Atmospheric levels of climate-changing greenhouse gases hit a record high in 2018, “with no sign of a slowdown, let alone a decline,” the World Meteorological Organization said.
In a report released Monday, the WMO said despite international pledges made under the Paris Agreement, the levels of carbon monoxide, methane and nitrous oxide all surged by higher amounts in 2018 than average for the past decade.
The global average of carbon dioxide concentration reached 407.8 parts per million in 2018, up from 405.5 parts per million in 2017, the U.N. agency said. The concentration of methane was the highest recorded since 1998 while the levels of nitrous oxide, which is responsible for eroding the ozone layer was the highest ever recorded.
“This continuing long-term trend means that future generations will be confronted with increasingly severe impacts of climate change, including rising temperatures, more extreme weather, water stress, sea level rise and disruption to marine and land ecosystems,” according to a summary of the report.
The report was released ahead of next month’s global climate summit in Madrid.
“It is worth recalling that the last time the Earth experienced a comparable concentration of carbon dioxide was 3-5 million years ago,”  WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas said.
At the time, the Earth’s temperature was as much as 5 degrees warmer and sea levels were as much as 65 feet higher than they are now, he said.

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As Iranian diaspora members rally around the world in solidarity with recent anti-government protests in Iran, they are getting a boost from another diaspora that sees Tehran as a threat — Canadian Jews.
Hundreds of Iranian exiles have staged solidarity rallies in dozens of cities in North America, Europe and Australia since the demonstrations erupted across Iran on Nov. 15. In one notable rally, Iranian diaspora activists in Canada’s largest city, Toronto, co-organized their gathering with B’nai Brith Canada, a 144-year-old Canadian Jewish human rights group that strongly supports Iran’s main regional foe, Israel.
B’nai Brith Canada told VOA Persian that at least 300 people attended Sunday’s rally in Toronto’s Mel Lastman Square. Among them were several prominent Jewish community members, such as B’nai Brith Canada’s chief executive Michael Mostyn and Canadian lawmaker Michael Levitt of the ruling Liberal party. Participants, most of them Iranian Canadians, waved Iran’s pre-1979 Islamic Revolution flag and chanted slogans and held signs denouncing the Islamic republic’s clerical rulers as brutal dictators.
In a statement released Monday, London-based rights group Amnesty International said it had received credible reports of Iranian security forces killing at least 143 protesters in dozens of cities since Nov. 15, “almost entirely” through the use of firearms. Iran has declined to provide its own tallies for those killed, wounded and arrested in the unrest, although it has said several security personnel were among the dead.
Iran’s government sparked the protests by implementing a 50% increase in the price of subsidized gasoline, further straining the finances of many Iranians in an economy already weakened by U.S. sanctions and government corruption. It proceeded to cut off the nation’s internet access for almost a week to prevent angry Iranians from sharing images of the protests and the crackdown with the outside world.

“It is so important to show the solidarity of grassroots Jewish Canadians with the Iranian people here in Canada and with the Iranian people that are suffering under the brutality of the Islamist regime in Iran right now,” Mostyn told VOA Persian at the rally.
“Iran has been involved since 1979 in some of the worst terrorist acts in the world. They don’t just target Israel through their terror proxies and through the regime itself, they’ve actually gone after Jews in various parts of the world,” Mostyn said.
He cited as an example the July 18, 1994, suicide car bombing of the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA) in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The attack on the Jewish community center killed 85 people.
“So we understand some of the suffering that is going on inside of Iran,” Mostyn added. “We are going to demand that our government and other governments stand up and do something about this.”
Argentine prosecutors long have said they believe Lebanese militant group Hezbollah carried out the AMIA attack on the order of its Iranian government patrons. Tehran has denied involvement in the AMIA bombing. It also has described itself as a victim, rather than a perpetrator, of terrorism.
In June, B’nai Brith Canada joined the Council of Iranian Canadians, a co-organizer of Sunday’s Toronto rally, in calling on the Canadian government to blacklist Iran’s most powerful military force, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist entity. The Trump administration sanctioned the IRCG as a foreign terrorist organization in April.
“As leaders representing Canada’s Jewish and Iranian communities, we are passionate about supporting democracy and peace in Iran, so that its policies coincide with Canadian values,” wrote Mostyn and Council of Iranian Canadians president Avideh Motmaenfar in a newspaper op-ed. “Not only does the IRGC frequently target Jews while continually threatening to eradicate Israel, it also harshly punishes and harasses Iranians who oppose the Islamist regime,” they said.
A spokesman for Canada’s Public Safety Minister told the Toronto Sun in June that the government was carefully considering intelligence reports to determine whether the IRGC meets the legal threshold for being designated a terrorist group. He also noted that Canada already has designated Iran a state sponsor of terror and put the IRGC’s Quds Force on its terror entity list.
Levitt, the Canadian ruling party lawmaker, had tough words for the Iranian government as he addressed the Toronto rally.
 

We will not be silent as the Iranian regime tramples on the human rights of protesters. We stand w/ brave women & men who have taken to the streets to have their voices heard. Canadians support their calls for freedom & democracy & an end to brutality & repression. #IranProtestspic.twitter.com/XkQkRWG0qG
— Michael Levitt (@LevittMichael) November 24, 2019
“As Canadians, we stand with the Iranian people and condemn the regime’s atrocities,” Levitt said. In reference to Iran’s Islamist rulers, he added: “Know that we will always continue to raise our voices loud here in Canada. They need to see not just Iranian Canadians but all Canadians standing for the rights and freedoms and aspirations of the Iranian people.”
 

In an interview at the rally, Motmaenfar said she and her fellow activists were determined to tell the world what Iran’s leaders are doing to the country. “They cannot just oppress people and cut them off from the rest of the world and massacre them and arrest them and do whatever they want,” she said.
In a message to VOA Persian on Monday, Motmaenfar said her partnership with B’nai Brith Canada is aimed at combating what she said is Tehran’s effort to sow division between Iranians and the Jewish people. Iranian leaders frequently have called for the destruction of Israel, the only Jewish state.
“The more we strengthen this friendship [with the Jewish community and Israel], the weaker the Islamic regime becomes, and the more determined our fellow Iranians inside Iran will become to continue their fight against this regime,” she said.
This article originated in VOA’s Persian Service. 

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More college students are turning to their schools for help with anxiety, depression and other mental health problems, and many must wait weeks for treatment or find help elsewhere as campus clinics struggle to meet demand, an Associated Press review of more than three dozen public universities found.
On some campuses, the number of students seeking treatment has nearly doubled over the last five years, while overall enrollment has remained relatively flat. The increase has been tied to reduced stigma around mental health, along with rising rates of depression and other disorders. Universities have expanded their mental health clinics, but the growth is often slow, and demand keeps surging.
Long waits have provoked protests at schools from Maryland to California, in some cases following student suicides. Meanwhile, campus counseling centers grapple with low morale and high burnout as staff members face increasingly heavy workloads.
“It’s an incredible struggle, to be honest,” said Jamie Davidson, associate vice president for student wellness at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, which has 11 licensed counselors for 30,000 students. “It’s stressful on our staff and our resources. We’ve increased it, but you’re never going to talk to anyone in the mental health field who tells you we have sufficient resources.”
The Associated Press requested five years of data from the largest public university in each state. A total of 39 provided annual statistics from their counseling clinics or health centers. The remaining 11 said they did not have complete records or had not provided records five months after they were requested.

FILE – Students walk on the campus of Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, Nov. 14, 2019.The data shows that most universities are working to scale up their services, but many are far outpaced by demand.
Since 2014, the number of students receiving mental health treatment at those schools has grown by 35%, while total enrollment grew just 5%. By last year, nearly 1 in 10 students were coming for help, but the number of licensed counselors changed little, from an average of 16 to 19 over five years.
1 counselor, 4,000 students
On some campuses, that amounts to one counselor for every 4,000 students, including at Utah Valley University. An industry accrediting group suggests a minimum of one counselor per 1,500 students, but few of the 39 universities met that benchmark.
When Ashtyn Aure checked in at the mental health clinic at Utah Valley last year, she was suffering anxiety attacks and had not slept for days. Her mind kept returning to past traumas. When she asked to see a counselor, a staff member told her the wait list stretched for months. She left without getting help.
“I was so obviously distressed, and that was the place I was supposed to go. What do you do after that? Do you go to the hospital? Do you phone a friend?” said Aure, 25, who graduated this year.
Ultimately, she turned to her church, which helped her find therapy at an outside clinic. “If it wasn’t for that,” she said, “I don’t know.”

FILE – Ashtyn Aure, who attended Utah Valley University, is seen in Portland, Oregon, Oct. 28, 2019.Officials at Utah Valley said they are working to avoid such cases. If staff know a student is in crisis, they said, a counselor can see that person in a matter of minutes. But staff members have only a few moments to make an assessment.
“Unfortunately, stories like this are not that uncommon,” said Dr. William Erb, senior director of student health services at Utah Valley. “We train, review and revise these procedures so that situations like this can be avoided as much as possible.”
Weeks-long wait
At most universities, students contemplating suicide or otherwise in crisis are offered help right away. Others are asked to schedule an appointment. For cases that are not urgent, the wait can range from hours to months, depending on the time of year and the design of the clinic.
Many schools that provided data to the AP said it takes weeks to get an initial appointment. At Utah Valley, students waited an average of more than four weeks last year. At the University of Washington at Seattle, it was three weeks. During busy times at Louisiana State, wait times stretched to four or five weeks.
Some other schools have adopted a model that provides screenings the same day students ask for help, but it can take weeks to get further treatment.
To some students, waiting is just an inconvenience. But it raises the risk that some young people will forgo help entirely, potentially allowing their problems to snowball.
Students at Brigham Young University drew attention to delays last year after a student took her own life on campus. Days after the suicide, an anonymous letter was posted at the counseling center describing the dilemma some students face.
“I have a therapist on campus, and he is wonderful and well qualified. But I only see him once a month. Because he has too many clients to see in one week,” the letter said. “It is the story of many of us barely getting by here at BYU. If I died would anything change?”
Students at the University of Maryland called for change last year after some on campus said they had to wait 30 days or more for an initial appointment. Organizers called the campaign “30 Days Too Late.”
“We quickly realized that there were a lot of people on campus who believed in what we were doing and had had their own experiences,” said Garrett Mogge, a junior who helped organize the effort. “Thirty days can be a long time. And once you get there, it’s too late for some people.”
Officials at the University of Maryland said the campaign showed there was a need to raise awareness about same-day crisis services available on campus. The school also has hired additional counselors since the campaign began.
Other schools that have received student petitions to improve counseling include Michigan State, Louisiana State, Columbia and Cornell universities.
For cases that are not urgent, some argue that waiting isn’t necessarily bad — and could even lead to better outcomes.
A recent study found greater reductions in anxiety and depression at clinics that focus on providing students counseling at regular intervals, a system that might mean waiting for a therapist’s caseload to open. That practice was compared with clinics that offer quick initial help but cannot always provide routine follow-up treatment.
The study by Pennsylvania State University’s Center for Collegiate Mental Health found that prioritizing access over treatment “may have significant negative consequences for students in need.”
Rising demand
The rising demand for campus mental health care has been attributed to an array of factors. Stigma around the issue has faded, encouraging more students to get help. Disorders that once prevented students from going to college are no longer seen as a barrier. Some people believe social media fuels anxiety, while others say today’s students simply have more trouble coping with stress.
Mass shootings, and the fear they spread, have also been suggested as a factor. The University of Nevada, Las Vegas, saw an increase in demand following a 2017 shooting at a nearby county music festival that left 58 people dead and hundreds wounded.

FILE – Notes are attached to the Resilience Project board on the campus of Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, Nov. 14, 2019.“That really increased the number of students we were seeing,” said Davidson, the head of student wellness. The school later hired a trauma specialist and added a student mental health fee to hire more counselors, among other measures to reduce wait times.
For years, national surveys have found rising rates of anxiety and depression among college students. Most colleges that provided data to the AP said those conditions, and stress, were the most common complaints. Some schools also have seen more students struggling with thoughts of suicide.
The shifting landscape has spurred many universities to rethink how they provide help, including offering more short-term treatment options. More students are being steered to group therapy or anxiety workshops. Counseling centers offer yoga, and many train students to counsel one another.
“We’re reframing what mental health looks like at a school. It’s not necessarily 10 therapists sitting in offices,” said Erb, the student health director at Utah Valley.
Rising demand has also opened doors for businesses promising solutions. Some schools have signed on with companies that provide therapy over the phone or through video chats. Others urge students to try smartphone apps.
Staffing numbers
But some say the changes will help little if clinics remain understaffed. Counselors at some California State University campuses are pressing the system to hire more staff even as it expands peer counseling programs and wellness workshops. A faculty union is lobbying to reach a ratio of one counselor for every 1,500 students. The system estimates it has one for every 2,700 students.
“Some students come in, and they can be seen maybe once every five or six weeks. They are shocked, because that’s not what they’re used to out in the real world,” said Martha Cuan, a counselor at Stanislaus State University, one of the system’s 23 campuses.
A state bill requiring the system to set a goal to meet the lower ratio failed to gain traction in the state Legislature this year, but its sponsor plans to reintroduce it next year. Other states tackling the issue include Illinois, which in August approved a law telling public universities to aim for one counselor per 1,250 students.
For many schools, finding the money to add counselors is a challenge. Many campus clinics don’t charge students for services and generate little or no revenue. A 2016 bill in Congress proposed new grants for university counseling, but it never advanced to a vote.
Some schools are adding new campus fees to hire counselors or are subsidizing clinics through athletics revenue, as the University of Texas recently did.
Overall, the AP analysis found that campus counseling budgets have increased by about 25% over the last five years, but levels vary widely, from more than $200 per student at some campuses to less than $40 at others.
The way students feel about campus mental health services is mixed, according to a recent poll by the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Among adults ages 18 through 29 who have pursued higher education, about a third said colleges do a good job handling mental health needs, while about as many said they think schools do a bad job. Another 3 in 10 said it’s neither good nor bad.
Push for more resources
Most university presidents say mental health is a growing concern, but they lack the tools to address it, according to a separate survey of school chiefs by the American Council on Education. Given unlimited funding, the survey found, most presidents said they would first hire more mental health staff.
On any campus, the greatest fear is that a student in dire need could fall through the cracks. Mike and Kim Predmore believe that’s what happened to their son, Chris, who was struggling as a freshman at Illinois State University in 2014.
He had just been through a bad breakup. He didn’t make the soccer team. He was stressed about school and wasn’t sleeping. One night, he texted a friend and talked about suicide. His family persuaded him to visit the campus counseling center for help.
At an initial screening, Chris Predmore told a counselor he was not thinking about suicide but wanted to try therapy, according to notes from the visit. He was told that there was a wait on campus and that he should explore nearby clinics with his parents. He never did. Two days later, he took his own life.
His parents have since become regulars at a support group for families of suicide victims. Three other couples in the group also lost children who were in college. The Predmores wonder why there aren’t more counselors and why schools can’t do more. Often, they just wonder what might have been.
“I think if they would have said, ‘Yeah, we’re going to get you into counseling,’ I don’t think he’d be dead,” Kim Predmore said. “I don’t know. I’ll never know. But I think he would have been able to hang on.”
 

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U.S. President Donald Trump Monday offered another conflicting account of a leadership shakeup at the Pentagon, while defending his decision to intervene on behalf of a Navy SEAL convicted of battlefield misconduct during the fight against the Islamic State terror group in Iraq.
Asked about Sunday’s firing of the U.S. Navy’s top civilian, Secretary Richard Spencer, Trump told White House reporters, “We’ve been thinking about that for a long time.”

FILE – Secretary of the Navy Richard Spencer addresses graduates during the U.S. Naval War College’s commencement ceremony, in Newport, Rhode Island, June 14, 2019.“That didn’t just happen,” he added during an appearance in the Oval Office with the Bulgarian prime minister. “I have to protect my war fighters.”
Trump also defended ordering Defense Secretary Mark Esper on Sunday to cancel a review board hearing for Chief Petty Officer Edward Gallagher.
Gallagher was acquitted by a military jury earlier this year of charges he murdered a wounded Islamic State terror group fighter during his deployment to Iraq in 2017. But he was found guilty of posing with the teenager’s body and demoted.
Earlier this month, Trump intervened, restoring Gallagher’s rank and pay.  But some Navy officials, including Spencer, had said Gallagher would still need to appear before a review board, which would decide whether he could still retire as a SEAL and keep the Trident pin awarded to members of the elite unit.
“They wanted to take his pin away, and I said, No,’” the president told reporters Monday, calling Gallagher a “tough guy” and “one of the ultimate fighters.”
Hours earlier, Esper defended Trump’s order to abort the review board hearing for Gallagher.
“The president is the commander-in-chief. He has every right, authority and privilege to do what he wants to do,” Esper told reporters at the Pentagon.

U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper attends a press conference in Seoul, Nov. 15, 2019.But Esper’s account of the events that led to Spencer’s dismissal as Navy secretary appears to differ from Trump’s characterization that the firing had been under consideration “for a long time.”
Specifically, Esper alleged he learned after a White House meeting on Friday that Spencer had gone behind his back and tried to make a deal regarding the Gallagher case with White House officials.
“We learned that several days prior Secretary Spencer had proposed a deal whereby if president allowed the Navy to handle the case, he [Spencer] would guarantee that Eddie Gallagher would be restored a rank allowed to retain his trident and permitted to retire,” Esper told reporters.
“I spoke with the president late Saturday informed him that I lost trust and confidence in Secretary Spencer and I was going to ask for Spencer’s resignation,” the defense secretary added. “The president supported this decision.”

 
But in a letter acknowledging  his termination Sunday, Spencer made no mention of trying to make a deal with the White House.  Instead, he argued he could not abide by the president’s desire to bypass the review board process as required by the military justice system.
“The rule of law is what sets us apart from our adversaries,” he wrote. “I cannot in good conscience obey an order that I believes violates the sacred oath I took in the presence of my family, my flag and my faith to support and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
And in an interview with CBS News, his first since his firing, Spencer said “What message does that send to the troops?” That you can get away with things.”
“We have to have good order and discipline. It’s the backbone of what we do,” he added.
Questioned about Spencer’s letter, Esper on Monday insisted it did not match with what the former Navy secretary had told him directly.
Esper also contradicted assertions Spencer made on Saturday that he had never threatened to resign.

I would like to further state that in no way, shape, or form did I ever threaten to resign. That has been incorrectly reported in the press. I serve at the pleasure of the President.
— SECNAV76 (@secnav76)
FILE – Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) speaks during Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Nov. 1, 2017.“We’re working to get the facts,” the committee’s top Democrat, Senator Jack Reed, added in a separate statement. “Clearly, Spencer’s forced resignation is another consequence of the disarray brought about by President Trump’s inappropriate involvement in the military justice system and the disorder and dysfunction that has been a constant presence in this Administration.”
But the committee’s chairman, Republican Senator Jim Inhofe, indicated late Sunday he was ready to move on.
The president and defense secretary “deserve to have a leadership team who has their trust and confidence,” Inhofe said, acknowledging, “It is no secret that I had my own disagreements with Secretary Spencer over the management of specific Navy programs.”
Trump has nominated Ken Braithwaite, a former admiral and the current U.S. ambassador to Norway, to become the next Navy secretary.

Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren blasted billionaire Michael Bloomberg on Monday for launching his nascent White House bid with a $37 million TV advertising blitz, accusing the former New York City mayor of trying to buy American democracy.
Bloomberg, 77, a media mogul who will use his personal fortune to spend freely on his campaign and has said he will not take donations, officially jumped into the White House race as a moderate Democrat on Sunday.
Warren, 70, a liberal U.S. senator from Massachusetts and one of the leading Democratic contenders according to polls, has proposed a wealth tax on billionaires and frequently rails against corporate America, something Bloomberg has criticized.
At an event with voters in Ankeny, Iowa, Warren opened her remarks denouncing Bloomberg’s tactics.

FILE – Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., speaks in Las Vegas, Oct. 2, 2019.“Michael Bloomberg is making a bet about democracy in 2020. He doesn’t need people, he only needs bags and bags of money. I think Michael Bloomberg is wrong,” Warren said.
“That’s exactly what’s now in play in 2020 — which vision, which version of our democracy is going to win. If Michael Bloomberg’s version of democracy wins then democracy changes. It’s going to be which billionaire you can stomach,” she said.
Bloomberg’s comments
Bloomberg’s campaign would not comment on Warren’s remarks, but at Bloomberg’s first campaign event Monday in Norfolk, Virginia, he defended using his wealth to underwrite his candidacy.
“For years I’ve been using my resources for the things that matter to me,” Bloomberg said, according to a video posted by PBS. “I am going to make my case and let the voters who are plenty smart make their choice.”
Bloomberg’s late entry into the race, less than three months before the Democrats’ nominating contests begin, reflects his concern that none of the 17 other candidates vying to take on Republican president Donald Trump in next November’s election can beat him.
Despite Warren’s status among contenders in polls, moderates like Bloomberg fear her planned costly expansion of government programs will alienate voters in battleground states.
Biden, Buttigieg
At the same time, some Democrats have been unnerved by an uneven campaign performance from former Vice President Joe Biden, 77, while another leading candidate, South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, 37, is seen in some quarters as too young and inexperienced.
At a campaign event in Creston, Iowa, Buttigieg declined to comment on Bloomberg’s candidacy and plan to skip early-voting states in favor of competing in larger nominating contests later in the calendar.
But Lori Hays, 59, a Buttigieg supporter from Creston, said Bloomberg was making a mistake.
“As an Iowan, it makes me feel like they don’t care about Iowa,” Hays said. “To me, Bloomberg thinks he can buy the White House with his billions of dollars and that we Iowans don’t matter.”
 

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The last living worker who helped construct Mount Rushmore National Memorial in South Dakota’s Black Hills has died.
Donald “Nick” Clifford of Keystone, South Dakota, was 98. His wife, Carolyn Clifford, says he died Saturday at a hospice in Rapid City.
At 17, Nick Clifford was the youngest worker hired to work at Mount Rushmore. He operated a winch that carried workers up and down the mountain where the faces of Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln were carved, and he drilled holes for dynamite.
The Rapid City Journal reports that Mount Rushmore sculptor Gutzon Borglum and his son, Lincoln, decided in 1938 to field a baseball team and hired Clifford, who already was a veteran pitcher and right fielder.
Clifford worked on Mount Rushmore from 1938-40, earning 55 cents an hour.
 

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Thanksgiving in the U.S. is right around the corner ((November 28)).  Historically, it’s meant big profits for cranberry farmers as the fruits of their labor appeared on traditional Thanksgiving tables across the country.  Crashing prices over the past decade have sent farmers looking elsewhere to make ends meet.  VOA’s Arash Arabasadi bogs down in this holiday story.

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The holiday season officially began at the White House Monday, as first lady Melania Trump received the 2019 White House Christmas tree.
 
Unlike last year, President Donald Trump did not attend the tree presentation.
 
The tree arrived by jingle bell-adorned horse and carriage, continuing an annual White House tradition to highlight the holiday spirit.
 
“Just a few decades earlier they were still delivering the tree in pick-up trucks,” said historian Matthew Costello from the White House Historical Association. “So it’s nice that they’ve made it more festive, to do it with a Christmas-themed sled and a drawn carriage,” Costello added.
 This year’s tree, is a 5.6 meters tall Douglas fir grown by Larry Snyder of Mahantongo Valley Farms in Pennsylvania, winner of the National Christmas Tree Association’s Christmas tree contest.

First lady Melania Trump poses with the 2019 White House Christmas tree as it is delivered to the White House in Washington, Nov. 25, 2019. The tree came from the Pennsylavia farm of Larry Snyder, third from left, pictured here with his family.As the winner, Snyder has the honor of presenting a Christmas tree to the White House. He called it, “a memorable experience of a lifetime for our family, especially for our children and grandchildren, who are accompanying us for the presentation.”
 
The first lady chatted with Snyder and took pictures with the Snyder family.
 Holiday tree tradition
 
The National Christmas Tree Association has presented the official White House Christmas Tree every year since 1966. Each year’s tree has to fit the exact specifications of the White House Blue Room, where it is displayed as part of the holiday décor with a theme selected by the first lady.
 
Jacqueline Kennedy started the tradition of selecting a theme for the official White House Christmas tree in 1961.

President John F. Kennedy and first lady Jaqueline Kennedy are see standing next to the White House Christmas tree in a picture taken during the 1961 holiday season. (Source – John F. Kennedy Presidential Library)Historian Costello said that the choice of themes tells us a little bit about the president and first lady who are living there.  He said it shows “what they see as important to have this representation on the traditional Christmas tree.”
 
Melania Trump is scheduled to unveil the theme of her 2019 White House Christmas décor in early December.
 
Next up in the White House holiday events schedule is the Thanksgiving turkey pardon by President Trump later this week.
 

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Activists on Monday criticized as insufficient new French government efforts to fight one of Europe’s highest rates of so-called femicides, or the killing of women by their partners.
French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe on Monday announced millions of dollars in measures to protect women from spousal killings. They include beefing up shelters and the national hotline for victims, electronic bracelets and firearms seizures targeting abusers, educational programs and stiffer penalties for those convicted. The announcement coincides with the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.
Philippe said he hoped the measures will create an “electric shock” that he says French society needs to fight so-called femicides. Activists say nearly 140 women have been killed by their partners or ex-partners in France so far this year — one of Europe’s highest rates.
Tens of thousands of people demonstrated in Paris Saturday, in the latest protest against femicides. The new measures come after weeks of discussions between authorities and women’s rights groups on the problem.
But, some activists say both the measures and the funds to realize them are not enough. Camille Bernard is a member of #NousToutes, a women’s rights group which organized the demonstrations.
“We are really disappointed about this, because we must have more money to make things [i.e. measures to crack down] for the violence, and the prime minister says it will not be more [new] money. We don’t know how they think they will do more things against violence without more money,” he said.
Domestic violence has also become a hot-button issue elsewhere in Europe. A day after the Paris demonstrations, thousands protested violence targeting women in Brussels. Similar demonstrations also took place recently in Spain, despite a raft of government measures more than a decade ago to address the problem.

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Got secrets? They’ll be safe in here. VOA Explains what a SCIF is.

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Unidentified vandals have painted swastikas on a monument to a prominent Yiddish author in the Ukrainian capital.
Moshe Reuven Azman, the chief rabbi of Ukraine, posted pictures Monday of the monument to Sholem Aleichem outside Kyiv’s synagogue with big red swastikas spray-painted on it.
Police have opened a probe.
In a tweet, Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko denounced the anti-Semitic act as “disgusting, appalling and in need of prompt investigation.”

The anti-Semitic act on the Sholom-Aleichem monument in Kyiv is disgusting, appalling and in need of prompt investigation. The perpetrator(s) must be brought to justice.
— Vadym Prystaiko (@VPrystaiko) November 25, 2019
Israeli Ambassador Joel Lion tweeted that “Ukraine has to wake up,” urging authorities to track down the culprits, bring them to justice and also “educate against hatred.”

Another Antisemitic act in the center of #Kyiv, on the statue of the Jewish writer Sholom Aleichem. #Ukaine has to wake up. Find the responsible and bring them to justice. Educate against hatred. Adopt @TheIHRA definition. @MVS_UA@MFA_Ukraine@TheBankova@ADL@WorldJewishCongpic.twitter.com/a20gx2HFMT
— Joel Lion (@ambassadorlion) November 25, 2019
Ukraine has seen numerous cases of vandalism at Jewish cemeteries and Holocaust memorials across the country. Hateful graffiti has also been painted on synagogues and Jewish institutions across the country.
 

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When politicians try to win votes by blaming foreigners for stealing jobs, economists say they ignore technology, which is what is really replacing many of these jobs. However the issue remains that many workers and small businesses do not benefit from foreign trade as much as corporations do, and that is something Vietnam hopes to fix.
Hanoi is trying to avoid the mistakes of the U.S., Britain, and other countries where lower income citizens felt left behind by global trade, and one part of its approach is to focus on small business loans. Vietnam hopes to make loans available to family businesses and other small businesses, which in many cases do not have the right connections or the expertise to get these loans.
Last week the State Bank of Vietnam cut interest rates in an effort to encourage banks to lend to the less advantaged. The central bank said short term loan rates for small and medium size businesses would decrease to 6% from 6.5%. This decreased rate also applies to other priority areas, such as agriculture, high tech businesses, and supporting industries.
That last category, which can include small businesses, is important because Vietnam hopes to get more domestic companies to supply to foreign ones. That would get them involved in foreign trade, thus spreading the benefits of trade more widely across the Southeast Asian nation.
“Local producers and suppliers urgently need efficient financing to support their trade cycles with global partners,” Julius Caesar Parrenas, who coordinates a financial forum under an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation business organization, said. He added that there is a need to establish a finance ecosystem for “emerging markets like Vietnam, where trade is growing.”

Much of Vietnam has prospered from foreign trade, but the government wants that prosperity to be spread out more evenly. (VOA/Ha Nguyen)Organizations like his should provide “government agencies with good insight to improve an effective regulatory framework for supply chain finance in Vietnam,” Ha Thu Giang, who is deputy director of the credit policies for economic sectors department at the State Bank of Vietnam, said.
The government is also working with donor agencies to increase accessibility of loans. It worked with the U.S. Agency for International Development in Hanoi, for instance, to have a guide published this year that helps small businesses find sources of financing.
Advocates say financing is needed because small business sometimes do not have the capital needed to expand, or to tide them over so they can cover the cost of meeting large orders and wait for payment. However critics caution that too much focus on financing is risky, and that small businesses are right to worry about taking on more debt than they can handle.
The private sector is interested in lending to Vietnam’s mom and pop businesses too. Validus Capital is a peer-to-business lending platform based in Singapore that expanded to Indonesia and Vietnam this year.
“We want to provide growing SMEs [small and medium enterprises] faster access to zero-collateral financing,” Vikas Nahata, who is co-founder and executive chairman of Validus Capital, said.
A lot of nations say they want “inclusive trade” so that less advantaged people do not feel left out of the benefits of globalization. For Vietnam, small business loans are one way to get there.

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Uruguay will have to wait a few more days to find out who will emerge as the winner of Sunday’s presidential election.
“There was never such a tight ballot,” Jose Arocena, head of the country’s Electoral Court said.  
With almost all of the ballots counted, the conservative National Party’s Luis Lacalle Pou, who is 46, has about 30,000 more votes than ruling leftist Broad Front’s Daniel Martinez, who is 62.    
Opinion polls since October’s first round had indicated that Pou would comfortably win the run off.  
Uruguayan presidents are not allowed to serve consecutive terms, but Broad Front has been at the helm of the country since 2005.

Presidential candidate for the ruling party Broad Front Daniel Martinez, right, and Graciela Villar, his running mate, wave to supporters at their headquarters in Montevideo, Uruguay, Sunday, Nov. 24, 2019.Outgoing president Tabare Vazquez said Uruguay will not fall victim to the turmoil some South American countries are experiencing.  He predicted a smooth transfer of power.  
“The people of Uruguay can rest assured that we are going to achieve this,” Vazquez said.
Despite the polls predicting that the center-right Pou would win, Jenny Pribble, an associate professor of political science at the University of Richmond in the United States, said Broad Front remains popular.  “Their signature policy initiatives – public health expansion, the creation of a national care system, marriage equality and the legalization of abortion and cannabis – advanced citizen rights and have earned the party a strong following.”  
A slowing economy, rising unemployment and crime were the major issues of concern to voters.
Results are not expected until the end of the week.

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