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BERLIN — German authorities had fewer security problems and crimes to deal with than they expected at the European Championship, the country's top security official said Monday. The tournament ended on Sunday with Spain beating England 2-1 in the final in Berlin and no reports of serious disturbances. That capped a month-long event that mostly saw only isolated and relatively minor incidents, a contrast with violence at some past tournaments. Germany's Interior Ministry said that about 2.6 million people attended matches in the 10 host cities, and another 6 million watched games in the designated fan zones. Over the course of the tournament, it said, there were a total of about 170 arrests and 320 temporary detentions. Police recorded about 2,340 offenses linked to the tournament, including some 700 involving bodily harm and 120 thefts. There were about 140 cases involving violence against police officers. Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said the country had been “prepared for all conceivable dangers from Islamist terrorism, through hooligan violence to cyberattacks and dangerous drone flights.” “There were significantly fewer security incidents and offenses than our security authorities had expected beforehand at an event with millions of people,” Faeser said in a statement. “Above all, the very high police presence across the country was decisive in this.” Germany introduced temporary border controls at all its frontiers during Euro 2024, something that has become standard practice during such events in Europe's nominally ID check-free travel zone, the Schengen area. Those are due to run through Friday. They will then be dropped at the borders with Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. However, the government is ordering checks on the border with France before and during the upcoming Olympic Games, and longer-standing checks on the eastern and southern borders with Poland, the Czech Republic, Austria and Switzerland that were motivated by concerns about migration will be kept in place.

BALTIMORE — Baltimore's mayor and city council have filed a lawsuit seeking to stop a proposal that would let voters decide whether to give all new parents a one-time $1,000 "baby bonus" meant to help alleviate childhood poverty from birth. The complaint was filed Thursday, according to online court records. It came not long after organizers secured the necessary 10,000 signatures to bring the question to voters as a ballot initiative in November. City leaders argue that the proposal is unconstitutional and should be blocked from the ballot because it would give voters too much say over legislative decisions, effectively "usurping those powers" from their elected officials. An estimated 7,000 children are born in Baltimore each year, so the program would cost about $7 million annually. That amounts to roughly 0.16% of the city's annual operating budget, according to supporters. It wouldn't result in higher taxes, but it would be up to the city council to allocate the necessary funds. The lawsuit claims that the charter amendment process is meant to address changes to the form and structure of government, not specific legislative or budgetary questions. But supporters of the baby bonus say the lawsuit is a political power grab. "We are fully confident the courts will reject this attack on democracy," the Maryland Child Alliance said in a statement posted to social media last week. The group was founded by Baltimore teachers advocating for legislation to alleviate child poverty. They say more systemic change is needed on a national level to help lift families out of poverty, but giving new parents a modest financial boost could prove an important first step. The proposal is loosely modeled on a program implemented this year in Flint, Michigan, where women receive $1,500 during mid-pregnancy and $500 per month for the first year after giving birth. Officials said the Flint program was the first of its kind in the U.S. Countries in Europe and Asia have experimented with larger cash payments, but those programs are meant to encourage people to have more kids, not address child poverty. Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott's administration, which launched a guaranteed income pilot program targeting young single parents in 2022, said in a statement that he's "supportive of the proposed amendment's objectives" even though he wants it off the ballot.

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.

SAN DIEGO — Arrests for illegally crossing the border from Mexico plunged 29% in June, the lowest month of Joe Biden's presidency, according to figures released Monday that provide another window on the impact of a new rule to temporarily suspend asylum. Arrests totaled 83,536 in June, down from 117,901 in May to mark the lowest tally since January 2021, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said. A seven-day average of daily arrests fell more than half by the end of June from Biden's announcement on June 4 that asylum processing would be halted when daily arrests reach 2,500, which they did immediately, said Troy Miller, acting Customs and Border Protection commissioner. "Recent border security measures have made a meaningful impact on our ability to impose consequences for those crossing unlawfully," Miller said. Arrests had already fallen by more than half from a record high of 250,000 in December, largely a result of increased enforcement by Mexican authorities, according to U.S. officials. Sharp declines registered across nationalities, including Mexicans, who have been most affected by the suspension of asylum, and Chinese people, who generally fly to Ecuador and travel to the U.S. border over land. San Diego was the busiest of the Border Patrol's nine sectors bordering Mexico by number of arrests, followed by Tucson, Arizona. More than 41,000 people entered legally through an online appointment app called CBP One in June. The agency said 680,500 people have successfully scheduled appointments since the app was introduced in January 2023. Nearly 500,000 people from four countries entered on a policy to allow two-year stays on condition they have financial sponsors and arrive at an airport. They include 104,130 Cubans, 194,027 Haitians, 86,101 Nicaraguans and 110,541 Venezuelans, according to CBP.

WASHINGTON — U.S. President Joe Biden said on Monday he made a mistake when he told supporters to put rival Donald Trump in a "bull’s-eye" in an effort to focus attention on his rival's behavior but said Trump regularly employed rhetoric that was inflammatory. "It was a mistake to use the word," Biden said in an interview with NBC’s Lester Holt. "I meant focus on it, focus on what he's doing," Biden said. On July 8, Biden, 81, spoke to some of his biggest donors and said they needed to shift the election campaign's focus from him and his poor debate performance to former President Trump, the Republican nominee in the Nov. 5 election. "I have one job and that’s to beat Donald Trump ... We’re done talking about the debate. It's time to put Trump in the bull’s-eye," he said. Some Republicans zeroed in on that comment as they blamed Biden for creating a climate that sparked the assassination attempt on Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday. Biden has repeatedly decried political violence. The president has endured more than two weeks of questions about his political future, so far facing down calls to step aside as the Democratic presidential candidate after his poor performance against Trump in the debate on June 27 sparked a crisis within his party. He reiterated in the interview that he is not leaving the race, while acknowledging that people's questions about his age were legitimate. Biden also weighed in on Trump's selection of Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio as his running mate. Asked by NBC's Lester Holt what Vance's selection said about Trump's values, Biden replied: "He's going to surround himself with people who agree completely with him." Biden, chuckling, also noted some of Vance's previously critical comments about Trump. The president has sought to turn attention to his opponent, highlighting Trump's falsehoods, his refusal to accept the 2020 election results and his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. "I'm not the guy that said I want to be a dictator on day one. I'm not the guy that refused to accept the outcome of the election," Biden said. He said Trump had engaged in inflammatory rhetoric, citing the former president's comments about a bloodbath ensuing if he loses the 2024 election and making fun when former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's husband Paul was attacked by an intruder with a hammer at their home. "How do you talk about the threat to democracy, which is real, when a president says things like he says? Do you just not say anything because it may incite somebody?" Biden said. "I have not engaged in that rhetoric. Now ... my opponent's engaged in that rhetoric." Biden, who is seeking to prove that he is fit to stand for reelection and govern for a second four-year term despite concerns about his age, noted that millions of people had voted for him to be the Democratic Party's nominee. "I listen to them," he said.

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Milwaukee — Former U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday selected J.D. Vance, a senator from the Midwestern state of Ohio, as his running mate in November’s presidential election. Trump made the announcement on his Truth Social media platform, saying he decided the Marine Corps veteran and Yale Law School graduate is “the person best suited” to become vice president of the United States. Shortly after Trump’s naming of the 39-year-old Vance, the bearded senator took a victory lap on the floor of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee as thousands of delegates cheered. Vance is expected to address the gathering on Wednesday, the night before Trump formally accepts the party’s presidential nomination for the third consecutive time. “I think it was an excellent choice,” an excited Ginger Howard, a party national committeewoman from Georgia, told VOA on the floor of the convention. “I think they’re going to make a great team." Just before boarding Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, President Joe Biden, responding to a reporter’s question about Vance’s selection, termed the senator “a clone of Trump on the issues. I don’t see any difference.” Biden’s reelection campaign was quick to elaborate, characterizing Vance as a willing servant to Trump’s more autocratic and regressive undertakings. Trump, twice impeached and now a convicted felon for falsifying business records, picked Vance because he “will do what Mike Pence wouldn’t on January 6: bend over backwards to enable Trump and his extreme MAGA agenda, even if it means breaking the law and no matter the harm to the American people,” said Jennifer O’Malley Dillon, who chairs the Biden-Harris campaign. Trump has downplayed the severity of the January 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, framing it as a legitimate protest against what he claimed without evidence was a "stolen" 2020 presidential election. He has also criticized the subsequent federal investigation and prosecution of those involved, labeling it a witch hunt politically motivated by Biden, his opponent in a second consecutive election. Biden’s running mate, Vice President Kamala Harris, is “fully prepared” to debate Vance under the format proposed by CBS News, according to the Democrats’ campaign. “Trump’s VP pick is great news for wealthy Americans and terrible for everybody else,” Senator Elizabeth Warren told reporters on a Biden-Harris campaign conference call shortly after the former president’s announcement of his running mate. “Social Security and Medicare cuts will bear down on seniors like an avalanche” if Trump and Vance are elected, predicted Warren. “Millions will face losing access to health insurance.” Vance has emerged as a strong advocate of Trump and his hard-line policies, from immigration restrictions to cuts for social programs. But as was true of numerous other prominent Republicans when the New York real estate developer first ran for president eight years ago, Vance had been highly critical of Trump. “Trump makes people I care about afraid. Immigrants, Muslims, etc. Because of this I find him reprehensible. God wants better of us,” Vance said on Twitter in October 2016. He subsequently deleted the tweet. Vance, a venture capitalist before being elected a senator, first rose to prominence with his memoir Hillbilly Elegy, which was made into a Hollywood movie. The book and film chronicle his experiences coming of age in a struggling working-class family in the Appalachian region. With his name aside Trump’s on the 2024 ticket, Vance immediately becomes the most prominent Republican to be passed the torch of a political party radically reframed by Trumpism. Trump, if he is elected again and serves a full second term, would be 82 the day he leaves office. Biden’s cognitive abilities at his current age of 81 have emerged as a major campaign issue and divided his own Democratic Party, with a growing number of prominent Democrats in and out of Congress calling for him to abandon his reelection bid in favor of a younger replacement. “Trump wanted a younger candidate who can campaign and connect with working-class voters, especially in the Midwest. Vance is also the first millennial to appear as a major party nominee on a presidential ticket, representing a generational change in U.S. politics,” said Cayce Myers, a Virginia Tech professor of public relations. Vance would become the second-youngest vice president in U.S. history if elected along with Trump. Democrat John C. Breckinridge was 36 when he took the oath of office as vice president on March 4, 1857, under President James Buchanan. Republican Richard Nixon, as President Dwight Eisenhower’s vice president, was 40 when he took on the role in 1953. Breckinridge failed in his subsequent quest for the presidency. Nixon was elected president in 1968 after a losing bid eight years earlier. Roman Mamonov of VOA’s Russian Service contributed to this report.

kigali, rwanda — Rwandan President Paul Kagame has won the country’s presidential election with 99% of the vote, according to preliminary election results released late Monday evening. Kagame had won 99% of the 79% of ballots counted so far, the country’s electoral body said. The president, who has been in power in various roles since 1994, won by a similar amount in 2017. People stood in line patiently starting at 7 a.m. local time Monday to cast their ballots, saying they were excited to exercise their civic duty. Some told VOA they wanted a leader who could deliver what the population desired. Others said they’d seen progress and would vote for that to continue. Kagame cast his vote around 1:30 p.m. at a voting center in Kigali. He had said that his priorities of building the country toward prosperity would not change. Kagame, who was first elected president in 2000, faced two other candidates: the Democratic Green Party's Frank Habineza and independent Philippe Mpayimana. Habineza was in second place with 0.53% of the vote while Mpayimana had  0.32%. This was the second bid for the top job by Mpayimana, a journalist-turned-politician whose manifesto initiatives to develop agriculture, transportation, fishing and other industries received coverage in 50-plus articles. Habineza, who also ran against Kagame in the last election, told VOA he was in the race again this year because the incumbent has been in office too long and it was time for a new vision for the country. Several other candidates, including some of Kagame’s most vocal critics, were barred from running for president. About 9 million out of a population of 14 million Rwandans were registered to vote. That was 2 million more than last time, according to the National Electoral Commission. NEC Chairwoman Oda Gasinzigwa said that more than 300 international observers were present in Rwanda, along with about 700 local observers. One reason Kagame, 66, cruised to victory, critics said, was that he has governed with a heavy hand and has stifled dissent. But another reason, analysts said, was his ability to guide the East African country toward internal peace since the 1994 genocide, when an estimated 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed by Hutu extremists.

The United States Secret Service says it’s “confident” in its ability to safeguard this week’s Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. This, after the party’s leader, Donald Trump, survived an assassination attempt over the weekend. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi has more.

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.

Blantyre, Malawi     — Malawi has declared the end of the country's worst cholera outbreak, which began in March 2022 and killed nearly 2,000 people. In a statement Monday, the Ministry of Health said the country had registered no cases or deaths from cholera in 26 of Malawi's 29 health districts in the past four weeks. Some health experts, however, said the outbreak could resurface if the country failed to address sanitation problems that caused it. Malawi President Lazarus Chakwera launched a national campaign to end the cholera outbreak in February 2023. The “Tithetse Kolera” or “Let’s End Cholera” campaign came three months after he declared the disease to be a public health emergency in Malawi. The campaign aimed to interrupt cholera transmission in all districts and reduce the fatality rate from 3.2% to below 1%, which the World Health Organization considers a controlled cholera outbreak. Dr. Wilfred Chalamira Nkhoma,  co-chairperson for the presidential task force on COVID-19 and cholera in Malawi, told VOA the disease had now been defeated largely because of the campaign. “By WHO definition, a country stands to end the transmission of cholera when they have gone at least four weeks without reporting a laboratory confirmed case of cholera," he said. "So that is the case with Malawi right now. We haven’t had a confirmed case since 6th of June.” Successful steps Nkhoma attributed the development to several interventions Malawi conducted over the past two years. He said they involved educating people about transmission, prevention and control of cholera; increasing surveillance; and properly managing cholera cases. “The key one — and that must remain the key one — is to increase access to safe water and also improve adequate sanitation," he said. "The Ministry of Water and Sanitation was taking the lead in this, but they were supported very well by nongovernmental organizations that are working in the water and sanitation sector.” Nkhoma said another measure was the oral cholera vaccination campaign, which began in December 2022. “We were able as a country to access some doses from WHO," he said. "We were able to administer not less than about  6 million doses of cholera vaccine focusing first and foremost in priority areas.” The Ministry of Health said in its Monday statement that Malawi had registered 56,376 cases of cholera, with 1,772 deaths since March 2022. Maziko Matemba, a national community health ambassador in Malawi, told VOA that Malawi seemed to have managed the cholera outbreak at the treatment and case-management levels, but added that sanitation problems remained a challenge. “Because at the moment, if you go to villages, if you go to public places, people are not doing the sanitation issues properly," Matemba said. "Even if you check in public toilets, even if you check how people are preparing food, you will find that we still have challenges as a country to contain disease like cholera.”  Nkhoma said the government would continue its effort to educate people about how cholera is transmitted, prevented and controlled to try to avoid further outbreaks.

san juan, puerto rico — Tense deliberations over how and if to allow deep sea mining unfolded Monday in Jamaica as at least one company threatened to apply for permission before rules and regulations are in place. More than two dozen countries have called for a ban, pause or moratorium on deep sea mining — including most recently Peru and Greece — as the U.N. International Seabed Authority resumed talks over a proposed mining code after last meeting in March. “We have two very busy weeks ahead of us,” said Olav Myklebust, the authority’s council president as some countries warned that the proposed regulator framework has significant gaps and does not include some of their proposals. The Jamaica-based authority, which is the global custodian for deep waters that don't fall under a country's jurisdiction, has granted 31 mining exploration contracts but has not authorized any exploration as the debate continues. Much of the ongoing exploration centers in the Clarion-Clipperton Fracture Zone, which covers 1.7 million square miles (4.5 million square kilometers) between Hawaii and Mexico. It occurs at depths ranging from 13,000 to 19,000 feet (4,000 to 6,000 meters). Scientists have said that minerals at those depths take millions of years to form, and that mining them could unleash noise, light and suffocating dust storms. “The deep ocean sustains crucial processes that make the entire planet habitable, from driving ocean currents that regulate our weather to storing carbon and buffering our planet against the impacts of climate change,” said Sofia Tsenikli with the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition ahead of the meeting. Those who support deep sea mining argue that it is cheaper and has less of an impact than land mining. Among those pushing for exploitation is The Metals Company, a Canadian business that is largely expected to be the first to seek permission to start mining. The debate over deep sea mining comes amid growing demand for precious metals including cobalt, nickel and copper that grow in the ocean’s bowels and are used in electric car batteries and other green technology. “There is a lot of work that remains to be done," said France's representative, Olivier Guyonvarch, of the proposed mining code. Elza Moreira Marcelino de Castro, the representative for Brazil, said the draft needs more clarity about issues including liability and additional details about a proposed environmental compensation fund. The council is scheduled to debate the issue for two weeks and will then hold an assembly to elect a secretary general.

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.

SALT LAKE CITY — Three hikers died over the weekend in suspected heat-related cases at state and national parks in Utah, including a father and daughter who got lost on a strenuous hike in Canyonlands National Park in extreme temperatures.  The daughter, 23, and her father, 52, sent a 911 text alerting dispatchers that they were lost and had run out of water while hiking the 13-kilometer (8.1-mile) Syncline Loop, described by the National Park Service as the most challenging trail in the Island in the Sky district of the southeast Utah park. The pair set out Friday to navigate steep switchbacks and scramble through boulder fields with limited trail markers as the air temperature surpassed 38 degrees Celsius (100 degrees Fahrenheit).  Park rangers and a helicopter crew with the Bureau of Land Management began their search for the lost hikers in the early evening Friday but found them already dead. The San Juan County Sheriff’s Office identified them Monday as Albino Herrera Espinoza and his daughter, Beatriz Herrera, of Green Bay, Wisconsin.  Due to the jagged terrain, safety officials used a helicopter to airlift the bodies out of the park and to the state medical examiner Saturday morning, according to the sheriff's office. Their deaths are being investigated as heat-related by the local sheriff and the National Park Service.  Later Saturday, first responders in southwest Utah responded to a call about two hikers “suffering from a heat-related incident” at Snow Canyon State Park, which is known for its lava tubes, sand dunes and a canyon carved from red and white Navajo Sandstone.  A multi-agency search team found and treated two hikers who were suffering from heat exhaustion. While they were treating those individuals, a passing hiker informed them of an unconscious person nearby. First responders found the 30-year-old woman dead, public safety officials said.  Her death is being investigated by the Santa Clara-Ivins Public Safety Department. She has not been identified publicly.  Tourists continue to flock to parks in Utah and other southwestern states during the hottest months of the year, even as officials caution that hiking in extreme heat poses serious health risks. Earlier this month, a Texas man died while hiking at Grand Canyon National Park, where summer temperatures on exposed parts of the trail can reach over 49 degrees Celsius (120 degrees Fahrenheit). 

moscow — A court in Moscow ordered house arrest Monday for a general in custody on fraud charges, in a ruling that represents an about-face from just weeks ago, when the same court refused to release the general from jail. Major General Ivan Popov was ordered to be placed under house arrest until at least October 11 by the 235th Garrison Military Court. Popov, who had commanded the 58th Guards Combined Arms Army, was arrested in May along with several top military officials, including former Deputy Defense Minister Timur Ivanov, a close associate of then-Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. Some of these officials have been charged with bribery, while Popov has faced charges of fraud on an exceptionally large scale. President Vladimir Putin dismissed Shoigu as defense minister on May 12, appointing him the secretary of the national security council. Shoigu had been widely criticized for Russia's setbacks on the battlefield in Ukraine and was accused of incompetence and corruption by mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, who launched a mutiny in June 2023 to demand the dismissal of Shoigu and military chief of staff General Valery Gerasimov. Less than a month after Prigozhin’s failed uprising, Popov was dismissed. He said he had complained about problems that his troops were facing in Ukraine to the Russian military command, and that his dismissal was a “treacherous” stab in the back to Russian forces in Ukraine. Popov’s forces were fighting in the Zaporizhzhia region in the southeast of Ukraine, which is now partially occupied by Russian forces. His dismissal came one day after the 58th Army’s command post in the occupied city of Berdyansk was hit in a Ukrainian strike, killing a high-ranking general. Popov has been in detention since late May. His lawyers appealed the ruling to put him behind bars but lost. In a development that is relatively rare for the Russian justice system, authorities also filed a petition to release Popov under house arrest, but their request was initially turned down by the 235th Garrison Military Court. The investigators filed another request with the court, and it was approved Monday. It wasn't immediately clear what prompted the court to change its position on Popov's pretrial detention.

Dubai, United Arab Emirates — Two suspected attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels targeted ships in the Red Sea on Monday, as a new U.S. aircraft carrier approached the region to provide security for the key international trade route that has been under assault since the Israel-Hamas war erupted nine months ago. The captain of the first targeted ship reported being attacked by three small vessels off the coast of Al Hudaydah, Yemen, the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said, adding that two of the vessels were crewed and another uncrewed. The “reported unmanned small craft collided with the vessel twice and the two manned small craft fired at the vessel," the UKMTO reported. “The vessel conducted self-protection measures, after 15 minutes the small craft aborted the attack." The captain later reported two separate waves of missile attacks, about 45 minutes apart, that exploded close to the vessel. Later Monday, in a separate incident also off the coast of Al Hudaydah, a vessel reported being attacked by a suspected uncrewed Houthi aerial vehicle, which “impacted on the port side causing some damage and light smoke,” the UKMTO reported. Both ships and all crew are reported safe, the UKMTO said in a warning to mariners. Names and flags of the ships were not immediately known. The Houthis did not immediately comment on either incident. However, it can take hours or even days before they acknowledge carrying out an attack. The aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt is approaching the Middle East to replace the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, which spent months in the Red Sea to counter the Houthis. The U.S. Central Command said in a statement Sunday that its forces destroyed two uncrewed Houthi aerial vehicles and an uncrewed surface vessel in the Red Sea. The rebels have targeted more than 70 vessels by firing missiles and drones in their campaign, killing four sailors. They seized one vessel and sank two since November. In June, the number of Houthi attacks on merchant vessels increased to levels not seen since December, according to the Joint Maritime Information Center (JMIC), a coalition which is overseen by the U.S. Navy. U.S.-led airstrikes have targeted the Houthis since January, with a series of strikes on May 30 killing at least 16 people and wounding 42 others, the rebels say. The Houthis maintain that their attacks target ships linked to Israel, the United States or Britain, as part of the rebels’ support for the militant group Hamas in its war against Israel. However, many of the ships attacked have little or no connection to the war — including some bound for Iran, which backs the Houthis. Last week, the Houthis said they launched missiles at a U.S.-flagged container ship in the Gulf of Aden, marking what authorities acknowledged as the rebels’ longest-range attack yet on a U.S.-flagged vessel near the Arabian Sea. The JMIC identified the ship as the Maersk Sentosa. Maersk, a Danish firm that is the world’s biggest shipping company, confirmed to The Associated Press that its vessel had been targeted.