South Korea says it has fired warning shots to repel a North Korean merchant ship that violated their disputed western sea boundary.

South Korea’s military says it believes the North Korean ship crossed the sea boundary on Wednesday due to bad weather and an engine problem.

It says it’s the second time that South Korea has fired warning shots to drive back a North Korean ship in the area since South Korea’s current liberal government took office in 2017. The first incident happened in September.

Ties between the two Koreas are strained amid a stalemate in U.S.-led diplomacy on ending the North Korean nuclear crisis.

North Korea said Monday its troops conducted artillery firing drills near the sea boundary, drawing formal protests from South Korea.

Top Russian officials decried the recommendations by a World Anti-Doping Agency committee to suspend Russia from international competition over tainted athlete doping probes — the latest in a drawn out saga over accusations of Russian state sponsored doping that has roiled global sport since 2014.

Russian athletes, unsurprisingly, joined in expressing bitterness about the WADA recommendations. But while some argued the suggested WADA penalties were unduly harsh, others blamed a failure in Russian sport leadership for risking their chance to compete in the next two Olympic Games and perhaps beyond.

The recommendations, issued by WADA’s Compliance Review Committee on Monday, alleged evidence of tampering of some 2000 athlete probes at Moscow’s RUSADA testing facility, and called for a four-year suspension of Russia from international competition, including the Olympic Games.

Reacting to the pronouncement at a news conference on Tuesday, Russia Minister of Sport

Western news agencies producing content in Persian have rebuked Iran for harassing their journalists based in Europe and the United States and for intimidating the Iran-based relatives of those journalists.

In a statement emailed to VOA Persian on Tuesday, a BBC spokesman said the London-based network has seen an increase in Iranian harassment of its Persian service staff and their families since the network began covering anti-government protests that erupted in Iran on November 15 and spread to dozens of cities.

Within several days, the Iranian government violently suppressed the protests, which were sparked by the sudden increase in gas prices amid a weakening economy. The London-based rights group Amnesty International said Iranian security forces killed at least 143 protesters in the unrest, in which some people set fire to buildings and looted stores. Iranian authorities have not released a death toll.

“It is deeply disappointing that Iran’s targeting of journalists and foreign-based Persian language media has been stepped up [during coverage of the protests],” the BBC spokesman said. “We have for many years sought to bring the world’s attention to this completely unacceptable breach of human rights, through our advocacy at the U.N., EU and other international bodies. We call on the Iranian authorities to bring this harassment to an end immediately.”

In a report published earlier Tuesday, the Paris-based media rights group Reporters Without Borders, also known as RSF, said it has documented recent threats by Iran toward journalists of Iranian origin working for BBC, Washington-based Voice of America, Prague-based VOA sister network Radio Farda and London-based media companies Iran International, Kayhan Life and Manoto TV.

RSF said Tehran’s harassment of the overseas-based Iranian journalists often has taken the form of “online attacks, insults and intimidation, mainly on social networks.”

The media rights group said a key perpetrator of the online intimidation has been Hamid Baeidinejad, Iran’s ambassador to Britain.

In a series of Farsi tweets since the start of Iran’s latest unrest, Baeidinejad alleged Radio Farda was acting to “topple” the Iranian government and accused a BBC journalist covering a rally of Iranian dissidents outside Iran’s London embassy of speaking to “terrorists.”

مردم ایران هیچگاه این روزهارا فراموش نمیکنندکه چگونه شبکه های معاندی چون BBCفارسی، VoA، من و‌تو‌ و ایران اینترنشنال با ارتزاق از بودجه دولتهای خارجی وگروه پهلوی درتلاشند آشوبگران سازمان یافته، قاتلین جان و آتش زنندگان اموال را منتقدان سیاسی معرفی کنند و ایران را به ناامنی بکشند.

— Hamid Baeidinejad (@baeidinejad) November 19, 2019

On November 19, Baeidinejad also tweeted: “The Iranian people will never forget these days in which enemy TV channels such as BBC, VOA, Manoto and Iran International – subsidized by the money of foreign governments and the Pahlavi group – have put Iran in danger by trying to portray the rioters, who are murderers and arsonists, as political dissidents.”

Pahlavi is the family name of Iran’s exiled crown prince, whose father led the nation until being  deposed in a 1979 Islamic Revolution by clerics who have been in power ever since.

RSF said another aspect of Iran’s harassment campaign has involved its intelligence agents “summoning and threatening” the parents of several of overseas-based journalists in recent days, telling the parents to tell their children to stop working for “enemy” news outlets. It said those agents conveyed a message to the parents that stopping such work would be “better for them and for you.”

جمهوری اسلامی ارعاب و تلاش برای سانسور روزنامه‌نگاران را از طریق فشار به خانواده‌هایشان در خارج از مرزها، ادامه می‌دهد. پدر ۷۳ ساله من را فراخوانده‌اند و درباره من ‌و خواهرم به او هشدار داده اند. خانواده‌های ما گروگان هستند. #روزنامه_نگاری_جرم_نیست#journalismisnotacrime

— Farnaz Ghazizadeh (@BBCFarnaz) November 23, 2019

In a November 23 tweet, BBC Persian broadcaster Farnaz Ghazizadeh said her 73-year-old father in Iran had been warned about the work that she and her sister Sanaz, also a BBC journalist, have been doing. “Our family members are hostages,” she wrote, adding the hashtag #journalismisnotacrime.

“I strongly condemn the harassment of journalists’ families inside Iran by Iranian authorities,” said VOA director Amanda Bennet in a video message recorded on Tuesday. It was a more strongly-worded response than that of BBC, which has sent several of its English service reporters to Iran in recent years on condition that their movements are restricted by Iranian authorities and their content is not shared with the BBC Persian service.

“We stand with (RSF) in condemning this harassment and asking that it immediately stop to ensure the safety of the families of our journalists who are working hard to bring objective, truthful news and information around the world,” Bennett added.

Iran tries to block its people from seeing VOA Persian TV programs and digital content and has not allowed a VOA correspondent to report from inside the country in 13 years.

Responding to a VOA Persian question about the reports of Iranian harassment at a Tuesday press briefing at the State Department, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he has seen Iran “engage in activity that is fundamentally at odds with central understandings we have here in America about how the press ought to be treated.”

Pompeo said the Trump administration has been advocating for Iran to behave like a normal nation that respects press freedom. “When I see those reports [of harassment], it reminds me that our work is certainly not yet complete,” he added.  

Donald Trump on Tuesday followed a White House Thanksgiving tradition by pardoning “Butter,” the turkey, and his alternate, “Bread.” The president also honored his own tradition of cracking jokes while granting clemency to the poultry. White House correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has the story.

Rescuers were pulling survivors and dead bodies from piles of rubble in Albania on Tuesday after a 6.4-magnitude earthquake struck the country’s coastal area. The U.S. Geological survey placed the quake’s epicenter about 30 kilometers north of the capital Tirana and at a depth of about 20 kilometers. The earthquake was followed by about 100 aftershocks, including three with preliminary magnitudes of about 5. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports the death toll is rising.

France said Tuesday it is determined to continue fighting terrorism, despite losing 13 of its soldiers during a counterinsurgency operation in Mali. 

The deaths of the soldiers late Monday represent France’s biggest military loss in three decades. The 13 troops were killed during a counterterrorism combat operation in Mali, when the two helicopters the troops were on slammed into each other.

French President Emmanuel Macron announced his deep sadness over their deaths, and France’s National Assembly observed a minute of silence.

French Defense Minister Florence Parly described the men as exceptional soldiers and heroes, who fought for liberty until the end. She said support from allies strengthened France, allowing it to continue the fight against terrorism.

Forty-one French soldiers have been killed in Mali since France launched its Barkhane counterinsurgency operation against Islamist militants in the Sahel in 2014.

The latest deaths draw attention to the roughly 4,500 French troops stationed across West Africa — raising questions about whether they are stretched too thin.

France is supporting a so-called G-5 Sahel alliance, grouping five area countries against armed extremist groups. But experts say the militant groups are strengthening. Regional forces and U.N. peacekeepers have come under attack. Some commentators say France does not have enough military support and the G-5 Sahel alliance has yet to achieve even a symbolic victory.
 

Thanksgiving came early for a group of New York City commuters who enjoyed a holiday feast on a subway train.      

Video footage shows riders standing behind a white-clothed table covered with plates of turkey, mashed potatoes and cornbread in the middle of a Brooklyn-bound L train on Sunday.      

Stand-up comedian Jodell “Joe Show” Lewis tells the New York Post he organized the Thanksgiving dinner to “bring a little excitement to commuters” and feed any New Yorkers who might be hungry.
       
Lewis says he chose the L train after he saw how “dreary and upset” riders were at the inconvenience of a construction project that has cut service on the line.

As the impeachment process against U.S. President Donald Trump unfolds, it’s not only Americans glued to their television sets. People around the world are fascinated by the political warfare in Washington and many say it shows American democracy in action. Trump is accused of improperly pressuring Ukraine to investigate the family of his political rival Joe Biden, a charge he strongly denies. From London to Delhi, Moscow to Johannesburg, Henry Ridgwell looks at world reaction to the impeachment process.

Chilean President Sebastian Pinera on Tuesday asked lawmakers to allow troops back on the streets to defend key public infrastructure, even as a human rights group reported “grave” abuses by security forces over five weeks of sometimes violent riots.

The continuing protests in Chile over inequality and a shortfall in some social services have left at least 26 dead and thousands injured. They have also hobbled the capital’s public transport system, once the envy of Latin America, and caused billions in losses for private business.

Riots have erupted in countries across Latin America, including Colombia, Ecuador and Bolivia in recent weeks as regional unrest has spiraled into violence and demands for broad-based reforms.

Pinera sent a bill to Congress Tuesday morning to allow the military to protect transmission lines, electric plants, airports, hospitals and other public infrastructure in order to assure “basic services.”

He said the move would “free up the police force … to protect the security of our citizens.”

Pinera’s announcement came shortly after international rights group Human Rights Watch said in a report that police had brutally beat protesters, shot teargas cartridges directly at them, and ran over some with official vehicles or motorcycles.

“There are hundreds of worrying reports of excessive force on the streets and abuse of detainees,” said Jose Miguel Vivanco, director of Human Rights Watch’s Americas division, after meeting with Pinera on Tuesday.

The group stopped short of alleging the abuses had been systematic, but its conclusions were in line with a report last week by Amnesty International on the seriousness of many violations. More than 200 Chileans have suffered severe eye injuries alone in clashes with police using rubber bullets.

Both Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have recommended an immediate overhaul of police protocols and accountability measures to address the mounting allegations of abuse.

Police and military officials have said any cases of alleged abuse are under investigation by civilian courts.

New clashes

Roadblocks snarled traffic around the Chilean capital Santiago on Tuesday around midday, as protesters set up burning barricades on major streets and highways around the city.

Police used water cannons to disperse protesters in front of the La Moneda presidential palace shortly after Pinera’s speech there. Many took to the city’s main boulevard afterward, bringing traffic to a standstill.

“This never ends,” Rosa Olarce, a pharmacy worker, told Reuters as she waited for a bus. “We’ll see what comes of it.”

Pinera in his speech Tuesday morning ticked off a list of reforms, from boosting the minimum wage to slashing the prices of medicines and public transportation, aimed at quelling the protests.

The country’s normally fractious political parties have also agreed to work together on a new constitution.

However, protests continue, in smaller numbers but with intense violence at their fringes, driven by mistrust that politicians will keep their promises to bring significant change, and enduring fury over the police handling of demonstrators.

It’s one of America’s leading sources for news about the government, yet also among the least trusted. Social media, a new poll finds, is America’s political news paradox.

Julie Ferguson, an occupational therapist in central Washington state, remembers getting TV news from just a handful of networks. “I grew up watching Walter Cronkite,” she said. Today, she sees more political news on social media than anywhere else. She doesn’t trust it, but worries many others do. “The information they’re getting, who knows where it’s coming from?”

The irony of where Americans get their news about the government, and what sources they rely on to deliver news about the government they can trust, was exposed in a survey published this month by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Opinion Research and USAFacts.

It found that 54% of Americans say they get government-related information from social media at least once a day, compared with 52% who said they get information about government daily from local TV news, 50% from national TV news, 47% from cable news and 19% from nationally circulated newspapers.

The poll also found that Americans are significantly more likely to say they get information from social media repeatedly throughout the day than to say the same about any other news source.

Yet the survey found only 11% of Americans say they trust information about government they see on social media a great deal or quite a bit. Nearly two-thirds said they have little to no trust in government news they find there. Of all the potential places to find news about the government included in the survey, social media was the least trusted.

“There’s definitely a bias to everything (on social media),” said Gordon Schackelford, 70, of Fairfield, Iowa. He said he became “cynical” about what he sees on social media after learning Russia used those online platforms to publish false, misleading and divisive content in an effort to tamper with the 2016 U.S. election.

Schackelford said he has grown weary of partisan posts on social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter, finding that on social media, it can feel like everyone from politicians and family members to journalists are pushing certain narratives or talking points — no matter the facts.

Yet, he admitted, he still checks social media on a daily basis.

“It’s almost like an exercise: I see my friends on Facebook will make a post, half of them are going to get supported, or half of them are going to get ripped to death,” Schackelford said.

While awareness about misinformation on social media has increased in recent years, many people are still confused about how they can get reliable news, said Stephanie Edgerly, an associate professor at Northwestern University who researches changing media landscapes.

“It’s really dangerous to make people aware, concerned and afraid, but not pair that with strategies to engage,” Edgerly said. “What we’re observing right now is that people got the message that fake news, disinformation exists online. What we haven’t done a really good job of getting the message out there is where they can go for information they can trust.”

Americans are somewhat more trusting of the information about government that they get from more traditional news sources, such as newspapers or local TV news. Distrust is still widespread, however, no matter the source.

According to the survey, the most trusted source for information about government is public TV and radio, with 31% saying they have a great deal or quite a bit of trust in outlets such as PBS or NPR.

Frank Junker said he distrusts the news he reads on social media because platforms are designed to encourage clicks, not accuracy or insight. While the 33-year-old from Cincinnati uses social media on a daily basis as a way to highlight his work as an artist, he doesn’t consider it a good source of information.

“These are algorithms deciding what news stories to push at me,” he said. “You don’t know what’s being driven by advertising. They want you to click, so they’ll come up with headlines to do it.”

Junker and other survey respondents interviewed by AP said the amount of misinformation and spin they have encountered online has forced them to develop their own techniques for determining the accuracy of what they read. A varied media diet, tolerance of differing opinions and a healthy dose of skepticism is essential, they said.

Ferguson, the occupational therapist, said too many Americans are only exposed to information about government that reinforces their preexisting beliefs, regardless of whether those beliefs have a basis in reality.

“They live in their own tiny world,” she said. “It’s dangerous.”
 

Ebola responders are on lockdown in the eastern Congo city of Beni after angry residents attacked a United Nations base to protest repeated rebel assaults, the World Health Organization said Tuesday. At least four protesters were killed, a local official said.

Every day that health workers don’t have full access to Ebola-affected areas is a “tragedy” that prolongs the second-worst Ebola outbreak in history, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Twitter.

Almost 50 “non-critical” staffers with the U.N. health agency were evacuated to the city of Goma while 71 remain, spokesman Christian Lindmeier said. He said the violence is not directed at WHO or the Ebola response at large

Instead, Beni residents are outraged that rebels continue to carry out deadly attacks despite the presence of U.N. peacekeepers and Congolese forces. Some demand that the U.N. mission act or leave.

The bodies of four young protesters were found near the U.N. base after Monday’s attack, Kumbu Ngoma with Beni’s military court told The Associated Press on Tuesday. Investigations continued into the cause of their deaths. Six Congolese soldiers were wounded by gunfire near the base, Ngoma added.

Congo’s President Felix Tshisekedi after an emergency meeting Monday decided to allow joint operations between Congolese and U.N. forces in Beni following the protests that also burned the town hall.

Congo’s military early this month declared a new offensive against Allied Democratic Forces rebels who have killed hundreds of civilians and security forces over the past few years in the mineral-rich northeast.

After the U.N. mission in recent days was accused of inaction, it said it could not carry out operations unilaterally in a region where Congo’s military is already active, and that it cannot participate in Congolese military operations without being invited.

Any unrest in the region where numerous rebel groups are active hurts crucial efforts to contain the Ebola outbreak. The number of reported cases has been dropping, with zero cases recorded on several days this month.

Congo’s president, heartened by the trend, said earlier this month he hoped that the outbreak could be ended “completely by the end of the year.” However, WHO says 42 days without new Ebola cases must pass since the last possible exposure to a confirmed case for an outbreak to be declared over.

More than 3,100 Ebola cases have been confirmed since this outbreak was declared in August 2018, including more than 2,100 deaths.

WHO has called the trend in the declining number of cases encouraging but said the recent days of protests in Beni and surrounding areas are of “grave concern.”

Associated Press writer Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed.

 

Clashes broke out early Monday in Beirut, as supporters of Hezbollah ambushed an ongoing anti-government protest. In Iraq, officials say an anti-government protester was been killed Tuesday by security forces and 21 others wounded amid ongoing clashes with security forces in Baghdad.  Analysts say mass protests such as these and elsewhere have persisted longer and with more intensity than at any time in recent history. VOA’s Heather Murdock has this report from Beirut

A strong earthquake struck the area of Albania’s capital early Tuesday, killing at least six people and injuring hundreds.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake was a magnitude 6.4 with an epicenter 30 kilometers northwest of the capital, Tirana.

Rescue crews worked to find and free people from damaged and destroyed buildings.

A Defense Ministry spokeswoman said the bodies of three people were found in the rubble of an apartment building in the city of Durres.

Crews found the bodies of two other people in the remains of a collapsed building in the village of Thumane, while another person died after jumping out of a building in Kurbin.

Pakistan’s highest court has temporarily suspended a government notification that allowed the country’s powerful military chief to serve another full three-year term.

Tuesday’s unprecedented move by the Supreme Court came several months after Prime Minister Imran Khan issued the extension order for the chief of army staff, General Qamar Javed Bajwa, who is due to retire later this week.  

The court will hear the case again on Wednesday to determine whether the government’s action was in line with legal requirements.

Khan’s aides have been defending Bajwa’s extension citing, among other security challenges, heightened military tensions with rival India over the disputed Kashmir region.

However, Tuesday’s temporary court order has surprised many in Pakistan  which has experienced several military coups and where extensions given to army chiefs in the past have been overlooked by the judiciary.

The Supreme Court had sided with and provided legal cover to the last military coup in 1999 that ousted the elected government of former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif. 

Women across Europe and elsewhere demonstrated on Monday to demand government action against widespread abuse of women and girls. The United Nations says one-third of all women experience physical or sexual violence in their lifetime. Half of the women killed by violence are victims of their partner or family member. The world organization has designated November 25 as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports some governments marked the day by announcing measures to protect women, while others sought to silence their voices.

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.”

“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.

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)

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.

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.”

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.

“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.”
 

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.

On this episode of Healthy Living, an update on theEbola outbreak in the DRC. The President of Concern Worldwide U.S. Aine Fay joins us in studio for more on what is being called an international emergency. We also discuss with the Former Prime Minister Of Togo Gilbert Houngbo about hunger being on the rise in Africa. And, whether or not spicy foods can cause stomach ulcers in our “True or False” segment and how researchers in Brazil are inventing traps to catch mosquitos that cause illness. All these topics and more on Healthy Living this week. S1, E6