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Dubai, UAE — Iran's Revolutionary Guards said on Sunday that 12 people had been arrested for being operatives collaborating with Israel and planning acts against Iran's security. "As the Zionist regime (Israel) and their Western backers, most notably the United States, have not succeeded in their sinister goals against the people of Gaza and Lebanon, they are now seeking to spread the crisis to Iran with a series of actions planned against our country's security," the statement said. Tensions in the Middle East have shot up since thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies used by Lebanon's Hezbollah members exploded in an attack widely blamed on Israel. Hezbollah and Israel have exchanged some of the heaviest cross-border fire in a conflict running in parallel to the almost year-long Gaza war. The Revolutionary Guards added that members of the network of 12 operatives were arrested in six different Iranian provinces, but did not say when. In late July, the political leader of Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, was killed in Tehran in an assassination blamed on Israel by Iranian authorities. Israel has made no claim of responsibility.

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.

In Goma, a town in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a woman-led recycling company is tackling plastic pollution, and creating jobs for some of the country’s millions of internally displaced people. Zanem Nety Zaidi takes us inside this entrepreneur’s business.

A business owner in Baltimore, Maryland, who was born in Kyiv has started a charity to help Ukrainian children affected by war.  Andriy Borys has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. VOA footage by Viacheslav Filiushkin.

U.S. lawmakers from both major political parties have called for cooling the nation’s heated political rhetoric six weeks before the November 5th presidential election. This follows a second apparent assassination attempt on former president Donald Trump. And his claims of immigrants eating people’s pets that has an Ohio Haitan community on edge. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi has the story.

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NEW YORK — A roaring rally in U.S. stocks will face a gauntlet of economic data, looming political uncertainty and a corporate earnings test in coming weeks as investors navigate one of the most volatile periods of the year for equity markets.   The benchmark S&P 500 .SPX last week hit its first closing all-time high in two months after the Federal Reserve unveiled a hefty 50-basis point rate cut, kicking off the first U.S. monetary easing cycle since 2020.   The index is up 0.8% so far in September, historically the weakest month for stocks, and has gained 19% year-to-date. But the rocky period could carry over until the Nov 5 election, strategists said, leaving the S&P 500 vulnerable to market swings.   "We're entering that period where seasonality has been a bit less favorable,” said Angelo Kourkafas, senior investment strategist at Edward Jones. "Despite the excitement about the start of the new rate-cutting cycle, it could still be a bumpy road ahead."   The second half of September is historically the weakest two-week period of the year for the S&P 500, according to a Ned Davis Research analysis of data since 1950.   The index has also logged an average 0.45% decline in October during presidential years, data from CFRA going back to 1945 showed.   Volatility also tends to pick up in October in election years, with the Cboe Market Volatility index .VIX rising to an average level of 25 at the start of the month, as opposed to its long-term average of 19.2, according to an Edward Jones analysis of the past eight presidential election years. The VIX was recently at 16.4.   The market could be particularly sensitive to this year's close election between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris. Recent polls show a virtually tied race.   "Unless the data deteriorates considerably, we think U.S . elections will start to be more at the forefront," UBS equity derivative strategists said in a note.     Investors are also looking for data to support expectations that the economy is navigating a "soft landing," during which inflation moderates without badly hurting growth. Stocks fare much better after the start of rate cuts in such a scenario, as opposed to when the Fed cuts during recessions.   The coming week includes reports on manufacturing, consumer confidence and durable goods, as well as the personal consumption expenditures price index, a key inflation measure.   Attention will be squarely on employment after Fed Chair Jerome Powell said the central bank wanted to stay ahead of any weakening in the job market as the Fed announced its cut last week. The closely-watched monthly U.S. jobs report is due on Oct 4.   "We're going to have hyper-focus on anything that speaks to the strength of the labor force," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B Riley Wealth.  Meanwhile, the rally in stocks has pushed up valuations. The S&P 500 has a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.4 times expected 12-month earnings, well above its long-term average of 15.7, according to LSEG Datastream.   With the scope for valuations to go higher now more limited, investors said that puts a greater burden on corporate earnings to be strong in order to support stock gains.   Third-quarter reporting season kicks off next month. S&P 500 earnings for the period are expected to have climbed 5.4% from the prior year, and then jump nearly 13% in the fourth quarter, according to LSEG IBES.   FedEx FDX.N shares tumbled on Friday after the delivery giant reported a steep quarterly profit drop and lowered its full-year revenue forecast.   "Extended multiples put pressure on macro data and fundamentals to support S&P 500 prices," Scott Chronert, head of U.S. equity strategy at Citi, said in a report. 

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Dhaka, Bangladesh — Students returned to classes at Bangladesh's Dhaka University on Sunday after a weeks-long shutdown sparked by a student-led uprising that toppled autocratic prime minister Sheikh Hasina.    Tens of thousands demonstrated on campus and in the surrounding Shahbagh neighborhood as protests against job quotas morphed into a nationwide struggle to end Hasina's 15 years of iron-fisted rule.   As the protests swelled in July, authorities shuttered the campus as part of a crackdown on the demonstrations that killed hundreds.   Several of the top student protest leaders were enrolled at the university, some of whom were snatched by plainclothes police and held in custody for several days.   On Sunday the lecture halls were full again, with students chatting in groups along tree-covered walkways and buying drinks and snacks at canteens.   "I feel so much better coming back to class after a long time," said Arpita Das, who studies political science.    "It was like a new students' reception as our teacher welcomed us in class with flowers."   Das said she was present during a pitched battle on campus in July, when protesters and students backing Hasina's Awami League party fought each other with rocks, sticks and iron rods.   "We were used to the routine of going to classes, study and exams," she said.   "We were in so much uncertainty about whether we could resume class again and complete our studies," she added.   Classes had started again in all but four or five departments said assistant proctor Mohammad Mahbub Quaisar, who was appointed after previous administrators loyal to Hasina resigned.    "Students are attending in a joyous mood," he said.   Hasina's government was accused of widespread abuses, including the mass detention and extrajudicial killing of political rivals.   More than 600 people were killed in the weeks leading up to Hasina's ouster in early August, according to a preliminary United Nations report that said the toll was "likely an underestimate."   Since her departure for exile in neighboring India, cabinet ministers and other senior members of Hasina's party have been arrested, and her government's appointees have been purged from courts and the central bank.    In the leafy streets of the Shahbagh neighborhood, colorful new murals exhort the public to "destroy the iron doors of prison" and celebrate Bangladesh's "rebirth."   "It was like we were in an oppressive era when we could not say anything," said masters student Kalimulla Al Kafi, 25, of the crackdown ordered by Hasina.   "Today it feels like I am attending classes with freedom."     "We can express ourselves freely." 

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Islamabad — A roadside bomb detonated near a convoy of foreign diplomats visiting Pakistan's scenic Swat district Sunday, killing at least one police officer and injuring several others. Police officials in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where the district is located, confirmed the casualties, saying the victims were part of the squad leading the convoy of about a dozen countries. They noted that all the foreign dignitaries were unharmed. The foreigners were mostly ambassadors from Russia, Portugal, Iran, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Rwanda, Zimbabwe, Turkmenistan, Vietnam, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. “All the ambassadors remained safe in the attack and had been shifted to a safe place before their departure to Islamabad,” said Mohammad Ali Gandapur, a senior provincial police officer. In a late evening statement, the Pakistani Foreign Ministry reported that "the group of diplomats has returned safely to Islamabad.” Separately, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s office stated that he condemned the attack as a “cowardly terrorist” act. Russian Ambassador Albert Khorev’s office in Islamabad confirmed his presence in the convoy, along with several other ambassadors, saying they took part in a tourism summit in Swat. “On the way to the hotel from the town of Mingora in Khyber-Pakhtunkwa, an escort vehicle hit a mine. Several policemen were injured, [but] diplomats were not harmed,” the Russian embassy wrote on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter. No group claimed responsibility for Sunday’s rare attack in Swat, a former stronghold of the Terik-i-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, an Islamist insurgent militant group waging deadly attacks against military and police forces in the province and elsewhere in the country. Pakistani Nobel Peace laureate Malala Yousafzai, a resident of Swat, was shot and seriously wounded by TTP militants in 2012, apparently in retaliation for her campaign to promote girls’ education in the largely conservative district. Malala was swiftly airlifted to Britain for treatment. TTP’s intensified attacks in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which borders Afghanistan, have killed more than 100 police and an equal number of civilians since the start of the year. Pakistan alleges that the extremist group is orchestrating the violence from Afghan sanctuaries and is being facilitated by Taliban rulers of the neighboring country. The Taliban government in Kabul, which is officially not recognized by any country, rejects the allegations, saying no foreign group, including TTP, is being allowed to use Afghan soil against other countries.

President Joe Biden on Saturday hosted the leaders of Australia, India and Japan for his final convening of the so-called Quad, a strategic security grouping focused on the Indo-Pacific. The quartet announced moves they say will boost cooperation between the four democracies and address citizens’ concerns in the massive region – while also emphasizing this is not a club aimed at containing China. VOA White House correspondent Anita Powell reports from Washington.

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United Nations, United States — The United Nations on Sunday adopted a "Pact for the Future" aimed at addressing sprawling 21st-century challenges ranging from conflict to climate change and human rights, despite last-minute objections from a group of countries led by Russia. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who organized the "Summit of the Future," had billed it as a "once-in-a-generation opportunity" to reshape human history by rekindling international cooperation. As an opening act for the annual high-level week of the U.N. General Assembly, which begins Tuesday, dozens of heads of state and government gathered for the signing of the text. In the adopted version, leaders pledged to bolster the multilateral system to "keep pace with a changing world" and to "protect the needs and interests of current and future generations" facing "persistent crisis." "We believe there is a path to a brighter future for all of humanity," the document says. The pact outlines 56 "actions," including commitments to multilateralism, upholding the U.N. Charter and peacekeeping. It also calls for reforms to international financial institutions and the U.N. Security Council, along with renewed efforts to combat climate change, promote disarmament, and guide the development of artificial intelligence. The adoption of the text faced a brief delay when Russia's deputy minister of foreign affairs, Sergey Vershinin, introduced an amendment emphasizing the "principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of states" and urging the U.N. to avoid duplicating efforts. Russia's objections were backed by allies Belarus, North Korea, Iran, Nicaragua and Syria, but its amendment was overwhelmingly dismissed in a motion to take no action. During the negotiations phase, Guterres had urged nations to show "vision" and "courage," calling for "maximum ambition" to strengthen international institutions that struggle to respond effectively to today's threats. But while there are some "good ideas," the text "is not the sort of revolutionary document reforming the whole of multilateralism that Antonio Guterres had originally called for," Richard Gowan of the International Crisis Group told AFP. That sentiment was widely shared among diplomats, many of whom expressed frustration when discussing the ambition and impact of the text, describing it as "lukewarm," "the lowest common denominator," and "disappointing." "Ideally, you would hope for new ideas, fresh ideas," said one diplomat. The fight against global warming was one of the sticking points in the negotiations, with references to the "transition" away from fossil fuels having disappeared from the draft text weeks ago, before being re-inserted. Despite the criticism, it is still "an opportunity to affirm our collective commitment to multilateralism, even in the difficult current geopolitical context," one Western diplomat said, emphasizing the need to rebuild trust between the Global North and South. Developing countries have been particularly vocal in demanding concrete commitments on the reform of international financial institutions, aiming to secure easier access to preferential financing, especially considering the impacts of climate change. The text does indeed include "important commitments on economic justice and reforming the international financial architecture," Human Rights Watch (HRW) commented, while also praising "the centrality of human rights." However, world leaders "still need to demonstrate that they are willing to act to uphold human rights," said Louis Charbonneau, HRW's U.N. director. Regardless of its content, the pact and its annexes — a Global Digital Compact and a Declaration on Future Generations — are non-binding, raising concerns about implementation, especially as some principles — such as the protection of civilians in conflict — are violated daily. "Our next task is to breathe life into them, to turn words into action," Guterres urged on Saturday.

SAN FRANCISCO — Sidewalks once teeming with tents, tarps and people passed out next to heaps of trash have largely disappeared from great swaths of San Francisco, a city widely known for its visible homeless population. The number of people sleeping outdoors dropped to under 3,000 in January, the lowest the city has recorded in a decade, according to a federal count. And that figure has likely dropped even lower since Mayor London Breed — a Democrat in a difficult reelection fight this November — started ramping up enforcement of anti-camping laws in August following a U.S. Supreme Court decision. Homelessness in no way has gone away, and in fact grew 7%, to 8,300 in January, according to the same federal count. But the problem is now notably out of the public eye, raising the question of where people have gone and whether the change marks a turning point in a crisis long associated with San Francisco. “We’re seeing much cleaner sidewalks,” said Terry Asten Bennett, owner of Cliff’s Variety store in the city’s historically gay Castro neighborhood, adding that she hates to see homeless people shuffled around. “But also, as a business owner, I need clean, inviting streets to encourage people to come and shop and visit our city," she said. Advocates for homeless people say encampment sweeps that force people off the streets are an easy way to hide homelessness from public view. “Shelter should always be transitional,” said Lukas Illa, an organizer with San Francisco's Coalition on Homelessness. “We shouldn’t have folks be in there as the long-lasting solution.” Other California cities have also reported a drop in visible homelessness, thanks to improved outreach and more temporary housing. The beach city of Santa Cruz reported a 49% decline in people sleeping unsheltered this year, while Los Angeles recorded a 10% drop. San Francisco has increased the number of shelter beds and permanent supportive housing units by more than 50% over the past six years. At the same time, city officials are on track to eclipse the nearly 500 sweeps conducted last year, with Breed prioritizing bus tickets out of the city for homeless people and authorizing police to do more to stamp out tents. San Francisco police have issued at least 150 citations for illegal lodging since Aug. 1, surpassing the 60 citations over the entire previous three years. City crews also have removed more than 1,200 tents and structures. Tracking homeless people is extremely difficult and where all the people once living on San Francisco’s streets have gone is impossible to know. There are still people sleeping on sidewalks, some with just a blanket, and tents continue to crop up under freeway overpasses and more isolated corners of the city. But tents that once sprouted outside libraries and subway stations, and went on endlessly for blocks in the Mission, downtown and South of Market districts, are gone. Even the troubled Tenderloin district has seen progress. Steven Burcell, who became homeless a year ago after a shoulder injury cost him his job, moved into one of 60 new, tiny cabins in May after the car he was living in caught fire. Mission Cabins is a new type of emergency shelter that offers privacy and allows pets. But like all shelters, it has rules. No drugs, weapons or outside guests are allowed. Residents must consent to their rooms being searched. “At the beginning, it was rough, you know, going in and just getting adjusted to being searched and having them look through your bags,” acknowledged Burcell, 51. His tidy 65-square-foot (6-square-meter) room contains a twin bed, pairs of shoes lined by a door that locks and opens onto a sunny courtyard that, on a recent morning, was filled with the voices of children playing at the elementary school next door. “To have your own space inside here and close the door, not sharing anything with anybody," he said, “it’s huge.” But Burcell opposes encampment sweeps. He said two friends rejected beds because they thought — inaccurately, he said — the shelter would be infested with rodents. That did not stop crews from taking their tent and everything inside it. “Now they have nothing. They don’t have any shelter at all,” he said. “They just kind of wander around and take buses, like a lot of people do.” Since 2018, San Francisco has added 1,800 emergency shelter beds and nearly 5,000 permanent supportive housing units, where people pay 30% of their income toward rent and the rest is subsidized, bringing the total to more than 4,200 beds and 14,000 units. Breed, who first won office in June 2018, can claim credit for the expansion, although some plans were in place before she became mayor and her administration had huge financial help. The money came from the federal government battling the pandemic and a California governor — and onetime San Francisco mayor — who made fighting homelessness and tent encampments his priority. Gov. Gavin Newsom has pumped at least $24 billion into the effort since taking office in 2019, including a program to turn hotels into housing. San Francisco also benefited from a controversial 2018 wealth tax on the city’s tech titans that Breed opposed, saying companies would leave. There was no exodus and the pandemic overshadowed any fallout. The funds have helped get people off the streets and tripled the annual budget of the San Francisco Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing from nearly $300 million in 2018 to $850 million this year. But the department's budget is expected to dip below $700 million next year, and that worries experts who say more is needed in a city where the median price of a home is $1.4 million. “We still have a housing market that is way too expensive for way too many people. And as long as that continues to be the case, we’re going to see folks falling into homelessness,” said Alex Visotzky, a policy fellow with the National Alliance to End Homelessness. Advocates for the homeless say that's why city officials need to invest in more affordable housing. One such place is 835 Turk Street, a former hotel the city purchased and reopened two years ago as supportive housing. It's home to David Labogin, who lost his housing after his mother died. “Of course, things could be a whole lot better,” he said, sitting on a single bed, “but from where I came from, I got no complaints.” But housing takes longer to build, and converting old properties is not cheap. The city purchased 835 Turk for $25 million and spent $18 million — twice the estimated amount — rehabilitating it. Until then, shelters are adapting, accommodating couples and people with pets. It takes new residents about two weeks to adjust to the rules at Mission Cabins, said Steve Good, CEO of operator Five Keys. “A few rules to keep them safe is better than living on the street, where there aren’t any rules,” he said. “Amen,” said Patrick Richardson, 54, who stopped by to watch as Good was interviewed. He was on his way to a two-year college in Oakland where he is studying to be an X-ray technician. Richardson had been sleeping on couches and pavement when an outreach worker offered him a cabin. His new home, he said, “rescued me.

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.