Martin Scorsese’s sprawling crime epic “The Irishman” has been named best picture by the National Board of Review. The awards, announced Tuesday by the National Board of Review, handed Netflix its second major honor in Hollywood’s quickening awards season. On Monday evening, Noah Baumbach’s “Marriage Story” won best feature at the IFP Gotham Awards, which honor independent film. Both movies are widely expected to eventually reap numerous nominations at the Oscars, with either potentially landing Netflix its first best-picture win. “The Irishman” also took best adapted screenplay, for Steven Zaillian’s script, and an icon award for Scorsese, Robert De Niro and Al Pacino. The board, as it typically does, otherwise spread its awards around to help fill its annual gala with stars. Quentin Tarantino took best director for “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood.” Best actress went to Renee Zellweger for her performance as Judy Garland in “Judy.” Adam Sandler won best actor for Josh and Benny Safdie’s upcoming New York thriller “Uncut Gems.” Brad Pitt, widely seen as the Oscar front-runner for his co-leading performance in “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood,” won best supporting actor. The National Board of Review also threw its support behind Clint …

Hungary has stifled its independent media and imposed a level of control over journalists that is unprecedented in an EU country, according to a joint report from six international press watchdogs that calls on EU leaders to take action. The report was compiled ahead of a meeting next week at which EU leaders will discuss punishing Hungary for eroding democratic norms under maverick Prime Minister Viktor Orban. “The Hungarian government has systematically dismantled media independence, freedom and pluralism, distorted the media market and divided the journalistic community in the country, achieving a degree of media control unprecedented in an EU member state,” the report says. FILE – The spokesman of the Hungarian government, Zoltan Kovacs, speaks to reporters at the Hungarian Embassy in Paris, Dec.19, 2018. Hungarian government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs rejected the criticisms in a posting on Twitter. “Fact: TV outlet with largest audience, news portal with largest readership, largest weekly (are) clearly pro-opposition,” Kovacs wrote. “But report says: opposition media under constant threat, being muted. What?” Hungary and Poland’s ruling nationalist parties have tightened control over the media, academics, courts and advocacy groups, spurring the European Parliament to launch a so-called Article 7 legal process against both the …

Cicely Tyson, Seth MacFarlane and Walt Disney Co. chief executive Bob Iger will be joining the Television Academy’s Hall of Fame. Geraldine Laybourne, who helped create the Nickelodeon channel and co-founded Oxygen Media, and veteran TV director Jay Sandrich also were announced Tuesday as inductees. Sandrich’s credits include “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and “The Golden Girls.” Tyson won three Emmy Awards over her nearly seven-decade acting career, including two trophies for 1974’s “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman” and one for 1994’s “Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All.” MacFarlane, a writer, director, producer and performer, is a five-time Emmy winner for his animated series “Family Guy.” Iger became CEO of Disney in 2005, and during his tenure the company acquired Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm and 21st Century Fox and launched the new Disney Plus streaming service. Frank Scherma, chairman and CEO of the academy that organizes the Emmy Awards, said the five individuals’ “remarkable contributions” continue to shape the TV industry. Lucille Ball, Walter Cronkite, Bob Hope, Shonda Rhimes and Ron Howard are among the nearly 150 people who have been inducted in the Hall of Fame since its start in 1984. The newest group will be honored at a …

China will help build several major infrastructure projects in El Salvador including a stadium and water treatment plant, the two countries said Tuesday, signaling China’s growing role in the region after El Salvador cut ties with Taiwan. Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, who met with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in China this week, said the investment represented a “gigantic, non-refundable cooperation” for the small Central American nation. He did not disclose the planned investment amount. Under the agreement, China will help build a large sports stadium, multi-story library and water treatment plant. China, the world’s second biggest economy, will also assist at coastal tourist sites, including building streets, parks and a water system along the beaches known as Surf City, and restaurants and shops on the Puerto de la Libertad pier. The projects offer the strongest signal yet of El Salvador’s embrace of close relations with China. El Salvador “adheres to the principle of one China, categorically rejects any act that goes against this principle and any form of ‘independence of Taiwan,’” El Salvador and China said in a joint statement. El Salvador broke off diplomatic relations with Taiwan in August last year, following the Dominican Republic and Panama in …

Families of several U.S. and British people held in Iran expressed fear for their loved ones Tuesday amid the deadliest unrest in decades in the Islamic Republic. The relatives spoke at a news conference in Washington to demand the release of spouses and parents held in Iran — in at least one case for more than a decade. Among those who spoke was a daughter of Robert Levinson, the former FBI agent who disappeared in Iran in 2007. The protests now roiling Iran, reflecting widespread economic discontent and outrage over spiking gasoline prices, have been an added challenge to families who have gone years without seeing their loved ones. Iranian state television acknowledged Tuesday that security forces shot and killed protesters in multiple cities. “Of course any kind of protest that goes on in Iran, and any kind of situation, that overlaps potentially with the fact that our families and loved ones are being held there as well,” said Babak Namazi, whose brother and father are held captive in Iran. “We’ve been talking about the brutality of what our family members have been facing. But I guess this is just a reminder of what the abilities and capabilities are.” Prisons …

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s lawmaker son Eduardo, once considered for the post of ambassador to the United States, was suspended by his party on Tuesday and could lose the chair of the lower house’s foreign affairs committee. The conservative Social Liberal Party (PSL) suspended Eduardo Bolsonaro for one year for trying to oust its founder Luciano Bivar last month in a battle for control of the party that led to President Bolsonaro leaving to start his own party. The split has left the far-right president without a formal base in Congress for which to push through his agenda of bills aimed at reducing the size of government, fighting graft, loosening gun laws and asserting Christian family values. The small PSL party surged from nowhere to become the second largest in Brazil’s Congress by serving as the platform for Bolsonaro’s successful presidential run last year riding on a wave of conservative sentiment in the country. The party said it punished 18 members for siding with the Bolsonaros in a bitter struggle for control of the party and its large election campaign war chest lost by the president. The PSL will seek to have Eduardo Bolsonaro removed as chairman of the foreign …

From the surface, these 22 square miles of water are unexceptional. But dip beneath the surface — go down 60 or 70 feet — and you’ll find a spectacular seascape. Sponges, barnacles and tube worms cover rocky ledges on the ocean floor, forming a “live bottom.” Gray’s Reef is little more than a drop in the ocean 19 miles off the Georgia coast, but don’t confuse size for significance. In one of his last official acts, President Jimmy Carter declared the reef a national marine sanctuary at the urging of conservationists who said its abundance of life was unique and worth saving for future generations. For nearly 40 years, the U.S. government has protected the reef, home to more than 200 species of fish and an amazing array of nearly 1,000 different kinds of invertebrates. Recreational fishing and diving are allowed, but commercial fishing and other kinds of exploitation are not. And Gray’s Reef has served as a global inspiration. Following the lead of the U.S., other nations have designated similar sanctuaries and protected areas, which now cover about 6% of the world’s oceans — a bonanza for researchers but, more importantly, an important tool for safeguarding the seas. Doubts …

A gas tanker exploded at a ceramics factory in Khartoum on Tuesday, killing at least 23 people and injuring dozens more. Eyewitnesses in the Sudanese capital said the tanker exploded while a shipment was being unloaded. Doctors at Bahari Hospital in north Khartoum made an urgent appeal for all medical personnel to come to the hospital to help treat the burn victims. A gas tank burns at the scene of a fire at a tile manufacturing unit in an industrial zone in Sudan’s north Khartoum, Dec. 3, 2019. “I could see in one [ward] seven injured and in another ward there were 12 injured, and all of them are in critical condition where they are unable to see or talk,” reporter Michael Atit told VOA’s South Sudan in Focus. Atit said eyewitnesses told him the injured were people who had been sitting outside the factory and that “people who were in the factory, none of them survived, none of them actually came out.” News reports said people were being called on to donate blood. Atit cited the hospital’s doctors as saying more than 200 people were believed to be inside the factory at the time of the blast. South Sudan …

The presidents of South America’s Mercosur trade bloc meet on Wednesday under the cloud of tariffs restored by U.S. President Donald Trump on steel and aluminum imports from its two largest members, Brazil and Argentina. Hobbled by political differences and government changeovers, the four-nation common market is not expected to take a joint stance against Trump’s surprise move on Monday, which shocked South American officials and left them scrambling for answers. Argentine Production Minister Dante Sica said on Tuesday that Argentina and Brazil will hold a bilateral meeting at the summit to discuss the U.S. tariffs. But Argentina’s President Mauricio Macri has less than a week left in office and his left-leaning Peronist successor, Alberto Fernandez, has sparred openly with Brazil’s right-wing president, Jair Bolsonaro, who called the incoming leader a “redbandit.” Uruguay, where conservative President-elect Luis Lacalle Pou will take office in March, will be represented at the Mercosur summit by Vice President Lucia Topolansky. Given the changeovers, the summit will not be able to agree on the main item on the agenda, reducing a common external tariff that has been in place for more than two decades and Brazil is pushing to lower, a senior Brazilian diplomat said. …

U.S. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump attended a reception late Tuesday at Buckingham Palace hosted by Queen Elizabeth on the sidelines of the NATO summit, where leaders are marking 70 years of the alliance. This is the third time the Trumps have met the monarch. They met at a Buckingham Palace banquet during a state visit in June, and during a tea at Windsor Castle in July of 2018. Prior to Tuesday’s palace reception, the president and the first lady briefly met with the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall at their official residence at Clarence House. As in his previous visits to Britain, anti-Trump protests broke out. Protesters marched from London’s Trafalgar Square towards the palace as the evening reception took place.  Among the protesters led by the Stop Trump Coalition, are doctors, nurses and staff of the country’s National Health Service concerned about the potential risks to the British health service system raised by a U.S. – Britain trade deal. Election meddling But earlier on Tuesday, Trump promised to stay out of Britain’s general election, scheduled to be held on December 12. “I have no thoughts on it.  It’s going to be a …

Drake is the king of streaming: the rapper has been named Spotify’s most-streamed artist of the decade. Spotify announced Tuesday that Drake has been streamed 28 billion times in the last 10 years. Ed Sheeran came in second, while Post Malone, Ariana Grande and Eminem round out the Top 5. Sheeran’s “Shape of You” was the most-streamed song of the decade. Post Malone performs during Snow Fest at Park City Live on Jan. 20, 2018, in Park City, Utah. For 2019, Post Malone is the top-streamed artist globally. Billie Eilish, Grande, Sheeran and Bad Bunny round out the Top 5. Eilish’s debut album “When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?’” is the year’s most-streamed album, while Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello’s “Senorita” tops the list of the most-streamed songs. “The Joe Budden Podcast with Rory & Mal” is the year’s most-streamed podcast on Spotify.   …

Differences between U.S. President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron were on full display as NATO leaders gathered for a summit in London. In an almost 40-minute session with journalists the two leaders clashed on a number of issues including burden sharing within NATO, terrorism, Turkey’s incursion into northern Syria, and the U.S. withdrawal from an arms treaty with Russia. The two leaders met hours after Trump criticized Macron for his recent statement describing NATO as experiencing a “brain death,” due to diminished U.S. leadership.  Trump called it a “nasty statement.”   As the two sat down for talks, Trump warned member countries who do not meet NATO’s guideline of spending 2% of GDP on collective defense could be dealt with “from a trade standpoint” referring to tariffs on products including French wine. This prompted Macron, who is currently contributing 1.9% of France’s GDB towards NATO’s defense, to push back. “It’s not just about money,” Macron said. “What about peace in Europe?” he asked Trump. “It’s impossible just to say we have to put money, we have to put soldiers, without being clear on the fundamentals of what NATO should be,” Macron said. FILE – Flags wave in front …

A magnitude 6.0 earthquake struck early Tuesday off the coast of northern Chile, but there were no reports of damage.       The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake was recorded at 3:46 a.m. local time at a moderate depth of 32 kilometers (20 miles). It was centered 37 kilometers (23 miles) west-southwest of the city of Arica. The biggest recent quake to hit Chile came in 2010, when a magnitude 8.8 quake caused a tsunami blamed for more than 500 deaths.   …

Democratic Sen. Kamala Harris told supporters on Tuesday that she was ending her bid for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020. “I’ve taken stock and looked at this from every angle, and over the last few days have come to one of the hardest decisions of my life,” she wrote in a note to supporters. “My campaign for president simply doesn’t have the financial resources we need to continue.” To my supporters, it is with deep regret—but also with deep gratitude—that I am suspending my campaign today. But I want to be clear with you: I will keep fighting every day for what this campaign has been about. Justice for the People. All the people.https://t.co/92Hk7DHHbR — Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) December 3, 2019 Harris launched her campaign in front of 20,000 people  at a chilly, outdoor event in January. The first woman and first black attorney general and U.S. senator in California’s history, she was widely viewed as a candidate poised to excite the same segment of voters that sent Barack Obama to the White House. She raised an impressive $12 million in the first three months of her campaign and quickly locked down major endorsements meant to show her dominance …

Four workers fired from Google last week are planning to file a federal labor complaint against the company, claiming it unfairly retaliated against them for organizing workers around social causes. The former employees said Tuesday they are preparing to file unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board this week. All four were fired Nov. 25 for what Google said were violations of its data security policy. Company officials wrote in a memo — without confirming the employees’ names — that the four were “searching for, accessing, and distributing business information outside the scope of their jobs.” But the four workers — Laurence Berland, Sophie Waldman, Rebecca Rivers and Paul Duke — say they believe they did not violate company policies and claim that Google is using the alleged violations as an excuse to terminate them for labor activity. “This is an expression of Google’s management power,” Duke said. “They are scared of worker power.” Google disputes that they fired the employees for organizing activity. “No one has been dismissed for raising concerns or debating the company’s activities,” the company said in a statement. Google employees are known for being some of the most outspoken across the tech …

The founder of Huawei says the Chinese tech giant is moving its U.S. research center to Canada due to American sanctions on the company. In an interview with Toronto’s Global and Mail newspaper, Ren Zhengfei said the move was necessary because Huawei would be blocked from interacting with U.S. employees. Huawei Technologies Ltd. is the No. 2 global smartphone brand and the biggest maker of network gear for phone carriers. U.S. authorities say the company is a security risk, which Huawei denies, and announced curbs in May on its access to American components and technology. The Trump administration announced a 90-day reprieve on some sales to Huawei. The government said that would apply to components and technology needed to support wireless networks in rural areas. Ren gave no details but Huawei confirmed in June it had cut 600 jobs at its Silicon Valley research center in Santa Clara, California, leaving about 250 employees. A Huawei spokesman said the company had no further comment. “The research and development center will move from the United States, and Canada will be the center,” Ren said in a video excerpt of the interview on the Globe and Mail website. “According to the U.S. ban, …

The United States and South Korea will begin its fourth round of negotiations over military defense cost-sharing in Washington, D.C. Tuesday after a breakdown in talks last month. Jeong  Eun-bo, South Korea’s top envoy for the negotiations, touched down in Dulles International Airport, outside Washington, on Monday ahead of the Tuesday and Wednesday talks. He expressed optimism in comments at the airport, despite the fact that U.S. negotiators cut short talks on Nov. 19 after representatives from both countries couldn’t find common ground. “There  were areas that didn’t go as planned, but because the two countries still share an understanding of the South Korea-US alliance and the strengthening of the joint defense posture, I believe we will be able to produce a win-win result if we continue discussions with patience,” Jeong reportedly said on Dec. 2. There is pressure to strike a deal, with the two countries’ current cost-sharing agreement slated to expire by the end of this year. Around 28,500 U.S. troops are currently stationed in South Korea, and Seoul already agreed to increase their share of the cost burden by 8.2% last February. That brought South Korea’s total contribution to around $808.5 million — which is about half …

Jewish groups expressed outrage on Tuesday at an oversized urn placed in front of the German parliament that those behind it claim contains Holocaust victims’ remains and is meant to highlight the dangers of far-right extremism.                     The International Auschwitz Committee condemned the action by the Center for Political Beauty, which unveiled the urn near the Reichstag building Monday, calling it a “pillar of resistance.”                     “Auschwitz survivors are aghast at this installation, which hurts their feelings and the eternal peace of the dead of their murdered relatives,” the organization said.                     The Center for Political Beauty, a Germany-based activist group known for provocative stunts, said the urn contained victims’ remains that it had unearthed from 23 locations near Nazi death and concentration camps in Germany, Poland and Ukraine. Soil the group said contained the remains could be seen in the transparent orange urn, which is about the size of an oil drum, set atop a metal pillar.                     The group defended its installation, saying it did not open any gravesites. “We only looked for earth-covered human remains that were hidden by the Nazis in the surroundings of the former death camps.”                     The group, …

 Ten years ago on December 3, 2009, a suicide bomber attacked a graduation ceremony at the Shamo Hotel, one of Mogadishu’s main hotels. Fourteen medical students, lecturers, and doctors from Banadir University were among 30 people who were killed.  More than 50 others were injured. Among the survivors was Mohamed Olad Hassan, now a senior editor and writer with the VOA Somali service. Before joining VOA in November 2010, he was a Mogadishu-based correspondent for, among others, the Associated Press and the BBC World Service. Olad narrowly escaped death and he recounts his experience covering that deadly ceremony a decade ago. I still remember that day as it happened just days ago. Dozens of young graduating students, government ministers, proud parents, and doctors crammed inside a tent, which was shaped as a meeting hall at the hotel. The students were all dressed in colorful uniforms for their graduation and the walls of the hall had been brightly decorated. Such ceremonies rarely happened in Mogadishu at the time because of insecurity and lawlessness in the capital. The chances to attain academic credentials were very limited, making this particular ceremony a trace of hope. An attendant at the Shamo Hotel is seen …

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a bill Monday that amends an existing law on media outlets deemed “foreign agents” that critics say is used to muzzle dissent, limit news plurality, and discourage the free exchange of ideas. The new law gives the authorities the power to label reporters who work for organizations officially listed as “foreign agents” as foreign agents themselves. The label will be applied to individuals who collaborate with foreign media outlets and receive financial or other material support from them. Should anything a foreign media outlet publish violate Russian regulations, “the new norms allow the Russian government to block the websites of foreign agents or legal entities established by them,” TASS reported. Russia passed the original “foreign agent” law – which requires all NGOs receiving foreign funding to register – in 2012 following the biggest wave of anti-government protests since Putin came to power. Putin blamed Western influence and money for those protests. Critics of the law say it stigmatizes organizations with the designation and would do the same to journalists if they are labeled as foreign agents. RFE/RL President Jamie Fly said on November 21 that the law “invades” the lives and security of reporters …

U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday criticized French President Emmanuel Macron for his recent statement describing NATO as experiencing “brain death,” saying the French leader’s comment was a “nasty statement.” Speaking alongside NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg as leaders of member nations gathered for a summit in London, Trump said, “You just can’t go around making statements like that about NATO.” Macron’s comments came in an interview with London-based magazine The Economist published last month.  He has since defended his words, saying NATO “needed a wake-up call” and should be focused on issues other than the amount of money each member spends on its military. NATO Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg gestures during his meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump at Winfield House in London, Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2019. Trump and Macron are due to meet Tuesday. Defense spending has been a focus for Trump since he took office in 2017 and complained the United States was taking on an outsized financial burden. Stoltenberg praised Trump on Tuesday, saying his leadership on the issue is “having a real impact.” He cited a $130 billion rise in defense budgets among the non-U.S. NATO members and said that would go to $400 billion by 2024. …

North Korea issued its latest warning Tuesday that its end-of-year deadline for the United States to offer concessions in nuclear talks is approaching. In a statement carried by state media, Ri Thae Song, North Korea’s vice minister of foreign affairs handling U.S. affairs, said it is “entirely up to the U.S. what Christmas gift it will select to get.” Ri also criticized U.S. efforts to conduct more talks with North Korea, saying such dialogue is only a “foolish trick” for political purposes. The negotiations have been stalled since February with North Korea seeking sanctions relief before giving up any of its nuclear capability, a path the United States has so far rejected. Tuesday’s warning was the latest in veiled statements made by North Korean officials ahead of the deadline set by leader Kim Jong Un. Last week, North Korea conducted its fourth launch this year of what it called a “super-large, multiple-rocket launch system,” and warned it may soon launch a “real ballistic missile” in the vicinity of Japan. North Korea last tested an intercontinental ballistic missile in November 2017, and conducted a nuclear test in September 2017. In April 2018, Kim announced a self-imposed moratorium on ICBM and nuclear …

The U.S. House Intelligence Committee is expected to publicly release Tuesday a report on its findings and recommendations in the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump. Committee Chairman Adam Schiff told MSNBC late Monday that the panel was “putting the finishing touches” on the report.  He also said the committee would vote Tuesday night on formally submitting it to the Judiciary Committee, whose members will decide whether to draw up articles of impeachment against Trump. The Judiciary Committee is scheduled to start its own impeachment hearings Wednesday, and will do so without a Trump lawyer present. The president said he would not be sending representation “because the whole thing is a hoax.” Trump also criticized Democrats for holding the hearing at the time he will be attending the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s leaders’ summit in London. “Just landed in the United Kingdom, heading to London for NATO meetings tomorrow,” Trump tweeted late Monday.  “Prior to landing I read the Republicans Report on the Impeachment Hoax.  Great job!  Radical Left has NO CASE.  Read the transcripts.  Shouldn’t even be allowed.  Can we go to Supreme Court to stop?” President Donald Trump walks to board Air Force One for a trip to …

Former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein told the FBI he was “angry, ashamed, horrified and embarrassed” at the way James Comey was fired as FBI director, according to records released Monday. Rosenstein was interviewed by FBI agents several weeks after Comey’s firing as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into ties between Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and Russia. An FBI summary of that interview was among roughly 300 pages of documents released as part of public records lawsuits brought by BuzzFeed News and CNN. The records also include summaries of FBI interviews of key Trump associates, including Hope Hicks, Corey Lewandowski and Michael Cohen. They provide additional insight into Mueller’s two-year investigation, which shadowed the first part of Trump’s presidency and preceded an ongoing impeachment inquiry centered on his efforts to press Ukraine for investigations of political rival Joe Biden. Hicks described efforts to prepare for media scrutiny of a 2016 Trump Tower meeting between Russians and the president’s oldest son. Lewandowski told investigators the president prodded him to tell then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions to make an announcement that the scope of the Russia investigation had been limited to future election interference. And Cohen, who is now serving …