Nation and World briefs for November 16

Historic flooding highlights Venice’s vulnerability

VENICE, Italy — The historic lagoon city of Venice exists on the edge of a double threat: As it sinks, the seas rise.

That reality became more stark this week when Venice was hit with its worst flood in over 50 years, caused by a nearly 1.9 meter (6-foot) tide that sent waist-high water flowing through St. Mark’s Square, cast the city’s world-famous gondolas onto walkways, and threatened its medieval, Baroque and Renaissance art and architecture.

Damage to the City of Canals from the second-worst flood ever recorded was put at hundreds of millions of euros (dollars).

Against the backdrop of the disaster, a corruption-riddled underwater barrier system that was supposed to protect the city still is not operational after more than 16 years of construction and at least 5 billion euros of public funds. It was supposed to be working by 2011.

“It has been a generation of panels and engineers that have been working on it. No one can actually tell if it will actually be operational,” said Mechtild Rossler, director of the UNESCO World Heritage Center in Paris, which lists Venice as one of its legally protected World Heritage sites because of its cultural and historical significance.

Leaders of Russia, Ukraine to meet to discuss conflict

PARIS — The leaders of Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France will meet in Paris on Dec. 9 to try to seek a settlement for the five-year conflict in eastern Ukraine that has killed 13,000 people.

French President Emmanuel Macron’s office announced the meeting Friday after months of diplomatic efforts to get all sides to agree on new talks.

Macron’s office said it’s time for a meeting because of “major advances” in negotiations since this summer, including troop withdrawals and prisoner exchanges.

The summit comes amid intensified attention to Ukraine because of the allegations that President Donald Trump tried to force Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy into politicized investigations or risk having the US block military aid that Ukraine wants to gird itself against Russia.

Over the past several weeks, Ukrainian and rebel forces have pulled back from three frontline points. In September, Russia and Ukraine each released 35 of the others’ nationals who had been imprisoned, including high-profile Ukrainian sailors who had been seized by Russia.

Ukraine and the separatists last month signed a tentative agreement on holding elections in the rebel-held areas, a move that prompted substantial criticism among Ukrainians who saw the move as capitulation to Russia.

The leaders of the four countries first met in Normandy in 2014, and their group is dubbed the “Normandy Format.” They last met in this format in 2016, although discussions have continued at a lower level.

Oklahoma judge reduces J&J order in opioid lawsuit by $107M

OKLAHOMA CITY — An Oklahoma judge who last summer ordered consumer products giant Johnson & Johnson to pay $572 million to help address the state’s opioid crisis on Friday reduced that amount in his final order in the case by $107 million because of his miscalculation.

District Judge Thad Balkman’s latest order directs the company to pay the state $465 million. In it, Balkman acknowledged that he miscalculated in his original award how much it would cost to develop a program for treating babies born dependent on opioids. The cost should have been $107,000 not $107 million.

The judge declined a request by the defendants to further reduce the amount to take into account pre-trial settlements totaling $355 million the state reached with Oxycontin-maker Purdue Pharma and Israeli-owned Teva Pharmaceuticals.

Balkman also denied a request by Gov. Kevin Stitt, state House Speaker Charles McCall and state Senate President Pro Tem Greg Treat to intervene in the case and said he would not revisit the settlement in the future to order additional payments, as requested by the state.

“Though several of the state’s witnesses testified that the plan will take at least 20 years to work, the state did not present sufficient evidence of the amount of time and costs necessary, beyond one year, to abate the Opioid Crisis,” according to the order.

Texas appeals court blocks inmate Rodney Reed’s execution

HOUSTON — Texas’ top criminal appeals court on Friday halted the scheduled execution of inmate Rodney Reed, whose conviction is being questioned by new evidence that his supporters say raises serious doubt about his guilt.

The stay of execution by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals came just hours after the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles had recommended delaying the lethal injection.

The 51-year-old Reed had been set for lethal injection Wednesday evening for the 1996 killing of 19-year-old Stacey Stites. Prosecutors say Reed raped and strangled Stites as she made her way to work at a supermarket in Bastrop, a rural community about 30 miles (50 kilometers) southeast of Austin.

Reed’s efforts to stop his execution have received support from such celebrities as Beyoncé, Kim Kardashian and Oprah Winfrey. Lawmakers from both parties, including Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz, have also asked that officials take a closer look at the evidence in the case.

5 protesters dead in violence over key Baghdad squares

BAGHDAD — Iraqi security forces fired live ammunition and tear gas in renewed clashes with anti-government protesters in central Baghdad on Friday, killing three people, while Iraq’s top Shiite religious leader warned its government to heed calls for sweeping political reforms.

Separately, a bomb placed under a car exploded near a central square, killing two protesters and wounding 10 others, police and hospital officials said. They said the blast, which damaged several cars in the area, occurred between Tayaran and Tahrir squares, the latter being the epicenter of anti-government protests in the capital.

It was the first such incident in the capital since the demonstrations began in early October, although it was not immediately clear whether the explosion targeted the protesters.

Earlier, protesters repeatedly regrouped from under clouds of tear gas as they fought to tear down a concrete wall blocking access to Khilani Square. Security forces erected the barrier to keep the demonstrations from crossing a bridge that leads to the fortified Green Zone, the seat of government and many foreign embassies.

Tuk-tuk drivers ferried the injured back to makeshift medical tents stocked with saline used to douse demonstrators exposed to the tear gas. Many retched on the floor when they got there, saying the gas was the strongest they had ever experienced.

“We aren’t afraid of them, the authorities,” said Akeel, 21, who asked to be identified only by his first name.

Friday’s deaths brought to four the number of protesters killed in the past 24 hours around the square, the center of daily confrontations.

AP sources: Epstein jail guards had been offered plea deal

WASHINGTON — Federal prosecutors offered a plea deal to two correctional officers responsible for guarding Jeffrey Epstein on the night of his death, but the officers have declined the offer, people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.

The existence of the plea offer signals the Justice Department is considering criminal charges in connection with the wealthy financier’s death at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York in August. The city’s medical examiner ruled Epstein’s death a suicide.

The guards on Epstein’s unit are suspected of failing to check on him every half hour, as required, and of fabricating log entries to show they had. As part of the proposed plea deal, prosecutors wanted the guards to admit they falsified the prison records, according to the people familiar with the matter. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not permitted to publicly discuss the investigation.

The U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan had no comment on the plea offer.