President Donald Trump may be away on a nearly two-week trip to Asia. But back in Washington, special counsel Robert Mueller is digging up new details in his investigation into possible ties between Trump’s campaign and Russians trying to influence the election. VOA’s Peter Heinlein at the White House has the latest.
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Category Archives: News
Worldwide news. News is information about current events. This may be provided through many different media: word of mouth, printing, postal systems, broadcasting, electronic communication, or through the testimony of observers and witnesses to events. News is sometimes called “hard news” to differentiate it from soft media
New Exhibit Shows How Tech Intrudes on Our Lives
The extent to which technology is always watching us is on stark display at a new London exhibit called “The Glass Room.” It allows visitors to see just how much of their lives is always available online. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports.
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US Unemployment Lowest in 17 Years After Employers Add 261,000 Jobs
A solid rebound for the job market in October as the U.S. economy added 261,000 jobs. Job gains were strong across the board, and the unemployment rate fell to 4.1 percent, its lowest level in 17 years. But, as Mil Arcega reports, American workers are not seeing any real growth in their wages.
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Cryptocurrencies’ Market Cap Hits Record $200B as Bitcoin Soars
The aggregate value of all cryptocurrencies hit a record high of over $200 billion this week, according to industry website Coinmarketcap, putting their reported market value at more than that of U.S. banking giant Citigroup.
The record, set Wednesday, came as the biggest and best-known cryptocurrency, bitcoin, hit a record high of $7,500 on the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange, after a more than tenfold increase in value over the past 12 months.
That took its own market capitalization — its price multiplied by the number of coins that have been released into circulation — to a record high of more than $120 billion.
The second-biggest cryptocurrency, ether — sometimes known as Ethereum, after the project behind it — has a market cap of just below $30 billion, with another 1,000 or so rival digital currencies making up the rest of the $200 billion.
If the cryptocurrency market were a company, its valuation would put it in the top 25 firms on the S&P 500 stock index.
The latest surge in bitcoin was driven by news this week that CME Group, the world’s largest derivative exchange operator, would launch bitcoin futures in the fourth quarter of the year, as well as speculation that Amazon could be set to accept the digital currency.
Many are concerned that the market represents a bubble, with the latest warning coming from the head of Credit Suisse on Thursday.
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Democrats Cry Foul Over ‘Rigged’ Primary Election
Prominent Democrats are expressing outrage over revelations from former Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Donna Brazile that Hillary Clinton’s campaign rigged the primary election against rival Bernie Sanders.
Brazile, in an excerpt from her upcoming book Hacks: The Inside Story of the Break-ins and Breakdowns that Put Donald Trump in the White House, claims that prior to securing the party’s nomination, Clinton, through a joint fundraising agreement signed with the DNC, agreed to finance the DNC in exchange for power over the organization’s operations.
Normally, a nominee wouldn’t exert control over the national party apparatus until after accepting the nomination. According to Brazile, though, the Clinton camp took control of DNC operations in August 2015, nearly a year before Clinton accepted the nomination.
Brazile said the arrangement was “not illegal, but it sure looked unethical.”
“If the fight had been fair, one campaign would not have control of the party before the voters had decided which one they wanted to lead. This was not a criminal act, but as I saw it, it compromised the party’s integrity,” she wrote.
The DNC is, ostensibly, a neutral organization meant to facilitate the contest between Clinton and Sanders, though Sanders supporters had long claimed the party showed a clear preference for Clinton.
Several prominent Democrats were quick to pounce on Brazile’s claims. Senator Elizabeth Warren, when asked by CNN if she believes the DNC rigged the primary contest against Sanders, said one word: “Yes.”
Warren, who campaigned heavily for Clinton during the election, called the Clinton revelations “a real problem” for Democrats.
“What we’ve got to do as Democrats now is, we’ve got to hold this party accountable,” she said.
Representative Tulsi Gabbard, who previously served as the DNC vice-chairwoman, called for a complete overhaul of campaign finance laws and a restructuring of the national party in response to the revelations the DNC rigged the nomination process in favor of Clinton.
“The DNC secretly chose their nominee over a year before the primary elections even occurred. This shines a light on how deeply broken our campaign finance laws are, and how they’ve weakened individual candidates while strengthening and empowering political parties and special interests,” Gabbard says in a video released Friday.
Gabbard said campaign finance laws “allowed the Clinton campaign to bypass individual campaign contribution limits by funneling millions of dollars through the DNC and state parties — taking control of the DNC in the process.”
Brazile laid out in her book, published by Politico, how the Clinton campaign used the DNC as “a fund-raising clearinghouse” in order to skirt election finance laws. Individuals are allowed to contribute a maximum of $2,700 directly to a presidential campaign, but the limits for state parties and the national committee are a lot higher.
Under the joint fundraising agreement Clinton signed with the DNC, individuals could write a check for $353,400 to the joint account. The money would first be deposited in state party accounts, before being transferred back to the DNC, and on to Clinton.
“Money in the battleground states usually stayed in that state, but all the other states funneled that money directly to the DNC, which quickly transferred the money to Brooklyn,” Brazile wrote, referencing the Clinton campaign headquarters in New York.
Ties to Obama
According to Brazile, former President Barack Obama and former DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz left the DNC $24 million in debt following the 2012 presidential election, which led to the “unethical” agreement with the Clinton campaign.
“What had happened?” Brazile wrote. “The party chair usually shrinks the staff between presidential election campaigns, but Debbie had chosen not to do that. She had stuck lots of consultants on the DNC payroll, and Obama’s consultants were being financed by the DNC, too.”
The Clinton campaign cleared up the pre-existing debt left behind by the Obama campaign and, in return, the DNC agreed to let the Clinton campaign “control the party’s finances, strategy, and all the money raised,” Brazile said.
Brazile took over as chairwoman of the DNC when her predecessor, Wasserman Schultz, was forced to resign after emails released by WikiLeaks appeared to show her coordinating party efforts with the Clinton campaign.
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Trump Calls Russia Probe ‘Disgrace" Wants Clinton Investigation
U.S. President Donald Trump said Friday federal probes into Russian meddling in last year’s presidential election to help him win are a “disgrace,” and he questioned why investigators are not looking into a disclosure the Democratic National Committee acted improperly in favor of presidential candidate Hillary Clinton during last year’s primary election season.
Trump raised questions about the DNC controversy in a series of tweets prior to departing for a 12-day trip to Asia, and one day after former interim DNC Chairwomen Donna Brazile disclosed an agreement between the DNC and Clinton’s campaign that effectively allowed Clinton to reign over the party’s finances and other operations before the primary elections began.
“Everybody is asking why the Justice Department (and FBI) isn’t looking into all of the dishonesty going on with Crooked Hillary & the Dems..,” Trump tweeted.
In a second tweet, Trump referred to Brazile’s revelation, which was made in her new book, and cited a number of other issues surrounding Clinton and the DNC.
“…New Donna B book says she paid for and stole the Dem Primary. What about the deleted E-mails, Uranium, Podesta, the Server, plus, plus….”
In yet another tweet, the president then turned his attention back to federal investigators, whom he suggested are not doing their job effectively.
“….People are angry. At some point the Justice Department, and the FBI, must do what is right and proper. The American public deserves it!”
Trump implied in his fourth tweet that allegations are untrue his presidential campaign colluded with Russia to capture the White House last year.
“The real story on Collusion is in Donna B’s new book. Crooked Hillary bought the DNC & then stole the Democratic Primary from Crazy Bernie!”
In an apparent reference to Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren, the president used his derogatory nickname for her, in reference to an interview Warren had with CNN Thursday, saying she believed the Democratic primary elections were rigged to help Clinton win.
“Pocahontas just stated that the Democrats, lead by the legendary Crooked Hillary Clinton, rigged the Primaries! Lets go FBI & Justice Dept.”
Before leaving the White House for his trip to Asia — his longest foreign presidential trip to date — the Republican president criticized the probes into his campaign’s possible collusion with Russia and again turned his attention to the Democrats.
“There was no collusion, there was no nothing. It’s a disgrace frankly that they continue.” He added: “… they should be looking at the Democrats,” he said. “They should be looking at a lot of things and a lot of people are disappointed in the Justice Department, including me.”
After Trump departed for his trip abroad aboard Air Force One, he resumed his tweeting, suggesting supporters of Clinton’s Democratic presidential rival Bernie Sanders are angry about his loss in the primary elections.
“Bernie Sanders supporters have every right to be apoplectic of the complete theft of the Dem primary by Crooked Hillary!”
“I always felt I would be running and winning against Bernie Sanders, not Crooked H, without cheating, I was right.”
The president’s focus on the Democrats comes four days after Special Counsel Robert Mueller charged two former Trump campaign aides in connection with the probe into Russia’s attempt to influence last year’s presidential election.
Paul Manafort, who for three months was Trump’s campaign chairman last year, and former business associate Rick Gates, were indicted by a federal grand jury in Washington as part of Mueller’s criminal investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. They were the first charges Mueller has made public in his five-month probe, although the allegations did not relate directly to the election.
Manafort was charged with conspiring against the U.S., money laundering, and lying to the government as part of a wide-ranging lobbying effort for former Ukrainian strongman Viktor Yanukovych.
In addition, Mueller disclosed that former Trump foreign affairs adviser George Papadopoulos pleaded guilty October 5 to lying to federal agents in January about his contacts with people “he understood to have close connections to senior Russian government officials.”
As he spoke with reporters Friday at the White House, Trump said he has few recollections about a March 16 meeting with Papadopoulos, at which Papadopoulos allegedly offered to set up a meeting for the candidate with Vladimir Putin.
“I don’t remember much about that meeting. It was a very unimportant meeting. It took place a long time ago. Don’t remember much about it,” said Trump.
Trump’s flurry of activity on Twitter Friday came hours after one of his Twitter accounts, “(@realDonaldTrump),” was deactivated for 11 minutes Thursday evening.
Twitter initially said the account had been inadvertently deleted due to human error, but later said it was deactivated by an employee on the worker’s last day on the job.
“We are conducting a full internal review,” the company said.
Afghanistan Blocks Social Media Services
Authorities in Afghanistan are temporarily blocking WhatsApp and Telegram social media services in the country, citing security concerns, officials confirmed Friday.
An official at the Afghan Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, ATRA, told VOA the social media tools will be suspended for 20 days. The decision follows a request from state security institutions.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said a formal announcement is expected Saturday.
ATRA has ordered telecom companies to shut down the services November 1, according to a copy of official instructions appearing in Afghan media.
Social media users have complained of technical problems while using the two services in recent days.
The controversial move has sparked criticism of the Afghan government, and it is being slammed as an illegal act and an attack on freedom of expression.
The outage prompted the telecom regulator to issue a statement Friday, saying the ban is meant to test “a new kind of technology” in the wake of users’ complaints.
It went on to defend the restriction, saying WhatsApp and Telegram are merely voice and messaging services and their temporary suspension does not violate the civil rights of Afghans. The government is committed to freedom of expression, the ministry added.
Afghan journalists and activists on Twitter dismissed the statement.
“This seems to be the beginning of government censorship. If it’s not resisted soon the gov’t will block FB & twitter,” wrote Habib Khan Totakhil on Twitter.
“Gov’t fails to deliver security, now it seeks to hide its incompetence by imposing ban on messaging platforms. Totalitarianism?,” said the Afghan journalist.
“#Censorship is against what freedom we stood for in #Afghanistan post 2001. Gains shouldn’t go to waste,” tweeted activist Nasrat Khalid.
An estimated 6 million people in war-torn Afghanistan can access internet-based services. The growth of media and social media activism have been among the few success stories Afghanistan has seen in the post-Taliban era.
Classifying numbers
The restrictions on social media come as the Taliban intensifies attacks on Afghan security forces, inflicting heavy casualties.
The insurgent group also relies heavily on WhatsApp, Telegram, Twitter and Facebook to publicize its battlefield gains.
The Afghan government has lately barred the United States military from releasing casualty numbers, force strength, operation readiness, attrition figures and performance assessments of the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces.
The U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, John Sopko, while briefing members of Congress on Wednesday, severely criticized the classification move. He maintained American taxpayers have a right to know how their money is being spent.
“The Taliban know this [Afghan casualties], they know who was killed. They know all about that. The Afghans know about it, the U.S. military knows about it. The only people who wouldn’t know are the [American] people who are paying for it,” Sopko noted.
The United States has spent nearly $120 billion on reconstruction programs in Afghanistan since 2002. More than 60 percent of the money has been used to build Afghan security forces.
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Trump: American Public ‘Deserves’ Clinton Investigation
President Donald Trump said Friday the American public “deserves” a federal investigation of Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Committee over a joint fundraising agreement they signed in August 2015.
Trump launched a multi-part Twitter attack criticizing his former 2016 rival. Trump writes: “Crooked Hillary bought the DNC & then stole the Democratic Primary from Crazy Bernie!” He adds it’s the “real story on Collusion.”
Trump’s accusation follows Politico’s publication of an excerpt from former acting DNC Chair Donna Brazile’s upcoming book. Brazile alleges she found “proof” that the 2016 Democratic primary was rigged in Clinton’s favor. Brazile writes that she believes no laws were violated, but that a funding agreement “looked unethical.”
Late Thursday, Trump tweeted without evidence that he believed they had acted “illegally.”
In subsequent tweets Friday, Trump highlighted criticism of the DNC from Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, whom he has mocked by calling her “Pocahontas.” He also called on federal authorities to launch an investigation.
“Lets go FBI & Justice Dept.,” he tweeted.
The fundraising agreement, signed in August 2015 during the primary process, was unusual for an open seat and, according to Brazile, gave the Clinton campaign oversight of some DNC decisions. Months later, Clinton’s chief challenger, independent Sen. Bernie Sanders, signed his own agreement with the party.
Trump and his campaign are subjects of a wide-ranging investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller. The White House has repeatedly sought to turn the attention of the probe, which is looking into potential collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government, to Clinton and her campaign.
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IMF Forecasts Modest Pick-up in African Economic Growth; Critics Say Figures Pessimistic
Economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa is expected to rebound this year from 20-year lows in 2016, according to the International Monetary Fund’s biannual report. The Washington-based organization warns that, despite the modest recovery, public debt is continuing to rise and could soon become unsustainable in some African countries. Henry Ridgwell has more.
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Researchers Working for the End of the Internal Combustion Automobile
Hybrid cars are slowly working their way into car markets, and there are waiting lists for Elon Musk’s new all-electric Tesla Model 3. But as popular as these cars are, they have the natural limitations of their batteries. But an answer may be in sight. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports.
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Japan Deepens Economic Support for Philippines in Rivalry With China
Japan is deepening its influence in the Philippines to vie with regional rival China, a welcome boost for an infrastructure overhaul program in the relatively poor Southeast Asian country and for Japanese geopolitical ambitions.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte met Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe earlier this week to discuss “concrete, time-bound and specific ways to further intensify bilateral cooperation,” the presidential website in Manila said.
Duterte is playing Japan off China, which last year out-pledged other countries with an offer of $24 billion in aid and investment, analysts say. China and Japan, which have a legacy of two-way political disputes, are vying for economic inroads as well as military cooperation in much of Southeast Asia.
“He’s playing one side off the other, and so he’s come to ‘why not?’” said Jeff Kingston, author and history instructor at Temple University Japan. “Japan is trying to draw on its old ties and ‘we’re a more reliable and trustworthy neighbor.’”
Duterte’s second trip to Tokyo
Duterte, in office since June 2016, made his second official Tokyo visit Oct. 30-31. His meeting with Abe included discussions of economic issues. Abe pledged 1 trillion yen ($8.8 billion) in economic support, according to media reports from Tokyo this week, doubling the amount that Japan offered in January.
The aid is expected to help the Philippines build rapid transit, bridges and improvements to a container port in the country’s third largest city, Cebu, said Jonathan Ravelas, chief market strategist with Banco de Oro UniBank, Metro Manila.
“On top of our agenda is vital support for the centerpiece projects,” Duterte said via the presidential office website, referring to a $167 billion, five-year program to overhaul public facilities as a way of fostering stronger economic growth.
Testing Chinese aid
The Philippines began accepting Chinese aid for infrastructure last year after the two sides agreed to set aside a maritime sovereignty dispute that had landed them in a world arbitration court under Duterte’s predecessor.
Beijing hopes its economic help around Southeast Asia will ease opposition to its dominance in that dispute, which covers most of the South China Sea and involves six governments. Some Filipinos worry that acceptance of Chinese aid will lead to compromising Philippine maritime sovereignty claims.
For the past four years, China has separately advanced a “One Belt, One Road” policy that extends infrastructure aid across Asia to advance Sino-foreign trade relations.
What’s in it for Japan
Japan is widely seen as competing with China for clout in the Philippines as well as other developing Asian countries.
Direct aid worldwide increased 12.7 percent last year over 2015 to $10.37 billion. The development aid also has a widening mandate, including “human security” and “sustainable development” based on individual country needs, the Japanese foreign ministry says on its website.
Japanese support for the Philippines tends to unfurl slowly compared to Chinese support, and often comes through private investment deals such as aquaculture in remote, undeveloped regions. Both countries offer concessionary loans.
“Foreign direct investment in the Philippines coming from Japan has been growing in the past six years, so I think closer cooperation between these countries is beneficial,” Ravelas said.
China and Japan still face unresolved issues from World War II as well as a dispute over islets in the East China Sea.
The East China Sea issue, plus wariness about Beijing’s grip on the South China Sea — a separate dispute not involving Japan — have prompted Tokyo to factor in freedom of navigation, rule of law and security when making aid calculations, University of Adelaide Asian studies professor Purnendra Jain wrote in a 2016 online commentary.
Japan, a staunch ally of Washington, also advocates a multicountry approach to development assistance.
“Duterte was in town at [the] Japanese invitation and I think they wanted to convince him,” Kingston said.
Japanese help for destroyed Philippine city
As part of Japan’s emphasis on human security, Abe offered $2 million to help the Philippines rebuild Marawi, Philippine media reported this week. Marawi is a southern city that was demolished during five months of fighting this year between Philippine troops and Muslim rebels.
“In the past the focus has mostly been on infrastructure and grants, but now there’s an effort to try to address human security issues like the roots of conflict, and terrorism,” said Maria Ela Atienza, political science professor at University of the Philippines Diliman.
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Ivanka Trump: World Needs More Women in STEM Fields
Ivanka Trump, U.S. President Donald Trump’s daughter and informal adviser, told a summit in Tokyo Friday that the world must boost women and minority participation in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).
Ivanka Trump, seen as an important influence on her father, has made women’s issues one of her signature policy areas since beginning her role at the White House. Her comments came ahead of her father’s trip to Asia, his first since taking office in January, that begins in Japan on Sunday.
WATCH: Ivanka Trump on Women’s Participation in STEM Fields
“Female and minority participation in STEM fields is moving in the wrong direction,” she said at the World Assembly for Women summit. “We must create equal participation in these traditionally male-dominated sectors of our economy.”
She said her father’s tax reforms, unveiled by Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday, would benefit American families.
“We are seeking to simplify the tax code, lower rates, expand the child tax credit, eliminate the marriage penalty, and put more money back in the pockets of hard-working Americans,” she told a meeting room in a Tokyo hotel that had a number of empty seats.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said his government was aiming to mobilize women in Japan’s workforce and boost economic growth, launching policies such as improved childcare in his “Womenomics” program.
“We’ve put our full strength into creating an environment where it’s easy for women to work,” Abe said in an opening address to the conference. “I really feel that Japan has come a long way,” he said.
Japan’s gender gap remains wide despite such efforts, with little progress made since Abe vowed at the United Nations in 2013 to create “a society where women can shine.”
Japan ranked 114 out of 144 in the World Economic Forum’s 2017 Global Gender Gap report, sandwiched between Guinea and Ethiopia and down 13 places since Abe took power.
Abe appointed only two women to ministerial posts in a Cabinet reshuffle in August, down from three and five respectively in his previous two Cabinets. Only 14 percent of Japan’s lawmakers are women.
Men also dominate decision-making in business in Japan. Only 3.7 percent of Japanese-listed company executives were women at the end of July, according to the Cabinet Office, barely changed from 3.4 percent a year earlier.
Twitter Employee ‘Inadvertently’ Deactivates Trump Account
President Donald Trump’s @realdonaldtrump Twitter account was “inadvertently deactivated” by a Twitter Inc. employee Thursday and was down for 11 minutes before it was restored, the social media company said.
“Earlier today @realdonaldtrump’s account was inadvertently deactivated due to human error by a Twitter employee,” the company said in a tweet.
“We are continuing to investigate and are taking steps to prevent this from happening again,” it added.
A Twitter representative declined to comment further. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump has made extensive use of messages on Twitter to attack his opponents and promote his policies, both during the 2016 presidential campaign and since taking office in January. He has 41.7 million followers on Twitter.
His first tweet after Thursday’s outage:
In a similar incident last November, Twitter Chief Executive Officer Jack Dorsey’s account was briefly suspended as a result of what he said was an internal mistake.
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Twitter Employee, on Last Day, Deactivates Trump Account
U.S. President Donald Trump’s @realdonaldtrump Twitter account was deactivated by a Twitter Inc employee whose last day at the company was Thursday, and the account was down for 11 minutes before it was restored, the social media company said.
“We have learned that this was done by a Twitter customer-support employee who did this on the employee’s last day. We are conducting a full internal review,” Twitter said in a tweet.
“We are continuing to investigate and are taking steps to prevent this from happening again,” the company said in an earlier tweet.
A Twitter representative declined to comment further.
The White House did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
Trump has made extensive use of messages on Twitter to attack his opponents and promote his policies both during the 2016 presidential campaign and since taking office in January.
He has 41.7 million followers on Twitter.
His first tweet after Thursday’s outage:
In a similar incident last November, Twitter Chief Executive Officer Jack Dorsey’s account was briefly suspended as a result of what he said was an internal mistake.
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Facebook Pressured to Notify People Who Saw Russian Posts
Facebook received several tongue-lashings during U.S. congressional hearings this week, but the world’s largest social network also got an assignment: Figure out how to notify tens of millions of Americans who might have been fed Russian propaganda.
U.S. lawmakers and some tech analysts are pressing the company to identify users who were served about 80,000 posts on Facebook, 120,000 on its Instagram picture-sharing app, and 3,000 ads that the company has traced to alleged Russian operatives, and to inform them.
The posts from Russia were designed to divide Americans, particularly around the 2016 U.S. elections, according to Facebook, U.S. intelligence agencies and lawmakers. The Russian government has denied it tried to meddle in the elections.
“When you discover a deceptive foreign government presentation on your platform, my presumption, from what you’ve said today — you’ll stop it and take it down,” Democratic Senator Jack Reed told Facebook General Counsel Colin Stretch in the Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Wednesday.
“Do you feel an obligation, in turn, to notify those people who have accessed that? And can you do that? And shouldn’t you do that?” Reed asked.
Stretch responded that he was not sure Facebook could identify the people because its estimates have relied on modeling, rather than actual counts, but he did not rule it out.
“The technical challenges associated with that undertaking are substantial,” Stretch said.
Critics of Facebook on social media and in media interviews have expressed skepticism, noting that the company closely tracks user activity such as likes and clicks for advertising purposes.
Facebook declined to comment on Thursday.
As many as 126 million people could have been served the posts on Facebook and 20 million on Instagram, according to company estimates.
Social media critics
Many of them will not believe they were manipulated unless Facebook tells them, said Tristan Harris of Time Well Spent, an organization critical of advertising-based social media.
“Facebook is a living, breathing crime scene, and they’re the only ones with access to what happened,” Harris, an ex-Google employee, said in an interview Thursday.
The 2.1 billion people with active Facebook accounts often get notifications from the service, on everything from birthdays and upcoming events to friend requests and natural disasters.
Shortly before 6 p.m. EDT on Thursday, more than 83,000 people had signed a Change.org online petition asking Facebook to tell users about the Russian posts.
Lawyers for Twitter and Alphabet’s Google also said their companies would consider notifying customers.
The intelligence committee’s vice chairman, Senator Mark Warner, drew an analogy to another industry.
“If you were in a medical facility, and you got exposed to a disease, the medical facility would have to tell the folks who were exposed,” Warner said.
IN PHOTOS: A Look at Russian Social Media Election ‘Meddling’
‘Duty to warn’
U.S. law includes a concept known as “post-sale duty to warn,” which may require notifying previous buyers if a manufacturer discovers a problem with a product.
That legal duty likely does not apply to Facebook, said Christopher Robinette, a law professor at Widener University in Pennsylvania. He said courts would likely rule that social media posts are not a product but a service, which is exempt from the duty. Courts also do not want to interfere in free speech, he said.
Robinette added, though, that he thought notifications to users would be a good idea. “This strikes me as a fairly significant problem,” he said.
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Pressure Mounts on Apple to Live Up to Hype for iPhone X
The iPhone X’s lush screen, facial-recognition skills and $1,000 price tag are breaking new ground in Apple’s marquee product line.
Now, the much-anticipated device is testing the patience of consumers and investors as demand outstrips suppliers’ capacity.
Apple said Thursday that iPhone sales rose 3 percent in the July-September quarter, a period that saw the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus come out in the final weeks. Sales could have been higher if many customers hadn’t been waiting for the iPhone X, which comes out Friday.
Apple shipped 46.7 million iPhones during the period, according to its fiscal fourth-quarter report released Thursday. That’s up from 45.5 million at the same time last year after the iPhone 7 came out, but represents a step back from the same time in 2015, when Apple shipped 48 million iPhones during the quarter.
As with recent quarters, one of the main sources of Apple’s growth is coming from its services, which are anchored by an app store that feeds the iPhone and other devices.
Revenue in that division surged 34 percent to $8.5 billion during the July-September period. All told, Apple earned $10.7 billion on revenue of $52.6 billion, compared with a $9 billion profit on revenue of $46.9 billion a year earlier.
Apple shares are up 3 percent in after-hours trading.
Nonetheless, the just-ended quarter largely became an afterthought once Apple decided to release the iPhone X six weeks after the iPhone 8.
“The Super Bowl for Apple is the iPhone X,” GBH analyst Daniel Ives said. “That is the potential game changer.”
But it also brings a potential stumbling block. While conspiracy theorists might suspect that Apple is artificially reducing supply to generate buzz, analysts say the real reason is that Apple’s suppliers so far haven’t been to manufacture the iPhone X quickly enough.
Making the iPhone X is proving to be a challenge because it boasts a color-popping OLED screen, which isn’t as readily available as standard LCD displays in other iPhone models. The new iPhone also requires more sophisticated components to power the facial-recognition technology for unlocking the device.
Even with the iPhone X’s delayed release, Apple is still struggling to catch up. Apple is now giving delivery times of five to six weeks for those ordering in advance online (limited supplies will be available in Apple stores for the formal release Friday). Most analysts are predicting Apple won’t be able to catch up with demand until early next year.
On Thursday, Apple predicted revenue for this quarter from $84 billion to $87 billion. Analysts, who have already factored in the supply challenges, expected $85.2 billion, according to FactSet.
Analysts are expecting Apple to ship 80 million iPhones during the current quarter, which includes the crucial holiday shopping season, according to FactSet. That would be slightly better than the same time last year.
Apple is counting on the iPhone X to drive even higher-than-usual sales during the first nine months of next year — a scenario that might not play out if production problems persist and impatient consumers turn instead to phones from Google or Samsung.
“What Apple needs to do is manage consumer expectations so they don’t get frustrated having to wait for so long for a new phone,” Ives said.
Analysts believe Apple can pull off the juggling act. They are expecting the company to sell 242 million iPhones in the fiscal year ending in September 2018 — the most in the product’s history. The previous record was set in 2015 when Apple shipped 231 million iPhones, thanks to larger models introduced just before the fiscal year began. By comparison, Apple shipped nearly 217 million iPhones in its just-completed fiscal 2017.
If Apple falters, investors are likely to dump its stock after driving the shares up by 45 percent so far this year on the expectation that the iPhone X will be the company’s biggest hit yet.
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Powell Brings Gift for Forging Consensus to Fed Job
As a choice to lead the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell defies any recent mold.
He isn’t a trained economist. He’s produced no trail of research. He built a fortune as an investment manager.
Yet by the reckoning of Fed analysts — those who know him and those who don’t — Powell is equipped to lead the world’s most influential central bank, presiding over a U.S. economy on solid ground but hardly without risks.
What Powell brings to the position most of all, they say, are a formidable intelligence, an appreciation of intellectual diversity and a gift for forging agreement. And in five years on the Fed’s board of governors, he has schooled himself in monetary policy while becoming a specialist in areas from banking regulation to the U.S. payments system.
As a moderate who is expected to follow the cautious approach to interest rates of the current Fed chair, Janet Yellen, Powell could serve as a steadying force for the U.S. economy as well as a unifying figure among the central bank’s policymakers.
Looking for insights
“A consensus builder” is how Shai Akabas, who worked with Powell at the Bipartisan Policy Center, a public policy think tank, describes him. Powell was for two years a visiting scholar at the center — where, among other things, he focused on helping avert a crisis over raising the government’s debt ceiling — until he joined the Fed’s board in 2012. While at the think tank, it was Powell’s task to help convince congressional Republicans — successfully, in the end — that a default on the debt would be a catastrophe.
Akabas said Powell “was always trying to glean insights from those around him, and use that to form opinions.”
Educated at Princeton University with a law degree from Georgetown University, Powell, 64, known as Jay, spent many years in investment management — at Dillon Read and then at the Carlyle Group. His work there made him one of the wealthiest figures to serve on the Fed board: His most recent financial disclosure form places his wealth at between $19.7 million and $55 million. And based on how government disclosures are drafted, his wealth may actually be closer to $100 million.
Yet those who know him describe a man of unshowy modesty and collegiality, with little discernible pretension. Earlier this year at Reagan National Airport, Matthew McCormick, a government economist who was traveling with him, said he watched Powell carry a car seat and luggage for a family he saw was struggling to make a connecting flight.
At the Bipartisan Policy Center, Jason Grumet, who founded the center, recalls that the organization didn’t know what to expect from Powell, who had just finished several lucrative years at the Carlyle Group and had earlier held a high-level Treasury Department post. Yet Powell was content to take an unassuming office near the photocopier with a view of an alley.
“Jay dug in with the intensity of a young analyst,” Grumet said. “He was like a junior staffer.”
Focus on service
A Washington native, Powell has long shown an impulse toward federal policy and service. Early in his career at Dillon Read, he followed Dillon’s former chairman, Nicholas Brady, to President George H.W. Bush’s Treasury Department. Brady had become Treasury secretary, and Powell became undersecretary for finance.
His work at the Bipartisan Policy Center followed later in his career, and it led to his nomination by President Barack Obama to the Fed’s board.
In contrast to Powell, his predecessors Ben Bernanke and Yellen were nationally distinguished economists before their Fed chairmanships, with decades of research, papers and books attached to their names. In theory at least, they came to the Fed job prepared to lead the central bank’s response to unforeseen economic crises. No one knew, after all, that Bernanke would have to endure the stomach-churning threat to the financial system that forced him to preside over a raft of emergency actions to save the largest banks and, by extension, the economy.
What colleagues do know about Powell is that he won’t likely hesitate to rely on colleagues or advisers with deeper expertise. He is described as someone who believes deeply that differing opinions and backgrounds can help build common ground in public policymaking.
In a speech last year, took note of the value of having 12 Fed branches spread across the country. He suggested that the regional differences provide an array of views to help produce superior monetary policy.
“My strong view is that this institutionalized diversity of thinking is a strength of our system,” Powell said. “In my experience, the best outcomes are reached when opposing viewpoints are clearly and strongly presented before decisions are made.”
Powell, who projects a serious demeanor, is known for a lighter side as well. Friends say he strums rock and blues numbers on the guitar. He has been an avid golfer despite back pain.
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US Finds Canada Dumped Lumber, Sets Duties
The U.S. Department of Commerce on Thursday set final duties on Canadian softwood lumber after finding that imports had been being unfairly subsidized and dumped in the United States, escalating a trade dispute with Canada in the midst of NAFTA trade talks.
The decision imposed anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duties affecting about $5.66 billion worth of imports of the key building material.
Canada called the measures “unfair, unwarranted and deeply troubling” and said it was considering its options, including legal action through the North American Free Trade Agreement and the World Trade Organization.
The department said exporters from Canada had sold softwood lumber in the U.S. market at 3.20 percent to 8.89 percent less than fair value, and that Canada was providing unfair subsidies at rates of 3.34 percent to 18.19 percent.
The decision followed failed talks to end the decades-long lumber dispute between the neighbors.
“While I am disappointed that a negotiated agreement could not be made between domestic and Canadian softwood producers, the United States is committed to free, fair and reciprocal trade with Canada,” U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said.
“This decision is based on a full and unbiased review of the facts in an open and transparent process that defends American workers and businesses from unfair trade practices,” Ross said.
Government-owned land
The disagreement centers on the fees paid by Canadian lumber mills for timber cut largely from government-owned land. They are lower than fees paid on U.S. timber, which comes largely from private land.
The Canadian government argues that its fees are fair and says it is prepared to litigate the matter if a settlement cannot be reached.
“We urge the U.S. administration to rescind these duties, which harm workers and communities in Canada,” Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said in a joint statement with Canadian Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr.
“We will forcefully defend Canada’s softwood lumber industry, including through litigation, and we expect to prevail as we have in the past. We are reviewing our options.”
Jason Brochu, co-chair of the U.S. Lumber Coalition and president of Pleasant River Lumber Company, said U.S. lumber companies could now expand production to meet U.S. demand.
“The massive subsidies the Canadian government provides to their lumber industries have caused real harm to U.S. producers and their workers,” said Brochu.
The decision is likely to further escalate tensions between the United States and Canada during difficult negotiations between the United States, Canada and Mexico to modernize NAFTA.
In September, in the midst of the third round of NAFTA talks, the United States slapped preliminary anti-subsidy duties on Canadian jetmaker Bombardier’s CSeries jets after rival Boeing accused Canada of unfairly subsidizing the aircraft.
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Social Media Companies Face Tough Congressional Questions on Russian Election Interference
Facebook, Twitter and Google executives testified in public before Senate and House investigations into Russian election interference for the first time Wednesday, amid disclosures that Russian influence on social media platforms was much wider in scope than previously understood. The lawmakers had tough questions for the Silicon Valley executives as VOA’s Katherine Gypson reports from Capitol Hill.
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New York Uzbeks Seek Greater Community Outreach, Societal Inclusion
As U.S. authorities seek motives that might have led 29-year-old suspect Sayfullo Saipov to run down and kill innocent pedestrians and cyclists in Lower Manhattan, New York’s Uzbek community believes his radicalization can be attributed in part to a lack of language and culture-specific inclusion among Uzbek nationals attempting to integrate into U.S. culture.
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Trump Election Anniversary Approaches
Wednesday, Nov. 8, marks the one-year anniversary of Donald Trump’s election as the 45th U.S. president. Trump’s surprise election sent shockwaves across the country and around the world, but his first nine months in office have often been chaotic. Trump has followed through on some of his election promises, but failed on others. VOA National Correspondent Jim Malone has more from Washington.
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Diversity is Tasty in Columbus Ohio
A small city in the American Midwest is home to immigrants and refugees from 40 nations — and a blossoming ethnic restaurant scene. As VOA’s June Soh reports, Columbus, Ohio’s taste buds and economy are both benefiting.
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Facebook Profit Soars, No Sign of Impact from Russia Issue
Facebook reported better-than-expected quarterly profit and revenue on Wednesday as it pushed further into video advertising, showing no sign of financial damage from the controversy over how Russia used the social network in an attempt to sway voters in the 2016 U.S. election.
The company’s shares, which hit a record earlier in the day, initially rose in after-hours trading, but later fell into negative territory. They have gained almost 60 percent this year.
Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg condemned Russia’s attempts to influence last year’s election through Facebook posts designed to sow division, and repeated his pledge to ramp up spending significantly to increase the social network’s security, something he said on Wednesday would affect profits.
“What they did is wrong, and we are not going to stand for it,” Zuckerberg said of the Russians, on a conference call with analysts.
Facebook is at the center of a political storm in the United States for the ways it handles paid political ads and allows the spread of false news stories. U.S. lawmakers have threatened tougher regulation and fired questions at Facebook General Counsel Colin Stretch in hearings this week.
Facebook, in a series of disclosures over two months, has said that people in Russia bought at least 3,000 U.S. political ads and published another 80,000 Facebook posts that were seen by as many as 126 million Americans over two years. Russia denies any meddling.
Facebook’s total advertising revenue rose 49 percent in the third quarter to $10.14 billion, about 88 percent of which came from mobile ads.
Analysts on average had expected total ad revenue of $9.71 billion, according to data and analytics firm FactSet.
Facebook in the third quarter gave advertisers for the first time the ability to run ads in standalone videos, outside the Facebook News Feed, and the company is seeing good early results, Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg told analysts on a conference call.
“Video is exploding, and mobile video advertising is a big opportunity,” Sandberg said.
More than 70 percent of ad breaks up to 15 seconds long were viewed to completion, most with the sound on, she said.
The 49 percent increase in total ad sales in the latest quarter compares with a 47 percent rise in the prior quarter and a 51 percent jump in the first quarter.
Facebook has been warning for more than a year about reaching a limit in “ad load”, or the number of ads the company can feature in users’ pages before crowding their News Feed.
Advertisers seem unfazed, though, spending heavily as the social network continues to attract users.
The nearly 50 percent jump in ad revenue “is phenomenal, especially when for the past few quarters they’ve been trying to bring that expectation way, way down. Yet it keeps going up,” Tigress Financial Partners analyst Ivan Feinseth said.
Of the Russia scandal enveloping Facebook publicly, Feinseth said: “In the bigger picture, I don’t think it’s a really big factor.”
The company’s performance was strong in comparison with smaller social media firms Snap Inc and Twitter, Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter said.
“Facebook grew revenues by $3.3 billion year-over-year for the quarter. This is more than Twitter and Snapchat generate combined for the full year,” he said.
Facebook said about 2.07 billion people were using its service monthly as of Sept. 30, up 16 percent from a year earlier.
Analysts on average had expected 2.06 billion monthly active users, according to FactSet.
Net income rose to $4.71 billion, or $1.59 per share, from $2.63 billion, or 90 cents per share.
Analysts on an average were expecting the company to earn $1.28, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Total revenue increased 47.3 percent to $10.33 billion beating analysts estimate of $9.84 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Various U.S. investigations into how Russia may have tried to sway American voters in the months before and after last year’s elections are hanging over Facebook and its competitors.
There is also proposed U.S. legislation that would extend rules governing political ads on television, radio and satellite to also cover digital advertising.
“We expect more scrutiny about Facebook’s ad system ahead,” analyst Debra Aho Williamson of research firm eMarketer said in a note. “We’re also monitoring for any signs that this investigation will have a material impact on ad revenue.”
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Trump Expected to Name Powell As New Fed Chief
President Donald Trump is expected to name Jerome Powell as the new head of the U.S. central bank.
Trump is scheduled to formally announce the pick Thursday in the White House Rose Garden.
“I think you will be extremely impressed by this person!” he teased in a Twitter post.
WATCH: Who Will Be the Next Fed Chief?
Sucessor to Yellen
The Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed sources, reported late Wednesday that White House officials have notified Powell that he will replace Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen when her term expires early next year. Other media outlets also said Powell is Trump’s choice.
Powell is one of the Federal Reserve’s governors. Analysts say he is a Republican centrist who appears inclined to continue the Fed’s strategy of gradually raising interest rates. The Journal story cautioned that Trump, who has praised Yellen recently, might still change his mind.
Powell would be a middle-ground pick for Trump, who is also considering current Fed Chair Yellen as well as Stanford University economist John Taylor and former Fed Governor Kevin Warsh.
Powell may relax rules
While Powell is expected to continue Yellen’s cautious approach to raising interest rates, economists say he might relax some of the financial rules designed to prevent another financial crisis like the one that caused chaos in the markets during the 2007-2008 recession. Trump has complained that those rules hurt banks and economic growth. Yellen, who was selected as Fed chair by President Barack Obama, has been an outspoken advocate for the stricter financial regulations that took effect in 2010.
Many conservative members of Congress had been pushing Trump to select Taylor, rather than Powell, for Fed chairman. Taylor, one of the country’s leading academics in the area of Fed policy, would likely embrace a more “hawkish’’ approach, more inclined to raise rates to fight inflation than to keep rates low to support the job market. Taylor is the author of a widely cited policy rule that provides a mathematical formula for guiding rate decisions. By one version of that rule, rates would be at least double what they are now.
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