At least fourteen governors from American states are publicly refusing to resettle any Syrian refugees. Since refugee resettlement is a federal activity, it is unclear if these calls will have any effect beyond whipping up anti-refugee sentiment. Less symbolic, though, is a plan afoot in congress to threaten shut off funding that would permit the USA to resettle 10,000 Syrian refugees in FY ‘16 as planned. “A growing chorus of key Capitol Hill Republicans is urging President Barack Obama to halt the resettlement of thousands of Syrian refugees in the United States in the wake of the Paris terror attacks — and some lawmakers are threatening to use a must-pass spending bill next month to force the administration’s hand on the issue. The demands could significantly complicate the path toward the Dec. 11 deadline to pass the government-funding bill, raising the specter of a shutdown battle just before the end-of-year holiday season.” (Politico http://politi.co/1OceuoT )
Nancy Birdsall Stepping Down…”The Center for Global Development today announced that Nancy Birdsall is to step down as president in 2016, once a successor is in place. Birdsall, CGD’s founding president, will stay with the Center as a senior fellow. “This is an exciting moment for me and for CGD,” said Birdsall. “The Center, though still youthful and disruptive, is in fact a mature and established institution. And the key to CGD’s success has always been hard-wired into its culture: a value-driven ‘think and do’ approach based on top-grade research and practical ideas. That’s bigger than any one person. Knowing that makes me confident that this transition will inspire change along with continuity.” (CGDEV http://bit.ly/1Ocffye)
Burundi Update...At least seven people were killed and several others wounded in the latest violence in Burundi’s capital, police and witnesses said Monday, a week after the launch of a crackdown search for weapons. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1NXe5sb)
Quote of the Day… “Let me underline, the profile of the terrorists so far identified tells us this is an internal threat…It is all EU citizens so far. This can change with the hours, but so far it is quite clear it is an issue of internal domestic security.” — EU Chief diplomat Federica Mogherini. (Telegraph http://bit.ly/1OcfU2C)
Africa
Seventeen young Angolan activists were charged in court with rebellion against the state on Monday, a case rights groups said showed increasing intolerance of dissent. (Retuers http://bit.ly/1j3Pi8W)
Rioters have attacked a tantalum mine in Mozambique owned by Canada’s Pacific Wildcat Resources, the company said, in violence that could hurt the image of a country hoping to attract investment in its mining and energy sectors. (VOA http://bit.ly/1j3PjtB)
At least seven people were killed in Somalia’s capital in a shootout between soldiers at a displaced persons camp. (VOA http://bit.ly/1j3Pk0C)
Mali’s army arrested Alaye Bocari, a leading financial backer of an Islamist militant group responsible for an expansion of deadly attacks in the West African nation, military and defense sources said on Monday. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1WWlmOG)
Medical students at South Africa’s Stellenbosch University have called for apartheid-era biological warfare specialist Wouter Basson — dubbed “Dr Death” — to be banned from teaching them. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1WWjHsA)
Economically-hamstrung Zimbabwe has passed new regulations ordering some 300,000 beneficiaries of President Robert Mugabe’s controversial land reforms to pay annual rent and levies, a state daily said Monday. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1Sxv8Ak)
Boko Haram Islamists have destroyed an estimated 1,100 schools this year in their stronghold region surrounding Lake Chad, the United Nations envoy to the area, Toby Lanzer, said Monday. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1QHxK06)
ISIS
A leading Sunni Muslim cleric called Monday for an ideological battle against Islamic State group militants, including the deployment and training of moderate clerics in Europe to counter extremist thought. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1WWluhc)
Islamic State warned in a new video on Monday that countries taking part in airstrikes against Syria would suffer the same fate as France, and threatened to attack in Washington. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1NXe9YY)
President Barack Obama says putting large numbers of U.S. troops on the ground to combat the threat from the Islamic State would be “a mistake.” (AP http://yhoo.it/1WWlnlS)
Moroccan police have arrested four people suspected of belonging to a militant cell linked to the Islamic State group, the interior ministry said on Monday. (Reuters http://bit.ly/1RZzss4)
World leaders promised to tighten border controls, step up intelligence sharing and crack down on terrorist financing at a summit in Turkey on Monday, but there was little sign of a dramatic shift in strategy against Islamic State in Syria. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1NXe7Aj)
MENA
Britain says the United Nations Security Council says it is going to immediately draw up a council resolution for a U.N.-administered ceasefire enforcement mechanism in Syria. (AP http://yhoo.it/1Oc7mJ2)
Saudi Arabia’s Civil Defense crews have raised their preparedness levels ahead of expected heavy rains and thunderstorms as some schools suspended classes in some areas along the kingdom’s Red Sea coastline. (AP http://yhoo.it/1Sxv6Z6)
The leaders of Britain and Germany on Monday said they would hold a conference next year to raise funds for Syrians displaced or plunged into poverty by the country’s civil war, saying international donations had fallen sharply. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1SxvbMk)
Asia
An Indonesian court opened the trials Monday of five Thais and an Indonesian charged with human trafficking connected with slavery in the seafood industry. (AP http://yhoo.it/1WWlGgu)
The first of 12,000 refugees fleeing the conflict in Syria to be resettled by Australia will arrive within 24 hours, the government said Monday, as concerns about security checks mounted after bloody attacks in Paris. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1HQgdAN)
Cambodian opposition leader Sam Rainsy was stripped of his lawmaker status and parliamentary immunity Monday, paving the way for his arrest in connection with a defamation case that the opposition says is politically motivated. (AP http://yhoo.it/1Oc9xMR)
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will visit North Korea’s capital Pyongyang this week, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported on Monday, though there was no confirmation from either the United Nations or the South Korean foreign ministry. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1Oc9y3n)
The military-backed party overwhelmingly voted out of office in Myanmar’s general elections still has another 2 ½ months to make laws as the majority — and retains enough potency to complicate matters if it chooses to do so. (AP http://yhoo.it/1Sxv7wc)
Germany has launched a campaign in Afghanistan to tell its nationals to think carefully before embarking on the tough journey to seek asylum in Europe, the foreign ministry said Monday. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1j3QOb0)
The Americas
More than 1,000 Cuban migrants heading north to the United States tried to cross the border from Costa Rica into Nicaragua, causing tensions to soar between the neighbors as security forces sought to turn them back. (AP http://yhoo.it/1RZBetp)
Colombia’s Farc rebel group has urged the government to release 81 of its jailed fighters on health grounds. (BBC http://bbc.in/1WWluOl)
Rio de Janeiro police say they are investigating the apparent mob killing of a 33-year-old ice vendor in the heart of the Olympic city’s Ipanema neighborhood. (AP http://yhoo.it/1WWlnSL)
The ballot for congressional elections is dizzying enough in this industrial state, with more than two dozen parties competing in a contest that represents the stiffest challenge in 16 years for Venezuela’s ruling socialist party. (AP http://yhoo.it/1Oc9yk2)
…and the rest
The recent attack in Paris is deepening fears of Muslims and threatening to create an atmosphere even less welcoming for those fleeing war in the Middle East. (AP http://yhoo.it/1Oc7kRG)
France’s prime minister says there have been 150 police raids overnight in the country. (AP http://yhoo.it/1Oc7nN7)
The El Niño weather pattern, a phenomenon associated with extreme droughts, storms and floods, is expected to strengthen before the end of the year and become one of the strongest on record, the U.N. weather agency said on Monday. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1RZAjJo)
French far-right leader Marine Le Pen called Monday for an “immediate halt” to the intake of migrants into France following the deadly jihadist attacks on Paris. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1RZAowA)
Leaders of the world’s top economies on Monday vowed to seek a deal to curb climate change at an upcoming UN conference in Paris, according to a draft statement drawn up in tough, all-night talks. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1NXe5IH)
France will limit a U.N. climate summit in Paris starting in two weeks’ time to core negotiations and cancel planned marches and concerts after the attacks that killed 129 people, Prime Minister Manuel Valls said on Monday. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1SxvbvP)
Opinion/Blogs
Refugee crisis must not deflect us from our long-term development aims (Guardian http://bit.ly/1SxsTwW)
Living in an Ebola limbo: how long must refugees wait? (IRIN http://bit.ly/1RZyOe6)
How clean is clean coal? (ODI http://bit.ly/1HQfIqp)
Did the media ignore the Beirut bombings? Or did readers? (Vox http://bit.ly/1RZzGzu)
Big NGOs prepare to move south, but will it make a difference? (Guardian http://bit.ly/1WWjFRr)
There will be think pieces (Africa is a Country http://bit.ly/1QHA7jt)
How is Development Economics Taught in Developing Countries? What we learned from looking at more than 200 courses (Development Impact http://bit.ly/1Ocaepr)
Nigeria’s polio-free gift to Africa (Devex http://bit.ly/1WWmxOc)
The Paris attacks and a call for more empathy (Justice for All http://bit.ly/20Xt4HM)
What do the Paris attacks mean for ISIS and the war in Syria? (The Interpreter http://bit.ly/1RZCa0S)
“How can I avoid becoming cynical about aid work?” (Chris Blattman http://bit.ly/1RZCiNC)