Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sun has signaled he would welcome better relations with the United States after a conciliatory letter from President Donald Trump and a meeting with Washington’s new envoy.
                   
Hun Sen posted on his Facebook page a summary of the Nov. 1 letter from Trump, along with an account of how he told Ambassador Patrick Murphy about Cambodia’s goodwill toward the United States.
                   
Washington has long been critical of Hun Sen’s poor record on human rights and democracy. It has taken a sterner attitude since Cambodia’s Supreme Court in late 2017 dissolved the sole credible opposition party, which ensured that Hun Sen’s ruling Cambodian People’s Party would win the 2018 general election.
                   
Trump’s letter, a copy of which was leaked Friday, recounted positive past elements of the U.S. Cambodian relationship, while acknowledging “difficulties” in recent years.
                   
The president reassured Hun Sen that the United States “respects the sovereign will of the Cambodian people and we do not seek regime change.”
                   
Hun Sen has been in power for 34 years and has said he intends to serve until 2028. He has been quick to crack down on any opposition, accusing them of seeking a “color revolution” of the sort that upended established regimes in Eastern and Central Europe and the Middle East. The late 2017 crackdown saw an opposition leader arrested for alleged treason because he had taken part in a seminar led by a U.S. democracy promotion organization.
                   
Trump counseled Hun Sen to “put Cambodia back on the path of democratic governance.”
                   
“As a first step, I hope you would re-evaluate certain decisions taken by your government that the United States firmly believes puts at great risk the Kingdom (of) Cambodia’s long-term sovereignty, stability, and economic development.”
                   
The letter did not elaborate, but the advice appeared to be a reference to Cambodia’s relations with China, which has become its major political and economic backer, and with which it also has increasingly close military links. Beijing has promoted itself to much of Southeast Asia as a friendly ally that doesn’t make aid contingent on honoring human rights.
                   
Trump’s letter ended with an offer to have the two countries’ foreign policy teams commence discussions.
                   
Ahead of the 2016 U.S. election, Hun Sen publicly expressed his preference for Trump, saying “If Trump wins, the world might change and it might be better, because Trump is a businessman and a businessman does not want war.”
                   
He said that Hillary Clinton as president would have difficult relations with Russia, “But if Trump wins, Trump and Putin might become friends.”
                   
In his Facebook post, Hun Sen also said he told Ambassador Murphy on Thursday that he was grateful to the United States for frequently giving support to Cambodia, even before it got its independence from France in 1953.
                   
“This gesture is witness that friendship and good cooperation between the two countries existed quite some time ago,” Hun Sen wrote.
                   
Hun Sen said he had also accepted an invitation from Trump, in a separate letter to leaders of all 10 member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, to attend a special summit meeting in the U.S. sometime in the first quarter of next year.
                   
Murphy arrived to take his post in September and has generally avoided heated rhetoric in his public comments while affirming U.S. policy promoting human rights and democracy, presenting the possibility for a face-saving opportunity to improve relations.

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Tens of thousands of people in Pakistan’s eastern city of Lahore are at risk of respiratory disease because of poor air quality related to thick smog hanging over the region, an international rights group said Friday.
                   
Amnesty International called for “urgent action” for residents of Lahore in a bid to mobilize supporters around the world to campaign on their behalf due to smog that has engulfed the city of more than 10 million people over the past week.
                   
Amnesty says Pakistani officials’ inadequate response to the smog raises significant human rights concerns.
                   
“The hazardous air is putting everyone’s right to health at risk,” said Rimmel Mohydin, South Asia Campaigner at Amnesty. “The issue is so serious that we are calling on our members around the world to write to the Pakistani authorities to tell them to stop downplaying the crisis and take urgent action to protect people’s health and lives.”
                   
Once known as the “city of gardens,” Lahore is considered one of the world’s most polluted cities, where many residents have been forced to stay at home.
                   
Mohydin said on one out of every two days since the beginning of November the air quality in Lahore has been classified as “hazardous” by air quality monitors installed by the United States Consulate in Lahore and the Pakistan Air Quality Initiative.
                   
She said people in Lahore have not had healthy air for a single day this year and that the air quality deteriorated to “hazardous” levels in November. Air quality measuring systems advise people to avoid all outdoor activity when that happens.
                   
Air becomes unhealthy when the Air Quality Index level reaches 100. Mohydin said at 300 and above, the air is considered “hazardous” and the Air Quality Index in Lahore skyrocketed to 598 on Thursday.
                   
She said the so-called “smog season,” which runs from October to February, is when poor fuel quality, uncontrolled emissions and crop burning worsens the quality of the already unhealthy air in eastern Punjab Province, where Lahore is the capital.
                   
Authorities in Lahore and elsewhere in the province have asked parents not to send their children to school on Friday to avoid being in the bad air.
                   
Pakistan often blames farmers in neighboring India for burning waste from their crops in open farms fields.
                   
“The fast blowing winds brought thick smog from India to Lahore and the international community should pressure India to take measures for controlling air pollution as it also affects us,” said Naseem-Ur-Rahman Shah, who heads the provincial Environment Protection Department in Punjab.
                   
It’s a popular practice among poor farmers in Pakistan and India to set fire to remnants of the previous season’s crop before preparing their land for the next planting. Punjab Province is considered Pakistan’s breadbasket.
                   
Rahman said thousands of people were treated this week at hospitals and private clinics for respiratory-related diseases, including asthma, flu, fever and cough.
                   
“People should not expose themselves to smog because it is harmful,” he said. “We are also taking steps to control air pollution in Punjab.”
                   
But many residents in Lahore blame the government for not taking adequate measures to contain air pollution.
                   
“I can show you several factories releasing smoke in the heart of Lahore. I can show you brick kilns on the outskirts of Lahore and you can see smoke-emitting vehicles everywhere,” said 23-year-old Mohammad Abdullah, a college student, as he sat in a bed at Mayo Hospital after having breathing problems.
                   
Uzma Tareen, 56, also complained she had to come to the same hospital on a smoke-emitting rikshaw as she could not afford a taxi.
                   
“Doctors say smog will end when rains come so I am praying for rain,” she said. “I don’t expect any action from the government to control toxic air.”

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President Trump’s Thursday visit to a manufacturing plant in Austin, Texas, where Apple makes a line of computers, highlighted the iPhone maker’s delicate dance with the Trump administration over China, tariffs and U.S. manufacturing. Michelle Quinn takes a look  at the relationship.

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An emerging and lucrative business has farmers buzzing to cash-in on a newly legal cash crop.  Experts say the global market may grow at least fivefold by 2025.  But as VOA’s Arash Arabasadi reports, the potential highs for a formerly banned agribusiness have so far come with trying lows.
 

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Maxence Melo calls himself an “accidental journalist.” He says the website he founded in Tanzania, Jamii Forums, has a simple mission: give the youth a voice, offer a space for free expression and fight corruption.
But the impact of the site and the response by Tanzanian authorities has been anything but simple. Melo has gone to court 137 times in the past three years, been arrested twice and spent 14 nights in jail.
“I had lots of restrictions in terms of my freedoms but I know it’s the price we pay for these kinds of fundamental freedoms,” he told VOA.
This week Melo was honored with the Committee to Protect Journalist International Press Freedom Award. He joined journalists from Brazil, India and Nicaragua in receiving the prestigious award.
Jamii Forums
Created in 2006, Jamii Forums is mainly published in Swahili and has readers in Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda. It gained notoriety in 2007 with a story regarding corruption in the Central Bank of Tanzania, where millions of dollars were siphoned off. Melo said that was the first time the site was on the receiving end of official intimidation and authorities wanted to know who ran the platform.
In 2008 the site ran stories uncovering corruption in power generation contracts that ultimately led to the resignation of the prime minister and the dissolution of the cabinet. Melo said he has been under a microscope since that time.
He said government officials, members of parliament and opposition party members regularly enter the forum and engage with other users. He said the anger he receives from those in power is not about misreporting the news, it’s about reporting things officials do not like.
No fake news
“No one is alleging us for fake news. No one is alleging us for any kind of false information,” he said. “We are being alleged for not cooperating with state organs to reveal our sources of information. And we believe the source of information for a journalist, for a media house, is the key person to whatever kind of story that they are working on.”
The media environment became even more treacherous in 2015 when Tanzania enacted a Cyber Crimes Act. The law criminalizes online speech deemed to be false, deceptive, misleading or inaccurate. It has been used to prosecute news sites like Jamii Forums.
“It’s not only used against journalists and against citizen journalists, it’s used against critical voices. It’s used against almost everyone,” he said.
Additional laws have restricted journalists’ access to governmental information and statistics, he said.
“There are lots of laws. You need to understand how to navigate through them and it’s kind of tough at times,” he said. “I think I’ve read almost all laws around 13 of them which within the industry, and you find some flaws or some sections that do safeguard you. But the problem is, until you’re safe it’s when the court decides like you’re free and you are you that the allegations against you are not genuine.”

Fighting for press freedom
Still, Melo said he is determined to continue practicing journalism in his home country.
“Tanzania has been a good example in Africa,” he said. “We have been like ambassadors of change in Africa. And we have gone through this kind of challenging time for almost five years of lots of challenges to journalists to critical voices in Tanzania. I am still optimistic that there is room for change. And we as citizens have a room to advocate for policy change.”
He has challenged aspects of the Cyber Crimes Act in court without success but says he is not giving up.
“We have room to challenge these laws. I know it comes at a huge price. As for me, I’ve tried my best. I have gone to the high court. I’ve challenged the Cyber Crimes Act section 32 and section 38 of the law. I still believe those people who can take it to the next stage. We are still able to push back.”

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Students at Syracuse University, in northern New York state, have been given permission to leave campus early for next week’s Thanksgiving break, because of a spate of racist threats on campus that have left students, staff and faculty spooked about possible violent attacks.
Meanwhile, a group of protesting students known as #NotAgainSU has staked out the student wellness center, calling for a stronger university response to the attacks. They say the school has a history of minimizing racial attacks. A group of 19 faculty members said the same, in a letter to the editor published in the university newspaper The Daily Orange.
The attacks were varied. Racist graffiti attacking African Americans and Asians had been scrawled on two separate floors of a freshman dormitory. A Nazi swastika was found carved into the snow on campus. In all, a dozen instances of racist and anti-Semitic graffiti have been found on or adjacent to the campus serving about 22,500 students.

Students rally against white supremacy at Syracuse University in New York, Nov. 20, 2019.Saturday night, a group of fraternity members on campus yelled racial epithets at an African American student. The campus newspaper reports at least one other incident in which an Asian student was verbally assaulted with a racist slur.
There were also reports that a white supremacist manifesto was deposited on student devices via AirDrop at Syracuse’s Bird Library earlier this week, although police say they have yet to find a single student who actually received the manifesto.
On Tuesday, Genevieve Garcia de Mueller, a faculty member who is both Jewish and Mexican, reported receiving an email containing an anti-Semitic message. She reported the email to campus security and canceled her classes for the day.
“I consistently see this narrative on campus that’s trying to diminish what’s happening,” she told The New York Times this week. “I don’t see a plan … for any sort of systemic change.”
University responds
Syracuse University Chancellor Kent Syverud spoke to the University Senate — the student decision-making body — Wednesday about the incidents. He said local police believe the graffiti is the work of between one and five people whose identities are still not clear.
The four Syracuse students who were yelling racial slurs have been suspended and all fraternities’ social events have been canceled for the rest of the semester. The manifesto story, Syverud said, seems to have been a rumor that got out of hand.
“It was apparent that this rumor was probably a hoax, but that reality was not communicated clearly and rapidly enough to get ahead of escalating anxiety,” he said. “These incidents have caused students rightly to be afraid.”
The chancellor said he has asked university officials to relax school rules and schedules to allow students to cope with their emotions and still complete the semester’s work. He also said the university has formed response teams that will, in the future, be available around the clock for such incidents as they occur.
He also announced the school will allocate at least $1 million for a new curriculum on diversity issues.

Students rally against white supremacy at Syracuse University in New York, Nov. 20, 2019.Students want more
For many students, however, that is not enough.
Jewel Jackson, a junior and columnist for The Daily Orange, wrote recently: “These ‘solutions’ are attempts by the university to save face and only convey to the students of color that SU officials don’t care about us.”
She said the university has failed to react strongly enough to similar incidents in the past.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo agreed. On Tuesday, he said the university’s response was not enough and called on its board of trustees to hire an independent monitor.
Alum Lindsey Decker tweeted on Tuesday:  “I witnessed racist incidents at Syracuse as a grad student. As an alum who is no longer in the precarious position of being an adjunct or student at the university, I feel I can finally publicly use my voice.” She was apologizing for the number of tweets and retweets she had posted about the situation at Syracuse.
Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, who attended law school at Syracuse, tweeted Wednesday that he was “deeply disturbed” by the news from his alma mater. He added: “We are truly in a battle for the soul of this nation, and it requires all of us to stand up together as a country against racism and bigotry.”

I am deeply disturbed by the news coming out of my law school alma mater, Syracuse University. We are truly in a battle for the soul of this nation, and it requires all of us to stand up together as a country against racism and bigotry. We must give hate no safe harbor. https://t.co/m6BNczblXY
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) November 20, 2019
Students have said they are afraid to walk alone on campus. The school’s department of public safety has increased its patrols and added shuttle services and safety escorts to protect students traversing the campus. Some professors have canceled classes or held them online.

New: #NotAgainSU protesters plan to donate their stockpiled food to local food pantries tonight and tommorow. The students still say they haven’t come to a final decision on the future of their sit-in at Syracuse University’s Barnes Center. @CitrusTVNewspic.twitter.com/0DonszzR4L
— Ricky ”Reports” Sayer (@RickyReports) November 21, 2019
Reports from campus say it is unusually quiet, as many students have gone home early for the Thanksgiving holiday. The crowd of students occupying the wellness center is reported to have thinned out. Student journalist Ricky “Reports” Sayer tweeted late Thursday that the protesters plan to donate their stockpiled food to local food pantries. 
But he noted that doesn’t necessarily mean their protest is over.

…

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has led the country for 13 years, was indicted Thursday by the country’s top prosecutor on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust in an investigation the leader has called an “attempted coup.” 
 
The indictment centers on allegations that the prime minister and his wife accepted more than $260,000 worth of jewelry, cigars, champagne and other gifts in exchange for political favors. The prime minister is also accused of interfering with regulatory bodies and lawmakers on behalf of two media companies in exchange for positive news coverage. 
The decision marked the first time in the nation’s history that a sitting prime minister had faced criminal charges. 
 
Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit charged Netanyahu with fraud and breach of trust in three cases, and bribery in one case. 
 Accusations 
 
The most damaging charge in the indictments is the accusation that the prime minister took bribes to promote regulations worth approximately $500 million to Israeli telecommunications company Bezeq. 
 
The indictment said Netanyahu and telecom magnate Shaul Elovitch, whose company holds Bezeq, had a relationship “based on a mutual understanding that each of them had significant interests that the other side had the ability to advance.” 
 
The charges do not mean that Netanyahu, 70, will resign. 
 
“According to the basic law of the government, a prime minister only has to resign after the final verdict has been given,” Israeli legal expert Oren Gazal-Ayal said. “We are talking now only about an indictment, so according to the terms of the law, he can continue to serve legally while being charged and while being tried in court.” 

Israeli Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit announces his decision regarding indictment of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over alleged corruption, in Jerusalem Nov. 21, 2019.“A day in which the attorney general decides to serve an indictment against a seated prime minister for serious crimes of corrupt governance is a heavy and sad day, for the Israeli public and for me personally,” Mandelblit said at a press conference Thursday. 
 
Soon after the attorney general’s press conference, Netanyahu appeared on national TV to rail against the indictment. Netanyahu said the indictment was filled with “false accusations” and called it a “tainted investigation.” He also described it as an “attempted coup” against him. 
 
“Police and investigators are not above the law,” the prime minister said. “The time has come to investigate the investigators.” 
 
Mandelblit was appointed by Netanyahu five years ago and has previously been seen as an ally of the prime minister. 
 
“This is not a matter of politics,” the attorney general said. “This is an obligation placed on us, the people of law enforcement, and upon me personally as the one at its head.” 
 Concerned by comments 
 
Dr. Guy Ziv, an assistant professor of international relations at American University’s School of International Service, told VOA he was concerned by Netanyahu’s lashing out at police and investigators. 
 
“It has a negative effect on Israeli democracy, because he’s essentially suggesting that the institutions are not to be trusted,” Ziv said. “I would even go further and say that he’s inciting the public against the attorney general. He is inciting them against the courts and against the media, just as he’s been inciting against the Arab minority against the Israeli left.” 
 
The indictment might cripple Netanyahu’s chances in the looming elections. 
 
According to an October opinion poll by the Israel Democracy Institute, about 65% of all Israelis said Netanyahu should resign as chair of the Likud Party if indicted. However, only 31% of Likud voters felt that way, according to the poll. 
 
The right-wing Likud party will face an empowered Blue and White party if a third election is held. 
 
The two parties were tied after the April parliamentary elections, with each party holding 35 seats. 
 
Despite Netanyahu’s initially having the support of potential coalition partners after the election, he has not been able to form a coalition government, causing the country to hold elections in September as well. Both the Blue and White and Likud parties lost seats. 

FILE – Blue and White party leader Benny Gantz addresses reporters in Tel Aviv, Israel, Nov. 20, 2019.Netanyahu found himself unable to form a coalition government in Israeli’s Knesset again after the September elections. His chief rival, ex-military chief Benny Gantz, was then offered the opportunity to form a coalition. On Wednesday, Gantz announced he was also unable to form a coalition government. 
 
Netanyahu also may face resistance from within his own party. 
 
Knesset lawmakers have less than a month to organize a coalition and select a lawmaker to lead a majority government, and it is unlikely they will succeed. If no lawmaker can garner 61 seats in the 120-seat legislature, then the country will need to hold elections for the third time this year. 
 
The trial of Netanyahu could take months or even years to resolve, according to experts. 

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Following a ruling by India’s Supreme Court over a land dispute between the country’s majority Hindus and minority Muslims, a Kashmir-based militant group, with alleged ties to al-Qaida, has vowed retaliation and urged Muslims in the country to stand up against the decision.
“We will surely take vengeance for the martyrdom of the Babri Masjid, and for the decision to surrender its land to the infidels and for the oppression carried out by the polytheist groups on the believers,” the group Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind (AGH) warned via their official media platform, al-Hurr.
On Nov. 9, the Indian Supreme Court unanimously ruled in favor of the Ram Mandir, allowing the construction of a temple on the site of Babri Masjid, a centuries-old mosque that was destroyed in 1992 by an angry Hindu mob following tensions between Hindus and Muslims over the ownership of the land.
The question of the land’s ownership had lingered for decades before the Supreme Court ruled earlier this month in favor of the Hindu temple.
Hindus believe the site of the mosque is the birthplace of their deity, Ram.
The court has also ordered the government to allocate a separate piece of land to the Sunni Waqf Board, the main litigating body in the case, for the construction of a new mosque.

FILE – Muslims pray for peace ahead of the India Supreme Court verdict on a disputed religious site in Ayodhya, inside a mosque premises in Ahmedabad, India, Nov. 8, 2019.Not a religious battle
The Indian Supreme Court maintains that Ayodhya verdict was handled as a property dispute, and not a religious battle between Hindus and Muslims, despite the history of the case.
Some Indian rights activists, however, charge that underneath the land dispute lies a deeper issue of religious divide.
“While on the surface it has been a land dispute, in reality it has always reflected a manifest desire among the Hindu right wing to humiliate Muslims in the name of historical wrongs,” said Ajit Sahi, an Indian civil liberties activist.
“The Hindu right wing for nearly a century has pedaled the narrative that Muslims are less patriotic than Hindus,” he added.
Others like Abhijit Iyer Mitra, an analyst at the Indian Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies, charge that while it may come across as a religious matter, it essentially is a legal issue.
“It’s very much a Hindu-Muslim dispute, but the technicality of it is that it is a land dispute,” Mitra said.
“The decision really swung the Hindu way after the 1992 demolition of the Babri Mosque, because, as you know, possession is nine-tenths of the law, especially in India, where title deed not withstanding possession trumps ownership,” he added.

FILE – India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaks in Brasilia, Nov. 13, 2019.BJP’s reaction
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) welcomed the decision and downplayed the Hindu victory, urging the nation to move forward in unity.
“The Supreme Court has given its decision. It is time for nation building. Time to work towards the future,” Modi said following the decision.
While the Sunni Waqf Board has accepted the court’s verdict, some Muslim organizations in India, including the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB), an advocacy group working for the rights of Muslims in India, have filed for petition.
Threats
Threats issued by AGH regarding the recent verdict have received some public attention in India and have led to concerns among analysts, who warn that international terror groups, including al-Qaida, might use the ruling to exploit an already growing rift between the minority Muslims and majority Hindus in the country.

Ayodhya, India“It is likely that these pan-Islamic terror groups will try to exploit the Ayodhya verdict,” Khalid Shah, an analyst at the Observer Research Foundation, an India-based think tank, told VOA.
Shah, however, expressed doubts on the origin of the AGH message, considering Indian-controlled Kashmir has been on lockdown since early August when India decided to end its semi-autonomous status.
“Other militant groups in Kashmir have not been able to make any statements since Aug. 5 because all communication is intercepted. The statement was perhaps issued outside of Kashmir by their handler [al-Qaida],” Shah said.
Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind (AGH)
AGH is a small organization confined to Jammu and Kashmir with limited manpower, but a large ideological following, according to experts.
The organization was formed in 2017 when its founder, Zakir Musa, severed ties with Hizbul Mujahideen, a pro-Pakistan militant group based in the Indian-controlled Kashmir, over ideological differences.
Although not listed on the U.S. State Department’s official Foreign Terrorist Organization list, analysts on South Asia warn that AGH is an affiliate of al-Qaida in the Indian subcontinent.
Ayman al-Zawahiri, the leader of al-Qaida, in his last video message on the situation in Kashmir, urged militant groups there to wage jihad for what he called “liberation.”
The picture of AGH’s slain leader, Musa, could be seen in the background of al-Zawahiri’s video.
Musa, the group’s leader was killed by Indian security forces in May of this year as was his successor, Hamid Lelhari, who was killed last month.

FILE – Al-Qaida’s Ayman al-Zawahiri urges the people of Pakistan to follow the example of Muslims in Egypt and Tunisia and revolt in a recent video released on the Internet.Analyst Shah said Indian security agencies, despite brushing off the AGH as an insignificant group, have been cracking down on its members.
“There is an active pursuit of the members of this group by Indian Security Forces,” Shah said. “They [India] recognize that their [AGH] ideology is very potent and very dangerous.”
Shah, who has been monitoring terror organizations in Kashmir, said what differentiates AGH from other militant groups is that it has set itself apart from “pro-Pakistani” groups.
“AGH has openly spoken against Pakistan and ISI [Pakistan’s intelligence agency]. They consider Pakistan as part of the problem rather than the solution to Kashmir,” he said.
Pakistan’s reaction
Pakistan’s Foreign Office claimed the verdict has been influenced by “Hindu supremacy.”
“The rising tide of extremist ideology in India, based on the belief of Hindu supremacy and exclusion, is a threat to regional peace and stability,” the Foreign Office said in a statement.
India has not reacted to the statement from Pakistan but has dismissed allegations that the country’s religious minorities, mainly Muslims, are being marginalized.
Michael Kugelman, a South Asia expert at the Washington-based Wilson Center, said Pakistan’s reaction to this might be somehow unprecedented in its nature but is nothing new.
“These are critiques we’ve heard quite frequently from Islamabad as New Delhi has intensified its Hindu nationalist agenda, but this is the first time we’ve heard them in response to an Indian court decision as opposed to an Indian government policy,” Kugelman said.
He added that the recent ruling would naturally strain the already tense communal divide, but he said it is too early to suggest that AGH’s threat would further fuel the divide.

…

With Zimbabwe’s health sector and economy both struggling, some parents of children with disabilities have turned to Healing with Horses Therapeutic Centre.  The charity, supported by donations, provides horse rides and activities to children with cerebral palsy, a neuromuscular disorder, and other physical and mental challenges.  Columbus Mavhunga reports from Harare.

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Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on Thursday sent a proposal to Congress that seeks to offer greater protection to police and soldiers who kill while on specific operations, known as Guarantee of Law and Order (GLO) missions.
The highly divisive bill, which comes amid a sharp rise in killings by police across Brazil, is likely to face stiff opposition from some lawmakers and human rights groups.

FILE – Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro looks on during a ceremony at the Planalto Palace in Brasilia, Brazil, Nov. 12, 2019.It would reduce sentences or even provide full judicial protection to officers who kill in situations in which they face “unfair, current or imminent aggression,” either to themselves or another person. Examples of “unfair aggression” would include terrorism, and any “conduct capable of causing death or personal injury,” such as carrying a firearm.
The bill is similar to part of an earlier, broader crime-fighting proposal, pushed by Justice Minister Sergio Moro, that also sought to offer greater protection to officers who kill.
Nonetheless, Moro’s proposal is currently languishing in Congress, where lawmakers stripped the section offering police more cover, arguing that it could incentivize them to kill more.
Speaking about his proposal on Thursday, Bolsonaro said it would represent a “shift” in the fight against violence in Brazil.
“We will now depend on lawmakers, congressmen and senators to approve this,” the far-right president said in Brasilia.
GLO missions
GLO missions are temporary military operations, created by direct order of the president, to tackle sporadic cases of uncontrollable violence or high-risk situations, such as international summits.
So far this year, Brazil has used GLO missions to provide security at the BRICs Summit in Brasilia, in the fight against Amazon rainforest fires, and in the transfer of high-risk prisoners to federal prisons.
Bolsonaro, a longtime advocate of preemptive police violence, has said that he would consider ending GLOs if lawmakers do not pass his bill.
 

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It’s estimated that Americans throw away 25 percent more trash during the months between Thanksgiving and New Year than at any other time. But New York is trying to change all that by taking dedicating themselves to reducing, reusing and recycling in the hopes of getting to a point where literally nothing is wasted. Nina Vishneva has the story narrated by Anna Rice.

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It wasn’t until she became a high school senior that Kayla Ireland had another black person as a teacher in Waterbury, a former manufacturing hub where the students are mostly minorities and the educators are generally white.
The imbalance never troubled her much, except for some moments, like when a white teacher led a discussion of police brutality and racial profiling. But the absence of black teachers has been a frequent topic of discussion among Kayla’s classmates at Wilby High School, which has struggled with high numbers of disciplinary issues, including a mass suspension over dress-code violations.
“Sometimes people go through bad days. But because you don’t have that person that looks like you, a person that you can talk to that can relate to it, you don’t really know how to explain it,” said Kayla, 16. “So it feels good to have a teacher that you can go to, and you feel comfortable with, because you’re not going to be deemed the girl in class who doesn’t know anything.”
More than half of the students in American public schools are minorities, but the teaching force is still 80% white, according to statistics from the U.S. Education Department. As mounting research highlights the benefits minority teachers can bestow on students, the gap has received renewed attention, including from Democratic presidential candidates who have endorsed strategies to promote teacher diversity.
Sen. Kamala Harris, who spoke at a September debate about the importance of black teachers for black students, has proposed spending $2.5 billion for teacher-preparation programs at historically black colleges and universities. Other leading Democrats have also called for investment in those schools, as well as mentorship programs, assistance for teacher aides and new requirements to promote transparency around teacher hiring.
The Waterbury school system has taken steps to close the racial gap following complaints from the NAACP. Its limited success so far highlights some of the challenges of addressing the problem, which some see as rooted in teacher training programs and barriers that date back to the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education ruling that led to desegregation.
An agreement reached by a state human rights commission and Waterbury’s mayor in 2017 committed the city to build a partnership with black colleges and universities for recruiting purposes, to train students interested in teaching beginning as early as middle school and to provide cultural competency training to current educators. The 2016 national teacher of the year, Waterbury’s Jahana Hayes, was hired as the top recruiter before becoming the first black woman from Connecticut elected to Congress in 2018.
Known as the Brass City for its historical brass production, Waterbury has 19,000 students in its school district. The number of black and Hispanic educators has been rising, but the teaching force was still 86% white as of the last school year. Among new hires, the percentage of minority teachers jumped above 30% for two years before falling back to around 25% last year.
Despite the district’s outreach efforts, teachers and administrators often pass up or leave jobs in Waterbury for nearby districts offering higher salaries.
“We’re one of 169 towns in the state. And so there is stiff competition,” said W. Lee Palmer, the district personnel director. “And that’s one of the reasons that we have to be really aggressive about what we do.”
Cicero Booker, a former NAACP Waterbury branch president, said the district is doing the necessary work and change will take time. He also raised questions about the city’s financial commitment.
“What are we going to do to make it attractive for teachers from other communities? Are we going to help them with housing? Are we going to give them six months’ living expenses?” he said.
Research has found that black students who have at least one black teacher are more likely to graduate from high school and that black teachers are likely to have higher expectations for black students. Exposure to teachers of the same race has also been linked to lower rates of suspension and expulsion for black students.
Kayla remembered the police brutality discussion as an example of when a white teacher struggled to connect with black students. During a sophomore-year English course, the teacher assigned the class to read “The Hate U Give,” a young adult novel about a police shooting. As students talked about how they avoid going into stores with hoodies on, the teacher understood but could not relate, she said.
After the mass suspension of over 150 students for dress code violations at Wilby in the spring of 2017, the appointment of a black principal brought optimism that the climate would improve, Kayla said. With more minority educators, she said, there would be less antagonism.
“I just feel like if we had a more diverse staff that reflected the school population, people would feel a little more comfortable in school, a little more comfortable to open up,” she said.
The low numbers of minority educators nationally results partly from disparities in teacher training programs, which have been shown to enroll disproportionately large numbers of white students. Researchers also have traced declines in the numbers of black teachers to the period of desegregation marked by school consolidations and a trend toward tighter accreditation requirements.
The issue has received attention from state leaders in Connecticut, which this year passed a law creating new flexibility in teacher certification requirements and providing mortgage assistance for teachers who graduated from colleges that traditionally serve minority students. But advocates say it will take change at each individual district.
“If there is an opening in your building, unless you say I am intentionally going to fill that opening with a person of color, we will not change,” said Subira Gordon, director of the ConnCAN education advocacy group.
Kayla’s mother, LaToya Ireland, said she will never forget a black teacher she had in seventh grade.
“She took her time not just with me but with other students, and she really left a lasting impression on my life,” she said. “I would like for my girls and other kids to see that.”

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A U.S. federal judge has ordered a temporary halt to the scheduled executions next month of four inmates, saying that President Donald Trump’s administration lacked legal authorization to use its intended lethal-injection drug.
The ruling, late on Wednesday by District Judge Tanya Chutkan, effectively blocks the Justice Department’s attempt to resume the use of the death penalty after a 16-year hiatus. The four inmates argued that the Justice Department’s plan to use the drug pentobarbital ran afoul of federal laws.
The government previously executed condemned inmates using a three-drug protocol, with the first drug being sodium thiopental, which mirrored many state protocols at the time. In 2011, Hospira, the only U.S. maker of that drug, ceased production. Unable to obtain a supply, Texas and other states began experiment with new execution protocols. Since then, a single-drug pentobarbital protocol has become the most common method.
Judge Chutkan sided with the plaintiffs when she found the new directive to create one federal method of execution “very likely exceeds” authority provided by the Federal Death Penalty Act of 1995, which says individual states determine “manner” of execution.
“There is no statute that gives the BOP (Bureau of Prisons) or DOJ the authority to establish a single implementation procedure for all federal executions,” Chutkan wrote in her 15-page ruling.
In July, the U.S. Justice Department reinstated a two-decades-long dormant policy allowing the federal government’s use of capital punishment, and immediately scheduled the executions for five death row federal inmates.
The last federal execution took place in 2003. Since then, protracted litigation over the drugs historically used in lethal injection executions prevented the government from continuing the practice, according to Justice Department officials.
This decision prevents the government from evading accountability and making an end-run around the courts by attempting to execute prisoners under a protocol that has never been authorized by Congress,” Shawn Nolan, one of the attorneys for the men facing federal execution, said in a statement.
There are currently 62 federal inmates on death row, including Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who planted a deadly bomb at the Boston Marathon in 2013.
The four inmates whose execution was scheduled for next month include Daniel Lewis Lee, a white supremacist who was convicted in Arkansas for murdering a family of three, including an 8-year-old girl.
President Donald Trump, a death penalty supporter, has called for increasing its use for drug traffickers and mass shooters.

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The U.N. nuclear watchdog’s top inspector will travel to Tehran next week to press Iran to finally explain the origin of uranium traces found at an undeclared site, the agency’s acting chief said on Thursday.
Reuters first reported in September that the International Atomic Energy Agency found the uranium traces at the site that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu drew attention to in a speech last year, calling it a “secret atomic warehouse”. Tehran has said the site is a carpet-cleaning facility.
Two weeks ago the IAEA confirmed to member states that environmental samples taken at a still unspecified site had shown traces of uranium that was processed but not enriched.
“We have continued our interactions with Iran since then, but have not received any additional information and the matter remains unresolved,” acting IAEA Director General Cornel Feruta told a quarterly meeting of his agency’s 35-nation Board of Governors in Vienna.
Feruta told Iran in September that “time is of the essence” in clearing up the origin of the traces. The IAEA has found that the explanations given by Iran so far have not held water.
“A meeting between the agency and Iran is scheduled next week in Tehran to discuss it further,” Feruta said. “It is essential that Iran works with the agency to resolve this matter promptly.”
He later told a news conference that Massimo Aparo, head of the IAEA’s Department of Safeguards, which carries out inspections, would lead the agency’s delegation. The IAEA leadership is in transition as the incoming director general, Argentina’s Rafael Grossi, is due to take office on Dec. 3.
“That Iran has failed to sufficiently address this issue for close to a year is wholly unacceptable,” the United States, which like Israel opposes Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with major powers, said in its statement to the board. Diplomats say the IAEA inspected the site in February.
“That there are possible undeclared nuclear materials present and activities ongoing in Iran still today is profoundly concerning,” the U.S. statement said.
The ambassador to the IAEA of Tehran’s ally Russia this month described it as “aspects of nuclear activities in Iran about 20-30 years ago”, adding that the issue “doesn’t constitute any proliferation concern”.
U.S. intelligence agencies and the IAEA believe Iran had a nuclear weapons programme that it ended long ago. The 2015 deal involved drawing a line under that past, though Tehran still denies ever having pursued nuclear weapons.
“Time continues to be of the essence,” Feruta said.
 

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