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But when the protesters continued throwing rocks at the building, the guards opened fire. The authorities imposed a curfew from 7 p. Many jewelry store owners emptied their stores of products because they were concerned that riots might break out. Meanwhile, in Kut, about 1, protesters took to the streets demanding the release of 45 people arrested Wednesday after clashes with government security forces. Three people died in the melee and at least 27 were injured, including a security officer.
No gas. No electricity. No jobs. No nothing.
And I think once this president is no longer in office, I think you're going to see his impact on the body politic fade, and a lot of these Republicans are going to feel they've got much more room to run and cooperate. Workers in Kerbala say they see evidence that U. Check out our free online gallery containing photos and videos of our single male and female members looking to hookup. Portals such as Healthline to which people turn to for medical advice now suggest phone sex as an alternative to stay sexually active during the pandemic. Mapna didn't respond to a request for comment. After staying mum this week on a massive cyberattack that U. The U.
Kut, a mostly Shiite city of about ,, is about miles southeast of Baghdad and is one of the poorest cities in Iraq. The authorities there imposed a curfew at 5 p. According to Akel Salah, a year old who took part in the protest, said his brother was arrested during the demonstrations. Salah said that he and other protesters had assembled tents on the streets so they could sleep there overnight, a tactic used in Egypt where protesters set up camp in a busy Cairo square. He said they would remain until their demands were met.
And in the northern city of Kirkuk about people protested in front of a government building, calling for better services for widow and orphans. Where are our rights? There are customs exemptions for all materials coming from Iran for religious, donor-funded projects. An engineering official at the Hussein shrine declined to say how much steel, cement, wood and other imports are brought from Iran for the project.
An Iraqi trader who has worked with Kawthar said large quantities of Iranian steel and cement are imported tax-free under the guise of shrine projects, but then sold via middlemen onto the Iraqi market, where prices are higher than in Iran. A senior Iraqi official with direct knowledge said firms involved in shrine projects "often order several times the required amount" of building materials. Shami, the Hussein shrine spokesman, maintained that it would be difficult to siphon off goods in this way because they are inspected by Iranian and Iraqi customs officials then transferred straight to the shrine's warehouses.
He didn't rule out the possibility that some imports had forged shrine documentation, however. The firms have had their workers bussed in from Iran even when the borders are closed, as during the first wave of the COVID pandemic. One Iranian employee of Kawthar told Reuters that when the borders first closed there were problems getting into Iraq, "but the Hussein shrine intervened to get exemptions. The Iraqi customs official and an Iraqi contractor said Kawthar is also involved in other infrastructure projects, including energy. Among these projects, according to the contractor, is a power plant in Basra.
The power plant project was led by an Iranian energy company called Mapna, which has also been sanctioned by the United States.
Mapna is building power plants in Najaf and Baghdad, as well as one of Kerbala's largest hotels, a Reuters review of official filings found. Mapna didn't respond to a request for comment. Workers in Kerbala say they see evidence that U. Work on the site for local Iraqis has all but dried up. An unemployed Iraqi engineering graduate, who used to get regular labour at the shrine, told Reuters he now spends his days hoping for work. He struggles to support a young family. For the Islamic Republic, its involvement in Iraq's Shi'ite shrines is a long game. It brings an enduring presence in Shi'ite centres of power, where Iran hopes to influence the succession of Iraq's most powerful Shi'ite cleric, Sistani.
The Guards are regularly in Najaf, where Sistani is based. Sistani's office didn't respond to a request for comment. Sistani's edicts sent Shi'ite Iraqis to the polls for the first time in their lives in , created an amalgam of Shi'ite paramilitaries to fight Islamic State in , and toppled an Iraqi government last year. Sistani stands against Iranian and other foreign interference in Iraq, and opposes the theocratic model of rule by Khamenei. The Iranian pick to succeed the year-old Sistani died in in a setback to the Islamic Republic's plans for Iraq.
Though Iranian influence is resented by large sections of Iraq's Shi'ite population, religious ties run deep. At the Hussein shrine, bullet holes from where Saddam's soldiers gunned down Shi'ite rebels in are framed. At the time, Iran was a haven for Shi'ite opposition to Saddam, a Sunni. The pilgrimage to commemorate Hussein, slain in battle in , is closely associated with the martyrdom of today.
Next to images of Hussein on Iraqi highways are posters of Shi'ite militiamen killed fighting Islamic State, which counted Shi'ite Muslims among its most bitter enemies and considered them heretics. Next to them are pictures of Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the godfather of those militia groups, killed alongside Soleimani by America. Abu Mahdi and Soleimani featured this year on a banner at one stall next to the Hussein shrine offering pilgrims free tea and juice, run by Kawthar employees.
Just next to the stall were the flags of Iraq's Popular Mobilisation Forces, the state paramilitary grouping dominated by Iran-aligned fighters. At Baghdad's Kadhimiya shrine, one donation box is for the Forces. Iran uses its presence to project regional strength to Sunni Muslim rival Saudi Arabia and bolster its legitimacy at home as a defender of Shi'ite holy places, said Iraqi officials and Iran experts.
Saudi officials did not comment for this article. The best place to do that is Kerbala and Najaf," said Mohammed Sahib al-Daraji, a lawmaker on Iraq's finance committee. Ordinary Iraqis say they find themselves once more in the middle of the contest between Iran and America.
The Iraqi engineering graduate, who looks older than his 30 years and wears a frayed baseball cap, resents that the only work he's ever found in his hometown is run by the Revolutionary Guards. But he also resents that when U. He spends most days looking for menial jobs. When he's bored, he borrows for his bus fare and travels to Baghdad with other out-of-work engineers to hold protests demanding jobs and railing against Iraq's ruling elite - and Iran.
But I'll work for the Iranians if it puts bread on the table — what else is there? After staying mum this week on a massive cyberattack that U. Vice President Mike Pence received his first dose of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine in a televised event in Washington, D. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has spent years dodging legal and public relations blows that might have knocked others out of politics. The Republican has so far proven too wily for political opponents and prosecutors, winning reelection and rising to national prominence as a conservative crusader even while under felony indictment.
Paxton has not been charged with a crime in the months since eight senior officials in the attorney general's office reported him to the FBI for bribery, abuse of office and other offenses allegedly committed in helping a wealthy donor trying to fend off his own federal investigation. Department of Justice veterans say the agency became too political under Attorney General William Barr. Belgian secretary of state Eva De Bleeker tweeted a table with the number of doses and price per dose of each vaccine, after a hour debate on the Belgian budget in parliament.
We don't have to have this. Politics has become so, sort of, dirty and vicious and personal and mean and clenched fist instead of an open hand.
And I think people are looking for us to come together. Give me some time.
We won! We won Georgia three times. Lindsey Graham R-S. I think we can get things done. And I think once this president is no longer in office, I think you're going to see his impact on the body politic fade, and a lot of these Republicans are going to feel they've got much more room to run and cooperate. Biden found one thing. Colbert showed a clip of his first sit-down with Biden, from The Colbert Report, in the opening segment.
But the most famous interview he did with Biden was in , when they bonded over loss and grief. Biden brought that up when Colbert asked him about the role a president can play in helping the U. Watch that, plus Biden talking about his congratulatory phone call from Pope Francis and being the second Catholic president, below. More stories from theweek. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said many Amazon logistics roles provide no financial security because thousands of workers are on food stamps. Perna's remarks came a day after a second vaccine was added in the fight against COVID, which has killed more than , people in the U.
Perna acknowledged the criticism and accepted blame. China's military tailed a U. China, which claims democratically-run Taiwan as its own territory, has been angered by stepped-up U. Michel Barnier doubled down on Brussels' demand that fishing rights be linked to trade in the Brexit deal on Friday and warned the UK and EU were at the "moment of truth" in the negotiations.
Brussels wants the power to freeze British companies, and especially the fishing industry, out of the Brexit trade deal and the Single Market, if EU fishermen are shut out of UK waters in the future. The EU's chief negotiator said it was "unacceptable" that Britain could cut off access to UK waters but keep the benefits of the trade deal with the bloc. London has always rejected calls to link fisheries to trade because of the risk of retaliation, for example in the form of tariffs or suspension of market access, across the two agreements.
But Mr Barnier's mention of "particularly" fisheries products could hint to a possible future compromise where tariffs retaliating to a loss of access to UK waters would be ringfenced to only hit fishing. Vice President-elect Kamala Harris and her husband, incoming second gentleman Doug Emhoff, will receive their vaccinations the week after the Bidens.
The development comes after a top Pakistani court earlier this month declared Sharif, who lives in self-imposed exile in London, a fugitive from justice for failing to return home to face additional corruption charges. Trump won't win that fight, especially after the Supreme Court got involved and the Electoral College sealed President-elect Joe Biden's victory, but the money is "basically going to be the vehicle for Trump's post-White House political operation," Fischer predicts.