Year: 2019

It’s looking like an anti-robocall bill will be sent to President Donald Trump this year, helping tackle an infuriating problem in the U.S. House and Senate leaders said Friday they’ve reached an agreement in principle on merging their two bills against robocalls. The House bill had gone further than the Senate one. Details about what’s in the final bill are still to come, but legislators say it will require phone companies to verify that phone numbers are real, and to block calls for free. It will also give government agencies more ability to go after scammers. It’s the latest effort in a crackdown, building on steps by state attorneys general and the Federal Communications Commission as well as the phone companies. Phone companies have been rolling out verification tools after prompting from regulators. These reassure customers that the number showing up on their phone is actually the number that called, and not a fraudster “spoofing,” or faking, the number to try to get people to pick it up. Numbers can be faked to look like they’re coming from the IRS, for example, or from a number with the same area code as you. But to combat this successfully, all carriers need to put the anti-spoofing system in place. Telecom companies are also offering call-blocking apps for smartphones and many home phones, although not always for free. The FCC in June gave them permission to turn on call-blocking by default. While tools had been available before, customers might not have known …

Palestinian militants fired two rockets deep into southern Israel from Gaza Saturday, and the Israeli military responded with a number of air strikes on militant targets, shaking an already tenuous truce.  Sirens sounded in the middle of the night in Beersheba, the largest city in southern Israel, about 35 km (18 miles) from the Gaza border, warning of incoming fire. The military said its missile defenses intercepted the two rockets. A few hours later, Israeli aircraft struck a number of militant outposts belonging to Hamas, the Islamist group that rules Gaza. No injuries were reported. The overnight rocket attack came nearly two days after a ceasefire ended a flare-up in cross-border violence between Israel and a smaller Palestinian militant group, Islamic Jihad. The worst fighting in months was triggered Tuesday when Israel killed a top commander from the Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad, deeming him an imminent threat. A Palestinian demonstrator argues with an Israeli border policeman during a protest against Jewish settlements near Hebron, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Nov. 15, 2019. Gaza medical officials said 34 Palestinians had been killed in the two days of fighting, almost half of them civilians. At the same time, hundreds of rocket launches by militants paralyzed much of southern Israel and reached as far north as Tel Aviv, sending entire communities to shelters. Dozens of Israelis were injured. Throughout the fighting, Hamas, the dominant force in Gaza, appeared to have stayed on the sidelines. That may have helped stem the escalation. Israel’s military, however, …

Polls closed Saturday evening after a day of voting for Sri Lanka’s next president, an election marred by shots fired at a convoy of Muslims heading to cast their ballots in what some called a coordinated effort to disenfranchise the minority group. There were no reported injuries in the convoy attack and police were investigating, said Manjula Gajanayake, spokesman for the Colombo-based Center for Monitoring Election Violence. The center said there were reports elsewhere of minor election law violations, such as supporters influencing voters near polling stations and distributing mock ballots with party symbols. Campaigning for Sri Lanka’s presidential election was dominated by worries over national security, which was pushed to the forefront after deadly Islamic State-inspired suicide bomb attacks on Easter Sunday that killed 269 people. At the same time, there’s fear among both Tamils and Muslims about a return to power of front-runner Gotabaya Rajapaksa, a hard-line former defense official under his brother, ex-President Mahinda Rajapaksa. The Rajapaksa brothers are revered by Sri Lanka’s Sinhalese Buddhist majority for defeating the Tamil Tiger rebels in 2009 and ending the nation’s long-running civil war. But because of their heavy-handed rule during and after the war, some minorities fear their return. Rajapaksa had been widely expected to triumph over the ruling party candidate, Housing Minister Sajith Premadasa. But as the election approached, the race became very close. Sri Lanka’s former Defense Secretary and presidential candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa, center, leaves a polling station after casting his vote in Embuldeniya, on the outskirts …

Tunisia took a step forward Friday in forming a new government following rollercoaster October elections, with the moderate Islamist Ennahda party proposing a prime minister from its own ranks to lead it.  Former junior agriculture minister, Habib Jemli, 60, will now have two months to form a government. If he fails to do so, newly elected President Kais Saied can tap another candidate. Still, it remains uncertain whether any future government emerging from a politically fractured parliament — along with an untested president — can tackle the country’s massive economic and employment challenges. With Tunisia considered the Arab Spring’s first and so far only relative success story, this latest twist in its bumpy post-revolutionary path is being closely watched abroad. Some analysts hail last month’s elections — where disaffected voters ousted establishment candidates in favor of political outsiders — as a messy but clear affirmation of democracy. Others fear the next government may prove just as disappointing as the last one. “The real issue is the economy,” said analyst Hamadi Redissi, president of the Tunisian Observatory for Democratic Transition research organization. “Can it deliver what people are asking for — jobs and prosperity? That remains to be seen.” Voters’ message Since its 2011 revolution, the North African country has seen shrinking growth and soaring joblessness, the same toxic ingredients that triggered the uprising. Its key tourism sector is only recently rebounding following 2015 terrorist attacks. Tunisia has also earned the unwelcome record as one of the largest exporters of terrorist …

Taiwan and the United States have sent their first joint trade delegation to one of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies as tiny, often impoverished countries keep turning instead to China, a source of aid for the developing world but a perceived threat to both delegation organizers.   In the first week of November, the delegation visited Saint Lucia, one of just 15 nations that recognize Taiwan diplomatically instead of China. They assessed ways offshore businesses could help the Caribbean country with infrastructure, trade and investment, the government-run Central News Agency in Taipei said.   “The way to consolidate diplomatic relationships is multi-dimensional,” Taiwan Foreign Ministry spokesperson Joanne Ou said. “It should be an effort across different domains, and investment is one of them. We hope that it will help. We do hope that through this joint delegation, it can play an important role.”   Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry hasn’t announced plans for future visits to other Taiwan diplomatic allies but doesn’t rule out the idea. FILE – From left, the World Bank’s Erik Bethel, Saint Lucia Gov. Nancy Charles, Taiwan Amb. to Saint Lucia Shen Cheng-tsung, and U.S. Department of State official Corey Johnston visit a U.S.-owned firm, in Saint Lucia, Nov 6. 2019. (@USEmbassyBbdos)  Protecting fragile alliances   The prospect of more U.S. aid spearheaded by Taiwan should give allies in Latin America and the South Pacific new incentives to stick by Taipei instead of switching recognition to China, analysts believe. Those countries would see Washington as a potentially powerful benefactor, and …

United Airlines is removing the grounded Boeing 737 Max from its schedule until March 4, two months longer than previously planned.                     The change follows similar moves by American and Southwest, and reflects further delays in Boeing’s work to fix the plane after two deadly crashes.                     United said Friday that without the planes, it will cancel 56 flights a day in January, February and early March, down from 93 a day this month.                     United has 14 Max jets. All Max planes have been grounded since March, after crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia killed 346 people.                     Boeing is fixing flight-control software and computers that played a role in the crashes. Boeing expects regulators to approve changes in pilot-training in January, clearing the way for U.S. airlines to resume Max flights with passengers. …

New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker is on the ballot in New Hampshire, where he hopes his patience will pay off.                     The Democratic presidential hopeful signed up for the first-in-the-nation presidential primary on Friday, the final day of the filing period. Though he lags behind in polls, Booker says he’s not one to switch strategies or states to focus on, as some other candidates have done.                     Booker’s latest trip to New Hampshire comes a day after former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick jumped into the race. Booker says it’s good to have robust competition, and that he doesn’t take it personally that some of his close friends are also running. …

Rights groups and the U.S. Embassy on Thursday called for the Cambodian government to drop the charges against two former Radio Free Asia reporters who were arrested in 2017 and released on bail a year ago. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, center, greets his government officers during the country’s 66th Independence Day from France, at the Independence Monument in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Saturday, Nov. 9, 2019. The calls came to mark the second anniversary of the Nov. 14, 2017, arrest of former Radio Free Asia journalists Uon Chhin and Yeang Sothearin as part of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s crackdown on the media, civil society groups and the political opposition before the 2018 elections. The two faced espionage charges, and on Oct. 3, when Phnom Penh Municipal Court Judge Im Vannak had been scheduled to deliver a verdict after a trial that ended in August, he instead ordered a fresh investigation into hard disk drives seized when they were arrested. After their arrest, the former reporters were held in pretrial detention until 2018, when they were released on conditional bail, which prevented them from traveling overseas and required them to report to a local police station once a month. Support for reporters The U.S. Embassy, in a social media post, said Uon Chhin and Yeang Sothearin had been subjected to a prolonged trial that impinged on their personal freedoms and affected their personal and professional lives. “Dropping charges against these journalists and restoring their full rights and freedoms would correct an injustice, honor Cambodia’s …

Amazon.com Inc. will protest the Pentagon’s decision to award a $10 billion cloud computing contract to Microsoft Corp., The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday, citing a statement.    Amazon did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.    A challenge to the Defense Department’s award announced last month was widely expected by legal experts, analysts and consultants, especially after President Donald Trump publicly derided Amazon’s bid for the high-stakes contract.    Trump had said in August that Amazon’s bid for the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure Cloud (JEDI) contract was under review by his administration after complaints from other companies.    Amazon was considered a favorite for the contract, part of a broader digital modernization process of the Pentagon, before Microsoft emerged as the surprise winner.  …

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ office announced that a special envoy would be sent to Bolivia to support a “peaceful resolution” to its current crisis after military leaders called on the Bolivian president to resign over election irregularities.  Former U.N. special envoy to Colombia Jean Arnault will act as the U.N. envoy to Bolivia to engage with “all Bolivian actors,” and attempt to support peaceful elections in the country. Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for Guterres, announced that “the secretary-general remains deeply concerned about developments in Bolivia. He reiterates his appeal to all Bolivians to refrain from violence and exercise utmost restraint.” FILE – Jean Arnault, then the the U.N. secretary-general’s special representative for Colombia, speaks in Funza, Colombia, Sept. 22, 2017. Former President Evo Morales served as president of the South American nation for 14 years. He was the country’s first indigenous president in modern history and leader of the ruling Movement Toward Socialism Party (MAS).   After Morales’ government failed to remove constitutional restrictions on serving a fourth term, MAS appealed to Bolivia’s courts to allow the president to run again.  The Organization of American States (OAS) declared there were election irregularities in the October presidential election to protect Morales from having a runoff vote. Opposition leaders called for boycotts and protests in reaction to the news.  Morales also faced growing pressure from the OAS, the European Union, the United States and a handful of Latin American countries to hold new elections.  After Morales announced Saturday that he would hold new presidential …

“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 …