Feed aggregator

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.

WEST PALM BEACH, Florida — The man accused of hiding out with a gun near Donald Trump's Florida golf course in an apparent attempt to assassinate the former U.S. president is due in court on Monday, where prosecutors will argue to keep him in jail until his trial. Ryan Routh, 58, has been charged with two gun crimes after he allegedly pointed a rifle through the tree line on Sept. 15 while the Republican presidential candidate was playing golf at his course in West Palm Beach, according to a criminal complaint. He has not yet entered a plea. U.S. prosecutors may reveal new details about the investigation at the hearing, scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. EDT (1500 GMT), as they argue that Routh poses a danger to public safety and must remain detained pending trial. Routh has been charged with possession of a firearm as a convicted felon and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number. More charges could follow. A U.S. Secret Service agent spotted the weapon and fired in Routh's direction, causing the suspect to flee, according to the complaint. Routh was later arrested along a Florida highway. U.S. officials have said Routh did not fire a shot during the encounter at the golf course and did not have a line of sight to Trump, who was a few hundred meters away. Authorities have not yet divulged a motive for the incident, which the FBI has said is being investigated as an apparent attempted assassination of Trump ahead of the Nov. 5 presidential election. It came about two months after another gunman wounded Trump on the ear during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. That gunman was shot and killed by the Secret Service. The pair of incidents revealed the agency's strains at a time of rising political threats and violence in the United States. Routh, a struggling roofing contractor who most recently lived in Hawaii, had a criminal history. He was a vocal supporter of Ukraine who was interviewed about his quixotic effort to recruit Afghans to fight against Russia's invasion. In a 2023 self-published book, Routh wrote that Iran was "free to assassinate Trump" for pulling the United States out of an international nuclear deal with Teheran during his presidency. In December 2002, Routh was convicted in North Carolina of possessing a weapon of mass death and destruction. He was also convicted of possessing stolen goods in 2010, according to court records. Cellphone data showed that Routh may have been waiting in the area for nearly 12 hours — from around 2 a.m. until about 1:30 p.m. - when the gun was spotted, according to the criminal complaint. Investigators found a loaded SKS-style rifle with a scope, a digital camera and a plastic bag with food at the scene, according to the complaint.

Brussels — The European Commission launched a challenge at the World Trade Organization (WTO) on Monday against China's investigation into EU dairy products, initiated after the European Union placed import tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles.  This is the first time the European Union has taken such action at the start of an investigation, rather than wait for it to result in trade measures against the bloc.  "The EU's action was prompted by an emerging pattern of China initiating trade defense measures, based on questionable allegations and insufficient evidence, within a short period of time," the commission said.  Proceedings at the WTO start with a mandatory period of 60 days for the parties to consult each other. The Commission said it would ask the WTO to set up an adjudicating panel if the consultations did not lead to a satisfactory solution.  WTO panels usually take more than a year to reach conclusions.  China initiated its anti-subsidy investigation on Aug. 21, targeting EU liquid milk, cream with a fat content above 10% and various types of cheeses.  The Commission said it was confident that EU dairy subsidy schemes are fully in line with international rules and not causing injury to China's dairy sector.   The EU imposed provisional duties in July on electric vehicles built in China and EU members are expected to vote soon on final tariffs, which would apply for five years.  China also has ongoing anti-dumping investigations into EU brandy and pork.  (Reuters reporting by Philip Blenkinsop and Bart Meijer; Editing by Alex Richardson and Tomasz Janowski) 

Washington — Even before the Federal Reserve approved its outsized half-percentage-point interest rate cut last week, financial markets had begun making credit cheaper for households and businesses as they bid down mortgage rates, cut corporate bond yields, and chipped away at what consumers pay for personal, auto and other loans. How fast that process will continue now that the U.S. central bank's first rate cut is in the books is unclear, in particular whether easing credit conditions will become tangible to consumers in ways that shift attitudes about the economy before the Nov. 5 U.S. presidential election. Recent surveys suggest that while the pace of price increases has declined dramatically, the public's mood is still marred by nearly two years of high inflation — even if falling rates signal that chapter of recent economic history is closed and will begin making it cheaper for people to borrow money. "My daughter has been trying to buy a home for years and cannot," said Julie Miller, who works at her son's electrical company in Reno, Nevada, a state where home prices rose fast during the COVID-19 pandemic. One of seven key battleground states in the presidential race, Nevada is being aggressively contested by Vice President Kamala Harris, who replaced President Joe Biden as the Democratic candidate, and former President Donald Trump, the Republican challenger. If housing costs are vexing Miller's daughter, higher prices at Taco Bell have caused Miller to cut back on the usual Friday night trips to the fast food retailer with her granddaughter, and left her inclined to vote for Trump because "I don't think Biden has done a great job with inflation." Harris supporters had similar concerns about high prices even as they vouched for her as the best candidate to address the problem. Borrowing costs decline The Fed's rate cut on Sept. 18 is likely to be followed by more, with at least another quarter-percentage-point reduction expected when policymakers begin their next two-day policy meeting a day after the U.S. election. Just as rate increases feed through to a higher cost of credit for families and businesses, discouraging them from borrowing, spending and investing in order to cool inflation, reductions in borrowing costs change the calculus for would-be homebuyers and firms, particularly small businesses wanting to finance new equipment or expand production. Looser monetary policy, which the Fed had been signaling was on the way, has already put money back into people's pockets. The average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate home mortgage, the most popular home loan, for example, is approaching 6% after nearing 8% just a year ago. Redfin, a real estate firm, recently estimated that the median payment on homes sold or listed in the four weeks through Sept. 15 was $300 less than the all-time high hit in April and nearly 3% lower than a year ago. But with that adjustment already done, "mortgage rates are likely to remain relatively stable for the next couple of weeks," Chen Zhao, an economist at Redfin, wrote in a post on the company's website. Indeed, under baseline estimates from the Fed's own staff, mortgage rates are likely to level off somewhere in the mid-5% range, meaning most of the relief there has already occurred. Banks have begun trimming the "prime rate" they charge their most credit-worthy borrowers to match the Fed rate cut. Other forms of consumer credit - the auto and personal loans where a better deal might be available to households - have changed only marginally so far, and it may take longer for banks to give up on charging higher finance costs. Investors and economists saw last week's rate cut as less important than the message it carried of a central bank ready to loosen credit and confident that recent high inflation won't recur. Inflation in fact has registered one of its fastest ever declines, with the consumer price index's annual increase falling from more than 9% in June 2022 to 2.6% on a year-over-year basis last month. The Fed's preferred personal consumption expenditures price index rose at a 2.5% rate in July, near the central bank's 2% target. Sour sentiment The U.S. economy has been performing reasonably well despite concerns the job market might be on the brink of weakening. New claims for unemployment benefits remain low and unexpectedly fell in the most recent week, while the unemployment rate, at 4.2% in August, has risen from a year ago but is around the level the Fed feels is sustainable without generating excess wage and price pressures. A Philadelphia Fed index of manufacturing rose recently and retail sales for August grew despite expectations for a drop. But none of that has led to a decisive shift in public sentiment. The share of Americans who see the economy as heading in the right direction climbed to 25% in August from 17% in May 2022, according to Reuters/Ipsos polling. Yet the share that sees the economy on the wrong track has eased to 60% from 74% over the same period. A New York Fed survey that through early this year showed people feeling better off than a year ago and expecting more improvement in the year ahead has since been moving in the other direction even as inflation slowed further and rate cuts became more likely. The University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index had been improving but then dropped in recent months and remains below where it was before the pandemic. The most recent U.S. Census "pulse" polls of households showed the share who reported trouble paying household expenses in the past week has ebbed from 2022, when inflation hit its peak, but has made little improvement recently. In his press conference following the rate cut last week, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said his aim was to keep the economy on track between the central bank's two goals of stable inflation and a healthy job market. To that end, credit will ease but at no guaranteed pace. "This is the beginning of that process," Powell said. "The direction ... is toward a sense of neutral, and we'll move as fast or as slow as we think is appropriate in real-time."

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.

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania — Police arrested Tanzania's top opposition figures on Monday, their party said, as the authorities moved to block a mass protest in the commercial capital Dar es Salaam.  Despite an official ban, the opposition Chadema party had vowed to go ahead with the rally over the alleged kidnapping and killing of its members by security forces. Chadema said its chairman Freeman Mbowe and his deputy Tundu Lissu were both arrested on Monday, while riot police were stationed in key areas across the city to prevent gatherings. "Demonstration is our constitutional right and we are surprised by the magnitude of force being used by the police to threaten people and suppress our freedom," Mbowe told supporters before being led away by police, according to a video shared by the party online. Chadema accuses President Samia Suluhu Hassan's government of returning the country to the repressive tactics of her predecessor, John Magufuli.  Hassan took over following Magufuli's sudden death in March 2021 and appeared to signal a more liberal approach, reversing restrictions on opposition rallies and the media.  But Chadema accuses the security forces of being behind the recent disappearance of several members and the killing of Ali Mohamed Kibao, of its national secretariat, who was found dead earlier this month. Police also blocked a youth day rally by the party in August, arresting dozens of its leaders including Mbowe and Lissu.  Rights groups and Western governments, including the United States, have raised concerns about renewed repression ahead of local elections in November and a general election in late 2025.  Lissu, an opposition stalwart, has been arrested countless times and suffered multiple gunshot wounds in an assassination attempt in 2017.  He returned to Tanzania last year after Hassan lifted the ban on opposition rallies.  Police had alleged that the Chadema protests would be violent.  But in a speech broadcast on X on Sunday, Mbowe said: "I remind Tanzanians that we are going to hold peaceful protests. We are neither carrying any weapons nor planning to violate the peace as some people allege.  "In case some of us will be arrested, hurt or even killed, pray for us and never turn back. We are doing this to make our country a peaceful place to live," he said. 

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.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Authorities have reported no immediate arrests after a weekend mass shooting killed four people and left 17 others injured in what police described as a targeted "hit" by multiple shooters who opened fire outside a popular Alabama nightspot. The shooting late Saturday night in the popular Five Points South entertainment district of Birmingham, rocking an area of restaurants and bars that is often bustling on weekend nights. The mass shooting, one of several this year in the major city, unnerved residents and left officials at home and beyond pleading for help to both solve the crime and address the broader problem of gun violence. "The priority is to find these shooters and get them off our streets," Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin said a day after the shooting. The mayor planned a morning news conference Monday to provide updates on the case. The shooting occurred on the sidewalk and street outside Hush, a lounge in the entertainment district, where blood stains were still visible on the sidewalk outside the venue on Sunday morning. Birmingham Police Chief Scott Thurmond said authorities believe the shooting targeted one of the people who was killed, possibly in a murder-for-hire. A vehicle pulled up and "multiple shooters" got out and began firing, then fled the scene, he said. "We believe that there was a 'hit,' if you will, on that particular person," Thurmond said. Police said approximately 100 shell casings were recovered. Thurmond said law enforcement was working to determine what weapons were used, but they believe some of the gunfire was "fully automatic." Investigators also were trying to determine whether anyone fired back, creating a crossfire. In a statement late Sunday, police said the shooters are believed to have used "machine gun conversion devices" that make semi-automatic weapons fire more rapidly. Some surviving victims critically injured Officers found two men and a woman on a sidewalk with gunshot wounds and they were pronounced dead there. An additional male gunshot victim was pronounced dead at a hospital, according to police. Police identified the three victims found on the sidewalk as Anitra Holloman, 21, of the Birmingham suburb of Bessemer, Tahj Booker, 27, of Birmingham, and Carlos McCain, 27, of Birmingham. The fourth victim pronounced dead at the hospital was pending identification. By the early hours of Sunday, victims began showing up at hospitals and police subsequently identified 17 people with injuries, some of them life-threatening. Four of the surviving victims, in conditions ranging from good to critical, were being treated at the University of Alabama at Birmingham Hospital on Sunday afternoon, according to Alicia Rohan, a hospital spokeswoman. Popular nightspot rocked by gunfire The area of Birmingham where the gunfire erupted is popular with young adults because of its proximity to the University of Alabama at Birmingham and the plethora of nearby restaurants and bars. The shooting was the 31st mass killing of 2024, of which 23 were shootings, according to James Alan Fox, a criminologist and professor at Northeastern University, who oversees a mass killings database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with the university. Three of the nation's 23 mass shootings this year were in Birmingham, including two earlier quadruple homicides. Mayor pleads for a solution to gun violence Woodfin expressed frustration at what he described as an epidemic of gun violence in America and the city. "We find ourselves in 2024, where gun violence is at an epidemic level, an epidemic crisis in our country. And the city of Birmingham, unfortunately, finds itself at the tip of that spear," he said.

Joe Biden makes his final presidential address before the United Nations General Assembly this week. But hanging over his head as he takes to the green marble podium for the last time, and as he meets separately with other leaders in New York: conflict in the Middle East – and how his actions have shaped it. VOA White House correspondent Anita Powell reports from New York.

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.

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis canceled his scheduled appointments for Monday due to a mild flu, the Vatican said in a statement. The Vatican said the 87-year-old pontiff made the decision as a precautionary measure in view of his planned four-day trip to Luxembourg and Belgium later this week. It gave no further details. Francis is scheduled to begin the trip, his 46th foreign visit as pope, on Thursday. It comes less than two weeks after he returned from a demanding 12-day, four-country tour of Southeast Asia and Oceania. Francis now regularly uses a wheelchair due to knee and back pain. He has also suffered bouts of ill health in recent years. Earlier this year, he canceled several appointments over what the Vatican variously described as a cold, bronchitis and influenza. The pope appeared in good form throughout his Sept. 2-13 trip to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore. He maintained a packed schedule, headlining more than 40 events, and clocked up a total of nearly 33,000 km. His trip to Luxembourg and Belgium is expected to highlight the needs of migrants in Europe and to include a meeting with survivors of abuse by Catholic clergy. Francis' agenda in Luxembourg and Belgium will be lighter than that of the Southeast Asia and Oceania trip, with the pope scheduled to take part in about a dozen events over four days.

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.

Colombo, Sri Lanka — Sri Lanka's first leftist president was sworn into office Monday vowing to restore public faith in politics after anger over the island nation's unprecedented economic crisis propelled him to a landslide poll win. Self-avowed Marxist Anura Kumara Dissanayaka of the People's Liberation Front (JVP) took his oath at the colonial-era Presidential Secretariat in Colombo after trouncing his nearest rivals in Saturday's vote. The previously fringe politician, whose party led two failed uprisings that left tens of thousands dead, saw a surge of support after the country's 2022 economic meltdown forced painful hardships on ordinary Sri Lankans. Dissanayaka, 55, was sworn in by the chief justice in a ceremony attended by lawmakers, members of the Buddhist clergy and the military who sang the national anthem after the ceremony. "I will do my best to fully restore the people's confidence in politicians," Dissanayaka said after taking the oath. "I am not a conjurer, I am not a magician," he added. "There are things I know and things I don't know, but I will seek the best advice and do my best. For that, I need the support of everyone." Dissanayaka succeeds outgoing president Ranil Wickremesinghe, who took office at the peak of the financial crisis following the government's first-ever foreign debt default and months of punishing food, fuel and medicine shortages. Wickremesinghe, 75, imposed steep tax hikes and other austerity measures per the terms of an International Monetary Fund bailout. His policies ended the shortages and returned the economy to growth but left millions struggling to make ends meet. "I can confidently say that I did my best to stabilize the country during one of its darkest periods," he said in a statement after placing a distant third in Saturday's poll. Shortly before the ceremony, Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena resigned, clearing the way for Dissanayaka to appoint his own cabinet. Dissanayaka's party has said he wants to have his own cabinet until a fresh parliament is elected later this year. His JVP party has only three members in the 225-member parliament. He has vowed to press ahead with the IMF rescue package negotiated by his predecessor last year but modify its terms in order to deliver tax cuts. "It is a binding document, but there is a provision to renegotiate," Bimal Ratnayake, a senior member of Dissanayaka's party, told AFP. Legacy of violence Dissanayaka's party led two rebellions in the 1970s and 1980s that left more than 80,000 people dead before renouncing violence. It had been a peripheral player in Sri Lankan politics in the decades since, winning less than four percent of the vote during the most recent parliamentary elections in 2020. But Sri Lanka's crisis proved an opportunity for Dissanayaka, who saw his popularity rise after pledging to change the island's "corrupt" political culture. The 55-year-old laborer's son was a JVP student leader during the second insurrection and has described how one of his teachers sheltered him to save him from government-backed death squads that killed party activists. He counts famous Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara among his heroes. Since his rise to popularity, he has softened some policies, saying he believes in an open economy and is not totally opposed to privatization.

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.