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Beijing — A fire at a shopping mall killed 16 people in the southwestern Chinese city of Zigong, state media reported early Thursday. Firefighters and rescuers responded to a fire call shortly after 6 p.m. at the 14-story commercial building, and pulled 75 people to safety, according to the official news agency Xinhua. Rescue efforts were ongoing. It was not immediately known what caused the fire or how many people were in the building when the fire broke out. The building houses a department store, offices, restaurants and a movie theater. Social media video posts showed clouds of thick black smoke coming from the windows on the building's lower levels and engulfing the entire 14-story structure as they rose into the sky. Huge flames were visible, and firefighters fought the fire with water. Local media said firefighters also used several drones. Fire hazards remain a problem in China, which reported 947 fire fatalities in this year's first few months ending on May 20, up 19% from the same period of the previous year, said Li Wanfeng, a spokesperson for the National Fire and Rescue Administration. Li said the number of fires in public places such as hotels and restaurants rose 40% and that the most common causes were malfunctioning in electrical or gas lines and carelessness. In January, a fire killed 39 people in a commercial building in the southeastern Chinese province of Jiangxi. It was caused by unauthorized welding in the basement. In February, another 15 people were killed in a residential building in the eastern city of Nanjing, after an attached parking lot that had electric bikes caught fire.

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An investigative media outlet in Peru uncovered high-level government corruption. Now their journalists are confronted with threats and legal action. For VOA News, Monica Várgas in Lima and Cristina Caicedo Smit in Washington have the story.

washington — American businessman and former diplomat Stephen Biegun says that while China is carefully and quietly watching the U.S. presidential election to avoid the appearance of taking sides, most of the Chinese counterparts that he speaks with say they want former President Donald Trump to be re-elected.   “There is a certain fascination about him in China and a sense that unpredictability can also deliver outcomes that the Chinese want,” Biegun said in remarks at an Aspen Security Forum discussion Tuesday. “President Trump was not afraid to engage with the Chinese and he did so.”   Biegun served as the U.S. deputy secretary of state and special representative for North Korea during the Trump administration. He is currently senior vice president of global public policy at Boeing Company.   He was asked about what a second Trump presidency versus a second term for Joe Biden would look like on China policy.  Both President Joe Biden and Trump have been tough on China. Trump has proposed that if elected, he would impose a general tariff of 10% on all foreign goods and increasing tariffs on goods from China to 60%.   Biegun said that a bigger concern of a second Trump presidency in his view would be managing relations beyond China’s borders.   Across-the-board tariffs are going to make it very difficult for “us to turn around and enlist those countries in a set of sensible policies on a coordinated basis that addresses our national concerns,” he said.  Asked about the current U.S.-China relationship, Anja Manuel, former diplomat and executive director of the Aspen Strategy Group and the Aspen Security Forum,  said that regardless of who is elected, “no one is under any illusions that you’re going to have a positive upward swing” in U.S.-China relations.  Manuel, who has worked for Democratic and Republican administrations, said Biden's summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Woodside, California, late last year set a baseline for U.S.-China relations.  “If there is a second Biden administration, I think you’ll have a lot of continuity,” Manuel said. “They’ve talked about managed competition and they’re handling it the way they are handling it. I think you’re going to see steady as she goes.”  If Trump is re-elected, she said, U.S.-China relations will be a wild ride, noting that right now there seem to be widely different views from former members of the Trump administration and the former president.  She said that on the one hand, people who once worked for Trump, such as his deputy national security adviser, Matt Pottinger, and former House Select Committee on China Chairman Mike Gallagher, have written that the United States must defeat China, not just manage competition with it. They made the argument in an article titled "No Substitute for Victory" in Foreign Affairs magazine.  "And then you have Trump saying things like 60% tariffs. That's probably not good for his base,” she said.  Referring to an interview with the former president released Tuesday by Bloomberg Businessweek, she added that Trump’s comments on Taiwan also raise questions.  “You have Trump, on the other hand, saying, well, Taiwan, they stole business and the semiconductor business from America, why should we protect them?” Manuel said.  “If I were the Chinese, that would leave me to believe that he wouldn't be as strong on the protection of Taiwan or, because he's so unpredictable, that he might do something even more rash, so I don't know if that's a positive or negative. But boy, it's going to be a wild ride."  In his response, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt focused on Trump's campaign promise to impose a 60% tariff on products from China and a general tariff on all products from all other countries.  "This would ultimately result in higher costs for those of you who shop at Walmart and those of you who shop at everywhere else," Schmidt said. Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report.

Washington — Russia and China are edging ever closer to unleashing space-based weapons, a decision that could have far-reaching implications for America’s ability to defend itself, U.S. military and intelligence agencies warn. Adding to the concern, they say, is what appears to be a growing willingness by both countries to set aside long-running suspicions and animosity in order to gain an edge over the United States. “I would highlight ... the increasing amount in intent to use counterspace capabilities,” said Lieutenant General Jeff Kruse, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency. “Both Russia and China view the use of space early on, even ahead of conflict, as important capabilities to deter or to compel behaviors,” Kruse told the annual Aspen Security Forum on Wednesday. “We just need to be ready.” Concerns about the safety of space surged earlier this year when House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner called for the declassification of “all information” related to what was described as a new Russian anti-satellite capability involving nuclear weapons. More recently, Turner has warned that the U.S. is “sleepwalking” into a disaster, saying that Russia is on the verge of being able to detonate a nuclear weapon in space, which would impose high costs on the U.S. military and economy. The White House has responded repeatedly that U.S. officials have been aware of the Russian plans, and that Moscow has not yet deployed a space-based nuclear capability. It is a stance that Kruse reaffirmed Wednesday, with added caution. “We have been tracking for almost a decade Russia's intent to design the ability to put a nuclear weapon in space,” he said. “They have progressed down to a point where we think they're getting close.” The Russians “don't intend to slow down, and until there's repercussions, will not slow down,” he said. Russian and Chinese officials have yet to respond to VOA’s requests for reaction to the latest U.S. accusations, but both countries have repeatedly denied U.S. criticisms of their space policies. In May, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov dismissed U.S. concerns about Moscow trying to put nuclear weapons in space as “fake news.” But the Chinese Embassy in Washington, while admitting there are some “difficulties” when it comes to China-U.S. relations in space, rejected any suggestion Beijing is acting belligerently in space. “China always advocates the peaceful use of outer space, opposes weaponizing space or an arms race in space and works actively toward the vision of building a community with a shared future for mankind in space,” spokesperson Liu Pengyu told VOA in an email. “The U.S. has been weaving a narrative about the so-called threat posed by China in outer space in an attempt to justify its own military buildup to seek space hegemony,” Liu said. “It is just another illustration of how the U.S. clings on to the Cold War mentality and deflects responsibility.” Despite Beijing’s public posture, the Defense Intelligence Agency’s Kruse suggested Wednesday that China’s rapid expansion into the space domain is just as worrisome. “They're in multiple orbits that they did not used to be before,” he told the audience in Aspen, Colorado, warning that Beijing has already invested heavily in directed energy weapons, electronic warfare capabilities and anti-satellite technology. “China is the one country that more so even than the United States has a space doctrine, a space strategy, and they train and exercise the use of space and counterspace capabilities in a way that we just don't see elsewhere,” he said. The general in charge of U.S. Space Command described the Chinese threat in even starker terms. “China is building a kill web, if you will, in space,” said General Stephen Whiting, speaking alongside Kruse at the Aspen conference.  “In the last six years, they've tripled the number of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance satellites they have on orbit — hundreds and hundreds of satellites, again, purpose built and designed to find, fix, track target and, yes, potentially engage U.S. and allied forces across the Indo-Pacific,” he said. Whiting also raised concerns about the lack of clear military communication with China about space. “We want to have a way to talk to them about space safety as they put more satellites on orbit,” he said, “so that we can operate effectively and don't have any miscommunication or unintended actions that cause a misunderstanding.”

Pentagon — The U.S. military is dismantling the temporary pier it built to deliver aid to Palestinians in Gaza via the sea but will continue to help transfer aid for Gaza from Cyprus to the Israeli port of Ashdod, U.S. officials said Wednesday. “The maritime surge mission involving the pier is complete, so there's no more need to use the pier,” Vice Admiral Brad Cooper, deputy commander for U.S. Central Command, told reporters on Wednesday.  At least 5 million pounds of aid remains in Cyprus, according to Cooper, which the U.S. military will help transfer to Ashdod, about 40 kilometers south of Tel Aviv. The U.S. plans to use the same vessels that have transported aid from Cypress to the temporary pier to transport aid from Cypress to Ashdod. Through coordination with the U.S. World Food Program, that aid will be loaded onto trucks to enter Gaza through a northern entry point, he added. The temporary pier, known as Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore (JLOTS), delivered 8.7 million kilograms (19.4 million pounds) of aid to Gaza in the 20 or so days it was operational, which Cooper said was a “historically unprecedented operation to deliver aid into an active combat zone without any U.S. boots on the ground.”  “It's the highest volume of humanitarian assistance that the U.S. military has ever delivered into the Middle East,” Cooper said. U.S. and partner airdrops have delivered 1.08 million kilograms (2.4 million pounds) of aid into Gaza since the war began, while trucks have delivered 15 million kilograms (33.5 million pounds) of aid through land routes. The Pentagon had planned to re-anchor the temporary pier to the Gaza shore one last time after detaching it late last month because of rough seas, but weather conditions kept the pier in Ashdod, according to officials. Last week, U.S. President Joe Biden said he was “disappointed” the temporary pier he ordered be established off the coast of Gaza had not met his expectations. “I was hopeful that would be more successful,” he said. Cooper said the aid mission for Gaza would end up costing less than the $230 million initially estimated for the mission. He did not provide a specific number. He added that the Gaza aid mission was more cost-efficient than previous U.S. military aid missions of comparable size. For example, the U.S. aid delivery mission to Haiti following an earthquake in 2010 cost about $460 million to deliver 10 million kilometers (23 million pounds) of aid. U.S. Senator Roger Wicker, the highest-ranking Republican on the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee, said Wednesday the pier project had caused “national embarrassment.” “The only miracle is that this doomed-from-the-start operation did not cost any American lives,” he said. “We cannot buy back the $230 million needlessly spent, and significant questions remain about the Biden administration’s poor planning for this mission.” Wicker said transporting the pier took “roughly double” the amount of time it was actually in use.  The pier was moved to the Israeli port on June 28 to protect it from weather damage. At the time, officials said there was a chance it would not be reattached. The pier allowed for aid to enter Gaza via a sea route from Cyprus, a delivery method that officials deemed a “temporary” fix as land routes to get aid into Gaza stalled with long backups of vehicles at Israeli inspection points. The arrangement was part of an effort to boost what humanitarian organizations say is a vastly insufficient amount of aid for Palestinian civilians. “We know that there is an urgent need for humanitarian assistance,” Pentagon press secretary Major General Pat Ryder told reporters Tuesday at the Pentagon in response to a question from VOA. Fighting between Israeli forces and Hamas, a U.S.-designated terror group, had prevented the aid from leaving the Gaza beach and making it to civilians in need during some of the pier’s deployment. The late-June pier detachment was not the first time the temporary pier was taken offline because of rough seas.  Following its completion in mid-May, the pier operated for just a few days before it was damaged by stormy weather in late May. That damage stopped operations until June 8.

Washington — U.S. prosecutors on Wednesday formally appealed a federal judge's decision to throw out the criminal case brought by Special Counsel Jack Smith accusing Donald Trump of illegally holding on to classified documents following the end of his presidency. Smith's office filed a notice indicating it would ask the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to revive the case and reverse Florida-based U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon's ruling on Monday that Smith had been unlawfully appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland. Cannon, who was appointed to the bench by Trump in 2020, ruled that Smith's 2022 appointment violated the U.S. Constitution because Congress did not authorize Garland to name a special counsel with the degree of power and independence wielded by Smith. The decision was the latest in a series of legal victories for Trump. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on July 1 that Trump has broad immunity from prosecution for official actions taken as president, a decision that has tied up another criminal case brought by Smith involving Trump's attempts to overturn his 2020 election loss. Trump is the Republican candidate challenging Democratic President Joe Biden in the November 5 U.S. election in a rematch from four years ago. A Trump campaign spokesperson reiterated Trump's previous call to dismiss all four criminal cases against him in light of Cannon's decision. Cannon broke with decades of rulings by other federal courts that have upheld the authority of the attorney general to empower a special counsel to handle politically sensitive investigations.   The practice has been used for decades by administrations of both political parties. Special counsels have also investigated Biden and his son, Hunter Biden.   Cannon's ruling dismissed the charges against Trump and co-defendants Walt Nauta, a personal aide to Trump, and Carlos De Oliveira, a property manager at the former president's Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida where the documents were found during an FBI search. Trump was accused of illegally retaining sensitive national security documents, including records related to the U.S. nuclear program and potential military vulnerabilities, at Mar-a-Lago after leaving office in January 2021. Trump and the two co-defendants also were accused of obstructing an investigation into Trump's handling of the material. Trump and his co-defendants had pleaded not guilty.   In addition to the two indictments obtained by Smith, Trump faced criminal charges in a pair of other cases.   He became the first former U.S. president to be convicted of a crime when a jury in New York state court found him guilty in May of felony charges related to hush money paid to porn star Stormy Daniels to avert a sex scandal before the 2016 election. He faces sentencing in September. Trump also faces state charges in Georgia related to his efforts to overturn his 2020 defeat. The two remaining criminal cases are not expected to be completed before the election. Smith, a public corruption and international war crimes prosecutor, was appointed to give investigations involving Trump a degree of independence from the Justice Department under the Biden administration. Trump's lawyers have not challenged Smith's appointment in Smith's election-related case. Six of the 12 active judges on the 11th Circuit were appointed by Trump. The 11th Circuit dealt Trump a defeat earlier over the classified documents. In 2022, before the charges were filed, a three-judge 11th Circuit panel reversed a ruling by Cannon to appoint a third-party "special master" to vet evidence FBI agents seized during a search of Trump's Mar-a-Lago property in Florida.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Washington — President Joe Biden on Wednesday tested positive for COVID-19, the White House said in a statement, shortly after he abruptly canceled a Las Vegas speech where he planned to appeal to Latino voters. The 81-year-old president tested positive before his first event in Las Vegas Wednesday and is experiencing “mild symptoms,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in the statement. She added that he is vaccinated and boosted against the virus and will return to his home in Rehoboth, Delaware, where he will self-isolate. “The White House will provide regular updates on the President’s status as he continues to carry out the full duties of the office while in isolation,” she said. The news was first announced by the president of UnidosUS, the nation’s largest Latino nonprofit advocacy organization. “Regrettably I was just on the phone with President Biden,” UnidosUS President Janet Murguia told the crowd gathered in a Las Vegas ballroom to hear the president. “And he shared his deep disappointment at not being able to join us this afternoon. The president has been at many events as we all know, and he just tested positive for COVID. So, of course, we understand that he needs to take the precautions that have been recommended, and he did not obviously want to put anybody at risk.” A message from Biden’s doctor followed Jean-Pierre’s statement, adding that Biden’s respiratory rate, temperature and blood oxygen levels are all normal, and that he has received a dose of treatment. The doctor, whose name was not given in the statement, said Biden had shown symptoms including a runny nose, a cough and general malaise. “His symptoms remain mild, his respiratory rate is normal at 16, his temperature is normal at 97.8 and his pulse oximetry is normal at 97%,” the note said. “The president has received his first dose of Paxlovid. He will be self-isolating at his home in Rehoboth.” \As Biden prepared to board Air Force One to fly to Delaware, reporters asked him how he felt. He gave the press a thumbs-up and replied: “Good. I feel good.”

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Following the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, the media are working to verify details of the attack and to combat fast-spreading mis- and disinformation. Ethics experts are looking at how the attack is being framed. With Liam Scott, Cristina Caicedo Smit has the story for VOA News.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Amsterdam — The Netherlands commemorated on Wednesday the 298 victims of flight MH17 with a ceremony attended by the bereaved and representatives from Malaysia, Australia, Britain, Belgium and Ukraine. Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was shot down over eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014, as fighting raged between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian forces, the precursor of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022. All 283 passengers and 15 crew on board, including 196 Dutch citizens, were killed, leaving the plane's wreckage and the remains of the victims scattered across fields of corn and sunflowers. Based on an international investigation, a Dutch court in 2022 said there was no doubt the plane was shot down by a Russian missile system and that Moscow had "overall control" of the forces of the separatist "Donetsk People's Republic" in eastern Ukraine since May 2014. Russia denies any involvement. During Wednesday's ceremony, which took place at the MH17 monument in the village of Vijfhuizen near Amsterdam, loved ones read out loud the names of all the victims. Mark Rutte, who was prime minister when the disaster happened and has been a strong critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin ever since, drew applause for his efforts during his time in office to keep the international spotlight on the incident. The Dutch court convicted two former Russian intelligence agents and a Ukrainian separatist leader in absentia of murder for their role in the transport into eastern Ukraine of the Russian military BUK missile system used to down the plane. "Justice requires a long, long breath," said Prime Minister Dick Schoof, who took office earlier this month, adding that "a conviction is not the same as having someone behind bars."   Commemorating the victims in his nightly video message, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said: "There is no doubt that the judicial process and the overall work of international justice will inevitably lead to entirely fair sentences for all responsible for this crime." His foreign minster, Dmytro Kuleba, wrote on X that Russia had twice killed the victims. "First with a missile. Second, with lies that abused their memory and hurt their relatives."   Moscow denies any responsibility for MH17's downing and in 2014 it also denied any presence in Ukraine. However, the EU's outgoing foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Tuesday called on Russia to finally accept its responsibility. "The evidence presented makes it abundantly clear that the BUK surface-to-air missile system used to bring down Flight MH17 belonged beyond doubt to the armed forces of the Russian Federation," Borrell said. "No Russian disinformation operation can distract from these basic facts, established by a court of law."

Kigali — Paul Kagame’s win in Rwanda's presidential election this week was widely expected, although critics say the vote was neither free nor fair. Lewis Mudge is the central Africa director at Human Rights Watch. Mudge, who lived in Rwanda for several years, said elections there are a mere performance and always produce big wins for Kagame. “Notwithstanding the economic progress that President Kagame has made, he’s effectively been in power since July of 1994. That progress has not been matched in terms of political and civil rights and that reflects open space for people to have an independent political platform that disagrees with the RPF,” he said. Kagame won over 99% of the vote, according to preliminary results announced on Monday. Earlier this year, like many analysts, Strathmore University lecturer Edgar Githua predicted the 66-year-old Kagame would win big but had no doubt the size of the victory would be greatly exaggerated. "Rwanda is the paradox of Africa. Paradox of Africa because the Rwandese themselves are afraid to talk about their own elections. If you have a vote where 98% votes for one candidate, that is a red flag. Nobody is that popular in this world," said Githua. Kagame, who has held various roles since 1994, won by a similar margin in 2017. At a watch party organized by his ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front, he acknowledged that some people found his margin of victory this year suspicious. “This is a strange thing, that’s why there are many who don’t understand it, criticize it, but instead it [votes] continues to increase. It’s the uniqueness of RPF and the uniqueness of Rwandans,” he said. Indeed, Kagame’s supporters, including Samuel Kwazera, said they would vote for him forever if they could. “During the genocide in 1994, I was four years old; now it’s 30 years until today you can see the progress and you can see democracy going on, I am proud. I wish myself as I love him that he can be forever, and ever,” he said. Mudge said while there are Rwandans who will continue to vote for Kagame, this was not a free and fair election. “For our point as an organization that defends civil and political rights of people in Rwanda to express themselves, our point is the context is very different if you want to express yourself differently, if you want to criticize government policy. There’s simply no space for them to operate,” he said. Kagame faced two opponents — Democratic Green Party Candidate Frank Habineza and independent candidate Philippe Mpayimana. Both received less than 1 percent of the vote. Other candidates, including some of Kagame’s most vocal critics, were barred from running for president, including Diane Rwigara. One of the reasons was that she didn’t garner the 600 signatures of support needed in her application. Mudge said in Rwanda’s political climate, Rwigara had no chance to get the signatures or a place on the ballot. “For people like Rwigara and [Victoire] Ingabire, it’s not about this technical aspect of signatures. This is about not allowing compelling, articulate women to run, to take attention, and basically challenging the narrative,” he said. Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, another critic of Kagame who was a presidential candidate in the 2010 elections, was arrested, tried, and jailed on charges of terrorism and threatening national security. She was released eight years later through a presidential pardon. She said elections in Rwanda have long been predetermined. “Persistent wins of presidential elections close to 100% is not a sign of popularity but of lack of competition. … I don’t understand why they refuse to allow the most credible challengers to participate against President Kagame in elections in Rwanda. Of course, this is not only in 2024 but it was the case in 2003, 2010 and 2017,” she said. Recently Kagame called her a “genocidaire" and said her life will not end well. “I was surprised to hear President Kagame talking about me being from a genocidaire family but those are accusations used by the government to intimidate everyone who challenges the Rwandan government,” she said. Analysts acknowledge that Kagame does enjoy real popularity among Rwanda’s electorate, mainly for his ability to guide the East African country toward internal stability and economic progress since the 1994 genocide, when an estimated 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed by Hutu extremists. At the same time, they say, Kagame continues to stifle dissent, as support for the president and his policies is not unanimous.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Donald Trump’s former foes in the Republican party endorsed him at the party’s national convention in Milwaukee. Israelis are closely watching American election as well even as their own country is politically divided as well. Hezbollah warns it will strike more targets in Israel and NATO sets up an office in the Middle East. An update from Kyiv, China’s economic impact around the world and a look at security in Asia.