For Omar Lightner and his family in Florida, this Christmas will mean much more than a smaller gathering.

With a US-wide moratorium on eviction set to expire on 31 December, they could be homeless by the end of the holiday season.

"We've got 200 bucks saved up, it's going to get us nowhere, It's the timing. It's the holidays," Lightner said. "I sit up at night thinking how I can explain to my kids they can't have a Christmas because we have to get out of here in a few days."

Lightner, 42, lost his job as a truck driver with a home removals firm because of the pandemic in February. Since then, he has been living off his savings in a motel in Jacksonville with his wife Tawanda and children Jayla, 10, Jasmine, eight, and Jamal, six.

Their money is quickly running out.

"My savings were $22,000 (£16,200) when we went to the extended stay," Lightner said. "That ran us to about $17,300. The rest went towards food stamps. That helped out a lot. But we've got two kids with severe autism; there's medicine and therapy to pay for."

While the Lightners figure out how to stretch their finances, US lawmakers are trying to reach an agreement on a second $900bn Covid-19 aid bill that could help those most affected by the pandemic.

The package is expected to include hundreds of billions of dollars of support for America's unemployed and struggling businesses, as well as vaccine distribution and education.

Back in March, President Trump signed the largest-ever US financial stimulus package, worth $2tn. Through it, Omar managed to access $1,200 (£887) per month in unemployment benefits.

In August, those payments stopped. He said he has been told to be patient whilst an administrative backlog is cleared.

As Lightner continues to look for work, he's pinning his hopes on support from the second stimulus package. Though less than the first package, it is expected to offer $600 (£444) stimulus cheques to millions of Americans and 10 weeks of jobless aid.

Lightner's biggest and most immediate worry is how to secure a home for his family.

In September, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was given the authority to temporarily halt evictions to help curb the spread of the virus and assist those facing financial hardship. That rent relief expires at the end of this month and could impact between 2.4 and 5 million American households, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The Lightner family is one of those facing eviction come 1 January. They have fallen four weeks behind in rent.

Lightner explains that as part of the motel's eviction policy, items deemed non-essential can be removed from their room. This week, it's been the TV, something the couple desperately need to calm Jamal whose autism means he is unable to speak.

"We are a family of five, there are no shelters available to take us right now," Lightner said.

"My pride has gone. We're pretty much homeless now. And I was a man who was always big on pride. I worked all my life. We always had a nice house and nice vehicles.

I know how I grew up- I had to work to get that stuff. And it's been taken away through no fault of my own. "

BBC

NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York City is overhauling how it admits students to some of its most competitive public schools to make them less segregated by race and wealth, Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Friday.

Some selective Manhattan high schools, particularly in wealthy neighborhoods, are allowed to give children who live nearby priority in admissions, which has tended to put children living in poorer neighborhoods at a disadvantage. These so-called geographic priorities will be ended over the coming two years, making it easier for children from anywhere to apply for a spot, the mayor said at a news conference.

The city will also end "screening" practices at hundreds of middle schools that admit students based on a mixture of grades, test results, attendance rates.

These practices led to disproportionately high admissions of white and Asian students and fewer Black and Latino students in the best-performing schools in the nation's largest and most diverse education system, which serves some 1.1 million children. Admissions will instead be determined by a random lottery.

"We have been doing this work for seven years to more equitably redistribute resources throughout our school system," de Blasio told reporters. "I think these changes will improve justice and fairness."

Although calls to overhaul school admissions long predate the novel coronavirus pandemic, the disruption caused by school closures to stem the spread of COVID-19 was a factor in the overhaul: for example, some state exams were canceled and attendance rates became more difficult to track, Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza told reporters.

The New York Civil Liberties Union welcomed the changes but said they should have come sooner, and called for the permanent removal of screening at the high-school level.

"It should not have taken a pandemic to finally remove discriminatory admissions screens for children applying to middle school and to remove the egregious district priorities that concentrate wealth and resources into a few schools," NYCLU organizer Toni Smith-Thompson said in a statement.

Pakistan has claimed that Indian forces “specifically targeted” the officials of the UN Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) along the Line of Control (LoC) dividing the disputed Jammu and Kashmir region. 

Pakistani Foreign Ministry Spokesman Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri told a news conference on Friday that around 10.45 a.m. (0545GMT), Indian border forces “resorted to unprovoked firing” in the Chirikot sector of Pakistani-administered Jammu and Kashmir along the LoC.

According to Chaudhri, UN officials were scheduled to meet “victims of Indian cease-fire violations” in the village of Polas “when they came under fire.”

“The UN vehicle was damaged but the officers remained unhurt,” he added.

The UN officers were immediately evacuated by the Pakistan Army and brought back to their field station in the Rawalakot area of Pakistani-administered Kashmir, also known as Azad Jammu and Kashmir.

The UN also confirmed the incident, saying they were hit by an “unidentified object.”

“The incident occurred when UNMOGIP military observers were conducting routine monitoring activities near Rawalakot as part of the mission’s mandate to observe and report on cease-fire violations at LOC in Jammu and Kashmir," Associated Press of Pakistan quoted UN Deputy Spokesman for the Secretary-General Farhan Haq as saying.

He added the mission is currently investigating the incident.

“UNMOGIP personnel and the driver were not harmed but the vehicle sustained some damage,” Haq told APP.

27 killed in almost 3,000 cease-fire violations this year

"Pakistan strongly condemns the continuing cease-fire violations by India in clear violation of international law, the 2003 cease-fire understanding, and against all established humanitarian norms and professional military conduct," Chaudhri said.

He said that in 2,992 cease-fire violations this year, 27 people have been killed and 249 others wounded, including 92 women and 68 children.

Two UNMOGIP teams have been deployed in divided Jammu and Kashmir since the 1950s to observe the cease-fire in the disputed region.

The Pakistan Army also condemned the Indian attack on UN vehicles, saying it shows the Indian Army’s complete disregard for principles enshrined in UN Charter.

"It must be noted that the UN vehicles are recognizable even from long distances due to their distinct make and type and visible markings," Pakistan army spokesman Maj. Gen. Babar Iftikhar said in a statement.

Such illegal and unlawful acts, against all established international norms, signify the Indian army’s intent to target not only innocent civilians living along the LoC but UN peacekeepers as well, he added.

"Pakistan Army stands in solidarity with UNMOGIP officials and appreciates the selfless services rendered by all members of UNMOGIP in the discharge of their UN-mandated duties," the Pakistan army said.

Indian diplomat summoned

India’s chargé d'affaires was later summoned to register Pakistan’s strong protest over the incident, which it called “a flagrant violation of established international norms” and a “new low in the conduct of Indian occupation forces” targeting not only innocent civilians living along the Line of Control but UN observers as well, said Pakistani sources

The Indian side was called upon to desist from “blatant violations of international law,” respect the 2003 cease-fire, and let the UN observers carry out their role, said the sources./aa

A Turkish technology firm has converted a helicopter into an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) with high payload and long flight time and range to meet military and civilian needs.

The core technology and solution of the project is to reduce the need for hands-on human involvement, Selman Donmez, a top executive of Titra Technology, told Anadolu Agency.

The conversion was done in cooperation with a Belarusian engineering firm, he added.

The unmanned helicopter is capable of carrying up to 160 kilograms (353 pounds) with a range of up to 800-850 kilometers (497-528 miles) and altitude of more than 4,572 meters (15,000 feet), he said.

Donmez said the company is looking to gradually boost the localization rate of its production.

"We aim to start mass production by the end of 2021," he stressed.

He noted that the vehicle can be used in the field of communications by integrating the base station in emergencies and disasters, and for logistics purposes thanks to its high load-carrying capacity.

It can also perform tasks such as ammunition delivery and supply to military operation areas, Donmez underlined./aa

Tanzania’s government on Saturday officially nationalized a $29.5 million diamond consignment seized three years ago in a case highlighting a tug-of-war with economic saboteurs.

The 71,654 carats of diamonds, bound for Belgium, were initially seized at Julius Nyerere International Airport in 2017.

The move comes after a court in the capital Dar es Salaam ordered two former government officials to pay fines or spend three years in jail for causing the government losses, local daily newspaper reported.

Police said the duo confessed their wrongdoing in undervaluing the diamond shipment, and then the state decided to nationalize the diamonds.

The verdict is being called a milestone in the war against corruption and the theft of mineral resources in the East African country.

Mining accounts for about 4% of Tanzania’s GDP. President John Magufuli has overhauled the mining industry, as the government targets doubling its contribution to the GDP to 10% by 2025.

The government in 2017 passed laws to enable the state to re-negotiate contracts with mining and energy firms.

The impounded diamonds, owned by Williamson Diamonds, were initially documented to be worth some $15 million but a government audit found them to be worth nearly twice that, officials said.