The New York-based Human Rights Watch claims it has “damming evidence” showing the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army is engaged in summary executions, pillaging, seizing properties, and preventing the return of people to their homes.

“Turkey is turning a blind eye to the reprehensible behaviors displayed by the factions it arms,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “So long as Turkey is in control of these areas, it has a responsibility to investigate and end these violations.”

Last month Turkish forces and the SNA launched an offensive in northeast Syria against Syrian Democratic Forces, which are made up mainly of the Kurdish militia the YPG.

Ankara considers the YPG terrorists, but the militia was a crucial ally of Washington’s military effort against Islamic State.

HRW cites evidence that the SNA executed prisoners, seized the homes of local Kurds, and engaged in indiscriminate shelling of civilians.

The case of Hevrin Khalaf, a prominent women’s rights activist, is highlighted. In October, Khalaf was executed after her car was stopped by a militia affiliated with the SNA.

HRW also says social media postings of videos put up by the militia appear to show the execution of women prisoners.

Ankara has so far not responded to the HRW report. But Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has praised the SNA for its “sacrifices” in Syria.  

Turkey is facing growing international criticism for its use of militias, which critics claim have links to radical Islamic groups, a charge denied by Ankara.

“The problem is that those people are radicals in terms of their ideology, this is criticized by the western world,” said international relations professor Huseyin Bagci of Ankara’s Middle East Technical University.

“But Turkey has done it in the last eight years, so this is a choice by the president. He takes the risk. He lets them fight on the side of the Turkish army. We will see if it’s like a hand grenade exploding in his hand or it will strengthen his position,” Bagci added.

The SNA force is around three times larger than Turkish armed forces engaged in northern Syria. Ankara’s reliance on the SNA comes as its armed forces are facing an unprecedented number of simultaneous military commitments.

“The Turkish army is already strained,” said retired Turkish general Haldun Solmazturk, who now heads the Ankara-based 21st Century Turkish Institute. “From Iraq to Idlib to eastern Mediterranean Cyprus. An additional burden will have some serious impact on the Turkish army to meet all these challenges.”

The SNA has also taken the brunt of casualties. As of November 15, 224 killed and 692 injured compared to Turkish forces casualties of 11 dead and 90 wounded. Some analysts claim the relatively low number of Turkish deaths is a reason why the operation continues to enjoy strong domestic support among the Turkish public.

Ankara’s heavy use of SNA forces made up of mainly Syrian Arabs is also widely seen as a tactic to dispel allegations Turkish forces are invading another country.

Analysts point out, given that Turkey once ruled the region when it was the Ottoman Empire, Arab nations remain nervous about any irredentist Turkish aspirations. The Arab League has strongly condemned the Turkish operation.

Ankara insists it is committed to Syria’s territorial integrity.

“Our operations in northern Syria aim to clear terrorists from their strongholds, create safe conditions for the return of refugees robbed of their homes & lands,” tweeted Fahrettin Altun, the Turkish president’s communications head.
 
“Kurdish groups have forced many Arabs from their homes in areas under their control in northern Syria,” said former Turkish ambassador Mithat Rende. “These towns and cities controlled by Kurds are Arab towns with Arab names, with Kurdish minorities.”

Erdogan claims up to two million Syrians who fled to Turkey to escape the civil war will be returned to a so-called “safe zone,” that is being created in northern Syria along the Turkish border.

The Turkish president is looking to the international community for funding to pay $20 billion for the building of hundreds of thousands of new homes in the “safe zone.”  

Next week Erdogan will press his case when he is scheduled to hold a meeting with French, German, and British leaders on the sidelines of the London NATO summit.
 
“We invite the international community to support us in helping our Syrian brothers and sisters to safely return to areas where they can live in peace regardless of their religious and ethnic identities,” tweeted Altun Wednesday.

However, the actions of SNA forces are seen as fueling accusations Ankara is seeking to remove local Kurdish populations and replace them with Arabs considered more sympathetic to Turkey.

“There weren’t many mistakes by the Turkish army, but there was a tactical mistake when it comes to public diplomacy in the communication,” said former senior Turkish diplomat Aydin Selcen who served widely in the region. “It’s a fact some of these militias have committed crimes, and this is being used against Turkey, that it’s involved in ethnic cleansing.”

Ankara vehemently denies any intention that it’s seeking demographic changes in Syria. However, the latest findings by HRW can only add to questions over Turkey’s plans for a safe zone and mass return of Syrians.

“Executing individuals, pillaging property, and blocking displaced people from returning to their homes is damning evidence of why Turkey’s proposed ‘safe zones’ will not be safe,” said Whitson.

…

Many new refugees in America experience culture shock when they first arrive in the United States.  Many have to deal with a new language, culture, and even holidays. But settled refugees can play a big role in helping new arrivals adapt to life in the U.S. One example is the Ethiopian Community Center, which hosts a Thanksgiving meal every year for new refugees.  VOA’s Shahnaz Nafees has more on the event.

…

Critics say the widespread African tradition of giving cash and gifts to a bride’s family before marriage, known as a “bride price,” degrades women by putting a required, monetary value on a wife. In Nigeria, the financial pressure in a recent case ended in suicide, underscoring those concerns. But supporters of the bride price tradition uphold it as a cherished cultural and religious symbol of marriage, as Chika Oduah reports from Yola, Nigeria.

…

Thousands of Palestinians marched throughout the West Bank on Tuesday in what they call “a day of rage” over the recent change in U.S. policy regarding Jewish settlements.

Protesters set tires on fire and threw stones at Israeli soldiers, who responded with tear gas and stun grenades.

Demonstrators burned an effigy of U.S. President Donald Trump dressed in Israeli flags and held up a banner declaring Secretary of State Mike Pompeo a partner in war crimes.

No serious injuries were reported. Later Tuesday, two rockets were fired into Israel from Gaza. There was apparently no damage.

Last week, the Trump administration abandoned a 40-year U.S. policy that declared Israeli Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank “inconsistent with international law.”

Pompeo said the old policy has not “advanced the cause of peace.”

He also said this does not mean the United States is making up its mind at this time about the status of the West Bank, saying that question is part of a final peace deal.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the Trump administration is righting a “historical wrong” by supporting “truth and justice.”
 

…

Israel’s attorney general Avichai Mandelblit says Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu can stay on as head of government even after he was indicted last week for alleged corruption.

Although Cabinet ministers are required to step down after an indictment, the laws about a prime minister are not explicit.

Mandelblit says Netanyahu can stay in office unless he is convicted and all his appeals are exhausted.

Netanyahu is facing pressure from the opposition to resign after Mandelblit announced his indictment last week.

Netanyahu is charged with allegedly taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, cigars, champagne, and jewelry from billionaire friends in exchange for personal favors, including helping one wealthy friend get favorable newspaper coverage.

He also is accused of doing favors for a newspaper editor so the prime minister himself would receive positive stories.

Netanyahu has vowed not to resign, calling the indictment a “coup” bent on toppling a right-wing government.

Mandelblit, who was appointed by Netanyahu, denied any political motivation, saying he acted strictly according to the law.

Netanyahu’s legal woes comes as Israeli voters face the possibility of a third general election this year.

Neither Netanyahu or his centrist political rival Benny Gantz have been able to form a government after two previous inconclusive votes.

Gantz has ruled out a power-sharing government with Netanyahu.

His Blue and White party issued a statement saying “A prime minister up to his neck in corruption allegations has no public or moral mandate to make fateful decisions for the state of Israel.”

A majority of the Israeli parliament has until December 11 to throw its support behind Netanyahu, Gantz, or anyone else to form a government.

If not, another general election will be held.

…

Turkish riot police used force to break up a march by thousands of women calling for what they call an “end to impunity” for men guilty of violence against women.

Police stopped more than 2,000 from marching up Istikal Street in Istanbul’s main shopping district.

Police fired pepper spray at the protesters with some witnesses reporting the use of tear gas and plastic bullets. No casualties or arrests were reported.

March organizers say they are tired at what they believe are the relatively light sentences handed out to husbands and boyfriends who murder or abuse women.

Women at the front of Monday’s march spread out a banner reading “We cannot tolerate the loss of one more woman.”

A Turkish women’s rights group says nearly 380 women have been killed so far this year.

A Turkish court recently sentenced a man to life in prison for slashing his ex-wife’s throat in front of their 10 year-old daughter in August.

The murder was caught on video and sickened nearly everyone who saw it.

…

A Lebanese-born business tycoon says he is donating Hitler’s top hat and other Nazi memorabilia he won at an auction to an Israeli Jewish group to keep the stuff out of the hands of neo-Nazis.

Abdallah Chatila, who made his fortune in diamonds and Swiss real estate, paid $660,000 for the items last week.

He says he bought the the hat and memorabilia intending to destroy it, but decided it was better to hand it over to the Keren Hayeson-United Israel Appeal.

Along with the Nazi dictator’s hat, the items include a silver plated edition of “Mein Kampf,” and a typewriter used by Hitler’s secretary.

Although Chatila says some Lebanese are criticizing him for helping the so-called enemy, his act was totally non-political. He said he “wished to buy these objects so that they could not be used for the purpose of neo-Nazi propaganda.”

The European Jewish Association, which had originally protested the auction, is now applauding Chatila.

“Such a consequence, such an act of selfless generosity to do something that you feel strongly about is the equivalent of finding a precious diamond in an Everest of coal,” Rabbi Menachem Margolin wrote in a letter to Chatila.

It is unclear what the Jewish group plans to do with the objects.

…

Feature films on slavery have been part of Hollywood since the beginning of the film industry in United States. However, only recently, movies on slavery have been told from the perspective of the slaves, and now, with the film “Harriet” from the perspective of a female slave.  “Harriet”, the latest of antebellum dramas, focuses on Harriet Tubman a female runaway slave.  Tubman played a significant role in the so called “Underground Railroad”, a human network helping enslaved African – Americans to flee to free American states and Canada. VOA’s Penelope Poulou has more.

…

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.”

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.

…

Hong Kong pro-democracy forces won a landslide victory in local elections Sunday. Though primarily symbolic, the vote represents a stunning rebuke to Beijing, as VOA’s Bill Gallo reports from Hong Kong.

…

Devin Nunes, the top Republican on the Congressional committee investigating President Donald Trump, refused to answer questions Sunday as to whether he met with an former Ukrainian official to gather information on the son of former vice president Joe Biden.

A lawyer representing Lev Parnas, an indicted associate of Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudolph Giuliani, has told multiple news outlets since Friday that Nunes met Ukraine’s former top prosecutor Victor Shokin in Vienna in 2018.

The claim is controversial because Nunes did not disclose any such meeting while leading the Republican defense of President Donald Trump during related impeachment hearings.

Speaking on Fox News Sunday morning, Nunes was asked point blank by the Fox news anchor whether he had met with Shokin. The congressman replied that he wanted to answer questions but could not do so “right now.”

Nunes has repeatedly denounced the impeachment proceedings, which are focused on whether Trump inappropriately pressured Ukraine to open investigations, including one that could prove embarrassing to Biden, a top contender for the Democratic Party nomination to run against Trump next year.

Democrats have said that if Parnas’ claim proves credible, Nunes could face an ethics investigation. Parnas, under indictment regarding suspect political contributions, is seeking immunity to testify to the House Intelligence Committee which is conducting the inquiry.

Congress will not convene again until Dec. 3. But speaking on CNN Sunday morning, committee Chairman Adam Schiff said that more depositions and hearings related to the impeachment probe are possible.

The timeline for an impeachment vote in the U.S. House is still unclear. Schiff’s committee still must write a report based on its investigation so far, which will be delivered to the Judiciary Committee. The latter committee would then prepare articles of impeachment for a vote by the full House.

Democrats, who control a majority of seats in the House, can impeach the president with a simple majority vote. At that point, a trial must be held in the Senate, where it would take a two-thirds majority to remove Trump from office.  No Republicans in either chamber have indicated they will support the impeachment effort.

Trump denounced the hearings on Twitter Sunday, claiming that polls “have now turned very strongly against Impeachment, especially in swing states.”

Polls have now turned very strongly against Impeachment, especially in swing states. 75% to 25%. Thank you!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 24, 2019

He did not indicate what polls he was referring to, but the latest averaging of polls shows public opinion is fairly evenly split on whether Trump should be impeached.

Twelve witnesses testified in Congress over the last two weeks, providing new details on allegations that Trump pushed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate domestic political rival Joe Biden and his son.
 
Witnesses told lawmakers that  Giuliani played a key role in pressing for Ukrainian officials to announce an investigation.

“We all understood that if we refused to work with Mr. Giuliani, we would lose an important opportunity to cement relations between the United States and Ukraine. So, we followed the president’s orders,” Gordon Sondland, U.S. Ambassador to the European Union, testified Wednesday.

…

Machine gun fire answers rock-throwing protesters. Motorcycle-riding Revolutionary Guard volunteers chase after demonstrators. Plainclothes security forces grab, beat and drag a man off the street to an uncertain fate.

As Iran restores the internet after a weeklong government-imposed shutdown, new videos purport to show the demonstrations over gasoline prices rising and the security-force crackdown that followed.

The videos offer only fragments of encounters, but to some extent they fill in the larger void left by Iran’s state-controlled television and radio channels. On their airwaves, hard-line officials allege that foreign conspiracies and exile groups instigated the unrest. In print, newspapers offered only PR for the government or had merely stenographic reporting at best, the moderate daily Hamshahri said in an analysis Sunday.

They don’t acknowledge that the gasoline price hike Nov. 15, supported by its civilian government, came as Iran’s 80 million people already have seen their savings dwindle and jobs scarce under crushing U.S. sanctions. President Donald Trump imposed them in the aftermath of unilaterally withdrawing America from Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers.

Authorities also have yet to give any overall figures for how many people were injured, arrested or killed during the several days of protests that swept across some 100 cities and towns.

Amnesty International said it believes the unrest and the crackdown killed at least 106 people. Iran disputes that figure without offering its own. A U.N. office earlier said it feared the unrest may have killed “a significant number of people.”

Starting Nov. 16, Iran shut down the internet across the country, limiting communications with the outside world. That made determining the scale and longevity of the protests incredibly difficult. Some recycled days-old videos and photographs as new, making it even more difficult.

Since Saturday, internet connectivity spiked in the country, allowing people to access foreign websites for the first time. On Sunday, connectivity stood nearly at 100% for landline services, while mobile phone internet service remained scarce, the advocacy group NetBlocks said.

The restoration brought messaging apps back to life for Iranians cut off from loved ones abroad. It also meant that videos again began being shared widely.

Recently released videos span the country. One video from Shiraz, some 680 kilometers (420 miles) south of Tehran, purports to show a crowd of over 100 people scatter as gunfire erupts from a police station in the city. One man bends down to pick up debris as a person off-camera describes demonstrators throwing stones. Another gunshot rings out, followed by a burst of machine gun fire.

In Kerman, some 800 kilometers (500 miles) southeast of Tehran, the sound of breaking glass echoes over a street where debris burns in the center of a street. Motorcycle-riding members of the Basij, the all-volunteer force of Iran’s paramilitary Guard, then chase the protesters away.

Another video in Kermanshah, some 420 kilometers (260 miles) southwest of Tehran, purports shows the dangers that lurked on the streets of Iran in recent days. Plainclothes security forces, some wielding nightsticks, drag one man off by the hair of his head. The detained man falls at one point.

“Look, [the agents] wear styles like the youth,” one man off-camera says, swearing at them.

On Sunday, it remained unclear if and how widespread any remaining demonstrations were. The acting commander of the Revolutionary Guard, Gen. Ali Fadavi, repeated the allegation that America was behind the protests, without offering any evidence to support his claim.
 
“Why did [the Americans] get angry after we cut off the internet? Because the internet is the channel through which Americans wanted to perform their evil and vicious acts,” Fadavi said. “We will deal with this, Islamic Republic supporters, and our proud men and women will sign up to make a domestic system similar to the internet with operating systems that [the Americans] can’t [control] even if they want.”

That likely refers to what has been known as the “halal net,” Iran’s own locally controlled version of the internet aimed at restricting what the public can see. The system known as the National Information Network has some 500 government-approved national websites that stream content far faster than those based abroad, which are intentionally slowed, activists say. Iranian officials say it allows the Islamic Republic to be independent if the world cuts it off instead.

But while Fadavi earlier said the protests were put down in 48 hours, he also acknowledged the scope of the unrest by comparing it to Operation Karbala-4, one of the worst military disasters suffered by Iran during its bloody 1980s war with Iraq.

That scope could be seen in one video. In the capital, Tehran, footage earlier aired by the BBC’s Persian service shot from a car purports to show a tableau of violence on Sattarkhan Street, as anti-riot police officers clashed with protesters.

In the video, a woman’s scream rises over the shouts of the crowd as plainclothes security forces wearing white surgical masks accost one man, who puts his hands up to his face and hunches over to shield his body. Men walk backward to watch the chaos amid police with batons and riot shields, then run.

A woman in a green headscarf argues with one anti-riot police officer in front of a car.

 “What do you say?”‘ the police officer asks.

 “He kicked my car,” she responds.

“Move,'”the police officer orders.  “Whom do you want to blame in this situation?”
Someone chases a man in front of a bank as people curse. The car makes a right-hand turn onto another street. A police officer off-camera shouts: “Come here!”

“Go, go, go!” a woman in the car cries out.

The car speeds away, passing burning debris. The clip ends. It lasts only 35 seconds.

…

More than three dozen people are reported dead in a series of security-related incidents in Afghanistan, including a fatal attack on a U.N. vehicle in the capital, Kabul. Several of the dead were civilians.

Afghan officials said Sunday that Taliban rebels assaulted a security outpost in central Daykundi province overnight, killing eight soldiers and wounding four others.

Senior provincial authorities claimed the ensuing firefight also killed at least 20 assailants, though the Taliban disputed those claims.

Meanwhile, doctors and residents in western Farah province said an Afghan government air strike has killed at least nine civilians and injured several others.

The mainstream local TOLO news channel reported Sunday relatives took to the streets with bodies of the victims to protest and demand an immediate investigation into the deadly incident.

In Kabul, interior ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi said one foreign national was killed and five people were injured by a hand grenade hurled at a U.N. vehicle in the Makrorayan area of the city. The spokesman did not provide details but local news reports suggest the death toll may climb.

The United Nations condemned the attack and confirmed the death of an international employee in the Sunday night attack. It said two other staffers, including a foreigner and an Afghan, were injured.

“No further information about the identity of our international colleague who was killed, nor of those injured, an Afghan and another international colleague, will be released in the immediate future,” said a U.N.statement.

The world body demanded Afghan authorities swiftly investigate the attack and bring the perpetrators to justice.

There were no immediate claims of responsibility for the attack. Both the Taliban and militants linked to the Afghan branch of the Islamic State terrorist group have taken credit for previous attacks in Kabul.

TOLO quoted protesters in Farah province saying the worshipers were leaving a mosque in the Pusht Rod district after offering Saturday evening prayers when the air strike hit them.

Provincial authorities told the media outlet anti-insurgency operations were carried out in Posht Rod and a nearby district, but they would not confirm whether the action caused any civilian casualties.

Civilians continue to bear the brunt of the Afghan war. The United Nations has documented around 2,600 Afghan civilian deaths in the first nine months of 2019 while more than 5,600 were injured.

…

Iraqi security forces fired rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse crowds of protesters Saturday, killing two people in a third day of fierce clashes in central Baghdad, security and hospital officials said. 
 
Two protesters were struck with rubber bullets and died instantly and over 20 others were wounded in the fighting on Rasheed Street, a famous avenue known for its old crumbling architecture and now littered with rubble from days of violence. Sixteen people have died and over 100 have been wounded in the renewed clashes. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations. 
 
At least 342 protesters have died in Iraq’s massive protests, which started October 1 when thousands of Iraqis took to the streets to decry corruption and lack of services despite Iraq’s oil wealth. 
 
Separately, Iraq’s parliament failed to hold a session Saturday because of a lack of a quorum. Lawmakers were supposed to read reform bills introduced to placate protesters. The next session was postponed until Monday.  

The fighting has centered on Rasheed Street and started Thursday when protesters tried to dismantle a security forces barricade on the street, which leads to Ahrar Bridge, a span over the Tigris River that has been a repeated flashpoint. Security forces responded with tear gas and live ammunition. 
 
The violence took off again Friday afternoon. Live rounds and tear gas canisters were fired by security forces from behind a concrete barrier on Rasheed Street. 
 
On Saturday, fighting picked up in the late afternoon and again in the evening, with security forces firing rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse crowds. 
 
Protesters have occupied part of three bridges — Ahrar, Jumhuriya and Sinak — in a standoff with security forces. The bridges lead to the fortified Green Zone, the seat of Iraq’s government. 

…

Hong Kongers are voting Sunday in a local election widely seen as a de facto referendum on pro-democracy protests that have recently taken a more aggressive turn. 

The territory is on edge following days of intense clashes between police and groups of mostly student protesters, though the violence has subsided in the past few days. 

Though the district council members being chosen Sunday have little power, pro-democracy forces still hope for a big win that will confirm public support for the protests. 

Police have promised a heavy security presence at voting locations. Public broadcaster RTHK reports officers will be stationed inside and outside polling stations in riot gear. 

“If there’s any violence, we will deal with it immediately, without hesitation,” Chris Tang, Hong Kong’s police commissioner, said. 

District councils

Hong Kongers are choosing more than 400 members of 18 district councils scattered across the tiny territory. The district councils essentially serve as advisory bodies for local matters such as building roads or schools. 

“I think the political message is more important than anything else,” Ma Ngok, a political scientist and professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said. “If the democrats really score a landslide victory, it will show very clearly that the public is in support of the movement.” 

Hong Kong has seen five months of pro-democracy protests. The protests initially took the form of massive demonstrations against a reviled extradition bill, which could have resulted in Hong Kongers being tried in China’s politicized court system. 

The protests have escalated in recent weeks, with smaller groups of hard-core protesters destroying public infrastructure, defacing symbols of state power and clashing with police. Protesters defend the moves as an appropriate reaction to police violence and the government’s refusal to meet their demands. 

Despite the protester violence, polls suggest the movement still enjoys widespread public support. Meanwhile, the approval of Hong Kong’s Beijing-friendly chief executive, Carrie Lam, has fallen to a record low of about 20%. 

Quasi-democratic system 

Under Hong Kong’s quasi-democratic system, district councils have no power to pass legislation. But the vote could affect how the territory’s more influential Legislative Council and chief executive are selected in the future. 

“That’s a big deal,” said Emily Lau, a former Legislative Council member and prominent member of the pro-democracy camp. “Because of this constitutional linkage, it makes the significance of the district council much bigger than its powers show you.” 

The pro-democracy camp has tried to use the protests as a mobilizing force ahead of the vote and is fielding an unprecedented number of candidates. 

But they have a lot of ground to make up. Pro-government forces make up the majority in all 18 district councils, with the so-called “pan-democrats” taking up only about 25% of the overall seats, Ma said. 

Hong Kong has seen a major surge in voter registration, particularly among young people. Nearly 386,000 people have registered to vote in the past year, the most since at least 2003, according to the South China Morning Post. 

Voter sentiment mixed 

At a recent pro-democracy rally in central Hong Kong, many protesters said they plan to vote, but they were divided on whether the election will lead to real change. 

“I’m not excited,” said Ip, giving only her first name. “I think voting is one of our ways to express our voice, but I doubt the results will be very good.” 

Another demonstrator, who gave the name Ms. Chan, said she also intends to send a message by voting. 

“The government needs to listen to the people,” she said. “They do many wrong things, so I think many people will go out and vote.” 

…

President Donald Trump’s new national security adviser is criticizing what he says is silence from the rest of the world about China’s confinement of more than 1 million Muslims in re-education camps, linking the lack of a global outcry to China’s economic clout. 
 
National security adviser Robert O’Brien also questioned whether international leaders will stand up if Beijing carries out a Tiananmen Square-style crackdown on the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong. 
 
O’Brien met with journalists and was interviewed by a moderator at the Halifax International Security Forum on Saturday. 

Speak up
 
“Where is the world? We have over a million people in concentration camps,” O’Brien said. “I’ve been to the genocide museum in Rwanda. You hear `never again, never again is this going to happen,’ and yet there are re-education camps with over a million people in them.” 
 
O’Brien said the lack of criticism is especially surprising from Islamic states. 
 
China is estimated to have detained up to 1 million minority Muslim Uighurs in prisonlike detention centers. The detentions come on top of harsh travel restrictions and a massive state surveillance network equipped with facial recognition technology.  

China has denied committing abuses in the centers and has described them as schools aimed at providing employable skills and combating extremism. 
 
China and the U.S. are locked in a trade war, and the Trump administration has alternated between blasting the country’s leadership and reaching out to it. Trump imposed tariffs last year on billions of dollars’ worth of Chinese exports to the U.S., seeking to ramp up pressure for changes in Chinese trade and investment policies. China has retaliated with tariff hikes of its own. 
 
O’Brien said that an initial trade agreement with China is still possible by year’s end, but that the U.S. won’t take a bad deal and won’t ignore what happens in Hong Kong. 
 
O’Brien also said U.S. allies should think hard before allowing Chinese technology giant Huawei into their next generation of telecommunication networks, citing surveillance concerns. 
 
“What the Chinese are doing makes Facebook and Google look like child’s play as far as collecting information on folks. Once they know the full profile of every man, woman and child in your country, how are they going to use that?” he asked. 
 
Huawei spokespeople did not immediately return an email seeking comment Saturday. 
 
Dolkun Isa, president of the World Uyghur Congress, said at Saturday’s conference that Trump himself has not addressed the camps publicly. Isa said his mother recently died in one of the camps.

Pompeo statements

O’Brien responded that the administration has spoken out about it. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is among the Trump officials who have raised China’s mistreatment of the Muslim Uighur minority, including citing it as a violation of religious freedom in a speech last month. 
 
O’Brien declined to say what the U.S. would do if there was a crackdown in Hong Kong that rivaled the Tiananmen Square incident in 1989. More than 100,000 Americans and over 300,000 Canadians live in Hong Kong. 
 
“I don’t want to get into tools or what the U.S. might or might not do,” he said. “But much of the world and many or our allies, and many of the countries represented at this conference, have been willing to forget Tiananmen Square and are heavily engaged in business with China.” 
 
O’Brien is the fourth person in two years to hold the job of national security adviser. He previously served as Trump’s chief hostage negotiator. O’Brien made headlines in July when he was dispatched to Sweden to monitor the assault trial of American rapper A$AP Rocky. 
 
As the special presidential envoy for hostage affairs at the State Department, O’Brien worked closely with the families of American hostages and advised administration officials on hostage issues. 

…

A Hong Kong university campus under siege for more than a week was a deserted wasteland Saturday, with a handful of protesters holed up in hidden refuges across the trashed grounds, as the city’s focus turned to local elections.

The siege neared its end as some protesters at Polytechnic University on the Kowloon peninsula desperately sought a way out and others vowed not to surrender, days after some of the worst violence since anti-government demonstrations escalated in June.

“If they storm in, there are a lot of places for us to hide,” said Sam, a 21-year-old student, who was eating two-minute noodles in the cafeteria, while plotting his escape.

Another protester, Ron, vowed to remain until the end with other holdouts, adding, “The message will be clear that we will never surrender.”

Many arrests

About 1,000 people have been arrested in the siege in the Chinese-ruled city, about 300 of them younger than 18.

Police have set up high plastic barricades and a fence on the perimeter of the campus. Toward midday, officers appeared at ease, allowing citizens to mill about the edges of the cordon as neighborhood shops opened for business.

Rotting rubbish and boxes of unused petrol bombs littered the campus. On the edge of a dry fountain at its entrance lay a Pepe the frog stuffed toy, a mascot protesters have embraced as a symbol of their movement.

Scores of construction workers worked at the mouth of the Cross-Harbour Tunnel, closed for more than a week after it was first blockaded, to repair toll booths smashed by protesters and clear debris from approach roads.

The road tunnel links Hong Kong island to the Kowloon area.

Elections Sunday

The repairs got underway as a record 1,104 people gear up to run for 452 district council seats in elections Sunday.

A record 4.1 million Hong Kong people, from a population of 7.4 million, have enrolled to vote, spurred in part by registration campaigns during months of protests.

Young pro-democracy activists are now running in some of the seats that were once uncontested and dominated by pro-Beijing candidates.

The protests snowballed since June after years of resentment over what many residents see as Chinese meddling in freedoms promised to Hong Kong when the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997.

Beijing has said it is committed to the “one country, two systems” formula by which Hong Kong is governed. It denies meddling in the affairs of the Asian financial hub and accuses foreign governments of stirring up trouble.

Trump says he spoke to Xi

In an interview with Fox News Channel on Friday, U.S. President Donald Trump said he had told Chinese President Xi Jinping that crushing the protests would have “a tremendous negative impact” on efforts to end the two countries’ 16-month-long trade war.

“If it weren’t for me Hong Kong would have been obliterated in 14 minutes,” Trump said, without offering any evidence.

“He’s got a million soldiers standing outside of Hong Kong that aren’t going in only because I ask him, ‘Please don’t do it, you’ll be making a big mistake, it’s going to have a tremendous negative impact on the trade deal,’ and he wants to make a trade deal.”

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U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland has been a key witness in the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump. Sondland was appointed to his post after donating $1 million to Trump’s inaugural committee. The practice of awarding ambassador positions to wealthy political supporters is not new to either party, but some lawmakers and presidential candidates say it is time to limit the practice. VOA’s Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports from the State Department.
 

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In late December, it will be one year since Moscow detained U.S. citizen Paul Whelan on espionage charges. During his 11 months in the infamous Lefortovo prison, Whelan has denied the allegations and complained of systematic mistreatment. His family in the U.S. is working to bring the former Marine home. Yulia Savchenko met with Whelan’s sister, Elizabeth, in Washington to get the latest on the case.
 

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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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Pope Francis Friday called on bishops in Thailand to keep their doors open for priests and to spread the faith as their missionary predecessors did.

“Be close to your priests, listen to them and seek to accompany them in every situation, especially when you see that they are discouraged or apathetic, which is the worst of the devil’s temptations. Do so not as judges but as fathers, not as managers who deploy them, but as true elder brothers.”

Francis gave a speech to the Asian Bishops Conference at the Shrine of Blessed Nicholas Bunkerd Kithamrung in Sam Phran, 56 kilometers west of capital Bangkok.

Huge crowds, including faithful from Vietnam, Cambodia and China welcomed the pope  when he earlier arrived for a meeting with clergy and seminarians at Saint Peter’s Parish in Nakhon Pathom province.   

Francis concluded the day’s celebrations with a Mass dedicated to young people at Bangkok’s Cathedral of the Assumption.
       
Francis is only the second pope to visit Thailand. Pope John Paul II, now Saint John Paul II, was the first in 1984.

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A Hong Kong court on Friday suspended its decision to strike down a government ban on wearing face masks at protests, allowing police to enforce the decree for another week around keenly contested local elections in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory.
                   
The court had ruled Monday that the ban, imposed in October under rarely used emergency powers to prevent anti-government protesters from hiding their identity, infringed on fundamental rights more than was reasonably necessary.
                   
The government had appealed for a freeze on the ruling while it appeals to higher courts.
                   
The High Court agreed Friday to grant a one-week suspension in view of the “highly exceptional circumstances that Hong Kong is currently facing,” local broadcaster RTHK reported. China’s rubber-stamp parliament rebuked the court ruling this week, in what some interpreted as an indication it might overrule the verdict.
                   
Many Hong Kong protesters have defied the ban, and during lunchtime rallies Friday, some chanted “We have the right to wear masks.”
                   
The city’s new police commissioner, Tang Ping-keung, told reporters police would be out in force at polling stations Sunday to respond to any outbreak of violence “without hesitation.”
                   
Six masked protesters surrendered before dawn Friday, bringing to about 30 the number that have come out in the past day from a university campus surrounded by police.
                   
The group emerged from a campus entrance and held hands as they walked toward a checkpoint around 3 a.m. Five wore the black clothing favored by the protest movement and the other was in a blue checked shirt.
                   
Most of the protesters who took over Hong Kong Polytechnic University last week have left, but an unknown number have remained inside for days, hoping somehow to avoid arrest.
                   
Tang Chun-Keung, head of the Hong Kong Association of the Heads of Secondary Schools, said the holdouts include minors, numbering less than 10, and they are emotionally unstable. Tang entered the campus Friday with some others but failed to find them.
                   
“We have lawyers and social workers ready to provide assistance and we hope to persuade them to leave the campus. We are worried our work is getting more and more difficult because students are refusing to meet us,” he told reporters.
                   
Police chief Tang reiterated that those under 18 can leave, although they may face charges later, and pledged impartial treatment for all adults facing arrest.
                   
“The condition is deteriorating and dangerous, there are many explosives and petrol bombs inside … we hope to end the matter peacefully,” he said, adding police didn’t set any deadline to end the siege.
                   
The anti-government protesters battled with police and blocked the nearby approach to a major road tunnel, which remains closed. It was the latest bout in more than five months of unrest. Protesters are demanding fully democratic elections and an investigation into alleged police brutality in suppressing the demonstrations.
                   
Anti-government rallies were held sporadically in the past two days. Riot police broke up minor scuffles between protesters and pro-Beijing supporters at a downtown bridge Friday, but there were no major clashes ahead of Sunday’s district council elections.
                   
City leaders have said they want to go ahead with the vote, seen as a bellwether of public support for the protests, but warned violence could make it impossible to hold a fair and safe election.
                   
Asked if the police presence would make voters feel uncomfortable, police chief Tang said it will make citizens “feel safe to go out and vote.”

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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 major Internet outage in Iran aimed at suppressing anti-government protests has extended into a 5th day, with access levels rising slightly as authorities said they reconnected several regions to the web.

Real-time technical data corroborate reports in #Iran news media that some connectivity is being restored, although only partially.

At the current time national connectivity has risen further to 10%.

Follow our live report for updates on the situation 📰https://t.co/1Al0DT8an1

— NetBlocks.org (@netblocks) November 21, 2019

In a series of Thursday tweets, London-based Internet monitoring group NetBlocks said Iran’s almost-total Internet shutdown began to ease after 113 hours, with the national connectivity rate rising from 5% to 10%. Connectivity had plummeted to about 5% late Saturday and mostly remained at that level until Thursday afternoon Iran time.

Iranian state news agencies reported that authorities were gradually restoring Internet access in several regions, including the southern province of Hormozgan that is home to the major port of Bandar Abbas.

Speaking to reporters in Tehran, the Secretary of Iran’s Supreme Cyberspace Council Abolhassan Firouzabadi said the state body would make a decision later Thursday about whether to end the five-day Internet shutdown that has caused further damage to an economy already weakened by U.S. sanctions and government corruption and mismanagement. He expressed hope  the outage would end “within the next two days.”
 
Iranian authorities imposed the shutdown to stop opposition activists from communicating and posting online images of nationwide protests that erupted last Friday in response to the government’s abrupt 50% increase in the subsidized price of gasoline. The protests had spread to more than 50 urban centers in Iran by Saturday, according to images received from Iran and verified by VOA Persian.

Many Iranians see the gas price increase as putting a further burden on their wallets at a time of worsening economic conditions. Iran’s currency has slumped versus the dollar, while inflation and unemployment have soared in the past year, as the U.S. has tightened economic sanctions aimed at pressuring Tehran to stop perceived malign behaviors. Government corruption and mismanagement also have contributed to the malaise.
 
“Mismanagement by the Iranian regime is helping to make the U.S. sanctions more effective,” Ilan Berman, a Middle East security analyst at the American Foreign Policy Council, said in a VOA Persian interview.
 
“Iranians are angry at the regime for the way it is conducting political and economic business. There is much less anger directed at the United States. Iranians know who the real culprit is,” he said.
 
State-approved Iranian news sites published several articles on Wednesday, highlighting ways in which the internet shutdown has been hurting the economy even more.
 
Economics news site Eqtesad quoted Communications Minister Mohammad-Javad Azari-Jahromi as saying online business transactions “have fallen by 90%” since the outage began.
 
Conservative news agency ILNA cited Tehran Chamber of Commerce member Ali Kolahi as saying the shutdown “presents us with problems in exports. We have no idea where our shipments are.”

Kolahi added that if the internet is restored “in the next couple of days, it may be possible to reverse some of the damage to our international image, but if this situation continues, it will be too late.”
 
The internet outage also has caused losses in the Iranian stock market, according to pro-government news site Bahar News in a report citing Investors Guild secretary Said Elsami.

In a Thursday statement, Iran’s most powerful military branch, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, said it had restored “calm” to the country after suppressing the protests. State TV showed more images of pro-government rallies around the country, as it has done for the past few days.

State media have reported the arrests of at least 1,000 people whom authorities accused of engaging in violent confrontations with security personnel, damaging businesses and looting.
 
Many of the anti-government protests seen in videos from the first few days of the unrest were peaceful.

Iran’s ongoing internet outage made it difficult to verify whether the demonstrations had ended. VOA Persian did not receive any reports of protests in Iran on Thursday.

Iran’s government has not released figures on the numbers of people killed and wounded in the protests, besides saying several security personnel were among the dead.

British rights group Amnesty International said it received information indicating Iranian security forces had killed at least 106 protesters by Tuesday. The group said it based the figure on eyewitness accounts, social media videos and reports of exiled Iranian human rights activists.
 
On Wednesday, Iran’s mission to the United Nations dismissed reports of more than 100 fatalities in the unrest as “baseless.”
 
VOA Persian has independently confirmed the killings of at least seven protesters in shootings by Iranian security forces on Saturday.
 
The killings of protesters have drawn statements of concern from the United States, the U.N. human rights agency OHCHR and the EU.

In a late Wednesday tweet, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence reiterated U.S. criticism of Iran’s crackdown on the protests and expressed solidarity with the Iranian people.

“As Iranians take to the streets in protest, the Ayatollahs in Tehran continue to use violence and imprisonment to oppress their people. The United States’ message is clear: the American people stand with the people of Iran,” Pence said.

As Iranians take to the streets in protest, the Ayatollahs in Tehran continue to use violence and imprisonment to oppress their people. The United States’ message is clear: the American people stand with the people of Iran.

— Vice President Mike Pence (@VP) November 21, 2019

U.S. Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook, speaking to VOA Persian on Monday, said the Trump administration has been trying to help Iran’s people to circumvent the internet shutdown, without elaborating.

Hook also called on social media companies to suspend the accounts of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, President Hassan Rouhani and Foreign Minister Mohamad Javad Zarif until they turn the internet back on. All three have accounts with U.S. social media companies Twitter and Instagram.
 
Instagram spokesperson Stephanie Otway declined to comment on Hook’s appeal when contacted by VOA Persian.
 
Katie Rosborough, a Twitter spokesperson, also declined a direct response to a VOA Persian query on the issue. Instead, she pointed to a company statement published last month, saying Twitter will take action against accounts of world leaders only if they use the platform to promote violence or post content deemed harmful to others.
 
This article originated in VOA’s Persian Service. Gabriele Barbati contributed.
 

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