 Hello and welcome to the International Daily Roundup by People's Dispatch, where we bring you major news developments from around the world. Our headlines. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says that BDS movement will be labelled anti-semitic. New York City shuts down schools once again due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Australian soldiers committed war crimes in Afghanistan, says the report. Argentines mobilise for reproductive rights. In our first story, the Palestinian boycott, divestment and sanctions movement has condemned the statement of U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Pompeo called the movement anti-semitic and a cancer. The U.S. Secretary of State made these comments in a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday. He added that the U.S. will immediately start identifying organisations that participate in or support the BDS movement and proceed to withdraw any U.S. government financial assistance from them. The Palestinian BDS National Committee, that is a BNC, in a statement called it ironic that the Trump administration continues to enable and normalise white supremacy and anti-semitism in the U.S. and worldwide, while simultaneously smearing BDS, pointing out that the BDS is consistently and categorically rejected all forms of racism, including anti-Jewish racism. It said that the peaceful BDS movement would prevail over the far-right Trump-Netanyahu alliance. Meanwhile, on Wednesday, hundreds of Palestinians had gathered in Al-Bire city near Ramallah near the occupied West Bank ahead of a visit of Pompeo to an illegal Israeli settlement. Pompeo visited the Zagot winery in an illegal settlement near Ramallah on Thursday. His visit is a first such by U.S. diplomat inside the Israeli settlements that are considered illegal by the international community and the UN. On Wednesday, Palestinians veered flags and shouted slogans denouncing Israeli occupation and illegal settlements. They also carried placards calling Pompeo a partner in Israeli war crimes and asking him to go back home. According to the Palestinian news agency Wafa, at least four of the protesters suffered suffocation due to the exposure to tear gas fired by Israeli soldiers at them. In our second story, in New York, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced shutting down all schools in the city effective Thursday until further notice. The move was prompted by rising cases of COVID-19 infections. New York is one of the worst-hit coronavirus cities in the world and in the United States and is currently seeing a second wave of outbreak with 3% of testing positivity rate. On Wednesday, the city alone recorded over 1,700 fresh cases of infection and three new deaths. The New York state has a hold recorded over 5,200 new cases with 31 deaths. The total number of cases in New York has reached around 597,000 with over 33,600 deaths. In-person classes were opened in late September and early October in the city, months after the first lockdown was declared on March 18. According to Blasio, in-person learning will resume as soon as possible if infection rates in the state drop significantly. New York City alone has over 1 million students in public schools. Only 25% of all registered students had rejoined the in-person learning since the reopening of the schools. Around 2,300 students and staff have been tested positive since the reopening. The decision to shut the schools has been endorsed by the United Federation of Teachers, the largest union of instructors in the city. However, parents who opted for in-person classes have opposed the move and signed petitions to keep the schools open. Now, next story on November 19, the Chief of Defence Forces of Australia, General Angus Campbell, released a report admitting that its personnel killed at least 39 civilians in Afghanistan between 2013 and 2019. According to the 531-page report, there is credible evidence to substantiate 23 incidents of alleged unlawful killings of 39 people by 25 Australian Special Forces personnel. These are predominantly from the Special Air Service Regiment. The report talks about such killings taking place amid a culture of bloodlust and competition killings. Campbell admitted, and I quote, these findings allege the most serious breaches of military conduct and offered his apologies to the people of Afghanistan. The inquiry reports said that some of the personnel responsible for killing non-combatants are still serving in the military and recommended the investigation of 19 such personnel. According to Campbell, none of the 39 people were killed at the time of battle. They were either killed when they were in prison or detained by the Australian forces. In many cases, weapons or handheld radios were placed beside the bodies of victims to make it seem like they had been combatants killed in battle. Australian forces served in Afghanistan from 2001 onwards as part of the International Invasion Forces called the International Security Assistance Force led by NATO. Australia's contingent was the largest non-NATO one in Afghanistan. And finally, Argentines are mobilizing to demand that legislators take up a bill on reproductive rights that has been sent to Congress. Argentine President Alberto Fernandez on November 17th had sent the bill to legalize abortion in the country to the Congress. Along with a voluntary termination of pregnancy bill, President Fernandez also sent a thousand-day plan bill. This bill seeks to strengthen health care services and nutrition actions for mothers and newborns in the first thousand days, starting from a woman's pregnancy until the child's second's birthday. With the presentation of these bills, President Fernandez fulfilled a promise made to hundreds of thousands of women to decriminalize abortion and ensure their access to the right to comprehensive health care. Authorities estimate that every year over 500,000 abortions are performed in unsafe and clandestine conditions in Argentina. On November 18th, a march with green scarves, which represents the feminist struggle for legal abortion, was held in front of the Health Ministry. Hundreds of women, feminist activists and LGBTQ community members mobilized in different parts of the country to urge legislators to attend the IVE bill on an urgent basis. That's all we have time for today. We'll be back tomorrow with more news from around the world. Until then, keep watching People's Dispatch. Thank you very much.