POPGAZETA

China’s government uses advanced technology to monitor and censor daily life of people in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous region, according to Jewher Ilham, daughter of prominent jailed Uighur scholar and economist, Ilham Tohti. Her observation comes amid reports that the U.S. government is considering sanctions against Chinese video surveillance firm Hikvision for its role in China’s treatment of its Uighur minority in the internment camps. State Department correspondent Nike Ching has more.   …

In response to President Donald Trump’s call for tougher penalties on violent crimes, the U.S. Justice Department this week lifted a federal moratorium on the death penalty. VOA’s Brian Padden reports this controversial decision has been denounced by opponents as immoral and inhumane, but advocates say imposing the ultimate punishment for the ultimate crime is the right thing to do, and is supported by a majority of Americans.   …

Two strong earthquakes hours apart struck a group of sparsely populated islands in the Luzon Strait in the northern Philippines early Saturday, killing at least seven people, injuring about a dozen and causing substantial damage. Itbayat town Mayor Raul de Sagon said five people died in the first quake and two in the second, and at least 12 were injured. “The wounded are still being brought in,” de Sagon told a local radio station, adding that he and residents were staying in the town plaza because the successive quakes damaged mostly older buildings and houses made of thick limestone. A resident looks at damages in Itbayat town, Batanes islands, northern Philippines, July 27, 2019. Three strong earthquakes hours apart struck a group of sparsely populated islands in the Luzon Strait in the northern Philippines early Saturday. The Philippine seismology agency said the quakes measured 5.4 and 5.9. A third quake magnitude 5.7 struck later Saturday. A damage assessment team was about to be deployed when the second temblor struck and they were diverted to helping residents, de Sagon said. Authorities delayed the resumption of power supply, he said. More doctors may be needed if the number of injured from interior …

NEW YORK — Federal authorities arrested a New York City man Friday on charges accusing him of seeking to join the Taliban to fight American forces.    The FBI intercepted Delowar Mohammed Hossain on Friday morning at Kennedy Airport before he could carry out a plan to travel to Afghanistan, prosecutors said.    Hossain, 33, of the Bronx, was ordered held without bail after appearing in federal court in Manhattan. He is charged with one count of attempting to provide material support for terrorism.    Defense attorney Amy Gallicchio declined to comment Friday.    A criminal complaint says that starting in 2018, Hossain expressed interest in joining the Taliban and sought to recruit a government informant to do the same. It claims he told the informant: “I want to kill some kufars [non-believers] before I die.”    Hossain’s preparations included buying equipment such as walkie-talkies and trekking gear, prosecutors said. He instructed the informant to save enough money “to buy some weapons” once they reached Afghanistan, they added.    The case follows a series of arrests of self-radicalized terror suspects on charges they tried to join or support the Islamic State group by making contacts on social media.    FBI official William Sweeney said in …

ROME — A young American tourist has confessed to fatally stabbing an Italian paramilitary policeman who was investigating the theft of a bag and cellphone before dawn Friday, the Italian news agency ANSA and state radio reported.    ANSA, citing unidentified investigators, said two American tourists allegedly snatched the bag of a drug dealer who had swindled them. It said the owner called police to say he had arranged a meeting with the thieves to get back his bag and phone.     When two plainclothes officers arrived at the rendezvous site in Rome’s Prati neighborhood about 3 a.m., there was a scuffle during which Carabinieri paramilitary officer Mario Cerciello Rega was stabbed eight times, ANSA said.    RAI state radio reported early Saturday that the two tourists are 19 years old and had been seen on video surveillance cameras apparently running away with the bag, which was stolen in another neighborhood, Trastevere, which is very popular with young Italians and foreigners for its night life.    The Carabinieri police corps did not immediately confirm the alleged confession.   Questioning continues   Prosecutors were apparently still questioning the Americans at a Carabinieri station in Rome early Saturday.    Police said earlier Friday evening that several …

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court cleared the way Friday for the Trump administration to tap billions of dollars in Pentagon funds to build sections of a border wall with Mexico.  The court’s five conservative justices gave the administration the green light to begin work on four contracts it has awarded using Defense Department money. Funding for the projects had been frozen by lower courts while a lawsuit over the money proceeded. The court’s four liberal justices wouldn’t have allowed construction to start.  The justices’ decision to lift the freeze on the money allows President Donald Trump to make progress on a major 2016 campaign promise heading into his race for a second term. Trump tweeted after the announcement: “Wow! Big VICTORY on the Wall. The United States Supreme Court overturns lower court injunction, allows Southern Border Wall to proceed. Big WIN for Border Security and the Rule of Law!”  FILE – A Customs and Border Protection agent patrols on the U.S. side of a razor-wire-covered border wall along the southern U.S. border east of Nogales, Ariz., March 2, 2019. The Supreme Court’s action reverses the decision of a trial court, which initially froze the funds in May, and an appeals court, which …

When Ciwan Husen lost his left hand and eye at age 21 in the Kurdish fight against the Islamic State (IS) in northwest Syria, he knew his life would never be the same. In the months leading to his recovery, his efforts to overcome his physical disability and the psychological trauma of war led him to develop a talent he never knew he had: playing drums and cymbals. ‘I thought life was over’ Living in displacement in the Shahba district of northern Aleppo Governorate, Husen has developed a love for music and plays drums even without prosthetics. “At the beginning, when I had just lost one of my hands and one of my eye(s), I thought life was over and I couldn’t do anything,” Husen told VOA, speaking of his impairment after being hit by an IS explosive in 2016. “But people around me continued to encourage me and told me to trust in God and my will. Their encouragement overtime built this confidence in me,” he added. Husen is originally from the predominantly Kurdish city of Afrin, in northwest Syria. He fled with his family in early 2018 following a Turkish attack to seize the city from Kurdish fighters. …

The number of U.S. military personnel taken into custody in connection with an alleged human smuggling operation in southern California is growing. A spokesman for the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) said Friday investigators apprehended a total of 18 Marines and one sailor as a result of a mass arrest at Camp Pendleton, a Marine Corps base located roughly 79 kilometers (49 miles) north of San Diego. Arrests made during formation NCIS and Marine officials initially announced the apprehension of 16 Marines with the Fifth Marine Regiment during Thursday’s mass arrest, which took place after the Marines were called to a battalion formation. The initial statement from the Marine Corps said another eight Marines had been taken in for questioning on unrelated drug allegations. “The 1st Marine Division is cooperating,” NCIS spokesman Jeffrey Houston said in a statement Friday, in which the additional apprehensions were announced. “Out of respect for the investigative and judicial process, and to protect witnesses, NCIS will not comment further until the investigative and judicial process has completed,” he added. No charges filed None of the Marines apprehended in what was described by some officials as a sting operation have yet been charged, nor have officials …

This week #VOAOurVoices joins the international community in marking the World Day against Trafficking Persons. Yearly millions of vulnerable victims, mainly adult women, fall into human trafficking, through violence, manipulation and false promises. Our team, joined by VOA Zimbabwe Digital Lead Marvelous Nyahuye, takes a closer look at the myths and misconceptions of trafficking, measures to combat the act and how survivors cope. …

U.S. President Donald Trump is pressing the World Trade Organization to stop designating China and other countries as “developing” nations, a label that allows them to receive lenient treatment under global trade rules.    In a memo Friday, Trump directed U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to “use all available means” to get the WTO to stop describing countries as “developing” if their economies are strong.      He said the WTO uses “an outdated dichotomy between developed and developing countries that has allowed some WTO members to gain unfair advantages.”      Trump said that if the United States decides the WTO has not made “substantial progress” after 90 days, it will unilaterally stop treating those nations as developing countries.    The statement notes that seven of the 10 wealthiest economies in the world, including China, claim developing country status with the WTO. The status allows governments the ability to protect some domestic industries and maintain subsidies, as well as to receive longer time limits to implement trade commitments.    In a tweet Friday, Trump said the “WTO is BROKEN when the world’s RICHEST countries claim to be developing countries to avoid WTO rules and get special treatment. NO more!!! Today I directed the …

This story originated in VOA’s Albanian service. PRISTINA, KOSOVO — Kosovo’s outgoing Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj is calling on the international community, the United States and the European Union to stop pressuring his country to remove tariffs against Serbia as a precondition for negotiations between the countries.    Haradinaj offered his resignation last week before being questioned as a suspect by a special court investigating alleged war crimes by the former Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA).  Appearing before prosecutors in The Hague on Wednesday, Haradinaj refused to answer questions. As he left, he said his response was made “at the advice of my lawyer.”     In an exclusive interview with VOA’s Albanian service, his first since returning from the Netherlands, Haradinaj insisted tariffs should remain in place until Serbia recognizes Kosovo.    Kosovo and Serbia map Haradinaj gained popular support after introducing a 100 percent tax on goods produced in Serbia last November, immediately prompting Belgrade to pull out of talks with Pristina. Many saw the move as a way to block Kosovar President Hashim Thaci and Serbian President Alexandar Vucic from discussing a change of borders as a formula for normalizing relations between the two countries.    Asked if he saw any connection between his insistence on keeping tariffs and the …

Zimbabwean Tourism Minister Prisca Mupfumira was charged in court on Friday with corruption involving $95 million from the state pension fund after questioning by the newly formed Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC). Mupfumira is the first senior government official to be interrogated by the commission, which was appointed by President Emmerson Mnangagwa last week after he promised tough action against graft. The prosecution laid out charges ranging from alleged abuse of state pension fund money to finance Mupfumira’s political campaigning to directing investments of up to $62 million into a bank against the advice of the pension fund’s risk committee. Property deals? Mupfumira is also accused of leaning on the pension fund to enter into property deals with the same bank worth $15.7 million. The charges arose from Mupfumira’s tenure as labor minister between 2014 and 2018, when she oversaw the state pension fund. “While some amounts have been identified, where they went to, there are other amounts which the police and officers at the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission have failed to find. She has managed to hide that money very well,” prosecutor Michael Reza said in court. Costly corruption Transparency International says Zimbabwe loses $1 billion to corruption every year. Zimbabwe’s …

A top Sudanese editor who heads the main journalists’ union has been detained, the union said Thursday, calling on Sudan’s military rulers to free him or put him on trial. The detention of Sadiq al-Rizaigi came as the military said it had arrested a top general, several security officers and Islamist leaders over a failed coup attempt announced earlier this month. The Sudanese Journalists’ Union called on the ruling Transitional Military Council to “immediately release” its head Rizaigi, a prominent Islamist and editor of Al-Sayha newspaper, or that he be put on trial. A senior journalist with Rizaigi’s newspaper told AFP that security forces had taken him away from outside the newspaper’s premises. “We do not know where he is being held or the reasons for his detention,” said Awad Jad Al-Sayid, news editor of Al-Sahya. On Wednesday, the military announced several arrests in connection with a failed coup attempt. It said it had arrested General Hashim Abdel Mottalib, the head of the joint chiefs of staff, and a number of officers from the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) along with leaders of the Islamic Movement and the National Congress Party. On July 11, the military announced it had …

The U.N. refugee agency says up to 150 refugees and migrants are believed to have lost their lives Thursday in a shipwreck on the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Libya. If confirmed, the UNHCR says the shipwreak will be the biggest on the Mediterranean Sea since May 2017, when 156 people died off the coast of the Libyan capital, Tripoli. Close to 140 survivors, mainly Eritreans and Sudanese, were pulled from the water. Migrants watch the body of their fellow migrant who died after a wooden boat capsized off the coast of Komas, a town east of the capital Tripoli, Libya, July 25, 2019. UNHCR spokesman Charlie Yaxley says the latest tragedy comes weeks after more than 50 people were killed when a detention center in Tajoura, on the outskirts of Tripoli, was hit in an airstrike. “In addition to the shipwreck … a further 87 people were brought back to Libya by the Libyan coast guard, and 84 of them were transferred to Tajoura,” Yaxley said. “The total population in Tajoura now numbers nearly 300. This is completely unacceptable, and we call for their immediate orderly release.”   There were no search-and-rescue boats operated by nongovernmental organizations in …

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is downplaying any differences with high-profile progressive lawmaker Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, saying she had a “nice meeting” Friday with the social media dynamo who’s made some tart observations about the Democratic leadership team. Pelosi told reporters that “I don’t think we have that many differences” despite some sharp words back and forth recently with “AOC,” as she’s referred to by her 4.9 million followers on Twitter. “In our caucus we have our differences. Respect that instead of making a big issue of it,” Pelosi told reporters, displaying a little exasperation with the media’s fixation with their relationship. “We just had a meeting to clear the air.” FILE – Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., speaks during a news conference at the Capitol in Washington, July 15, 2019. Corbin Trent, a spokesman for Ocasio-Cortez, said, “It was a very positive and productive meeting about progressive priorities.” The pair had quarreled publicly over the clout of the freshmen who handed House control back to the Democrats in last year’s election. Pelosi had noted that the so-called progressive “squad” of four women of color that includes Ocasio-Cortez is only four people strong among dozens of Democrats. Ocasio-Cortez in turn accused her of …

The World Health Organization reports an experimental vaccine is saving lives and slowing the spread of the Ebola virus in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. But as the first anniversary of the Ebola epidemic nears, the WHO warns many challenges remain before the deadly disease is fully contained.  More than 2,600 cases of Ebola, including 1,756 deaths, have been reported in North Kivu and Ituri provinces since Aug. 1, 2018, according to WHO, making this the second worst Ebola outbreak after the 2014 West African epidemic, which killed more than 11,000 people. A second wave of the outbreak in the Beni health zone is larger than the first wave one year ago, WHO reports. Beni accounts for more than half of the 242 new cases of Ebola reported in the last three weeks. Other recent hotspots include Mandima, Mabalako and Katwa. Mike Ryan, executive director of WHO health emergencies, has credited the work of the international operation for preventing the spread of the virus outside North Kivu and Ituri provinces. In addition, there are no confirmed cases in neighboring countries. More than 175,000 people have been vaccinated against Ebola as a preventive measure, he reported.  “Ebola is a disease that …

VOA Connect Episode 80 – A look at various faiths and how religion plays out in the lives of ordinary Americans, from cowboy Christians, to a “freelance” Muslim, to the effect a Thai monk on a cross-country trek has on people’s attitudes toward peace.   …

The U.S. economy slowed sharply in the second quarter even as consumers stepped up their spending. The Commerce Department says the gross domestic product grew at a 2.1% annual rate in the April-June quarter, down from a 3.1% gain in the first quarter. But consumer spending, which accounts for 70% of economic activity, accelerated to growth at a sizzling 4.3% rate after a lackluster 1.1% annual gain in the first quarter. This spending strength was offset by a widening of the trade deficit and slower business inventory rebuilding, which together pared GDP by 1.5 percentage points. Economists worry that an economic slowdown could last for the rest of the year as the economy reflects weakness from overseas and a confidence-shaking trade battle between the United States and China. …

In advance of World Hepatitis Day on Sunday (July 28), the World Health Organization (WHO) is urging countries to invest in affordable treatments that could reduce the number of infections and save millions of lives. Hepatitis B and C are viral infections transmitted through contact with blood. Those two viruses cause cirrhosis and liver cancer and constitute about 96 percent of all hepatitis-related deaths. The World Health Organization says hepatitis B and C infections affect about 325 million people globally and kill about 1.4 million every year. WHO’s hepatitis team leader, Marc Bulterys said that makes hepatitis the second most lethal infectious disease just behind tuberculosis. “The number of deaths from hepatitis has been increasing over the past two decades,” he added. “What is worse, hepatitis has been a silent killer.  Of the 257 million people that we estimate are living with hepatitis B infection, only about one in 10 has been diagnosed and only approximately 4.5 million people are on treatment.”  Bulterys said of the 71 million people living with chronic hepatitis C, only one in five has been diagnosed and 5 million treated.   The WHO study finds hepatitis could be eliminated as a public health threat in …

Four major automakers have reached a deal with California to toughen standards for gas mileage and greenhouse gas emissions, bypassing the Trump administration’s push to relax mileage standards nationwide instead. Ford, BMW, Honda and Volkswagen signed the deal with the California Air Resources Board, the state’s air pollution regulator, which had been at odds with the Trump administration for months, in a contest that automakers fear could set up years of confusion and litigation in the industry. California has said it would exercise its powers to set more stringent pollution and mileage standards than the federal government has proposed. The Trump administration reacted strongly to the end run, with Environmental Protection Agency spokesman Michael Abboud calling it a “PR stunt.”  “The federal government, not a single state, should set this standard,” White House spokesman Judd Deere said. The Trump administration would keep going on its competing effort to relax mileage standards nationwide, Deere said. The administration has sought to freeze Obama administration standards, keeping fleetwide new-vehicle mileage at 2021 levels of about 30 mpg. The administration says the extra expense to comply with the requirements will raise the price of new cars, making them unaffordable and depriving buyers of new …

China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is regarded globally as the most ambitious project ever designed for building connectivity infrastructure like roads, railways and ports. New research shows, however, that China is investing just one-third of the BRI funds in connectivity infrastructure and instead is allocating two-thirds of the money for energy projects. The investigation published by the Mercator Institute of China Studies (MERICS) in Berlin suggests that China is building energy facilities with the goal of relocating its surplus industrial capacity to nearly two dozen different countries, analysts said. “China’s initial focus on energy projects creates the preconditions for the next phase of the BRI: industrial build-up and new China-cantered supply chains,” MERICS said in its report, “Powering the Belt and Road.” A portion of Chinese factories have moved to Vietnam and other places in Southeast Asia because of shrinking demand and new environmental laws that have made it impossible for many of them to continue using old machinery. China did its best to convince beneficiary countries it was keen to develop their infrastructure, such as roads, railways and ports. As a result, a large-scale migration of industrial capacity was not expected. China’s goals FILE – Work is in …

John Fogerty has pulled out of Woodstock 50 just weeks before the troubled anniversary event is supposed to take place. A representative for the singer tells The Associated Press that Fogerty, who performed at the original 1969 festival with Creedence Clearwater Revival, will now only perform at a smaller anniversary event at Woodstock’s original site in Bethel, New York. Fogerty appeared alongside the original festival’s co-founder, Michael Lang, in March to announce that Jay-Z, Dead & Company and the Killers would perform at Woodstock 50, set for Aug. 16-18. The anniversary event has faced a series of setbacks, including the loss of a financial partner and permit denials. Fogerty will instead perform at the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, which is holding its event during the same three-day weekend. …

Tech savvy farmers in Nigeria are using a farming technique known as aeroponics, in which plants are grown in humid air. The practice is not well known in Nigeria, but those using it are on a mission to make it more popular.  In the town of Abeokuta, the technique could make a big difference in a country where violence and desertification have made huge amounts of land unfarmable. Biochemist Samson Ogbole is popularly known as Nigeria’s smart farmer. He and his team are growing crops without soil at a tech-based farm they started three years ago in Abeokuta, in southwest Nigeria. Working to end food scarcity They say they’re on a mission to eliminate seasonal food scarcity in Nigeria. “Because we’re the ones controlling everything that the plant requires, we’re not depending on seasons,” Ogbole said. “So it’s no longer seasonal farming, it is just farming anytime of the year, meaning we can plant anytime of the year, we can harvest anytime of the year.” But setting up the smart farm was not easy. It required startup capital of more than $180,000, Ogbole said. “We were called wizards, demons, that we are doing something unnatural. So it took a whole …

Saudi Arabia has stopped issuing visas to people from Congo while citing the Ebola outbreak there, even as the World Health Organization recommends against travel restrictions. Some Muslims in Congo had planned to take part in the annual hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia next month. A letter from the Saudi foreign ministry to Congo’s embassy in Riyadh, obtained by The Associated Press and dated Wednesday, says the kingdom made the decision to protect pilgrims and others.   The letter refers to the WHO decision this month to declare the Ebola outbreak in eastern Congo a global health emergency. More than 1,700 people have died in the year-long outbreak. Saudi Arabia also suspended visas during West Africa’s Ebola outbreak a few years ago. The decision affects anyone coming from Congo, including non-citizens. …