The White House on Tuesday downplayed President Donald Trump’s concession to allow sales of some computer chips to China’s Huawei Technologies company, saying the telecommunications giant remains blocked because of national security concerns from buying parts to produce its newest 5G smartphones. Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro told CNBC, “All we’ve done basically is to allow the sale of chips to Huawei and these are lower tech items, which do not impact national security whatsoever. Selling chips to Huawei, a small amount of chips – less than $1 billion a year – in the short run is small in the scheme of things.” Washington had put Huawei on an export blacklist in May, citing national security concerns related to its technology for the company’s 5G – Fifth Generation – smart devices. Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei speaks during a roundtable at the telecom giant’s headquarters in Shenzhen in southern China on Monday, June 17, 2019. Huawei’s founder Ren Zhengfei also said that Trump’s agreement with Chinese President Xi Jinping over the weekend to relax a ban on U.S. sales to Huawei would not have “much impact” on the company’s business. But Ren said he is willing to continue to buy U.S. …

A Sudanese opposition group said Tuesday that two of its leaders have been arrested amid a weekslong standoff between the ruling military council and a protest coalition that held mass marches this week. The Sudanese Professionals’ Association, which has spearheaded protests since December, said security forces arrested Yassin Abdel-Karim, head of the Sudanese Teachers’ Committee, in the capital, Khartoum. The committee is part of the SPA. It said they also arrested lawyer Abdel-Majed Aidrous in the northern city of Atbara, the birthplace of the uprising that led to the military overthrow of President Omar al-Bashir in April. The group said security forces searched the homes of three other leaders. The SPA is part of the Forces for the Declaration of Freedom and Change, which represents the protesters. A police spokesman did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The arrests came two days after protesters flooded the streets of Sudan’s main cities in the biggest show of numbers since security forces cleared a sit-in outside the military headquarters last month. At least 11 people were killed in clashes with security forces, according to protest organizers. The FDFC on Monday called for marches in Khartoum and elsewhere on July 13 and …

A top Democratic National Committee official has raised $1.5 million in his challenge to U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. Campaign officials tell The Associated Press that Jaime Harrison raised the money in the second quarter, which ended Sunday. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is backing Harrison in the associate DNC chairman’s effort to block Graham from a fourth term in 2020. Flipping a Senate seat from red to blue in South Carolina would be difficult and likely would require millions of dollars in fundraising, an area in which national-level groups like the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee would be crucial.   …

Authorities have confirmed an Ebola case just 70 kilometers (43 miles) from Congo’s border with South Sudan. The development is troubling as South Sudan’s health care system is less equipped to handle Ebola should cases develop there. The report of the case near South Sudan came Tuesday from South Sudan’s health ministry and was seen by The Associated Press. Health officials say the confirmed case near South Sudan involved the contact of a known Ebola case in Congo’s Beni town. The person was supposed to stay in regular contact with Congolese health authorities during the 21-day incubation period. Congo’s Ebola outbreak has killed more than 1,500 and has spread to neighboring Uganda where two people died last month after a family that sickened in Congo returned home across the border.   …

German authorities say they have issued Facebook with a 2 million-euro ($2.3 million) fine under a law designed to combat hate speech. The Federal Office for Justice said Tuesday that the social networking company had failed to meet transparency requirements for its handling of hate speech complaints. The agency said Facebook’s report for the first half of 2018 didn’t reflect the actual number of complaints about suspected illegal content, which in Germany includes anti-Semitic insults and material designed to incite hatred against persons or groups based on their religion or ethnicity. It said there was also incomplete information about the language skills and training of staff tasked with processing hate speech complaints.   …

Environmental activists who have been joined by some yellow vest protesters are disrupting Amazon sites in France, accusing the online company of destroying jobs and hurting the planet. A few dozen demonstrators climbed a fence and forced their way into Amazon offices in northern Paris on Tuesday, according to images shared on social media. They spoke with employees and staged a sit-in at the security gates. Regional media also reported protests in the southern city of Toulouse and near the northern city of Lille.   Organizers oppose three new Amazon warehouses slated to open around France. They accuse the company of killing jobs in local businesses, and exacerbating climate change because of the emissions used in transporting its huge volume of goods.   …

Atlanta’s city council has approved a far-reaching ban on smoking and vaping in restaurants and bars – and inside one of the world’s busiest airports.   The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that city council members approved the ban on Monday. It covers cigarettes, cigars and electronic cigarettes. If signed by the mayor, it would take effect on Jan. 2, 2020.   Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport is one of the few major U.S. hubs where people can still smoke inside designated rooms.   The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a 2017 report that most busy U.S. airports ban smoking in all indoor areas. Denver International Airport last year closed the last of its indoor smoking lounges and is now smoke-free indoors. …

Ethiopia has begun restoring internet access 10 days after it was cut following the assassinations of six top government officials. The internet shutdown affected the entire country but in recent days a few locations were able to function.   No official explanation has been given for the internet cut but many Ethiopians suspect it was aimed at preventing government critics from communicating to wide audiences and to protect the country from fake news and disinformation.  Ethio Telecom, the country’s state-owned monopoly of telecommunications services, also cut internet access two weeks ago during the national school exams.  NetBlocks, an internet monitoring group, estimated Ethiopia was losing a minimum of $4.5 million a day during the internet cut. …

In Malawi, a young albino man is using music to fight discrimination and misconceptions about the genetic condition in a country where more than 100 people with albinism have been attacked since 2014. Lazarus Chigwandali has long been performing on the streets of Lilongwe.  But after catching the eye of a Swedish producer, he began work on an album that is due out in August. He’s also about to embark on a nationwide tour to promote a documentary, produced by American pop star Madonna, about the plight of albinos in Malawi. Lameck Masina reports from Lilongwe. …

In Malawi, a young albino man is using music to fight discrimination and misconceptions about the genetic condition in a country where more than 100 people with albinism have been attacked since 2014.  As teens, Lazarus Chigwandali and his late brother, who also had albinism, played on the streets of Lilongwe, mostly to raise money to buy protective skin lotion. He says in those days it was difficult to find skin lotion that would protect them from the sun, so they had sores all over their bodies. As a result many people discriminated against them because of the way their bodies looked. Attacks continue Discrimination and attacks against albinos like Chigwandali continue. Some Africans believe their body parts, used in so-called magic potions, will bring good luck. At 39, Chigwandali began composing songs about the myths and misperceptions about people with albinism. Then he heard music producers from abroad wanted to meet him at his home village to record his music, something that worried his wife, Gertrude Levison. She says she was afraid that maybe they wanted to kidnap them all. But she realized that it was a peaceful move when she heard her husband talking with a friend of …

Iran announced Monday that it has exceeded its low-enriched uranium stockpile limit, violating the amount it agreed to hold in the 2015 international deal. The move is aimed at forcing the signatories of the nuclear deal to give Iran relief from U.S. sanctions. VOA’s Kurdish Service discussed the consequences of Iran’s action with two experts on Iranian issues. Zlatica Hoke has a summary of what they said. …

Forests are one of the planet’s best defenses against climate change. But trees are worth more to most people as building material or firewood than as sponges for planet-warming carbon dioxide. Conservationists are working to find ways to make forests valuable while protecting the livelihoods of people who earn a living from them. In the Appalachian Mountains of the eastern United States, an environmental group recently bought 40,000 hectares of forest. But that will not mean an end to logging. VOA’s Steve Baragona has a look. …

Upon returning from the G-20 summit, U.S. President Trump claimed foreign policy victory, saying that “much was accomplished.” But what exactly was achieved during the three-day trip? White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara unpacks the president’s whirlwind trip to Osaka and Seoul. …

President Donald Trump said he wants to pull U.S. troops out of Afghanistan but is concerned that without an American military presence, the country could be used as a base for terrorist attacks on the United States. In an interview on Fox News broadcast on Monday, Trump said the problem with pulling the 9,000 U.S. troops from Afghanistan, the site of America’s longest war, is that the country is a “lab for terrorists.” “I call it the Harvard of terrorists,” Trump said. He recounted conversations he had with U.S. military officials telling them of his desire to remove troops. He said they warned him it would be better to fight terrorists in Afghanistan than at home. “‘Sir, I’d rather attack them over there, then attack them in our land,’” Trump said a general had told him. “It’s something you always have to think about,” Trump said. Even if the United States did remove its troops, Trump said, it would leave a “very strong intelligence” presence in Afghanistan. The interview with Trump was taped over the weekend, prior to Monday’s truck bomb attack by Taliban Islamist fighters that killed six people and wounded 105 in Kabul. U.S. special peace envoy Zalmay …

A Colombian FARC rebel leader turned lawmaker who is accused by the United States of conspiring to traffic cocaine has vanished in an apparent attempt to evade justice, President Ivan Duque said on Monday. Seuxis Paucias Hernandez, better known by his nom de guerre, Jesus Santrich, took his congressional seat last month, days after being released from prison. His disappearance on Sunday is the latest development in a long legal and political saga stemming from an indictment by a U.S. grand jury that accused Hernandez of trying to export 10 tons of cocaine worth some $320 million. Hernandez was originally released from prison in May, before being immediately re-arrested on what the attorney general’s office said was fresh evidence. The Supreme Court later ordered his release, saying because he is a lawmaker it is the only court which can determine whether he should be extradited. Hernandez was one of 10 members of the former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrilla group set to take up congressional seats guaranteed by a 2016 peace deal. “He has a hearing with the Supreme Court in these first days of July, and to see someone like that abandon his security detail… only shows …

President Donald Trump signed a $4.6 billion aid package on Monday to help the federal government cope with the surge of Central American immigrants at the U.S.-Mexico border.   Many Democratic lawmakers were hoping for more. They wanted to provide stronger protections for how migrants are treated at holding facilities and to make it easier for lawmakers to make snap visits.   Trump signed the bill in the Oval Office, flanked by Vice President Mike Pence and Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar. The emergency legislation was needed to ease overcrowded, often harsh conditions at U.S. holding facilities for migrants seeking asylum, mostly from Central American nations like Honduras and El Salvador.   “This is a humane solution to a tremendous problem that starts because of our bad immigration laws,” Trump said.   The White House had threatened to veto a House bill on grounds that it would hamstring border security efforts. Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was forced to accept the Republican-controlled Senate’s version of the aid package, frustrating the more liberal members of her caucus.   The bill bolsters care for tens of thousands of arrivals taken into custody monthly and sets guidelines for how the Trump …

When Viola Davis started her production company nearly a decade ago, she was determined to bring about change in Hollywood with a strategic mandate: Normalize people of color on screen. “We’re not social statements. We’re not mythical creatures all the time … you can literally put pen to paper and write a great story that includes people of color, and it could actually sell,” the Oscar winner said in a recent interview with The Associated Press.   Now, in the era of Time’s Up and #MeToo, the call for diversity on all levels has been amplified. Some actors and directors have publicly called for 50-50 inclusion riders, contractual stipulations for the diversity of a film’s cast and crew. But Davis says she doesn’t need a piece of paper to do the right thing, and her projects don’t try to replicate diversity simply based on statistics. “Maybe that’s narcissistic of me, but I don’t want to tell my daughter that because she’s 12 percent of the population, she only deserves 12 percent of the pie,” Davis said. She calls her JuVee Productions a “walking metaphor” of inclusion, noting that she has people of color and members of the LGBTQ community on …

The solid economy is doing little to bolster support for President Donald Trump. Americans give Trump mixed reviews for his economic stewardship despite the growth achieved during this presidency, according to a new survey by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Nearly two-thirds describe as “good” an economy that appears to have set a record for the longest expansion in U.S. history, with decade-long growth that began under Barack Obama. More people consider the economy to be good today than did at the start of the year. But significantly fewer approve of Trump’s handling of the economy, even as it remains a relative strength compared with other issues. The survey indicates that most Americans do not believe they’re personally benefiting from his trade policies. And only 17% said they received a tax cut, despite government and private sector figures showing that a clear majority of taxpayers owed less after the president’s tax overhaul passed in 2017. These doubts create a possible vulnerability as Trump highlights the economy’s solid performance in his campaign for re-election in 2020. During two nights of debates last week, almost every Democratic presidential candidate found ways to criticize the president by decrying the wealth …

Reports from Sudan say at least 11 people were killed in the latest mass protests demanding a transition to civilian rule in the country. Police fired tear gas as tens of thousands of people took to the streets on Sunday in the capital Khartoum and other areas in the first such demonstration since a June deadly crackdown on protesters.  More demonstrations were reported Monday. Protest organizers took to Facebook to decry the actions by the military on Sunday. “The military council is completely responsible for these lives lost,” Mohamed Naji al-Assam, a prominent protest leader, said in a video on his Facebook page. The generals also took to Facebook to lay blame on the protest movement, Alliance for Freedom and Change. “Freedom and Change bears the entire responsibility for these violations and the casualties among regular forces and citizens,” said General Jamal Omer in a video posted on the ruling military government’s Facebook page. Tensions between protesters demanding civilian rule and military leaders have been rising since the coup that forced out the long-ruling autocrat Omar al-Bashir.   Talks between the two sides collapsed on June 3, when the military lethally dispersed a protest sit-in outside military headquarters in Khartoum.  Protest …