recognised as CCR₅, that is employed to make a protein H.I.V. desires to enter cells.

The international condemnation from the scientific group that adopted Dr. He’s announcement came for the reason that many nations, like the United States, experienced banned these kinds of function, fearing it could be misused to build “designer babies” and alter all the things from eye shade to I.Q.

Though China lacks legislation governing gene editing, the follow is opposed by lots of researchers there. Dr. He’s work prompted soul-exploring amongst the country’s scientists, who wondered no matter whether many of their friends experienced ignored ethical challenges in the pursuit of scientific accomplishment.

Many of them reported it was prolonged overdue for China to enact rough regulations on gene editing. China’s vice minister of science and technological know-how explained past 12 months that Dr. He’s scientific actions would be suspended, calling his conduct “surprising and unacceptable.” A team of 122 Chinese scientists referred to as Dr. He’s steps “crazy” and his claims “a large blow to the international reputation and enhancement of Chinese science.”

“I think a jail sentence is the correct punishment for him,” stated Wang Yuedan, a professor of immunology at Peking University. “It would make crystal clear our stance on the gene modifying of humans — that we are opposed to it.”

“This is a warning outcome, signaling that there is a bottom line that simply cannot be damaged.”

Despite the outcry, Dr. He was unrepentant. A working day immediately after he produced his announcement on the genetically edited infants, he defended his actions, expressing they have been protected and ethical, and he was happy of what he had carried out.

Dr. He faced a highest penalty of far more than 10 several years in prison if his function had resulted in dying. In conditions that have triggered “serious hurt to the overall health of the victims,” the punishment is three to 10 decades in jail.

The courtroom claimed the demo experienced to be closed to the general public to guard the privateness of the people today associated.

Dr. He’s whereabouts experienced been some thing of a mystery for the past 12 months. Immediately after his announcement, he was positioned below guard in a little university guesthouse in Shenzhen and he has produced no statements since. But his conviction was a foregone conclusion after the governing administration claimed its initial investigation experienced uncovered that Dr. He experienced “seriously violated” point out laws.

Soon after Dr. He’s announcement, Bai Hua, the head of Baihualin, an AIDS advocacy team that served Dr. He recruit the couples, explained that he regretted accomplishing so and was deeply nervous about the people. In a assertion posted on his organization’s formal WeChat account, Mr. Bai, who takes advantage of a pseudonym, claimed he felt “deceived.”

When reached by telephone, Mr. Bai reported he experienced no notion in which the infants had been now and declined to say irrespective of whether he was aiding the authorities with its investigation.

Just one H.I.V.-contaminated guy Dr. He’s staff attempted to recruit mentioned he was not advised of the ethical concerns about enhancing human embryos, in accordance to Sanlian Weekly, a Chinese newsmagazine. The man mentioned a researcher had explained to him that the chance of his having an unhealthy little one was lower and that the crew experienced attained a substantial achievement price in tests with animals.

The announcement captured the interest of lots of Chinese individuals who experienced not observed or read from Dr. He in the earlier calendar year. The hashtag “Sentencing in the Genetically Edited Babies Case” was trending on Weibo, China’s variation of Twitter.

“He violated professional medical ethics, disrespected daily life and enable a few weak young children bear the effects, all for his fame and fortune,” a person person wrote. “I consider this punishment is as well light-weight.”

Elsie Chen contributed exploration.



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J.K. Rowling Criticized After Tweeting Support for Anti-Transgender Researcher

J.K. Rowling Criticized After Tweeting Support for Anti-Transgender Researcher


J.K. Rowling, the creator of the “Harry Potter” series, was criticized by gay and transgender rights groups on Thursday after she expressed support for a British researcher whose views on transgender people were described by a court as “not worthy of respect in a democratic society.”

The researcher, Maya Forstater, lost her job last year at a think tank in London and filed a lawsuit earlier this year alleging discrimination based on what she called her “gender critical” views, which she has expressed often on Twitter. Among them is the belief, which Ms. Forstater tweeted on Wednesday, that “it is impossible to change sex.”

An employment tribunal in London ruled against her on Wednesday, saying her views were “not a philosophical belief protected” by British law but were instead “incompatible with human dignity and fundamental rights of others.”

“It is also a slight of hand to suggest that the claimant merely does not hold the belief that trans women are women,” the court ruled. “She positively believes that they are men and will say so whenever she wishes.”

Mr. Rowling criticized that outcome and said she supported Ms. Forstater, who did not respond to a message seeking comment on Thursday.

“Dress however you please,” Ms. Rowling wrote on Twitter, where she has more than 14 million followers. “Call yourself whatever you like. Sleep with any consenting adult who’ll have you. Live your best life in peace and security. But force women out of their jobs for stating that sex is real? #IStandWithMaya #ThisIsNotADrill.”

Ms. Forstater’s case was widely reported in Britain but became an international news story because of Ms. Rowling’s tweet — and because of the backlash to it, which was powered in part by longstanding suspicion among some L.G.B.T. advocates that the author held negative views of transgender people.

Much of that suspicion has focused on Ms. Rowling’s social media activity. In 2018, she was criticized for liking a tweet that referred to transgender women as “men in dresses.”

A representative for the author said she’d had a “middle-aged moment” and hit the like button accidentally, according to The Guardian. But some critics viewed incidents like that differently in light of her expression of support for Ms. Forstater.

“Well, she finally said the quiet part out loud,” Jackson Bird, a transgender author, tweeted on Thursday. “This is really heartbreaking for a lot of folks. If Harry Potter is ruined for you, I completely get it.”

Ms. Rowling had not addressed the uproar by Thursday afternoon, and declined an offer from the L.G.B.T. advocacy group GLAAD to have an off-the-record conversation about the controversy, said the group’s spokesman, Mathew Lasky.

Ken Kleinberg, a lawyer for Ms. Rowling in the United States, declined to comment on the episode when reached by telephone on Thursday. Phone calls to The Blair Partnership, which represents her in Britain, went unanswered.

Anthony Ramos, who leads GLAAD’s engagement with celebrities on L.G.B.T. issues, said in a statement that Ms. Rowling had “now aligned herself with an anti-science ideology that denies the basic humanity of people who are transgender.”

On Thursday, Alphonso David, the president of the Human Rights Campaign, the most influential L.G.B.T. advocacy organization in the United States, accused Ms. Rowling of being an anti-transgender fundamentalist and demanded she apologize for her statement.

“J.K. Rowling says she’s opposed to fundamentalism in any form, but she’s promoting a harmful fundamentalism that endangers the L.G.B.T.Q. community — particularly transgender youth,” Mr. David said in a statement. “She should apologize.”





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U.N. Peacekeepers in Haiti Said to Have Fathered Hundreds of Children

U.N. Peacekeepers in Haiti Said to Have Fathered Hundreds of Children


United Nations peacekeepers in Haiti fathered and left behind hundreds of children, researchers found in a newly released academic study, leaving mothers struggling with stigma, poverty and single parenthood after the men departed the country.

While the United Nations has acknowledged numerous instances of sexual exploitation and abuse by peacekeepers in Haiti and elsewhere, the study on Haitian victims went further in documenting the scope of the problem in that country — the Western Hemisphere’s poorest — than had been previously known.

“Girls as young as 11 were sexually abused and impregnated” by peacekeepers, who were stationed in Haiti from 2004 to 2017, and some of the women were later “left in misery” to raise their children alone, according to the study by two academic researchers.

“They put a few coins in your hands to drop a baby in you,” one Haitian was quoted as saying by the researchers, whose work was published on Tuesday by The Conversation, an academic website supported by a consortium of universities.

Of the people interviewed by the authors, 265 told of children fathered by members of the peacekeeping force, who came from at least 13 countries but mostly Uruguay and Brazil, according to a chart in the study.

“That 10 percent of those interviewed mentioned such children highlights just how common such stories really are,” they wrote. They noted that over the years, news organizations had reported anecdotal cases in Haiti in which “minors were offered food and small amounts of cash to have sex with U.N. personnel.”

The authors did not estimate the exact numbers of impregnated women or children left behind. But legal experts and aid workers say the problem has been pervasive, and that the United Nations has failed to assist the women.

The Bureau des Avocats Internationaux, a group of Haitian lawyers based in Port-au-Prince, has filed paternity suits on behalf of 10 children said to have been fathered by peacekeepers. Sienna Merope-Synge, a staff attorney at a Boston-based partner organization, the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti, said the groups had approached United Nations officials in 2016 about securing child support for the mothers but had received none.

“The U.N. must be much more proactive,” she said. “It shouldn’t be on a woman in rural Haiti to seek transnational action for a man in Uruguay.”

Others were far more critical of the United Nations, seeing the Haiti study as another instance of what they called the organization’s male-dominated ethos. Paula Donovan, a co-founder and co-director of AIDS-Free World, a group that has frequently castigated the United Nations over sexual abuse and gender issues, said the study had corroborated her views.

“This research confirms that standard U.N. practice is to exploit women — from those subsisting in tents to those presenting at conferences — and then squash them like bugs if they dare complain about sexual abuse and threaten the U.N. patriarchy’s 75-year-old culture of entitlement and impunity,” Ms. Donovan said in a statement.

While some mothers told the researchers of sexual violence by United Nations personnel, most of the stories recounted subtler forms of coercion, with peacekeepers trading small amounts of money or food for sex with women and girls who were often desperately poor. In other instances, women and their relatives described consensual relationships that ended when the peacekeepers left Haiti.

The authors said Haitians residing in communities around 10 United Nations bases had been asked “what it’s like to be a woman or a girl living in a community that hosts a peacekeeping mission.” The Haitians were not asked specifically about potential abuse or sexual relations with peacekeepers, according to the study, but participants raised the issue themselves.

“I started to talk to him, then he told me he loved me and I agreed to date him,” a woman was quoted as saying of her relationship several years earlier with a peacekeeper. “Three months later, I was pregnant, and in September he was sent to his country.” She added that she could not pay the fees to send her son to school.

The testimonies echoed a pattern seen in Liberia between 1990 and 1998, when thousands of children were reported to have been fathered by international peacekeepers.

In Haiti, the peacekeeping mission began as an attempt to bring stability after the 2004 rebellion that toppled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, and the United Nations extended it after a catastrophic earthquake ravaged the country in 2010.

But the mission itself was devastating, according to human rights organizations and researchers. Peacekeepers have been accused of unintentionally killing dozens of civilians, and some introduced cholera to Haiti after the earthquake, starting an epidemic that killed more than 10,000 people and sickened more than 800,000. The United Nations has apologized for its role in the epidemic but has resisted legal efforts aimed at compensating cholera victims and their families.

The study’s authors recommended that the United Nations educate its personnel about the economic and social hardships of the mothers and children left behind. They also urged the world body to stop simply repatriating its people who are implicated in sexual exploitation or abuse, rather than turning them over to local authorities.

Ms. Lee, the lead author of the study, said member states that contribute troops to United Nations’ peacekeeping efforts also bore direct responsibility to help support the mothers and children.

“It’s not a U.N. problem, it’s a Brazilian military problem, or a Uruguayan military problem,” Ms. Lee said. “The U.N., though, hasn’t found a way to hold the troops of the member states to account.”

Rick Gladstone contributed reporting.



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What to Eat and Drink This Australian Summer

What to Eat and Drink This Australian Summer


Many of Australia’s small whisky distilleries are now turning heads around the world, for a reason worth noting: they’re not copying what others are doing, but forging ahead with something new.

“The existing cohort, bourbon and Scotch, didn’t appeal to us,” said David Vitale, the founder of Starward, one of Australia’s award-winning distillers. “We wanted to create a modern, progressive whiskey that spoke to the place it’s made.”

You may also be looking for something to eat to go along with all that drink.

Besha Rodell, our Australian food columnist, has a suggestion: Barbecue. Not that North or South Carolina-inspired kind you can get at a kiosk at the market; not some slathered-up ribs at the pub.

No, what she’s talking about is a new and exciting form of Australian barbecue that can be found at places like Sydney’s Firedoor, or Burnt Ends, another fire-friendly spot run by an Australian in Singapore.

Her exploration and explanation of Australian barbecue is an argument filled with passion.

“What if there was a style of Australian barbecue that was its very own thing? Influenced, perhaps, by Southern American barbecue, but more heavily by the Basque region of Spain?” she writes. “I believe that such a style is beginning to emerge, and that it’s far more exciting than the glut of American-themed barbecue in Sydney, Melbourne and beyond.”

And finally, one more suggestion: recipes. I officially became an NYT Cooking regular this year, with dozens of meals guided along by the brilliant food crew of The New York Times. So I was especially thrilled with a year-end list of their 50 most popular recipes. Some of them I’ve tried and loved (jerk chicken) and others I’m eager to taste in 2020 (mango pie).

This will be our last newsletter until then, so hopefully all this food and drink will keep you busy. Have a wonderful holiday season — and thank you for inspiring us, challenging us and reading and supporting our work in 2019.



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2 Firefighters Die in Australia Fires and Scott Morrison Ends Vacation

2 Firefighters Die in Australia Fires and Scott Morrison Ends Vacation


MELBOURNE, Australia — Two volunteer firefighters died on Thursday night while battling ferocious blazes in the region surrounding Sydney, prompting Australia’s prime minister, Scott Morrison, to say he would cut short a family vacation to Hawaii that had enraged constituents.

The firefighters, Geoffrey Keaton, 32, and Andrew O’Dwyer, 36, had been among a convoy trying to fend off wildfires southwest of Sydney when their truck hit a tree and rolled over, killing them and injuring three other passengers, the authorities said. They were the first firefighter deaths in a fire season that has overwhelmed the largely volunteer brigades battling the blazes.

“This is an absolutely devastating event in what has already been an incredibly difficult day and fire season,” the New South Wales Rural Fire Service said in a statement released on Friday. Both men were fathers to young children. “Our hearts are breaking,” the service’s association president, Brian McDonough, said in a statement.

Sharon Ellicott, the chief executive of the New South Wales Rural Fire Service Association, which represents volunteer firefighters, said that the association had historically been opposed to compensating volunteer firefighters, because it could damage the service’s ethos.

But, she added, “we’re really in unprecedented times.”

In addition to the two firefighters who died, five others were injured in a nearby blaze, with three of them taken to the hospital suffering serious burns on Thursday, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.





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Queen’s Speech Promises Brexit Soon, and Ambitious Domestic Agenda

Queen’s Speech Promises Brexit Soon, and Ambitious Domestic Agenda


Jeremy Corbyn, the vanquished leader of the Labour Party, claimed in Parliament on Thursday that the prime minister had appropriated much of his social agenda from the opposition, and mocked him for having to pass a law to force his own government to invest in the National Health Service. But when Mr. Corbyn took credit for shifting the debate, he was met with hoots of derision from the Conservative backbenches.

For all of Mr. Johnson’s efforts to turn the page on Brexit, it still hangs over the country — and is likely to continue to do so.

His government will propose bills on agriculture, fisheries and trade — areas where Britain will assume powers now exercised by the European Union. There will be laws to create a new immigration system, which could be in place at the end of 2020 and would remove the special status that citizens of other European Union countries currently have in Britain.

Mr. Johnson will enshrine in law his pledge to finish negotiations on a trade deal by the end of 2020, ruling out any extension of the transition period. The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, described that timetable as “extremely challenging.” Analysts say it raised the prospect of a so-called “no-deal Brexit,” which they said would be economically disastrous.

In Britain’s topsy-turvy year, when conventions were shattered and norms discarded, the ceremony on Thursday was a return to the reassuring rituals. Members of the House of Commons were summoned to the House of Lords by the Lady Usher of the Black Rod, who banged her staff on the door after the lawmakers had, by custom, slammed it in her face.

Mr. Johnson and Mr. Corbyn walked together between the chambers, the prime minister making a cheerful effort to engage his defeated rival while the Labour leader studiously ignored him.

But the queen, having gone through the entire exercise two months earlier, was not keen to repeat every part of it. Since October, she has had her own turmoil to deal with: the suspension of her second son, Prince Andrew, from his public duties after a storm of outrage over an interview he gave to the BBC about his relationship with the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.

She will next address the British people on Christmas Day.



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