2019: a look back at a year of turmoil

France24 – AFP, 26 december 2019

Paris (AFP) - The year 2019 saw an explosion of demonstrations across the world as people demanded an overhaul of entrenched political systems and action on climate change.

Here is a look back at these and other events that marked the year.

Protests sweep Latin America

On January 23, Venezuela's opposition chief Juan Guaido declares himself interim president, escalating a long-running political and economic crisis.

He is recognised by more than 50 countries, including the United States. But the army backs President Nicolas Maduro and he remains in his post.

In mid-September major demonstrations erupt in Haiti after fuel shortages, demanding the resignation of President Jovenel Moise. Violence claims more than 40 lives.

A metro ticket hike in Chile's capital mid-October is the trigger for protests that claim more than 20 lives before a referendum on reforms is agreed.

Bolivia is gripped by three weeks of demonstrations after President Evo Morales claims to win a fourth term on October 20. Dozens are killed. Morales resigns on November 10 and flees into exile as the government works on new elections.

Ecuador is paralysed by nearly two weeks of protests in October and in Colombia strikes and demonstrations against the right-wing government begin mid-November.

North Africa/Mideast fury

On February 22, unprecedented protests break out in Algeria against a fifth term for frail President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, in power for 20 years.

He loses the army's backing and resigns on April 2. But demonstrations continue, demanding an overhaul of the entire political establishment and rejecting new president Abdelmadjid Tebboune, elected on December 12 in polls marked by record abstention.

In Sudan, the military on April 11 ends Omar al-Bashir's three decades in power, a key demand in four months of nationwide protests.

Demonstrations continue until a hard-won agreement in August sets up a joint governing council to oversee a transition to civilian rule. More than 250 people are killed, according to protesters.

In Iraq, mass demonstrations erupt on October 1 against unemployment, corruption and poor public services, degenerating into violence that claims more than 460 lives.

On December 1, parliament accepts the government's resignation.

In Lebanon, rolling mass protests start on October 17, triggered by plans for a messaging app tax and turning against the political elite. They continue even after Prime Minister Saad Hariri resigns on October 29, with protesters rejecting new premier-designate Hassan Diab, an engineering professor backed by Hezbollah chosen on December 19 to form a government.

Iran sees an explosion of riots on November 15 after a fuel price hike. Authorities crush the unrest but Amnesty International says more than 304 people were killed, most shot by security forces, a toll denied by the authorities.

IS leader killed

After a five-year offensive to seize vast Islamic State (IS) territory in Iraq and Syria, the jihadists were driven out of their last bastion in March by Kurdish-led forces.

On October 27, President Donald Trump announces that IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed in a US special forces raid in Syria, blowing himself up as he was pursued.

Boeing MAX grounded

A March 10 Ethiopian Airlines crash leads to the global grounding of Boeing 737 MAX planes. It follows a Lion Air crash involving the same model six months earlier, with 346 lives lost in the two incidents.

Boeing faces investigations and lawsuits, and is forced to upgrade its systems, in a crisis that costs it billions of dollars.

In mid-December production of the plane is suspended. On December 23, Boeing chief Dennis Muilenburg resigns.

Brexit saga

Britain's March 29, 2019, deadline for leaving the European Union following a 2016 referendum is postponed three times, with the British parliament unable to agree to the divorce terms negotiated by Prime Minister Theresa May with Brussels, nor a second accord negotiated by her successor Boris Johnson.

After widely winning early elections on December 12, Johnson gets support at the first reading by the lower house for his accord. He seeks final adoption on January 9, and to leave the EU on January 31, 2020.

First black hole photo

On April 10, astronomers unveil the first photograph of a black hole, a phenomenon they were convinced existed even if it had never been seen before.

Drawn from mountains of data captured two years earlier by telescopes across the world, it shows a supermassive black hole 50 million lightyears away.

Notre Dame burns

On April 15, flames destroy the spire and roof of Paris's beloved Notre-Dame cathedral, but firefighters manage to save the gothic building, while many of its arts, relics and other treasures are rescued.

Amid a global outpouring of emotion, nearly one billion euros ($1.1 billion) is pledged for its reconstruction, which will take years. For the first time since 1803, Notre-Dame does not celebrate Christmas mass.

Iran escalation

On May 8, Tehran announces its first step back from the 2015 nuclear accord -- exactly a year after the United States quit the deal and reimposed sanctions.

Over the next months Iran re-engages components of its nuclear programme that it had halted, including uranium enrichment.

Tensions mount when Washington blames Tehran for a series of attacks on oil tankers in the Gulf from mid-May.

On September 14, Iran is again blamed when major Saudi oil facilities are attacked by Yemen's Huthi rebels, which it supports. It denies involvement.

In six months Tehran has surpassed the stock of enriched uranium, the level of enrichment and heavy water reserves fixed by the accord and modernised its centrifuges.

Hong Kong erupts

June 9 sees the start of the biggest crisis in the former British colony of Hong Kong since it returned to Chinese rule in 1997, with almost-daily pro-democracy protests.

Demonstrations are initially sparked by a now-abandoned attempt to allow extraditions to the Chinese mainland but develop into a popular revolt against Beijing's rule.

On November 24, pro-democracy campaigners win a landslide victory in local elections.

Hottest month ever

July temperatures were the hottest ever recorded, US and European Union authorities announce in August.

Temperature records rise in Europe and the North Pole, and in August, Iceland loses its first glacier to climate change.

Fires ravage Brazil's Amazon and Australia, while Venice is swamped by flooding not seen in decades.

The extreme weather raises climate concerns, and rallies for action, initiated by Swedish teen activist Greta Thunberg, spread worldwide.

US disengagement

On August 2, the US officially quits the Cold War-era Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty (INF) with Russia.

Trump's "America First" regime also strikes out alone by pursuing trade wars with China and the EU. It also withdraw from the Paris accord on climate change and its troops from northeastern Syria.

Trump impeachment bid

On September 24, the Democrats in Congress launch an impeachment enquiry into Trump after claims he pressured Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden, a rival in his 2020 reelection bid.

Trump is impeached in a historic rebuke by the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives on two counts of abuse of office and obstruction of Congress, but conviction is unlikely to pass the Republican-controlled Senate in a trial expected to begin in January.

Turkey moves into Syria

On October 9, Turkey launches an offensive into northern Syria to push back from the border Kurdish fighters it considers "terrorists".

Two days earlier Trump had announced the withdrawal of US troops in the area, leading to charges that Washington had abandoned Kurdish allies who were vital in the battle against Islamic State jihadists.

Turkey halts its operation on October 23 after the US and Russia agree in separate deals to ensure the fighters leave the border region.

Big Tech tackled

On July 24, US regulators fine Facebook a record $5 billion for data protection violations amid mounting concerns about the dominance of it and other internet giants Apple, Amazon and Google.

Criticised for failing to protect consumers as well as over tax and advertising issues, the tech titans come under pressure to reform, with threats of investigation, fines and even dismantlement.

Social crisis in France

France is confronted from December 5 by a three-week standoff between French transport workers and the government over pension reforms, which causes havoc to Christmas travel.

Workers at the national SNCF and Parisian RATP rail and public transport companies walk off the job to protest at the government's plan to meld France's 42 pension schemes into a single points-based one, which would see some public employees lose certain privileges, including early retirement.

Hong Kong mask ban challenged in court ahead of Halloween rally

Yahoo – AFP, October 31, 2019

Hong Kong's protesters have worn masks to make it harder for police
to identify them (AFP Photo/Anthony WALLACE)

Hong Kong democracy activists went to court on Thursday to challenge an emergency law that bans protesters from wearing masks, as demonstrators vowed to use Halloween parties to defy the restrictions once more.

The international finance hub has been upended by nearly five months of huge, often violent, pro-democracy protests in which participants routinely use masks to hide their identities.

Earlier this month the city's unelected pro-Beijing leader invoked colonial-era legislation for the first time in more than fifty years to outlaw face coverings at rallies.

The move was seen as a watershed legal moment for the city since its 1997 return by Britain to China -- but the ban has done little to stop the protests or dissuade people from wearing masks.

The High Court is hearing two challenges in the same sitting. The first, from a student leader, question's the constitutionality of the ban.

But the second challenge, lodged by some of the city's best known pro-democracy opposition lawmakers, is much broader. It aims to challenge the entire emergency law used by chief executive Carrie Lam.

"This is a duel between the rule of law and totalitarianism," lawmaker Dennis Kwok told reporters outside court on Thursday.

The sweeping 1922 emergency law was passed in a single day by then colonial master Britain to deal with striking workers and allows the city's leader to make "any regulations whatsoever" in a time of emergency or public danger.

It was last used by the British in 1967 to help suppress Maoist-backed leftist riots that raged for nearly a year and killed some 50 people.

Lam's use of the law was controversial because it bypassed the Legislative Council, the partially-elected chamber that approves Hong Kong's laws.

Critics said the move also undermined the city's reputation for being a dependable business and legal hub at a time of growing concern over Beijing's control of the city.

The legal challengers also argue it contradicts the city's more recently passed Bill of Rights which states that restrictions on core freedoms can only be justified if there is an emergency or the "life of the nation" is at stake.

When Lam announced the mask ban in early October she publicly declared that the city was not in a state of emergency.

The timing of the legal challenge coincides with the latest plan by the largely leaderless movement to defy the law.

Online forums used to organise rallies have been calling on supporters to hit the streets in masks on Thursday evening as the city celebrates Halloween.

Police told the South China Morning Post they were putting some 3,000 officers on standby as well as three water cannon trucks.

A theme park cancelled its annual Halloween party while a subway station near the city's main nightclub street was set to close at 9pm (1300 GMT).

A police source told SCMP that officers would order revellers to "remove masks if they were chanting slogans instead of celebrating Halloween."

Hong Kong democracy activists challenge mask ban in court ahead of Halloween rallyhttps://t.co/P0PfoopZ1H pic.twitter.com/ivrrQo79ph

— AFP news agency (@AFP) 31 oktober 2019

Hong Kong's Joshua Wong on way to Germany, US after brief detention

Yahoo – AFP, September 9, 2019

Joshua Wong has been a democracy activist since he was 12 (AFP Photo/
VIVEK PRAKASH)

Hong Kong (AFP) - Hong Kong democracy activist Joshua Wong said he was making his way to Germany on Monday after he was released from a brief spell in custody following a mistake in his bail conditions.

Wong, 22, was among multiple prominent democracy advocates who were detained late last month in a roundup by police as the semi-autonomous city reels from more than three months of unprecedented pro-democracy protests.

He was accused of "inciting others to take part in unauthorised assembly" among other charges and later released on bail.

On Sunday, he said he was detained at Hong Kong airport for "breaching bail conditions" after returning from Taiwan and as he then tried to make another overseas trip to Germany. He also planned to travel to the United States after.

But he was released by a court on Monday after it emerged the detention was a procedural error and that his bail requirements allowed him to take any overseas trips that had been arranged before his arrest, local news station RTHK reported.

Before departing Hong Kong, Wong tweeted that his overnight detention was "wholly unacceptable and unreasonable".

He said he planned to meet German politicians from different parties as well as speak at Berlin's Humboldt University. He added he would also call on Germany to halt trade negotiations and arms sales to Hong Kong and China "until the human rights is put on the agenda".

His party said he would also be travelling to the United States and would return in late September, without giving details of his itinerary.

Wong began his career as an activist when he was just 12 years old and later became the poster child of the huge pro-democracy "Umbrella Movement" protests of 2014 that failed to win any concessions from Beijing.

He has previously been jailed for his involvement in those protests.

Police detain hundreds at Moscow opposition protest

Yahoo  - AFP, Maria Antonova and Theo Merz, August 3, 2019

Hundreds of protesters were detained (AFP Photo/Alexander NEMENOV)

Moscow (AFP) - Police detained over 800 people at an opposition gathering in Moscow on Saturday, as authorities upped the pressure on top Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny by launching a criminal probe into his anti-graft group.

Crowds walked along the capital's central boulevards in a protest "stroll" over the refusal by officials to let opposition candidates run in September polls for city parliament seats -- a local issue that has turned into a political crisis.

Most of those candidates and opposition leaders, including Navalny, are being held by police following a protest rally last weekend, in which 1,400 demonstrators were detained -- one of the biggest crackdowns in years.

On Saturday, riot police were deployed in large numbers in central Moscow, some shops and cafes were shut, metal barriers were erected, mobile internet was down for many hours, and a metro station was temporarily closed.

Some 828 people were detained during the rally, independent protest monitor OVD-Info said.

Police said only 1,500 people took part in the gathering.

AFP correspondents said the turnout was likely in the thousands but a precise estimate was difficult as the protest was spread over several neighbourhoods.

Riot police appeared to outnumber small groups of protesters who were
walking along stretches of the leafy Boulevard Ring (AFP Photo/Vasily MAXIMOV )

Police actions questioned

AFP observed dozens of arrests along the route of the protest, as police formed human chains and grabbed people indiscriminately.

"They came and took seven people right in front of me," said 50-year-old Olga Yakovleva sitting on a bench on a square along the protest route. "I lost the power of speech... it was just people sitting and talking."

Lyubov Sobol, an ally of key opposition leader Navalny and currently three weeks into a hunger strike after being barred from taking part in the election, was dragged from a taxi and detained as she set off for the rally.

Hours later she was taken to court where she was fined 300,000 rubles ($4,600) for a gathering on July 15, and held for further questioning over the protest last weekend, her team said.

Opposition candidates who attempted to run in the polls next month argue that the authorities have arbitrarily declared signatures they gathered to qualify invalid.

Mini-profiles of main opposition leaders in Russia. (AFP Photo/Robin BJALON)

People in the crowd on Saturday said they just wanted the opposition to have a chance to compete.

"I believe everyone should have a right to take part" in the polls, 39-year-old Robert told AFP.

Footage surfaced of officers in riot gear beating people prostrated on the pavement with batons, and many officers began to wear masks to prevent activists from identifying them on photos and videos.

Amnesty International condemned the "unnecessary and excessive use of force" and "unfounded" attempts to paint Moscow protest actions as a violent uprising.

Authorities have launched investigations into last weekend's "mass riots" and "violence against police", echoing similar probes into protests against President Vladimir Putin in 2012 which saw several people jailed.

Protestors insist their actions are strictly peaceful, and there have been no reports of damaged property.

Police were deployed in large numbers in central Moscow (AFP Photo/Alexander
NEMENOV)

New 'laundering' probe

The opposition had hoped the September polls would bring an end to the monopoly of Kremlin loyalists in Moscow's parliament.

The body decides the city's multi-billion-dollar budget but lacks political independence from mayor Sergei Sobyanin, an ally of Putin.

Sobyanin has warned the opposition against "new provocations".

Navalny and other protest leaders say corruption is rife in the capital. His anti-corruption foundation FBK this week published a new investigation into Sobyanin's deputy, accusing her of selling prime Moscow property to family members at rock-bottom prices.

On Saturday, FBK, which previously made other high-profile investigations into the questionable wealth of top officials, itself became a target of a new probe into "laundering" a billion rubles ($15.3 million).

The popular FBK collects money through donations. Navalny's ally Leonid Volkov dismissed the allegations as an attempt to stamp out Navalny's national network of volunteers.

Servicemen of the Russian National Guard detained people at the unsanctioned r
ally urging fair elections in downtown Moscow (AFP Photo/Vasily MAXIMOV )

Navalny, currently in jail, was rushed from his cell to hospital last weekend in an incident his personal doctor said could be poisoning with an unknown chemical substance.

A state toxicology lab said no traces were found.

President Vladimir Putin has yet to comment on the situation in Moscow.

#UPDATE The German government says a Moscow police crackdown on peaceful protests "violates" Russia's international obligations and undermines the right to fair elections in the country, a day after hundreds were detained at an opposition rally. https://t.co/3gqhdClBgU pic.twitter.com/aXLx3Kyfvl

— AFP news agency (@AFP) 4 augustus 2019

Hong Kong police fire tear gas at protesters in tourist district

Yahoo – AFP, Jerome TAYLOR, Yan ZHAO, August 3, 2019

Riot police shout warnings to protesters in Hong Kong's Mong Kok district during
renewed clashes between officers and demonstrators calling for democratic
reforms (AFP Photo/ISAAC LAWRENCE)

Hong Kong riot police fired repeated tear gas rounds on Saturday evening at pro-democracy protesters in a popular tourist district, during the latest violence to rock the global finance hub despite increasingly stern warnings from China.

The semi-autonomous southern Chinese city has seen two months of protests and clashes triggered by opposition to a planned extradition law that quickly evolved into a wider movement for democratic reforms.

Authorities in Hong Kong and Beijing this week signalled a hardening stance. Dozens of protesters were arrested, and the Chinese military said it was ready to quell the "intolerable" unrest if requested.

But protesters are unyielding, vowing to hold multiple occupations and rallies in the coming days.

The previous two weekends had seen a surge in violence by both protesters and police, who repeatedly fired rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse projectile-throwing crowds.

Restaurant workers and tourists looked on as protesters blocked streets 

(AFP Photo/Philip FONG)

Saturday's violence kicked off in Tsim Sha Tsui, a usually bustling harbourside district known for its luxury malls and hotels.

Officers with gas masks and shields charged at hundreds of protesters who had besieged a nearby police station.

Masked demonstrators smashed the windows of cars in the police parking lot and daubed nearby walls with graffiti. One team of protesters created a large slingshot -- held up by two members -- to launch bricks at the building.

There were multiple arrests.

Early Sunday tear gas was also fired in nearby Wong Tai Sin district, after protesters and local residents besieged the local police station there.

Unlike the more seasoned protesters, many locals did not have gas masks or goggles, and volunteer medics rushed to treat the injured, AFP reporters on the scene said.

Earlier in the day tens of thousands of protesters marched through nearby streets embracing their mantra "be water" -- a philosophy of unpredictability espoused by local martial arts legend Bruce Lee.

They seized roads, built barricades and even briefly blocked a cross-harbour tunnel.

"We will fight as guerrillas today and be water," a masked and helmeted 19-year-old, who gave her surname Lee, told AFP.

Tear gas swirls around protesters outside a police station in the Wong Tai 

Sin district of Hong Kong (AFP Photo/Anthony WALLACE)

City-wide strike

Many of the chants and graffiti tags thrown up Saturday called for residents to join a planned city-wide strike on Monday.

"The more the government suppresses us, the more we will come out until the government responds to our demands," protester Ah Kit, 36, told AFP.

Two marches are also planned for Sunday while the call for strike action appears to be gaining more traction than previous walkouts.

Under the terms of the 1997 handover deal with Britain, the city has rights and liberties unseen on the Chinese mainland, including an independent judiciary and freedom of speech.

But many say those rights are being curtailed, citing the disappearance into mainland custody of dissident booksellers, the disqualification of prominent politicians and the jailing of pro-democracy protest leaders.

Public anger has been compounded by rising inequality and the perception that the city's distinct language and culture are being threatened by ever-closer integration with the Chinese mainland.

Anger towards the police is at record levels with officers increasingly seen as Beijing's enforcers -- although police deny using excessive force and say they are facing protesters who are becoming more hardcore.

Hong Kong riot police, who deny accusations of using excessive force against
protesters, gather to clear streets in the financial hub's Mong Kok district (AFP
Photo/ISAAC LAWRENCE)

A pro-government rally

Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam has made few concessions beyond agreeing to suspend the extradition bill, and has shied away from public appearances.

Protesters are demanding her resignation, an independent inquiry into police tactics, an amnesty for those arrested, a permanent withdrawal of the bill, and the right to elect their leaders.

Thousands of pro-government supporters also rallied in a separate park on Saturday, many waving Chinese flags and chanting slogans in support of the police.

Beijing has increasingly pitched the anti-government protests as funded by the West.

China has provided little evidence beyond supportive statements from some Western politicians, and critics say Beijing's accusations of foreign meddling ignore Hong Kongers' legitimate grievances.

Bouteflika, Bashir... will other strongmen fall?

Yahoo – AFP, Stuart WILLIAMS, April 11, 2019

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, a former army general, came to power
after the ousting of Islamist Mohamed Morsi, who himself was elected after the
uprising that felled longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak (AFP Photo/ISSOUF SANOGO)

Paris (AFP) - Strongmen in the Middle East and North Africa will be eyeing warily popular protests, fed by frustration with living standards and an elite perceived as corrupt, that helped push veteran Algerian president Abdelaziz Bouteflika and now Sudan’s Omar al-Bashir from power.

While recent events in Algeria and Sudan have been unique to those countries, analysts say the rapid downfall Bouteflika and Bashir are a warning to authoritarian leaders in the region that they will ignore popular anger, especially over economic grievances, at their peril.

The Sudanese army said Thursday that Bashir had been removed from power and detained after 30 years in power following four months of protests. Last week, mass protests led Algeria's ailing Bouteflika to step down last week after 20 years.

In both situations, longtime rulers were pushed aside by existing security structures on the back of mass protests, in a sign for authoritarian leaders that an army can be a foe as well as a friend.

But this also dashed popular hopes for a true revolution, leaving a potential for further instability.

And as populations surge in the region, with the demographic switching towards a younger, more digitally savvy generation, discontent may deepen further.

Protests persisted in Algeria after lawmakers appointed a regime stalwart as the 

country's first new president in two decades (AFP Photo/RYAD KRAMDI)

'Lesson for autocrats'

"The Algerian and Sudanese contexts are very different indeed. But at the same time, there is a lesson here for autocrats and dictators, that the craving for justice, democracy, and equal opportunities is universal," said Marc Pierini, visiting scholar at Carnegie Europe.

"In both countries, people are fed up by seeing the people sitting in power, calling all the shots, and pocketing the money," said Pierini, a former EU ambassador to Tunisia and Libya, Syria, Morocco and Turkey.

"It is also interesting that armed forces are not necessarily solidly behind these autocrats anymore and perhaps have a longer view," he told AFP.

Algeria's neighbour Morocco is run by a monarchy while heavyweight Egypt is headed by strongman President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, a former army general.

He came to power after the ousting of Islamist Mohamed Morsi who himself was elected into power after the uprising that felled longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose ruling party lost control of Turkey's 

two biggest cities in March polls, will be watching events in Sudan particularly closely 

after hosting Bashir on multiple occasions despite an ICC arrest warrant (AFP 

Photo/Alexander NEMENOV)

'Looking on with worry'

Sharan Grewal, a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution, said it was difficult to predict whether the latest convulsions would trigger a repeat of the 2010-11 Arab Spring protests that ousted regimes in Egypt and Tunisia and led to war in Syria and Yemen.

"That said, revolutions do tend to occur in waves," he said, citing the Arab Spring and the so-called colour revolutions in post-Soviet states like Ukraine and Georgia in the previous decade as well as the fall of Communism in eastern Europe in 1989.

Noting that the demands of the protesters to beat corruption and improve living standards resonate beyond Sudan and Algeria, he added: "You can be sure that dictators across the region are looking at these uprisings with worry."

Haim Malka, senior fellow and deputy director of the Middle East Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), said regimes have been "slow to grasp and adjust to a combination of demographic, technological and economic shifts".

"The region will face more turbulence as citizens and regimes attempt to renegotiate the contours of the social contract," he told AFP, adding: "It will take years" for a new equilibrium to emerge.

Organisers of protests for the ouster of Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir rejected 

his toppling by the army Thursday as a "coup conducted by the regime" and vowed 

to keep up their campaign (AFP Photo/AHMED MUSTAFA)

'Between a rock and a hard place'

The tremors in Algiers and Khartoum will reverberate well beyond the Middle East.

Another strongman to leave the stage this spring was Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev, who stepped down in what analysts saw as a bid to ensure a controlled power transition at a time of increased economic uncertainty.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose ruling party lost control of Turkey's two biggest cities in March polls and is now contesting the results in Istanbul, will be watching events in Sudan particularly closely after hosting Bashir on multiple occasions in defiance of an International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant.

And even when a leader is removed from power it's far from the end of the story.

Anthony Skinner, director at Verisk Maplecroft risk assessment firm, said Bouteflika’s interim successor Abdelkader Bensalah was "between a rock and a hard place" as he sought to cater to the demands of protestors while ensuring stability.

"I expect protestors to sustain pressure on the political elite," he said, even as police resort more to water cannon, tear gas and truncheons.

"The administration wants to stick to the current roadmap without having to make further concessions," he said.

Related Articles:

"The Great Escape" - Mar 11, 2017 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll)

“… The Fall of Many - Seen It Yet?

You are going to see more and more personal secrets being revealed about persons in high places of popularity or government. It will seem like an epidemic of non-integrity! But what is happening is exactly what we have been teaching. The new energy has light that will expose the darkness of things that are not commensurate with integrity. They have always been there, and they were kept from being seen by many who keep secrets in the dark. Seen the change yet?

In order to get to a more stable future, you will have to go through gyrations of dark and light. What this means is that the dark is going to be revealed and push back at you. It will eventually lose. We told you this. That's what you're here for is to help those around you who don't see an escape from the past. They didn't get their nuclear war, but everything else is going into the dumper anyway. … “

"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it), Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once),Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse), Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version)

“… The Shift in Human Nature

You're starting to see integrity change. Awareness recalibrates integrity, and the Human Being who would sit there and take advantage of another Human Being in an old energy would never do it in a new energy. The reason? It will become intuitive, so this is a shift in Human Nature as well, for in the past you have assumed that people take advantage of people first and integrity comes later. That's just ordinary Human nature.

In the past, Human nature expressed within governments worked like this: If you were stronger than the other one, you simply conquered them. If you were strong, it was an invitation to conquer. If you were weak, it was an invitation to be conquered. No one even thought about it. It was the way of things. The bigger you could have your armies, the better they would do when you sent them out to conquer. That's not how you think today. Did you notice?

Any country that thinks this way today will not survive, for humanity has discovered that the world goes far better by putting things together instead of tearing them apart. The new energy puts the weak and strong together in ways that make sense and that have integrity. Take a look at what happened to some of the businesses in this great land (USA). Up to 30 years ago, when you started realizing some of them didn't have integrity, you eliminated them. What happened to the tobacco companies when you realized they were knowingly addicting your children? Today, they still sell their products to less-aware countries, but that will also change.

What did you do a few years ago when you realized that your bankers were actually selling you homes that they knew you couldn't pay for later? They were walking away, smiling greedily, not thinking about the heartbreak that was to follow when a life's dream would be lost. Dear American, you are in a recession. However, this is like when you prune a tree and cut back the branches. When the tree grows back, you've got control and the branches will grow bigger and stronger than they were before, without the greed factor. Then, if you don't like the way it grows back, you'll prune it again! I tell you this because awareness is now in control of big money. It's right before your eyes, what you're doing. But fear often rules. …”