| Black Pete no more? Tide turning against Dutch Santa's blackfaced helper. Posted: 04 Dec 2018 02:13 PM PST ![Black Pete no more? Tide turning against Dutch Santa's blackfaced helper.]( "Black Pete no more? Tide turning against Dutch Santa's blackfaced helper.") As children pour into this cobblestoned dockside neighborhood, they begin jamming to live Christmas music and charting Santa's progress on a jumbotron at the annual party to celebrate the arrival of the man himself – Sinterklaas, as he's known to Dutch speakers in Belgium and the Netherlands – and his faithful helper, Black Pete. In the Dutch-speaking world, Santa arrives on the scene in mid-November, traveling from Spain where, according to legend here, he spends the off-season, eschewing Arctic climes. It's a festive time that culminates this week in the feast of St. Nicholas, when children receive presents.
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| Will British politicians OK a Brexit bill that few are happy with? Posted: 04 Dec 2018 01:28 PM PST ![Will British politicians OK a Brexit bill that few are happy with?]( "Will British politicians OK a Brexit bill that few are happy with?") Members of Parliament in Britain began five days of momentous debate Tuesday on the terms of withdrawal from the European Union. The parliamentary debate and subsequent vote on the Brexit agreement negotiated by Prime Minister Theresa May could be a breaking point for her minority government. In 2016, 52 percent of United Kingdom voters in a national referendum chose to leave the EU.
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| On Mexico border, asylum-seekers take organizing into own hands Posted: 04 Dec 2018 12:56 PM PST ![On Mexico border, asylum-seekers take organizing into own hands]( "On Mexico border, asylum-seekers take organizing into own hands") The process is entirely volunteer-run, and the men and women who manage The List, as the long, black-and-white notebook is known, are all asylum-seekers themselves, hoping to create a sense of order in a disorganized, potentially chaotic process of entering the US through a legal port of entry to ask for protection. The US is increasingly relying on a practice at the border called "metering." It limits the number of asylum-seekers allowed to enter the US each day to launch the asylum-request process, to make the case that they can claim credible fear of returning home. Because of a combination of "zero tolerance" policies and a shortage of judges to hear and process cases, some observers estimate there's a backlog of more than 1 million such cases in US immigration courts. Melvin, who fled his home in Central America last summer due to political violence, is reviewing identification cards and passports and assigning numbers on a recent morning.
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| Pauses for peace that may end Yemen’s war Posted: 04 Dec 2018 11:36 AM PST ![Pauses for peace that may end Yemen's war]( "Pauses for peace that may end Yemen's war") The people of Yemen, according to the prophet Muhammad, have "the most tender minds and the softest hearts." This week, those qualities showed up in the midst of a raging war that has created the world's worst humanitarian crisis. The two sides in Yemen exchanged humanitarian gestures just before planned talks in Sweden. The country's Houthi rebels, who are supported by Iran, released 14 prisoners to the Yemeni government while 50 wounded Houthi fighters were flown to Oman for treatment, a move approved by the government's main backer, Saudi Arabia.
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