Month: November 2019

“Welcome to the revolution,” my colleague says as we round the corner into Beirut’s Martyr’s Square on Wednesday evening. Tents are crowded with groups discussing corruption, governance and civil society, and a deep rumbling sound in the distance grows louder. They are part of an anti-corruption protest movement in Lebanon that has been holding rallies every day for nearly a month. “Corn on the cob?” my colleague suggests. Also for sale on the side of the streets are traditional cakes, bottles of water, and Lebanese flags and banners. At first glance, we appear to be entering a festival. But soon we can quite literally hear the depth of the anger being expressed here. This fist statue in Martyr’s Square says “Revolution.” Below it are the remnants of tents burned by counterprotesters in the early days of the demonstrations, pictured in Beirut on Nov. 14, 2019. (Heather Murdock/VOA) We walk toward the rumbling and see dozens of men and women pounding on walls littered with graffiti slogans like, “Beirut has spoken,” and, “All of them means all of them.” The rumbling of the fists pounding on the wall is now a roar, accompanied by the people banging on pots and pans and the occasional crack of someone slamming the wall with a bike or a foot. The banging then fades as more and more people join a chanting procession, a symbolic funeral for Alaa Abu Fakhr, a man who died on Tuesday after an officer fired on protesters blocking a road. …

The number of migrant families that U.S. border agents apprehended at the southwest border dropped sharply in October, according to data released Thursday by border officials.  The decrease follows what had been one of the most significant periods of family apprehensions in U.S. immigration history, an issue that dominated headlines and created challenges at detention facilities ill-equipped to handle so many young children.  Family units accounted for 55% of people who crossed the border without authorization and were stopped by U.S. Border Patrol agents in the 2019 fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30.  Last month, however, that proportion dropped to 27%, a figure more in line with historical averages.  Families accounted for 9,733 of the 35,444 people apprehended in October, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.  It was the fifth straight month of declining apprehension numbers since May, when the number of migrants stopped by CBP spiked past 130,000. Number of Children, Families Crossing US-Mexico Border Jumps in May Uptick most notable for families, most of whom are from the Northern Triangle countries of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras That increase was driven in large part by Central American families seeking asylum. The Trump administration attributes the lower numbers in recent months to several new policies, including the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), under which more than 50,000 people apprehended after crossing the southwest U.S. border without authorization were sent back to Mexico — regardless of their country of origin — to await their U.S. immigration hearings. Migrants, advocates, researchers …

Fresh protests erupted Wednesday in Bolivia just hours after opposition Sen. Jeanine Áñez was sworn in as interim president. The United States recognized Áñez as Bolivia’s temporary president. The country’s longtime leader, Evo Morales, said he was removed by a coup and that he would continue to fight. He spoke from Mexico where he was granted asylum. The leftist leader resigned  Sunday after weeks of protests over a disputed presidential election result. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports Morales still has supporters in his country, especially among indigenous Bolivians. …

U.S. President Donald Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met at the White House Wednesday but did not reach resolutions on major irritants to bilateral relations including Turkey’s recent incursion into northern Syria and its purchase of Russian military hardware. White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has this report.   …

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has ordered the release on bail of more than 70 opposition activists arrested in recent weeks and accused of plotting to overthrow the government, he said Thursday. Hun Sen, who has ruled Cambodia for more than 34 years, has been under increasing international pressure to improve his human rights record, with the European Union threatening the withdrawal of important trade benefits. “There are over 70 people, please hurry up work on this case so that these brothers can be released on bail,” Hun Sen said in a speech at a new cement factory in the southern province of Kampot, in comments directed at judicial authorities. Self-exiled Cambodian opposition party founder Sam Rainsy speaks during an interview with Reuters at a hotel in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Nov. 10, 2019. Cambodia arrested dozens of people in the run-up to last Saturday, when veteran opposition figure Sam Rainsy had said he would return from self-imposed exile to rally opposition to authoritarian ruler Hun Sen. But Sam Rainsy did not return to Cambodia, saying he had been stopped in Paris from boarding a flight to neighboring Thailand. He instead flew to Malaysia before arriving in Indonesia on Thursday. Leader of the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) Kem Sokha shakes hands with British Ambassador to Cambodia Tina Redshaw at his home in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Nov. 14, 2019. On Saturday, Cambodia also relaxed the house arrest conditions on opposition leader Kem Sokha, who was arrested on treason charges more than …

The planned exchange of two senior Taliban commanders and a leader of the Haqqani militant group for an American and an Australian kidnapped in Afghanistan in 2016 has not taken place, a diplomat and a former Afghan official said on Wednesday. The diplomat, who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity, declined to provide any details about why the planned exchange, which Afghan President Ashraf Ghani announced on Tuesday, did not occur. The U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment, nor did the Afghan embassy in Washington. “We hope the Taliban immediately releases the hostages,” a spokesman for the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said. He said Australia appreciated Ghani’s concern for the hostages – Australian citizen Timothy Weeks and U.S. citizen Kevin King, professors kidnapped by the Taliban in August 2016 from the American University of Afghanistan in Kabul. The Afghan government’s decision to free Anas Haqqani and two other Taliban commanders, Haji Mali Khan and Hafiz Rashid, was taken in the hope of securing direct talks with the Taliban, which has refused to engage with what it calls an illegitimate “puppet” regime in Kabul. All three were captured in 2014. In return, King and Weeks were to be freed. …

Gaza’s militant Islamic Jihad group announced a cease-fire with Israel early Thursday, ending two days of fighting that left at least 34 Palestinians dead. Spokesman Musab al-Berim said the Egyptian-brokered deal went into effect at 5:30 a.m. There was no immediate confirmation from Israel, which rarely acknowledges deals with Gaza militant groups, but some restrictions were lifted on residents of the south, despite the continued fire of several rockets. Al-Berim said the cease-fire was based on a list of demands presented by his group late Wednesday, including a halt to Israeli targeted killings of the group’s leaders. The fighting broke out early Tuesday after Israel killed a senior commander of the militant group who was said to be behind a string of rocket attacks and who Israel said was believed to be planning a cross-border infiltration. The rare targeted killing by Israel sparked the heaviest fighting with Gaza militants since May. Islamic Jihad fired some 400 rockets toward Israel, while Israel responded with scores of airstrikes. Israel’s response Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said the policy of targeted killings had “proved itself” to be effective and that it would continue, despite word of the cease-fire. “Everyone who was a top military official, who was set to carry out and was involved in terror or rocket firing against Israel was eliminated,” he told Israeli Army Radio. “And we intend to continue with this.” But Katz also said Israel would hold fire if Palestinian militants did so first. “Quiet will be answered …

Spanish police said Wednesday they have been unable to locate a Venezuelan former spymaster wanted by the United States for extradition on charges of drug trafficking. Police told The Associated Press that its officers have been unable to find Maj. Gen. Hugo Carvajal. News website El Español reported on Friday that a Spanish court had reversed an earlier ruling throwing out the U.S. arrest warrant and that it had ordered authorities to proceed with the extradition request. A spokesman for the National Court said Wednesday that no decision on the case has been made public at this time. Carvajal’s lawyer, Maria Dolores de Arguelles, said her client couldn’t be considered a fugitive because the defense has not been officially notified of the court ruling granting the extradition, and no court summons or arrest warrant has been issued. Venezuela’s Ex-spymaster to Be Extradited to US A source tells the AP that a former Venezuelan spymaster is being re-arrested in Madrid and is likely to be extradited to the United States to be tried on drug smuggling and other charges Carvajal is free on bail, but his passport has been confiscated and he is not allowed to leave the Madrid region, according to the bail terms. He also needs to sign in at the court every 15 days — the next time is Friday. Anti-drug prosecutors in Spain had appealed a mid-September decision by the National Court rejecting the extradition to the United States, where he is wanted on drug smuggling and …

Russia’s Embassy to Washington says it has lodged a formal diplomatic protest after Israel extradited a Russian national to the United States, where he is suspected of stealing more than $20 million from U.S. consumers through credit card fraud. In a Wednesday Facebook statement, the embassy also accused Washington of “hunting” Russian citizens across the world. The statement said that Russia had formally sent an official note to the U.S. State Department, demanding Aleksei Burkov’s rights be respected. The U.S. Justice Department says Burkov was “charged with wire fraud, access device fraud, and conspiracy to commit wire fraud, computer intrusions, identity theft, and money laundering” in the Eastern Court in Virginia on November 12. “According to court documents, Burkov allegedly ran a website called “Cardplanet” that sold payment card numbers (e.g., debit and credit cards) that had been stolen primarily through computer intrusions. Many of the cards offered for sale belonged to U.S. citizens. The stolen credit card data sold on Burkov’s site has resulted in over $20 million in fraudulent purchases made on United States credit cards,” the Justice Department said in a statement. If convicted on all counts, Burkov may face up to 80 years in prison.​ Burkov was arrested in December 2015 while leaving Israel. Last month, Israeli Justice Minister Amir Ohana signed an extradition order to the United States for the suspect. On November 10, the Supreme Court of Israel rejected Burkov’s appeal amid Russia’s protests. Russia had proposed to exchange Burkov for a U.S.-Israeli national …

The U.S. House of Representatives holds its first public hearings this week on the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump with testimony by three top diplomats on Wednesday and Friday. William Taylor, the highest-ranking U.S. diplomat in Ukraine, and George Kent, a senior State Department official in charge of U.S. policy toward Ukraine, are set to testify on Wednesday, followed by Marie Yovanovitch, the ousted former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, on Friday. All three diplomats have previously testified behind closed doors about Trump’s efforts to pressure Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, and probe a discredited conspiracy theory regarding the 2016 president election. Democrats say the open hearings will allow the public to assess the credibility of the witnesses and their testimonies.  Republicans are likely to attempt to discredit the impeachment proceedings and poke holes in the witnesses’ testimony. Here is what you need to know about the three witnesses and their role in the Ukraine affair.   Former Ambassador William Taylor leaves a closed door meeting after testifying as part of the House impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2019. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik) William Taylor Taylor has served as chargé d’affaires of the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv since June after Trump abruptly recalled Yovanovich. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo asked Taylor to step into her role.  A West Point and Harvard-educated former Army officer and career diplomat, Taylor previously served as U.S. ambassador to Ukraine from 2006 to 2009. …

As Islamic State militants lost their territorial holdings in Iraq and Syria, VOA chronicled the events through the words of the victims, in a 12-part series called “Life Under Islamic State.” Now we bring you voices of victims who were silenced until recently. Officials estimate nearly 3,000 Yazidi people remain missing after being captured and enslaved by IS. When Daoud was 15, he was kidnapped, trained and forced to fight for the militant group. He was imprisoned after the final battles.  These are his words, told to us in the tent where he lives with his brother in an informal refugee camp. They are are translated into English and edited for clarity. It was August 3, 2014 and we were preparing to flee when the militants captured us. My sister, mother, father and five of my brothers are still missing. The IS fighters told my father and older brothers that they must convert to Islam. Then, they took my family away and sent me to a school in Tal Afar, Iraq. It was called the Sharia Institute, and it mostly taught religion. Officials Call for Rescue of Thousands of Yazidi Captives video player. Embed Copy Link But there were other classes. One class was called “The Aim of Jihad.” It was lessons in terrorism. They taught us who to kill, how to kill and how to identify infidels that should be killed. They taught us what the punishment is for non-Muslims and what the punishment is for people who abandon …

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that while Israel does not want escalation in the latest clashes with Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip, it will “respond to every attack.” Speaking at the start of a Cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said Islamic Jihad has the choice to either “stop these attacks or take more and more blows.” Israeli forces carried out airstrikes Wednesday in Gaza, while militants there fired fresh barrages of rockets into Israel. A policeman stands in front of a house hit by a rocket fired from Gaza Strip in Netivot, Israel, after it was hit by a rocket fired from Gaza Strip, Nov. 12, 2019. Palestinian health officials said at least 18 Palestinians have been killed since the fighting began Tuesday.  There have been no reports of Israeli deaths. The Israeli Defense Forces said militants had fired more than 200 rockets. The rocket fire began in response to an Israeli airstrike that killed an Islamic Jihad commander in Gaza. Netanyahu said the commander, Bahaa Abu el-Atta, was responsible for many of the recent rocket attacks from Gaza into Israel, and that he had been planning further attacks. …

Mark Sanford, a former governor of South Carolina, abandoned his longshot bid on Tuesday to challenge President Donald Trump for the 2020 Republican presidential nomination. Sanford, 59, announced he was dropping out of the race at an event in New Hampshire, which holds the first Republican presidential primary, his hometown newspaper, The Post and Courier, reported. Sanford’s bid to challenge the sitting president for the Republican nomination failed to gain much traction since he threw his name into the ring two months ago. His departure from the race leaves two other Republicans waging longshot bids to win the Republican nomination — former Massachusetts governor William Weld and former Illinois congressman Joe Walsh. Sanford was governor of South Carolina from 2003 to 2011, and served two separate stints in the House of Representatives, but lost a party primary in 2018 after Trump urged voters to back his challenger. …

Clashes between protesters and riot police continued well into Tuesday night at a prominent Hong Kong university, extending one of the more violent stretches in the five months of demonstrations. Police fired rounds of tear gas and rubber bullets at protesters at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and students responded by throwing bricks and gasoline bombs. Clashes continued until police eventually used a water cannon truck and then began a retreat. The weekday clashes — thus far unusual for the Hong Kong protests which have largely occurred on weekends — followed a day of chaos as protesters erected barricades on roads and subway tracks. Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam called the protesters who threw Tuesday’s rush hour commute into chaos “extremely selfish.” Dozens of passengers aboard a commuter rail line were forced to exit the train when it stopped short of the station.    Thousands of protesters staged a “flash mob” demonstration in the city’s central business district at midday, chanting “five demands, not one less, a reference to their demands for democracy, an independent probe into allegations of police brutality and other issues. Tensions have escalated in Hong Kong after a policeman shot a 21-year-old protester Monday as he was physically struggling with another protester he was attempting to arrest.  The city’s hospital authority says the protester was in critical condition.  A man set on fire after he was doused with gasoline in a separate incident is also in critical condition.  Lam denounced the violence Monday, telling …

Jordan’s King Abdullah visits one of two small parcels of land which, until recently, was leased to Israel as part of the neighbors’ 1994 peace agreement. Jordan’s decision not to renew the lease was made at a time of brewing tensions between the peace partners. Jordanians blame Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for antagonizing the relationship, with action against Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa Mosque and the detention of Jordanian citizens, among others.   During Monday’s visit to Baqura, a 81-hectare enclave along the Jordan River in Jordan’s north, King Abdullah tweeted that “Jordan’s sovereignty over its territory is above all other considerations.” Jordan announced last year that it would not renew its peace treaty annexes with Israel on Baqura and al-Ghamr that gave Israeli farmers free access to the Jordan’s sovereign land. The decision is now in effect. Jordanian political analyst Osama al-Sharif says the move is “absolutely within Jordan’s rights” under the deal. Still, he says the country’s foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, has underscored Jordan’s commitment to the peace treaty. Israel’s foreign ministry expressed regret over the move, but says Jordan will allow farmers to harvest their remaining wheat and other crops.  Israeli Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel described the relations to Reuters as: “We are not on a honeymoon but rather in a period of ongoing arguments.”  He says the Israeli government, however, should have tried earlier to convince Jordan to extend the deal. Al Sharif sees Israeli Prime Netanyahu as responsible for whittling away at Israel’s relationship with Jordan — only one of its …

The Voice of America’s Russian serviced produced this documentary about the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. It looks at Berlin then and today through the eyes of those who were there, including an American soldier, a dissident, a politician, a historian and others. …

Turkey’s October military intervention into Syria is increasingly straining relations with its regional allies and neighbors, but the country is pushing back against mounting criticism of its Syrian incursion. In a recent editorial headlined “A threat against the Turkey-Qatar alliance,” the Daily Sabah, which has close ties to the Turkish government, condemned coverage of Turkey’s Syrian military operation by Qatari-owned news broadcaster Al-Jazeera English. The editorial called for the firing of journalists, warning of long-term consequences to Turkish-Qatar relations. “Although the two countries see eye to eye on many issues, any sustainable partnership must be firmly rooted in mutual interests. Without reciprocity, any relationship is at risk of falling apart,” read last week’s editorial. The Turkish military operation is on pause after agreements were brokered by Washington and Moscow with Ankara. With Turkish relations strained with Saudi Arabia, Israel and Egypt, Qatar is one of Ankara’s few remaining regional allies. “Turkish-Qatar relations are built on good foundations,” said Mithat Rende, the former Turkish ambassador to Qatar. “But this [Sabah editorial] is probably a warning from the [Turkish] presidency, ‘You should behave. You should show respect.’”   FILE – Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, left, welcomes Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani before their talks in Istanbul, Nov. 26, 2018. Ankara is strongly backing Qatar in an ongoing regional embargo led by Saudi Arabia against the emirate. Last year, Turkey deployed troops to Qatar, a move widely seen to prevent any Saudi military action. Rende says Ankara’s anger with …