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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.

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 is safe after what officials say was the second, unsuccessful assassination attempt in two months. The FBI took the lead after Sunday’s shooting with the suspect in custody -- and with Americans facing another dramatic event in what is already a high-stakes, high-drama election. VOA White House correspondent Anita Powell reports from Washington.

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.

The FBI is investigating what they say appears to be an assassination attempt on Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would inflict a "heavy price" on the Iran-aligned Houthis who control northern Yemen, after they reached central Israel with a missile on Sunday for the first time. Two astronauts - a billionaire and an engineer - completed the world's first private spacewalk in orbit on Thursday outside a SpaceX capsule, wearing a new line of spacesuits in a risky feat previously exclusive to astronauts from national space programs.

LOS ANGELES — "Hacks" won the comedy series at Sunday's Emmy Awards, topping "The Bear," which took home several of the night's honors. "Shogun" won the best drama series win, collecting a whopping 18 Emmys for its first season, just one of several historic wins. Hiroyuki Sanada won best actor in a drama for "Shogun" on Sunday night at the Emmy Awards, and Anna Sawai won best actress as they became the first two Japanese actors to win Emmys. Their wins gave the FX series momentum going into one of the night's top awards, where "Shogun" won best drama series. "The Bear" came back for seconds in a big way at the ceremony four times including best actor, best supporting actor and best supporting actress in a comedy, while British upstart "Baby Reindeer" won four of its own, including best limited series. The star of FX's "The Bear" Jeremy Allen White won best actor in a comedy for the second straight year, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach repeated as best supporting actor. A surprise came when Liza Colón-Zayas won best supporting actor over major competition. "How could I have thought it would be possible to be in the presence of Meryl Streep and Carol Burnett," Colón-Zayas said as tears welled in her eyes as she accepted the award on the stage of the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles. She is the first Latina to win in the category. "To all the Latinas who are looking at me," she said, "keep believing and vote." Netflix's darkly quirky "Baby Reindeer" won best actor and best writing for the show's creator and star Richard Gadd and best supporting actress for Jessica Gunning, who plays his tormentor. Accepting the best limited series award, Gadd urged the makers of television to take chances. "The only constant across any success in television is good storytelling," he said. "Good storytelling that speaks to our times. So take risks, push boundaries. Explore the uncomfortable. Dare to fail in order to achieve." "Baby Reindeer" is based on a one man-stage show in which Gadd describes being sexually abused along with other emotional struggles. Accepting that award, he said, "no matter how bad it gets, it always gets better." The Associated Press does not typically name people who say they have been sexually abused unless they come forward publicly as Gadd has. Jodie Foster won her first Emmy to go with her two Oscars when she took best actress in a limited series for "True Detective: Night Country." The creator of "The Bear" was also a repeat winner. Christopher Storer took his second straight Emmy for directing, an award handed out by reunited "Happy Days" co-stars Ron Howard and Henry Winkler. White said backstage that he was watching in the wings as Colón-Zayas won and "that was just the greatest." He also shouted out two acting wins the show had already scored at last weekend's Creative Arts Emmy Awards, when Jamie Lee Curtis won best guest actress in a comedy for playing his mother, and Jon Bernthal won best guest actor for playing his big brother. "The Bear" won six times including most of the top comedy categories at the strike-delayed Emmys in January. While the third season of FX's "The Bear" has already dropped, the trio won their second Emmys for its second, in which White's chef Carmen "Carmy" Berzatto attempts to turn his family's grungy Chicago sandwich shop into an elite restaurant. It could still win more Sunday night including best comedy series. The father-son hosting duo of Eugene and Dan Levy in their monologue at the top of the show mocked the very dramatic "The Bear" being in the comedy category. "In honor of 'The Bear' we will be making no jokes," Eugene Levy said, to laughs. Jean Smart won best actress in a comedy for "Hacks." She has won for all three seasons of "Hacks," and has six Emmys overall. She beat nominees including Ayo Edebiri, who as co-star of "The Bear" moved from supporting actress, which she won in January, to lead actress. Coming into the show the big story was "Shogun," which had already taken the most Emmys for a show in a single season with 14 at the Creative Arts ceremony. The FX series about lordly politicking in feudal Japan can still win best drama series. If "Shogun" faces competition for the best drama prize, it could come for the sixth and final season of "The Crown," the only show among the nominees that has won before in a category recently dominated by the retired "Succession." Elizabeth Debicki took best supporting actress in a drama for playing Princess Diana at the end of her life in the sixth and final season of the show. "Playing this part, based on this unparalleled, incredible human being, has been my great privilege," Debicki said. "It's been a gift." Billy Crudup won best actor in a drama for "The Morning Show." Streep wasn't the only Oscar winner trumped by a little-known name. Robert Downey Jr., the reigning best supporting actor winner for "Oppenheimer," was considered the favorite to win best supporting actor in a limited series for "The Sympathizer," but that award went to Lamorne Morris for "Fargo." "Robert Downey Jr. I have a poster of you in my house!" Morris said from the stage as he accepted his first Emmy. Several awards were presented by themed teams from TV history, including sitcom dads George Lopez, Damon Wayans and Jesse Tyler Ferguson and TV moms Meredith Baxter, Connie Britton, and Susan Kelechi Watson.

LOS ANGELES — The 76th annual Emmy Awards were handed out Sunday at the Peacock Theater in downtown Los Angeles. “Shogun” set a single season record for most wins with 18. “Shogun” won best drama series, and Hiroyuki Sanada and Anna Sawai won acting awards for their roles. “Hacks’’ won the award for best comedy series. ”Baby Reindeer” and “The Bear’’ won four awards apiece. Early winners included Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Jeremy Allen White and Liza Colón-Zayas, who won awards for their work in the comedy series “The Bear.” Stars presenting Emmys to their peers included: Billy Crystal, Viola Davis, Selena Gomez, Steve Martin, Maya Rudolph and Martin Sheen. Several actors and shows, including Rudolph, won last week. Rudolph won her sixth Emmy Award at last weekend’s Creative Arts Emmys for her voice work on “Big Mouth.” Jamie Lee Curtis also picked up a supporting actress Emmy last weekend for her appearance on “The Bear.” Here’s a list of winners at Sunday’s Emmys: Supporting actor in a comedy series Ebon Moss-Bachrach, “The Bear” Supporting actor in a drama series Billy Crudup, “The Morning Show” Actor in a comedy series Jeremy Allen White, “The Bear” Supporting actress in a comedy series Liza Colón-Zayas, “The Bear” Supporting actress in a drama series Elizabeth Debicki, “The Crown” Actress in a comedy series Jean Smart, “Hacks” Reality competition program “The Traitors,” Peacock Supporting actress limited Jessica Gunning, “Baby Reindeer” Scripted variety series “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver,” HBO/Max Writing for a variety special Alex Edelman, “Just for Us” Directing for a limited or anthology series Steven Zaillian, “Ripley” Writing for a comedy series Lucia Aniello, Paul W. Downs and Jen Statsky, “Hacks” Talk series “The Daily Show,” Comedy Central Supporting actor in a limited or anthology series Lamorne Morris, “Fargo” Writing for a drama series Will Smith, “Slow Horses” Writing for a limited series, anthology or movie Richard Gadd, “Baby Reindeer” Directing for a comedy series Christopher Storer, “The Bear” Governors award Greg Berlanti Directing for a drama series Frederick E.O. Toye, “Shogun” Actor in a limited, anthology series or movie Richard Gadd, “Baby Reindeer” Actress in a limited, anthology series or movie Jodie Foster, “True Detective: Night Country” Limited, anthology series or movie “Baby Reindeer” Actor in a drama series Hiroyuki Sanada, “Shogun” Actress in a drama series Anna Sawai, “Shogun” Drama series “Shogun” Comedy series “Hacks”

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.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand — It's noisy, smelly, shy – and New Zealand's bird of the year. The hoiho, or yellow-eyed penguin, won the country's fiercely fought avian election on Monday, offering hope to supporters of the endangered bird that recognition from its victory might prompt a revival of the species. It followed a campaign for the annual Bird of the Year vote that was absent the foreign interference scandals and cheating controversies of past polls. Instead, campaigners in the long-running contest sought votes in the usual ways — launching meme wars, seeking celebrity endorsements and even getting tattoos to prove their loyalty. More than 50,000 people voted in the poll, 300,000 fewer than last year, when British late night host John Oliver drove a humorous campaign for the pūteketeke — a "deeply weird bird" which eats and vomits its own feathers – securing a landslide win. This year, the number of votes cast represented 10% of the population of New Zealand — a country where nature is never far away and where a love of native birds is instilled in citizens from childhood. "Birds are our heart and soul," said Emma Rawson, who campaigned for the fourth-placed ruru, a small brown owl with a melancholic call. New Zealand's only native mammals are bats and marine species, putting the spotlight on its birds, which are beloved — and often rare. This year's victor, the hoiho — its name means "noise shouter" in the Māori language — is a shy bird thought to be the world's rarest penguin. Only found on New Zealand's South and Chatham islands — and on subantarctic islands south of the country — numbers have dropped perilously by 78% in the past 15 years. "This spotlight couldn't have come at a better time. This iconic penguin is disappearing from mainland Aotearoa before our eyes," Nicola Toki, chief executive of Forest & Bird — the organization that runs the poll — said in a press release, using the Māori name for New Zealand. Despite intensive conservation efforts on land, she said, the birds drown in nets and sea and can't find enough food. "The campaign has raised awareness, but what we really hope is that it brings tangible support," said Charlie Buchan, campaign manager for the hoiho. But while the bird is struggling, it attracted a star billing in the poll: celebrity endorsements flew in from English zoologist Jane Goodall, host of the Amazing Race Phil Keoghan, and two former New Zealand prime ministers. Aspiring bird campaign managers — this year ranging from power companies to high school students — submit applications to Forest & Bird for the posts. The hoiho bid was run by a collective of wildlife groups, a museum, a brewery and a rugby team in the city of Dunedin, where the bird is found on mainland New Zealand, making it the highest-powered campaign of the 2024 vote. "I do feel like we were the scrappy underdog," said Emily Bull, a spokesperson for the runner-up campaign, for the karure — a small, "goth" black robin only found on New Zealand's Chatham Island. The karure's bid was directed by the students' association at Victoria University of Wellington, prompting fierce skirmish on the college campus when the student magazine staged an opposing campaign for the kororā, or little blue penguin. The rivalry provoked a meme war and students in bird costumes. Several people got tattoos. When the magazine's campaign secured endorsements of the city council and local zoo, Bull despaired for the black robin's bid. But the karure – which has performed a real-life comeback since the 1980s, with conservation efforts increasing the species from five birds to 250 – took second place overall. This weekend as Rawson wrapped up her campaign for the ruru, she too took her efforts directly to the people, courting votes at a local dog park. The veteran campaign manager who has directed the bids for other birds in past years was rewarded by the ruru placing fourth in the poll, her best ever result. "I have not been in human political campaigning before," said Rawson, who is drawn to the competition because of the funds and awareness it generates. The campaign struck a more sedate tone this year, she added. "There's been no international interference, even though that was actually a lot of fun," she said, referring to Oliver's high-profile campaign. It was not the only controversy the election has seen. While anyone in the world can vote, Forest & Bird now requires electors to verify their ballots after foreign interference plagued the contest before. In 2018, Australian pranksters cast hundreds of fraudulent votes in favor of the shag. The following year, Forest & Bird was forced to clarify that a flurry of votes from Russia appeared to be from legitimate bird-lovers. While campaigns are fiercely competitive, managers described tactics more akin to pro wrestling — in which fights are scripted — than divisive political contests. "Sometimes people want to make posts that are kind of like beefy with you and they'll always message you and be like, hey, is it okay if I post this?" Bull said. "There is a really sweet community. It's really wholesome."

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil — Practitioners of different religious traditions marched down Rio de Janeiro's iconic Copacabana Beach on Sunday to support religious freedom in Brazil, where cases of intolerance have doubled over the past six years. Hundreds of men, women and children from more than a dozen faiths participated in the event, known as the March for the Defense of Religious Freedom. Many of the participants were practitioners of Afro-Brazilian religions that have recently faced attacks from members of Christian groups. Brazil's recently appointed Minister for Human Rights Macaé Evaristo also joined the march, which was held for the 17th consecutive year. "The great challenge today in our country is to reduce inequality," Evaristo told the state-run Agencia Brasil news agency. "So for me it is very important to be present in this march, because the people here are also struggling for many things like decent work and a life free from hunger." In Rio de Janeiro state, which is home to a quarter of the practitioners of Afro-Brazilian religions, there's been a proliferation of evangelical Christianity, particularly neo-Pentecostal churches founded since 1970 that focus on spreading their faith among non-believers. Experts say that while most neo-Pentecostal proselytizing is peaceful, the spread of the faith has been accompanied by a surge of intolerance for traditional African-influenced religions, ranging from verbal abuse and discrimination to destruction of temples and forced expulsion from neighborhoods. "Everything that comes from Black people, everything that comes from people of African origin is devalued; if we are not firm in our faith, we will lose strength," said Vania Vieira, a practitioner of the Afro-Brazilian religion Candomblé. "This walk is to show that we are standing, that we will survive." While the Brazilian constitution protects the free exercise of religion, cases of disrespect and attacks, especially against groups of African origin, have become increasingly frequent. Between 2018 and 2023, the Brazilian government's complaint service recorded an increase of 140% in the number of complaints of religious intolerance in the country. In Brazil, those who commit crimes of religious intolerance can face up to five years in prison, as well as a fine.

PITTSBURG, Kan. — The Rev. Anthony Navaratnam stood before his congregation and urged them to pray for the women from surrounding states who will flock to the new abortion clinic in town that opened in August. "God is giving us an opportunity to be missionaries in Pittsburg, Kansas," he told those at Flag Church, which hosted a training on how to protest outside of the clinic. The debate over reproductive rights has landed in this college town of 20,000 in the southeast corner of one of the few states left in the region still allowing abortions. It is near Missouri, Oklahoma and Arkansas and not terribly far from Texas. A place this size, especially one in a historically red state, was unlikely to have an abortion clinic before Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022. Since then, Kansas has become one of five states that people are most likely to travel to in order to get an abortion when they're unable to at home, said Caitlin Myers, an economics professor at Middlebury College who researches abortion policies. Abortions spiked in Kansas by 152% after Roe, according to a recent analysis by the Guttmacher Institute, which supports abortion rights. Using Myers' count, six of the clinics in Kansas, Illinois, New Mexico, North Carolina and Virginia that have opened or relocated post-Roe are in communities with fewer than 25,000 people. Two others are in communities of fewer than 50,000. "Kansas is really the only one in this region that can provide care to many people in these surrounding states," said Kensey Wright, a member of the board of directors for the Roe Fund in Oklahoma, which supports Kansas abortion clinics through grants. "Without abortion clinics in that state, we would be without hope," Wright said. Providing abortions for out-of-state people Housed in a former urology office, Pittsburg's Planned Parenthood clinic sits across the street from a medical clinic run by a Catholic health care system. Behind the clinic are houses. Clinic manager Logan Rink said her mother used to work in this building as a nurse — a connection that's "small-town stuff." She loves this town, and said her neighbors agree the clinic is needed. But she was guarded in her optimism, saying " the reception that we are going to get from the community is going to be favorable in some ways and probably not always." Experts said smaller-sized clinics can be less overwhelming for women who are coming from rural areas, like those surrounding Pittsburg. But there is no anonymity in these smaller communities, where religious and family ties often run deep. Pittsburg was established in 1876, and settled largely by immigrants from Catholic-leaning countries who came to work at surrounding coal mines. There's a typical main street and a state university with about 7,400 students. "In a small town, it's not just that you'll know that person. Your family will know them. You will have known them for 40 years," said Dr. Emily Walters, a supporter of the Pittsburg clinic who works as an anesthesiologist at a hospital in neighboring Missouri. "Your stories will be intertwined." She wondered aloud, "How do I see you at a protest and then see you the next day at the grocery store and still be able to be polite and civil with each other?" Walters also chairs the Crawford County Democratic Party in an area that is increasingly Republican and has no Democratic state legislators — a change from 20 years ago when there were six. The county also has become increasingly religious in the same span; it now has twice as many white evangelical Protestants as the national average, and slightly more Catholics, according to the Public Religion Research Institute. Just five weeks after Roe was overturned in 2022, voters in Kansas had to decide whether to strip the right to an abortion from the state constitution, which could have led to an outright ban. Despite the Republican and religious leanings, 55% of Crawford County voters were part of the 59% of voters statewide who killed the proposal. It's in line with an Associated Press-NORC poll from 2024 that showed 6 in 10 Americans think their state should generally allow a person to obtain a legal abortion if they don't want to be pregnant for any reason. But the rural counties that surrounded Pittsburg chose otherwise at the ballot box. "I remember people were stealing yard signs, putting up different ones in people's yards," said Anastin Journot, an 18-year-old from Independence, Kansas, who is majoring in elementary education at Pittsburg State. She said she was alarmed by Roe getting overturned, remembering she thought: "What if I'm in a situation where I'm needing to get an abortion and it's not an option?" Abortion in Kansas is generally legal up until the 22nd week of pregnancy. The clinic's southern location puts it closer to states that have banned abortions instead of sending people to Kansas' larger cities, where hours have been expanded and appointments are still in short supply. About 60% to 65% of people who call Planned Parenthood clinics in Kansas for an abortion appointment are turned away because there isn't enough capacity, said Emily Wales, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Great Plains. Already, Wales said, the bulk of people seeking abortions in Kansas are from out of state — mostly Texas, which is about five hours south. After that, it's Missouri, a few minutes' drive east and Oklahoma, less than an hour away. She said some come from as far away as Louisiana and even Florida, which now prohibits the procedure after six weeks. Clinics "strategically placed near (a state's) border can really help ease the congestion," said Ushma Upadhyay, a public health scientist at the University of California San Francisco who studies abortion. Most of the area that's 100 miles from the new clinic has been designated as medically underserved for primary care by the federal government, and the number of obstetricians and gynecologists for every 100,000 female residents is less than half of the U.S. average. For now, though, the focus at the Pittsburg clinic will be on abortion. Wales said Planned Parenthood wants to slowly add more services over the next two to three months, and one future goal for the clinic is to provide gender-affirming care. Neighboring states have restricted that, too. "Pittsburg is going to lift up a whole lot of states in the South and help people get care," Wales said. But those additions, she added, will come after staff gets used to the patients and the presence of protesters and opposition. Protesters are at the ready Donations are up at Vie Medical Clinic, the town's crisis pregnancy center, executive director Megan Newman said. Such centers are typically religiously affiliated and encourage clients to continue their pregnancies. People opposed to the Planned Parenthood clinic also are picking up pamphlets about Vie so they can hand them out to those seeking abortions. "When we got word that Planned Parenthood was coming, you could just kind of feel that in the town," Newman said. Jeanne Napier, a 68-year-old who attends a local Baptist church, vowed as she shopped at the local mall that she'll "be there every day with signs." Her daughter, Terri Napier, said in a phone interview she believes part of her parents' opposition to the clinic is from watching her struggle about 20 years ago. She was in an abusive relationship with someone who has since died. She got pregnant. The family was fearful of bringing a child into the situation. She had an abortion and spiraled into drug use. "I was at war with forgiving myself," said the 43-year-old, who is now clean. Jeanne Napier said she felt like she encouraged the abortion. "And I hate that," she said, "because I wish I could take that sin upon myself, so it's real personal. I had an active play in terminating a life, and we don't have that right." Brianna Barnes, a 19-year-old journalism major at Pittsburg State who is from Wichita, has protested and prayed outside of a clinic in her hometown. "If someone made eye contact with us, we just smiled at them, kind of showing that love and care because no one responds well to screaming, yelling, violence no matter what side it's on," she said just after arriving on campus for the fall semester. Most of the students the AP talked to voiced support for the clinic. Her mother, Crystal Barnes, 42, turned to her daughter: "You're going to be the odd man out being a Catholic, and conservative, especially with things like abortion. It is so heated." The Friday before the clinic opened, crews installed a wooden facade outside, the air filled with the smell of fresh-cut lumber. Walters, the local anesthesiologist, had stopped by to check on the progress. Walters' support comes from a personal place. When she was 20 and the same number of weeks pregnant, she went to an emergency room, bleeding. She said she was sent home to miscarry instead of having her labor induced or having a procedure to remove the fetus. That experience — "horrific, and wouldn't be considered standard of care, in modern practice," she said — left her with a deep empathy for women in tough positions. Just before the 2022 vote, an ad backed by 400 Kansas doctors who support abortion rights ran in some of the state's largest papers, including The Kansas City Star. Walters' name was listed first. During that time, her home address appeared online, a frightening prospect in a state where abortion provider Dr. George Tiller was shot dead in 2009 at his Wichita church by an anti-abortion extremist. "It is critical health care for women," she said. "It is going to be disruptive to Pittsburg. And that part hurts my heart."

MEXICO CITY — Storm Ileana has weakened to a tropical depression, the National Hurricane Center said Sunday. The tropical storm formed Thursday off Mexico's Pacific coast as it moved ashore, making landfall on the coast of the Mexican state of Sinaloa on Saturday, a day after it pounded the resort-studded Los Cabos. On Sunday, wind speed dropped to 55 kph, NOAA said in an advisory, as Ileana was nearly 45 kilometers southwest of Los Mochis, Mexico, and moving west-northwest at 4 kph. It also forecasts the storm to become a remnant low — a post-tropical cyclone with maximum sustained winds less than 34 knots. On Friday, a warning had been in effect for portions of the Baja California Peninsula, including Cabo San Lucas and San Jose del Cabo. Juan Manuel Arce Ortega, from Los Cabos Civil Protection, said the municipalities of La Paz and Los Cabos had suspended classes in schools because of the storm. Authorities prepared 20 temporary shelters in San Jose del Cabo and Cabo San Lucas, according to Los Cabos Civil Protection. At the Hacienda Beach Club and Residences in Cabo San Lucas, valet worker Alan Galvan said the rain arrived late Thursday night and has been constant. "The rain isn't very strong right now, but the waves are choppy," he said. "The guests are very calm and already came down for coffee," Galvan said. "There's some flights canceled but everything is OK at the moment." The rain remained consistent through Los Cabos Friday afternoon, with several roads flooded and some resorts stacking up sandbags on their perimeters. Some people were still walking around boat docks with their umbrellas. "The priority has to be safety, starting with the workers. We always have to check on our colleagues who live in risk areas," said Lyzzette Liceaga, a tour operator at Los Cabos. Ileana was the only active tropical storm in the National Weather Service's Eastern Pacific basin on Friday. In the Atlantic basin, post-tropical cyclone Francine was bringing heavy rain to parts of the southern United States, and Tropical Storm Gordon formed on Friday in the Atlantic Ocean, with forecasters saying it is expected to remain over open water for several days.

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LOS ANGELES — Being a venture capitalist carries a lot of prestige in Silicon Valley. Those who choose which startups to fund see themselves as fostering the next big waves of technology. So when some of the industry's biggest names endorsed former President Donald Trump and the onetime venture capitalist he picked for a running mate, JD Vance, people took notice. Then hundreds of other venture capitalists — some high profile, others lesser-known — threw their weight behind Vice President Kamala Harris, drawing battle lines over which presidential candidate will be better for tech innovation and the conditions startups need to thrive. Venture capitalist and Harris backer Stephen DeBerry says some of his best friends support Trump. Though centered in a part of Northern California known for liberal politics, the investors who help finance the tech industry have long been a more politically divided bunch. "We ski together. Our families are together. We're super tight," said DeBerry, who runs the Bronze Venture Fund. "This is not about not being able to talk to each other. I love these guys — they're almost all guys. They're dear friends. We just have a difference of perspective on policy issues." It remains to be seen if the more than 700 venture capitalists who've voiced support for a movement called "VCs for Kamala" will match the pledges of Trump's well-heeled supporters such as Elon Musk and Peter Thiel. "There are a lot of practical reasons for VCs to support Trump," including policies that could drive corporate profits and stock market values and favor wealthy benefactors, said David Cowan, an investor at Bessemer Venture Partners. But Cowan said he is supporting Harris as a VC with a "long-term investment horizon" because a "Trump world reeling from rampant income inequality, raging wars and global warming is not an attractive environment" for funding healthy businesses. Several prominent VCs have voiced their support for Trump on Musk's social platform X. Public records show some of them have donated to a new, pro-Trump super PAC called America PAC, whose donors include powerful tech industry conservatives with ties to SpaceX and Paypal and who run in Musk's social circle. Also driving support is Trump's embrace of cryptocurrency and promise to end an enforcement crackdown on the industry. Although some Biden policies have alienated parts of the investment sector concerned about tax policy, antitrust scrutiny or overregulation, Harris' bid for the presidency has reenergized interest from VCs who until recently sat on the sidelines. "We buy risk, right? And we're trying to buy the right type of risk," Leslie Feinzaig, founder of "VCs for Kamala" said in an interview. "It's really hard for these companies that are trying to build products and scale to do so in an unpredictable institutional environment." The schism in tech has left some firms split in their allegiances. Although venture capitalists Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, founders of the firm that is their namesake, endorsed Trump, one of their firm's general partners, John O'Farrell, pledged his support for Harris. O'Farrell declined further comment. Doug Leone, the former managing partner of Sequoia Capital, endorsed Trump in June, expressing concern on X "about the general direction of our country, the state of our broken immigration system, the ballooning deficit, and the foreign policy missteps, among other issues." But Leone's longtime business partner at Sequoia, Michael Moritz, wrote in the Financial Times that tech leaders supporting Trump "are making a big mistake." Much of the VC discourse about elections is in response to a July podcast and manifesto in which Andreessen and Horowitz backed Trump and outlined their vision of a "Little Tech Agenda" that they said contrasted with the policies sought by Big Tech. They accused the U.S. government of increasing hostility toward startups and the VCs who fund them, citing Biden's proposed higher taxes on the wealthy and corporations and regulations they said could hobble emerging industries involving blockchain and artificial intelligence. Vance, a U.S. senator from Ohio who spent time in San Francisco working at Thiel's investment firm, voiced a similar perspective about "little tech" more than a month before he was chosen as Trump's running mate. "The donors who were really involved in Silicon Valley in a pro-Trump way, they're not big tech, right? They're little tech. They're starting innovative companies. They don't want the government to destroy their ability to innovate," Vance said in an interview on Fox News in June. Complicating the allegiances is that a tough approach to breaking up the monopoly power of big corporations no longer falls along partisan lines. Vance has spoken favorably of Lina Khan, who Biden picked to lead the Federal Trade Commission and has taken on several tech giants. Meanwhile, some of the most influential VCs backing Harris — such as LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman; and Sun Microsystems co-founder Vinod Khosla, an early investor in ChatGPT-maker OpenAI — have sharply criticized Khan's approach. U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna, a Democrat whose California district encompasses part of Silicon Valley, said Trump supporters are a vocal minority reflecting a "third or less" of the region's tech community. But while the White House has appealed to tech entrepreneurs with its investments in clean energy, electric vehicles and semiconductors, Khanna said Democrats must do a better job of showing that they understand the appeal of digital assets. Naseem Sayani, a general partner at Emmeline Ventures, said Andreessen and Horowitz's support of Trump became a lightning rod for those in tech who do not back the Republican nominee. Sayani signed onto "VCs for Kamala," she said, because she wanted the types of businesses that she helps fund to know that the investor community is not monolithic. "We're not single-profile founders anymore," she said. "There's women, there's people of color, there's all the intersections. How can they feel comfortable building businesses when the environment they're in doesn't actually support their existence in some ways?"

washington — For the second time in nine weeks, former President Donald Trump walked away from an assassination attempt – the latest, on Sunday afternoon, at his golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida, authorities said. Officials said Trump was not hurt, and that the shooter was spotted and fired on first by members of Trump’s security detail. Various national media sources, including The Associated Press, The New York Times and Fox News Channel, cited unnamed law enforcement officials who identified the suspect as Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, of Hawaii. Those officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the ongoing investigation. Unlike the previous attempt, this one did not happen on live television, like the dramatic shooting Trump survived on July 13. That attempt wounded Trump in the ear and killed a man attending the rally behind Trump. Days later, Trump accepted the Republican party’s presidential nomination. The Federal Bureau of Investigation, which is leading the case, has described it as “what appears to be an attempted assassination.” That makes this the agency’s second ongoing investigation into an attempt on Trump’s life.     The local sheriff said the suspect fled, leaving behind an “AK-47-style rifle” with a scope, a GoPro camera and two backpacks. Police later caught him as he sped on the main highway into a neighboring county. “The Secret Service agent that was on the course did a fantastic job,” said Sheriff Ric Bradshaw of the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, in a briefing held by law enforcement shortly after. “What they do is they have an agent that jumps one hole ahead of time to where the president was at. And he was able to spot this rifle barrel sticking out of the fence and immediately engage that individual, at which time the individual took off.” In a joint statement sent out to journalists less than an hour after the Trump campaign announced this latest attempt on Trump’s life, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris said they were being regularly briefed and said they are “relieved” that he is safe. “The president and vice president have been briefed about the security incident at the Trump International Golf Course, where former President Trump was golfing,” their statement read. “They are relieved to know that he is safe. They will be kept regularly updated by their team.”  And in evening statement, Biden reiterated his message from the July shooting. “As I have said many times, there is no place for political violence or for any violence ever in our country, and I have directed my team to continue to ensure that Secret Service has every resource, capability and protective measure necessary to ensure the former President’s continued safety,” he said.  And Harris issued a shorter, solo statement on social media, in which she said, “Violence has no place in America.”  Trump has not reacted to this latest turn of events on the social media platform he owns.  However, in an email to supporters, Trump said: “There were gunshots in my vicinity, but before rumors start spiraling out of control, I wanted you to hear this first: I AM SAFE AND WELL!” And so, as dawn rises and questions swirl in America about how this will impact what has already been a tumultuous election season as America hurtles toward November. Trump has not announced any changes to his schedule and is set to speak live on X on Monday night from his Mar-a-Lago resort to launch his sons’ crypto platform. Meanwhile, the leaders of a congressional bipartisan task force investigating the July 13 assassination attempt on Trump said they have requested a briefing by the Secret Service.  Some of the material for this story is from Reuters and The Associated Press.

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Bamako, Mali — Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger will soon launch new biometric passports, Mali's military leader Colonel Assimi Goita said Sunday, as the junta-led states look to solidify their alliance after splitting from regional bloc ECOWAS. The three Sahel nations, all under military rule following a string of coups since 2020, joined together last September under the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), after severing ties with former colonial ruler France and pivoting toward Russia. They then said in January that they were turning their backs on the Economic Community of West African States — an organization they accused of being manipulated by France. In July, the allies consolidated their ties with the creation of a Confederation of Sahel States which will be chaired by Mali in its first year and groups some 72 million people. "In the coming days, a new biometric passport of the AES will be put into circulation with the aim of harmonizing travel documents in our common area," Goita said during a televised address late Sunday. "We will be working to put in place the infrastructure needed to strengthen the connectivity of our territories through transport, communications networks and information technology," he said. The announcement came a day before the three states are due to mark the one-year anniversary of the alliance's creation. The neighbors are all battling jihadi violence that erupted in northern Mali in 2012 and spread to Niger and Burkina Faso in 2015. The unrest is estimated to have killed thousands and displaced millions across the region.

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