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Media organizations say Australia has become a secretive state that is actively restricting the press. The leaders of the country’s major newspapers and broadcasters have made the claims at the first public hearing of a parliamentary inquiry investigating Australia’s security laws and their impact on journalism. Australia’s media bosses say journalists must be able to do their jobs without fear. The inquiry in Sydney was told that reporters who published stories based on leaked government documents were being treated as though they had received “stolen goods.” The Australian parliament’s powerful intelligence and security committee is investigating the impact national security laws have on press freedom. FILE – Craig McMurtie, editorial director of the Australian Broadcasting Corp (ABC), speaks to members of the media outside the ABC building in Sydney, June 5, 2019. The probe was launched after the Australian Federal Police raided a newspaper journalist’s home in Canberra and the headquarters of the national broadcaster, the ABC, in June, over stories based on leaked confidential documents. The raids were widely condemned as heavy-handed and an “utter violation” of a free media. The ABC was targeted for publishing allegations of unlawful killings and misconduct by Australian Special Forces in Afghanistan. They …

U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar has rejected Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s assertions that she and fellow lawmaker Rashida Tlaib had no intention of meeting with Israeli officials before Netanyahu barred them from visiting Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank next week. Omar posted her Israeli itinerary on Twitter Friday, which included meeting with Jewish and Arab members of Israel’s parliament and Israeli security officials. Let’s be clear: the goal of our trip was to witness firsthand what is happening on the ground in Palestine and hear from stakeholders —our job as Members of Congress. But since we were unable to fulfill our role as legislators, I am sharing what we would have seen. (THREAD) — Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) August 16, 2019 Israeli military veterans had planned to give the lawmakers a tour of Hebron where “settlement expansion has resulted in a two-tiered city, with Palestinians under military occupation forced to walk on the opposite side of the street from Israelis.” She said Israeli military veterans would have conducted the tour and talked about “their experiences with the occupation.” The U.S. lawmaker said her delegation had also scheduled a briefing on the Bedouin community in East Jerusalem, while the United Nations …

SINGAPORE/WASHINGTON — The U.S. Commerce Department is expected to extend a reprieve given to Huawei Technologies that permits the Chinese firm to buy supplies from U.S. companies so that it can service existing customers, two sources familiar with the situation said. The “temporary general license” will be extended for Huawei for 90 days, the sources said. Commerce initially allowed Huawei to purchase some American-made goods in May shortly after blacklisting the company in a move aimed at minimizing disruption for its customers, many of which operate networks in rural America. An extension will renew an agreement set to lapse Aug. 19, continuing the Chinese company’s ability to maintain existing telecommunications networks and provide software updates to Huawei handsets. The situation surrounding the license, which has become a key bargaining chip for the United States in its trade negotiations with China, remains fluid and the decision to continue the Huawei reprieve could change ahead of the Monday deadline, the sources said. FILE – President Donald Trump, left, shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a meeting on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Osaka, Japan, June 29, 2019. U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are expected …

President Donald Trump is warning U.S. voters that the economy could crash if he is turned out of office next year. His warning came this week as he sought to reassure supporters in New Hampshire about the state of economy amid signs of a possible recession on the horizon, something analysts say could cripple his re-election hopes next year. VOA National correspondent Jim Malone has more from Washington.   …

As Hong Kong braces for more mass protests, Trump administration officials are watching events carefully, but also sending mixed messages to China about fears of a potential violent crackdown by Beijing. VOA’s Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports from the State Department.   …

Lawmakers in the United States have long been wary of Chinese telecom giant Huawei. They say the corporation is unlike most tech companies because it effectively acts as a spying tool for Beijing. Recently, Huawei installed security cameras around Uganda’s capital, Kampala.  VOA’s Arash Arabasadi has more in this report narrated by Jeff Custer.   …

Beto O’Rourke on Friday became the first Democratic presidential candidate to visit one of the Mississippi towns where federal immigration agents raided chicken processing plants and arrested nearly 700 people, kicking off a new phase of his campaign he says will focus on President Donald Trump’s damaging policies. It was the former Texas congressman’s first campaign stop since he suspended his White House bid for nearly two weeks to stay in his hometown of El Paso, where a mass shooting killed 22 people Aug. 3.  The gunman drove more than 600 miles to open fire near the U.S.-Mexico border after posting an anti-immigrant screed online. O’Rourke argues that Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric helped inspire the attack. He still plans to visit Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada, which kick off presidential primary voting, but has now vowed also to travel the country to highlight the stories of some of those people who, in his view, have been most hurt by Trump administration policies. Presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke speaks in Spanish to Guatemalan immigrant Agusto Lopez Coronado in Canton, Miss., Aug. 16, 2019. Coronado initially declined to give his name to journalists after the immigration raids at the chicken plants. Food …

Members of China’s paramilitary People’s Armed Police marched and practiced crowd control tactics at a sports complex in Shenzhen across from Hong Kong in what some interpreted as a threat against pro-democracy protesters in the semi-autonomous territory. The sound of marching boots and synchronized shouts echoed from the grounds Friday. Officers in green camouflage stood guard at closed entrances. A stadium security guard said “it wasn’t clear” when the paramilitary police would leave the grounds. Chinese state media have said only that the Shenzhen exercises were planned earlier and were not directly related to the unrest in Hong Kong, though they came shortly after the central government in Beijing said the protests were beginning to show the “sprouts of terrorism.” Protesters attend a “Stand With Hong Kong, Power to the People Rally” at the Chater Garden, in Hong Kong, Aug. 16, 2019. From a distance, police could be seen conducting drills in military fatigues, using shields, poles and other riot-control gear. In one exercise, two groups marched in formation with those in front raising shields as if to protect themselves from projectiles. Others behind held red flags and banners. The words “the law” and “prosecuted” could be seen on one. …

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Friday the U.S.-Israel relationship can withstand the “weakness” of President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who shook diplomatic norms this week in barring two members of Congress from visiting the country. Pelosi told The Associated Press that the “weakness of Netanyahu and the weakness of Donald Trump combined” into a policy that’s “a no.” “We have a deep relationship and long-standing relationship with Israel that can withstand Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu,” Pelosi said. “We cannot let their weaknesses stand in the way of our ongoing relationship.” She said the U.S. commitment to Israel isn’t dependent on either leader, a sign there may not be lasting fallout from this week’s incident, particularly in terms of foreign aid, which must be approved by Congress. In an extraordinary move, Netanyahu, with a push from Trump, barred entry for Democratic Reps. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota ahead of their planned visit. Tlaib was later granted a humanitarian exception to visit her grandmother in the West Bank, but ultimately decided against the trip . Trump views the freshmen congresswomen as among his chief opponents — part of the “squad” of newly elected liberal …

The Los Angeles Opera declined Friday to release any details of its promised investigation into allegations of sexual harassment against opera legend Placido Domingo, the company’s longtime general director, including whether it has begun. Also Friday, the union that represents opera singers said it plans a meeting in Los Angeles next week to address its members’ concerns ahead of the LA company’s season opener Sept. 14. Len Egert, the executive director of the American Guild of Musical Artists, told The Associated Press that the union has been receiving its own reports from members since an AP story earlier this week detailing accusations against the 78-year-old singing star. Hours after the AP story was released Tuesday detailing the allegations, the LA Opera announced it would engage outside counsel to investigate the “concerning allegations.” An open secret Three of the nine women who accused the singer of harassment and abuse of power described encounters they said took place while working with Domingo at the LA organization. The nine women and dozens of others interviewed said Domingo’s behavior was an open secret in the industry and that he pursued younger women with impunity. LA Opera would not disclose who would be conducting the …

Thousands of travelers entering the United States experienced delays Friday because of a technology outage affecting Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) processing systems.  Reuters reported that in a tweet at 6:37 p.m. EDT, CBP said that the affected systems were “coming back online” and that travelers were being processed. The agency said there was “no indication” that the disruption was “malicious in nature.”  Earlier, John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York said via Twitter that CPB agents were manually processing travelers.   Travelers posted images and video on social media showing long lines at airports.   The outage affected only inbound U.S. international flights, not departures. The delays affected both foreign visitors to the United States as well as U.S. citizens arriving from abroad.   But the Federal Aviation Administration, Reuters reported, said the outage caused no changes in flights.  On an average day, CBP processes around 358,000 air passengers and crew.  This was not the CPB system’s first outage. It was out of service for four hours on Jan. 2, 2017, Reuters said. A Homeland Security inspector general’s office report issued in November of that year found “inadequate CBP software capacity testing, leaving the potential for recurrence of processing errors.”  …

HASLET, TEXAS — Acrid gun smoke clouded the sunny entrance of a Texas church on a recent Sunday. Seven men wearing heavy vests and carrying pistols loaded with blanks ran toward the sound of the shots, stopping at the end of a long hallway. As one peeked into the foyer, the “bad guy” raised the muzzle of an AR-15, took aim and squeezed the trigger. The simulated gunfight at the church in Haslet was part of a niche industry that trains civilians to protect their churches using the techniques and equipment of law enforcement. Rather than a bullet, the rifle fired a laser that hit Stephen Hatherley’s vest, triggering an electric shock the 60-year-old Navy veteran later described as a “tingle.” Shootings this month killed more than 30 people at an El Paso Walmart and Dayton, Ohio, entertainment district. But gunmen have also targeted houses of worships in recent years, including a church in rural Sutherland Springs, Texas, where more than two dozen people were killed in 2017.  Police officers David Riggall, left, and Nick Guadarrama, center, show students Stephen Hatherley, center rear, and Chris Scott, right rear, how to clear a hallway intersection during a security training session at Fellowship …

WASHINGTON – The Trump administration has informed Congress it plans to sell F-16 fighters worth $8 billion to Taiwan in a move that will increase already high tensions with China.    Two U.S. officials and a congressional aide said the administration informally notified lawmakers of the proposed sale late Thursday. They were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.    The F-16 deal is highly controversial because China fiercely opposes all arms sales to Taiwan, which it regards as a renegade province, but has specifically objected to advanced fighter jets. The notification also came as U.S. trade talks with China are stalled and amid unrest in Hong Kong that many fear could prompt Beijing to move militarily against the former British colony.    The State Department, which would ultimately authorize the sale, declined to comment, but members of Congress from both parties welcomed the proposal.    FILE – House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., left, speaks with ranking member Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, during a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee hearing in Washington, Feb. 13, 2019. The chairman and ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Reps. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., and Michael McCaul, R-Texas, …

Over the past few days, VOA Mandarin service reporter Suli Yi has spoken to Hong Kong residents at peaceful protests. Any one of them could be your neighbor — law-abiding, family-focused, worried about the future of their community. …

VOA Persian’s Katherine Ahn contributed to this report. An Iranian supertanker caught in a diplomatic standoff off the coast of the British overseas territory Gibraltar remained in port Friday despite a court ruling that it can be released.  It is not clear when the Iranian supertanker Grace 1, which is at the center of the standoff between Iran and the West, will be able to set sail.  A lawyer for the ship’s captain told the Associated Press on Friday that the ship’s Indian captain no longer wanted to maintain command of the vessel. The Supreme Court in Gibraltar ruled Thursday that the tanker could be released from detention, shortly after the United States had launched a new, last-minute legal bid to hold it. A delay of the vessel’s departure could give the United States another opportunity to mount further legal action to again try to prevent the tanker from leaving Gibraltar. A view of the Grace 1 supertanker is seen backdropped by Gibraltar’s Rock, as it stands at anchor in the British territory of Gibraltar, Aug. 15, 2019. The Grace 1 had been carrying 2.1 million barrels of Iranian oil when Gibraltar police and British Special Forces seized it on July 4. It was believed …

NEW YORK – An autopsy has determined that financier Jeffrey Epstein, who was found dead in jail while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges, died of suicide by hanging, New York’s Office of Chief Medical Examiner said Friday.  Epstein, 66, was found dead Saturday in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) in lower Manhattan, triggering investigations into the circumstances of his death.  The well-connected money manager was arrested July 6 and pleaded not guilty to federal charges of sex trafficking involving dozens of underage girls as young as 14.  “We are sending the determination out very shortly. It is suicide by hanging,” Office of Chief Medical Examiner spokeswoman Aja Worthy-Davis told Reuters.  The autopsy showed that Epstein’s neck had been broken in several places, two law enforcement sources said Thursday.  The federal Bureau of Prisons, which runs the MCC, has said there had not been an inmate suicide there since 2006.  Epstein had been on suicide watch at the jail but was taken off prior to his death, a source who was not authorized to speak on the matter said previously. At the MCC, two jail guards are required to make separate checks on all prisoners every 30 minutes, but that procedure was not followed, the source added.  Separately, a team at the jail …

Editor’s note: We want you to know what’s happening, why and how it could impact your life, family or business, so we created a weekly digest of the top original immigration, migration and refugee reporting from across VOA. Questions? Tips? Comments? Email the VOA immigration team: ImmigrationUnit@voanews.com.  United States: New regulation penalizes green card applicants over public benefit use. The Trump administration this week moved to further limit who can obtain U.S. residency based on which public benefits they use, even if they are legally entitled to them.  — VOA Immigration Reporter Aline Barros breaks down which benefits might put someone’s immigration status at risk, and why the government is doing this. Immigrant rights advocates call the new regulation “xenophobic and classist.”  Bangladesh: U.N. moves forward on ensuring Rohingya are no longer undocumented Rohingya refugees living in Bangladesh are getting identity documents — some for the first time — that the United Nations claims are “fraud-proof.” Roughly half a million of the estimated 900,000 people living in the Cox’s Bazar camp have the new registration cards, which show the country of origin as Myanmar. Such documentation serves multiple purposes, including ensuring access to benefits, and the right of refugees to return …

Thirty years ago, the Iron Curtain dividing Europe lifted.   Next week, German Chancellor Angela Merkel travels to Hungary to commemorate the anniversary of a peace protest on the border with Austria that helped pave the way for the mass flight of East German citizens to the West. The Berlin Wall was torn down three months later, and 1989 went down as an era-changing year that ended the three-decade-long Soviet occupation of the countries of Central Europe. The commemoration on Aug. 19 will include an ecumenical service in the Lutheran church of Sopron, and is to be held near where 600 East Germans plowed through the border gates to enter the West. Hungarian authorities had announced the border would be opened symbolically later for three hours, but the crowd was too impatient to wait for freedom — and in no mood to receive it as a gift from increasingly superannuated Communist bosses.  FILE – An East German refugee shows off a newly acquired West German passport just before crossing the Hungarian border into Austria, Sept. 10, 1989. Three years later, political scientist Francis Fukuyama published his triumphalist book The End of History and the Last Man, celebrating the ascendency of …

Police in Portland, Oregon, are mobilizing in preparation for Saturday when far-right protesters are expected to come face-to-face with local anti-fascist counter-demonstrators.  Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler joined leaders of the city’s religious, police and business groups to warn groups “who plan on using Portland on August 17th as a platform to spread your hate.”  Those groups are “not welcome here,” he said.  He said all of Portland’s nearly 1,000 police officers will be on duty Saturday and will be helped by the Oregon State Police and the FBI.  Saturday’s rally is organized by a member of the Proud Boys, which has been designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.  Expected to join them are the American Guard, Three Percenters, Oathkeepers and Daily Stormers. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the American Guard is a “white nationalist group,” Three Percenters and Oathkeepers are “extremist” anti-government militias, and the Daily Stormers are “neo-Nazis.” Countering the right-wingers is Portland’s Rose City Antifa, an anti-fascist group that has called on its members to take to the streets in an opposing rally.  FILE – Antifa counter-protesters, rallying against right-wing group Patriot Prayer, light a smoke grenade in Portland, Oregon, Sept. …

Pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong are calling for support from Western nations.  As Mike O’Sullivan reports from Hong Kong, demonstrators took to the streets again on Friday, as several student leaders described what they called anonymous attempts at intimidation. …

Zimbabweans defied a police ban Friday and held demonstrations to protest the country’s deteriorating economy. Despite the High Court ban on planned protests, members of the Movement for Democratic Change took to the streets and clashed with police. Some of the injured accused police of derailing protests, which they said were meant to persuade President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government to breathe life into Zimbabwe’s moribund economy. With tears on her cheeks, 32-year-old Tafadzwa Bvuta said her degree had not helped her get anything for her three children.  “They beat us up,” she said of the police. “What have we done? All these security forces are supposed to protect us all — not just one person. Where will we go and survive? Shall we kill our kids since we are struggling to take care of them?” Make Nyashanu, 27, said he would continue protesting because he is miserable about being unemployed. He said police were indiscriminately beating demonstrators — even elderly ones and people not protesting. “Is this democracy?” he asked, adding that it was a peaceful demonstration but police were causing chaos. The opposition said it will hold another protest Monday in Zimbabwe’s second largest city, Bulawayo, and will go to …

The government of Greenland is dismissing the idea that the island is for sale, following media reports that U.S. President Donald Trump has been discussing interest to purchase the Danish territory with White House advisors. But this is not the first time the U.S. has considered to purchase the massive ice-covered island. William Henry Seward, President Abraham Lincoln’s Secretary of State in the 1860s proposed both the purchase of Greenland and Iceland when he was negotiating the purchase of Alaska from Russia. FILE – President Donald Trump speaks to the media before leaving the White House in Washington. Greenland details Greenland is an autonomous Danish territory, located between the North Atlantic and Arctic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. The island territory is politically and culturally associated with Europe but the majority of its residents are Inuit, whose ancestors began migrating from the Canadian mainland in the 13th century. Greenland became Danish in 1814, and was fully integrated in the Danish state in 1953. Greenland’s location makes it absolutely vital to the defense of North America and the Trump administration should increase its focus on building relations, writes Luke Coffey of the conservative-leaning Heritage Foundation. “Greenland does not receive …

Hundreds of Google employees are calling on the company to pledge it won’t work with U.S. Customs and Border Protection or Immigration and Customs Enforcement. It’s the latest in a year full of political and social pushback from the tech giant’s workforce. A group of employees called Googlers for Human Rights posted a public petition urging the company not to bid on a cloud computing contract for CBP, the federal agency that oversees law enforcement for the country’s borders. Bids for the contract were due Aug. 1. It is not clear if Google expressed interest. The company did not return a request for comment. More than 800 Google employees had signed the petition by Friday morning. Citing a “system of abuse” and “malign neglect” by the agencies, the petition demands that Google not provide any technical services to CBP, ICE or the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), which provides services for refugees, until the agencies “stop engaging in human rights abuses.” “In working with CBP, ICE, or ORR, Google would be trading its integrity for a bit of profit, and joining a shameful lineage,” the organizers wrote. They cited federal actions that have separated migrant children from parents and set …

Actresses America Ferrera and Eva Longoria are leading a group of more than 150 writers, artists and leaders who have written a public “letter of solidarity” to U.S. Latinos after the mass shooting in El Paso, Texas, and an immigration raid in Mississippi.    The letter, published Friday in The New York Times and in a handful of Spanish-language newspapers, says the signers stand with U.S. Latinos who may feel “terrified, heartbroken and defeated by the barrage of attacks,” citing the shooting in El Paso, which targeted Hispanics, and another shooting in Gilroy, California. The two attacks killed nearly two dozen Latinos.    A huge immigration raid of Mississippi poultry plants this month that rounded up 680 mostly Latino workers, leaving behind crying children searching for their detained parents, also has unnerved some Hispanics. “We have been smeared by political rhetoric and murdered in violent hate crimes. We have been separated from our families and have watched our children caged,” the letter said. “But, we will not be broken. We will not be silenced.” ‘Indignities and cruelty’ The letter says such “indignities and cruelty” won’t diminish the contributions Latinos have made to the U.S., and it urged Hispanics to keep …