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Taipei, Taiwan — The shooting at a rally for former President Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday quickly became a trending topic on China’s social media platforms Sunday. The Chinese foreign ministry released a statement on its website Sunday, indicating that the country is closely following the incident involving Trump. “President Xi Jinping has expressed sympathies to former President Trump,” the Chinese foreign ministry said in its statement. The FBI said Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, a resident of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, was the suspect in the attempted assassination of Trump. As of noon, Beijing time Sunday, the Weibo entry "Trump was shot" had garnered more than 300 million views, making it the top trending topic on the platform. Weibo, a Chinese social media platform similar to X, formerly Twitter, mirrors trends seen on international platforms like X, which is banned in China. Not only did the entry "Trump was shot" dominate Weibo's trending topics, but at one point, half of the top 20 searches were related to the shooting. Updates such as "Trump's right ear was shot through by a bullet," "One person died at the scene," and "The shooting suspect was killed," along with U.S. President Joe Biden's responses, also garnered significant attention. Fast reaction came also from Chinese businesses: By noon Sunday in Beijing, shopping websites like Taobao and Pinduoduo listed T-shirts featuring images of Trump raising his arms after being injured. Some internet commenters jokingly remarked, "This is the speed of Chinese e-commerce." Major state media outlets, including Xinhua News Agency and CCTV, extensively covered the shooting. Many Chinese experts interviewed said they believed that the assassination attempt was genuine and speculated that it could positively influence Trump's campaign. Chinese social media was also rife with speculation that the shooting was "self-directed and self-staged." Notably, Jin Hao, former executive editor of Xinhua News Agency's "World Military," commented on Weibo, saying that, after looking at the clips from the scene and observing Trump’s “remarkably swift” reaction, “he [knew he] was shot as soon as he touched his ears and immediately crouched down.” Jin remarked, "This isn’t something that ordinary people can react to." Some Weibo users also echoed that "it has been practiced hundreds of times." However, this conspiracy theory faced criticism from many bloggers, and others who argued that Trump’s ear injury was just a few centimeters away from the brain. Even Jin Canrong, a professor at the School of International Relations at Renmin University of China, known for his strong anti-American stance, bluntly stated in an interview with the Shanghai-based media Observer Net that this incident was “an assassination.” Jin noted that in the photos from the scene, the injured Trump raised his hands in a fighting gesture, surrounded by Secret Service agents and the American flag, effectively creating a heroic image for himself. Currently based in California, Albert Chiu, a political science professor at Taiwan's Tunghai University, said in an interview with VOA that Trump was shot during a live broadcast, and the shooter was killed on the scene, making it hard for any "conspiracy theory" to take hold. He emphasized that the ongoing culture of political assassination in the United States warrants more attention. According to He Yue, a member of the National Union of Journalists in the United Kingdom, the enthusiasm of Chinese netizens for discussing the shooting reflects daily restrictions on free speech, where "domestic politics is off-limits." They can only engage openly when negative topics related to American democracy arise, He Yue said. Because "Chinese netizens really cannot discuss Chinese politics, when it comes to other countries' political events, like the shooting, it feels like they've found an outlet to vent,” he told VOA. “The most heated discussions revolve around whether this is a ploy and who orchestrated it. Chinese people have lived in a world of falsehoods for too long; everything feels fake, so they use this mindset to judge foreigners.” Taiwan’s reaction On Sunday, Chen Shui-bian, former Taiwanese president who was shot while campaigning for reelection two decades ago, pointed out in interviews with several Taiwanese media outlets that the locations of both shootings — his in Tainan, in southern Taiwan, and Trump’s in Butler, Pennsylvania — can be seen as "sacred places of democracy" for both countries. Each attack resulted in minor injuries to presidential candidates, which he characterized as "a striking coincidence.” One day before the 2004 Taiwan presidential election, the "319 shooting incident" occurred. President Chen was shot while campaigning in a jeep in Tainan. The bullet only caused a minor abdominal injury after penetrating his clothing. The Presidential Office of Taiwan stated Sunday, "President (Lai Ching-te) extends sincere concerns to former President Trump and prays for his speedy recovery." Lai strongly condemned any form of political violence and expressed his deepest condolences to all victims. Eric Chu, chairman of the China-friendly opposition Kuomintang party, also stated in an interview that he promptly expressed condolences to the U.S. side, hoping for former President Trump's swift recovery, and emphasizing the party's condemnation of political violence.

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.

Geneva — Global childhood vaccination levels have stalled, leaving millions more children un- or under-vaccinated than before the pandemic, the U.N. said Monday, warning of dangerous coverage gaps enabling outbreaks of diseases like measles. In 2023, 84% of children, or 108 million, received three doses of the vaccine against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (DTP), with the third dose serving as a key marker for global immunization coverage, according to data published by the U.N. health and children's agencies. That was the same percentage as a year earlier, meaning that modest progress seen in 2022 after the steep drop during the COVID-19 crisis has "stalled," the organizations warned. The rate was 86% in 2019 before the pandemic. "The latest trends demonstrate that many countries continue to miss far too many children," UNICEF chief Catherine Russell said in a joint statement. In fact, 2.7 million additional children remained un- or under-vaccinated last year compared to the pre-pandemic levels in 2019, the organizations found. 'Off track' "We are off track," World Health Organization vaccine chief Kate O'Brien told reporters. "Global immunization coverage has yet to fully recover from the historic backsliding that we saw during the course of the pandemic." Not only has progress stalled, but the number of so-called zero-dose children, who have not received a single jab, rose to 14.5 million last year from 13.9 million in 2022 and from 12.8 million in 2019, according to the data published Monday. "This puts the lives of the most vulnerable children at risk," O'Brien warned. Even more concerning is that more than half of the world's unvaccinated children live in 31 countries with fragile, conflict-affected settings, where they are especially vulnerable to contracting preventable diseases, due to lacking access to security, nutrition and health services. Children in such countries are also far more likely to miss out on the necessary follow-up jabs. A full 6.5 million children worldwide did not complete their third dose of the DTP vaccine, which is necessary to achieve disease protection in infancy and early childhood, Monday's datasets showed.  'Canary in the coal mine' The WHO and UNICEF voiced additional concern over lagging vaccination against measles — one of the world's most infectious diseases — amid an exploding number of outbreaks around the world. "Measles outbreaks are the canary in the coal mine, exposing and exploiting gaps in immunization and hitting the most vulnerable first," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in the statement. In 2023, only 83% of children worldwide received their first dose of the measles vaccine through routine health services — the same level as in 2022 but down from 86% before the pandemic. And only 74% received their second necessary dose, while 95% coverage is needed to prevent outbreaks, the organizations pointed out. "This is still too low to prevent outbreaks and achieve elimination goals," Ephrem Lemango, UNICEF immunization chief, told reporters. He pointed out that more than 300,000 measles cases were confirmed in 2023 — nearly three times as many as a year earlier. And a full 103 countries have suffered outbreaks in the past five years, with low vaccination coverage of 80% or lower seen as a major factor. By contrast, 91 countries with strong measles vaccine coverage experienced no outbreaks. "Alarmingly, nearly three in four infants live in places at the greatest risk of measles outbreaks," Lemango said, pointing out that 10 crisis-wracked countries, including Sudan, Yemen and Afghanistan, account for more than half of children not vaccinated against measles. On a more positive note, strong increases were seen in vaccination against the cervical cancer-causing HPV virus. But that vaccine is still only reaching 56% of adolescent girls in high-income countries and 23% in lower-income countries — far below the 90% target.

KIGALI, Rwanda — Rwandans are voting Monday in a presidential election that is expected to extend the long rule of President Paul Kagame, who has held power since 1994. Some voters in the capital Kigali arrived as early as 5 a.m. and waited for polls to open. There were long lines at some polling stations. “This is going to be my first time to vote. I am voting for President Kagame because I have never seen a leader like him before,” said passenger motorcyclist Jean Claude Nkurunziza. Election authorities say 9.5 million Rwandans are registered to vote in the population of 14 million. Provisional results are expected later on Monday. The outcome will almost certainly be in favor of Kagame, an authoritarian leader who is running virtually unopposed. His opponents are Frank Habineza of the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda and independent candidate Philippe Mpayimana, both of whom struggled to attract supporters during campaigns. Kagame faced the same opponents in 2017, when he took nearly 99% of the vote. Habineza told the AP Monday that his party "has improved and we are confident we will perform very well this time." Kagame, 66, has been in charge of the small eastern African country since he seized power as the leader of rebels who took control of Rwanda’s government and ended the genocide in 1994. He was Rwanda’s vice president and de facto leader from 1994 to 2000, when he first became president. He is condemned by many as a violent authoritarian while praised by others for presiding over impressive growth in the three decades since the genocide. Kagame is among some African leaders who have prolonged their rule by pursuing changes to term limits. In 2015, Rwandans in a referendum voted to lift a two-term limit. Now Kagame could stay in power until 2034. Kagame told reporters Saturday that his mandate comes from the people. "The ruling party and Rwandans have been asking me to stand for another mandate," he said. ”At a personal level, I can comfortably go home and rest.” Rwanda’s election takes place amid heightened fears of insecurity in Africa’s Great Lakes region. A violent group of rebels known as M23 is fighting Congolese forces in a remote area of eastern Congo. Between 3,000 and 4,000 Rwandan forces are fighting alongside M23, U.N. experts said in a report circulated last week. The U.S. government has described the group as being backed by Rwanda. Rwanda accuses Congo’s military of recruiting fighters who were among the perpetrators of the 1994 genocide. Rights groups continue to raise alarm over harsh restrictions on human rights, including freedom of association, in Rwanda. Amnesty International expressed concerns in a recent statement over “threats, arbitrary detention, prosecution on trumped-up charges, killings and enforced disappearances” targeting the political opposition in Rwanda. That statement said the suppression of dissenting voices, including among civic groups and the press, “has a chilling effect and limits the space for debate for people of Rwanda.”

KATHMANDU, Nepal — Rescuers in Nepal have recovered a total of 11 bodies from the river that two buses full of people were swept into by a landslide, officials said Monday. Rescuers found the bodies in different spots along the riverbanks as they searched for the missing buses and some 50 people who were on board. Government administrator Khima Nanda Bhusal said seven bodies were identified and relatives contacted. Three of the dead are Indians and the remaining four are Nepali nationals. He said four more bodies were also recovered from the river, but because they haven't been identified, it was unclear if they had been on board the buses. "We will continue the search as long as it is needed and have no plans to give up. We will work until all of them are found," he said. The buses were on the key highway connecting Nepal's capital to southern parts of the country when they were swept away Friday morning near Simaltal, about 120 kilometers (75 miles) west of Kathmandu. Three people were ejected from the buses and were being treated in a nearby hospital. The first body was recovered Sunday some 50 kilometers (30 miles) from where the buses fell. Other bodies were recovered from as far as near the border with India. Two of them were found in Tribeni, more than 100 kilometers (60 miles) from the landslide site, officials said. Relatives of those missing gathered on the river seeking information as rescuers from the security forces used magnets, scuba diving equipment and underwater sonar imaging devices for the search. Nepal's rivers generally are fast-flowing due to the mountainous terrain. Heavy monsoon downpours in the past few days have swollen the waterways and turned them murky brown, making it even more difficult to see the wreckage. Weather conditions improved Saturday and search teams were able to cover more ground in the hunt for the missing buses and passengers. Heavy equipment cleared much of the landslide from the highway, making it easier to reach the area as rescuers expanded their scope toward the southern region from where the first body was found, Bhusal said. Monsoon season brings heavy rains to Nepal from June to September, often triggering landslides in the mountainous Himalayan country. The government imposed a ban on passenger buses traveling at night in the areas where weather warnings are posted, according to the Home Ministry.

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HILVERSUM, Netherlands — Quinn Schansman dreamed of becoming the youngest-ever CEO of an American company. A decade ago, he'd just finished the first year of an international business degree in Amsterdam as a step toward that lofty goal. But the 18-year-old dual Dutch American citizen's future — whatever it may have held — was cruelly cut short when he was one of the 298 people killed as a Soviet-era Buk surface-to-air rocket, launched from territory in eastern Ukraine controlled by pro-Russian rebels, destroyed Malaysia Airlines flight 17. The conflict in Ukraine has since erupted into full-scale war following Russia's invasion in February 2022. On Wednesday, Quinn's father, Thomas Schansman, will read out his name and those of other victims during a commemoration marking 10 years since the tragedy at a monument near Schiphol, the airport flight MH17 left on its way to Kuala Lumpur on July 17, 2014. Schansman has learned to live with the loss of his son, but what he still can't accept is Moscow's blunt denials of responsibility for the downing of the Boeing 777, which shattered in midair and scattered bodies and wreckage over agricultural land and fields of sunflowers in eastern Ukraine. An international investigation concluded that the Buk missile system belonged to the Russian 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade and that it was driven into Ukraine from a Russian military base near the city of Kursk and returned there after the plane was shot down. In 2022, after a trial that lasted more than two years, a Dutch court convicted two Russians and a pro-Russian Ukrainian in absentia of murder for their roles in transporting the missile. They were given life prison sentences but remain at large because Russia refused to surrender them to face trial. One other Russian was acquitted. Russia steadfastly denies any responsibility. More legal action is underway at the European Court of Human Rights and the International Civil Aviation Organization Council to hold Russia to account under international law for the attack. If those organizations rule that Moscow was responsible, Schansman says it will be a moment to celebrate — but it wouldn't be the end of the story. “That does not provide closure. For me, closure is the acknowledgment by Russia that they delivered the Buk, the recognition that they must also take responsibility for it," Schansman told The Associated Press. "I want to hear apologies. The simple ‘Sorry.’” Nationals of 16 countries killed People killed in the crash were citizens of the Netherlands, Malaysia, Australia, Indonesia, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Germany, the Philippines, Canada, New Zealand, Vietnam, Israel, Italy, Romania, the United States and South Africa. Australian Attorney General Mark Dreyfus will also be in the Netherlands for the commemoration. He honored families of the dead in a statement earlier this month, saying that 38 of the victims “called Australia home.” “I pay tribute to their bravery, their strength and their perseverance. Seeking justice for those aboard flight MH17 has required many of those who loved them most to tell and re-tell their stories of loss in successive legal proceedings,” he said. Dreyfus said the anniversary and a commemoration at Parliament House in Canberra would be “a moment to pause and remember those whose lives were tragically cut short in a senseless act of violence. It will be a moment to commit ourselves to continue to seek accountability for those responsible for this despicable crime.” Schansman said he no longer cares if other people who were involved in firing the missile are brought to justice because “it won't bring my son back.” He just wants Russia to admit responsibility. “The fact that for all these years — right up to today — they continue to deny and to spread disinformation, that hurts," Schansman said. "That is irritating and it makes you at certain times a bitter person.” Mark Rutte, the former Dutch prime minister who was in office when the Boeing 777 was shot down, said the disaster and its decade-long aftermath was “perhaps the most drastic and emotional event of my entire premiership. I have always tried to be a support to the relatives.” Rutte's administration helped coordinate a complex operation to repatriate the remains of the victims to the Netherlands. Thousands of people solemnly lined highways as convoys of hearses carried coffins from a military airbase to a barracks where the painstaking process of identification took place. Wednesday's ceremony will be held at the national MH17 memorial, a park near Schiphol Airport that is planted with 298 trees — one for each victim — and sunflowers, reflecting the flowers that grew at the crash scene. And while Wednesday will mark the 10th anniversary of Quinn's death, his name lives on. His sister Nerissa recently gave birth to her first daughter, named Frida Quinn Schansman Pouw.

KATHMANDU, Nepal — Nepal's newly appointed prime minister took the oath of office Monday at a ceremony in Kathmandu. The leader of the Nepal's largest communist party, Khadga Prasad Oli, was named prime minister on Sunday following the collapse of a previous coalition government. This is his fourth time serving as prime minister of the Himalayan nation. Two deputy prime ministers and 19 ministers appointed by him also took the oath of office. He is expected to further expand the Cabinet including members from the coalition partner parties. Oli, 72, will be leading a coalition government made up of his Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist) and the Nepali Congress party, the two largest parties in Nepal. The last government headed by Pushpa Kamal Dahal collapsed on Friday after Oli's party, which had been a part of the coalition, withdrew its support to join the new partnership. Oli will have to seek a vote of confidence in parliament to continue in office within a month. The two parties in the new alliance have more than half the members in parliament required to prove their majority. Oli's biggest challenge as prime minister will be balancing Nepal's relationship with its giant neighbors India and China, as both seek to wield influence over the small nation. Landlocked Nepal is surrounded by India on three sides and imports all of its oil and most supplies from India. It also shares a border with China. Oli was born in a village in east Nepal and has been involved in politics since he was young. He worked up the ranks of the communist party and was jailed a total of 14 years for opposing the autocratic rule of Nepal's monarchs. The royals had banned political parties until 1990, when street protests forced then-King Birendra to hold free elections that turned Nepal into a constitutional monarchy, which was formally abolished in 2008. Oli has had two kidney transplants.

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MOMBASA, Kenya — Dressed in protective clothing and armed with a smoker, Peter Nyongesa walked through the mangroves to monitor his beehives along the Indian Ocean coastline. The 69-year-old Nyongesa recalled how he would plead unsuccessfully with loggers to spare the mangroves or cut only the mature ones while leaving the younger ones intact. “But they would retort that the trees do not belong to anyone but God,” he said. So he has turned to deterring the loggers with bees, hidden in the mangroves and ready to sting. Their hives now dot a section of coastline in Kenya's main port city of Mombasa in an effort to deter people who chop mangroves for firewood or home construction. It's part of a local conservation initiative. “When people realize that something is beneficial to them, they do not consider the harm that comes with it,” Nyongesa said of the loggers. Mangroves, which thrive in salty water, help in preventing erosion and absorbing the impact of severe weather events such as cyclones. But more than half of the world’s mangrove ecosystems are at risk of collapse, according to the first global mangrove assessment for the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Ecosystems released in May. Mangroves are threatened by illegal logging, climate change and rising seas, pollution and urban development. According to a Kenya environment ministry report in 2018, about 40% of mangroves along the Indian Ocean coast are degraded. In Mombasa county, it’s estimated that almost 50% of the total mangrove area there — 1,850 hectares (4,570 acres) — is degraded. Such overall degradation has slowed in Kenya, which in 2017 developed a 10-year plan to have community conservation efforts manage mangroves. But the efforts have been incomplete because of inadequate resources. Communities are doing what they can. James Kairo, a research scientist at the Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute, said initiatives such as beekeeping are helping. Their honey also brings in community income. “Mangrove honey is also classified as top quality and medicinal," he added. “This could be due to the environment that mangroves thrives in" and what they absorb from their surroundings. Nyongesa now has 11 beehives and harvests about 8 liters (2 gallons) of honey per hive every three months. Each liter earns him $6, a valuable source of income. When Nyongesa started beekeeping 25 years ago, he didn't know anything about the threat to mangroves or how his bees could help. He became involved in 2019, when he joined a local conservation group called Tulinde Mikoko, Swahili for Let’s Protect Mangroves. The group adopted his beekeeping as a community initiative along with mangrove planting. Members also serve as custodians of the mangroves and try to stop loggers. The group has concealed beehives in the top branches of mangroves as silent guardians. The bees are meant to attack unsuspecting loggers. “We positioned them at the peak where they can’t be spotted with ease,” said Bibiana Nanjilula, the Tulinde Mikoko founder. “As such, when the loggers start cutting down whichever tree, the bees will attack due to the noise." The group hopes the tactic is working but has found it hard to measure its effects in the relatively difficult to access areas. The bees also play a crucial role as pollinators. As they forage among the mangrove flowers, they transfer pollen from one flower to another, facilitating plants' reproduction. “The healthier the mangroves are, probably the more productive the honey production will be," said Jared Bosire, project manager for the UNEP-Nairobi Convention, who said they encourage the integration of livelihoods with conservation. The office is a project of the United Nations Environment Program, based in Nairobi. Kenya has 54,430 hectares of mangroves remaining, and they contribute $85 million per year to the national economy, according to a report by the Global Mangrove Alliance in 2022.

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.

BEIJING — China posted lower than expected growth in the second quarter on Monday, with all eyes on how top officials gathering for a key meeting in Beijing might seek to tackle the country's deepening economic malaise. The world's second-largest economy is grappling with a real estate debt crisis, weakening consumption, and an aging population. Trade tensions with the United States and the European Union, which have sought to limit Beijing's access to sensitive technology as well as putting up tariffs to protect their markets from cheap, subsidized Chinese goods, are also dragging growth down. And on Monday, official statistics showed the economy grew by only 4.7 percent in the second quarter of the year. It represents the slowest rate of expansion since early 2023, when China was emerging from a crippling zero-Covid policy that strangled growth. Analysts polled by Bloomberg had expected 5.1 percent. Retail sales -- a key gauge of consumption -- rose just two percent in June, down from 3.7 percent growth in May. "The external environment is intertwined and complex," the National Bureau of Statistics said. "Domestic effective demand remains insufficient and the foundation for sound economic recovery and growth still needs to be strengthened," it added. 'A modest policy tweak' From Monday, President Xi Jinping is set to oversee the ruling Communist Party's secretive meeting known as the Third Plenum, which usually takes place every five years in October. Beijing has offered few hints about what might be on the table. State media in June said the delayed four-day gathering would "primarily examine issues related to further comprehensively deepening reform and advancing Chinese modernization," and Xi has said the party is planning "major" reforms. Analysts are hoping those pledges will result in badly needed support for the economy. "The four-day meeting of the country's top governing body couldn't come soon enough," Harry Murphy Cruise, an economist at Moody's Analytics, said in a note. But, he said, "while the case for reform is high, it's unlikely to be a particularly exciting affair". "Instead, we expect a modest policy tweak that expands high-tech manufacturing and delivers a sprinkling of support to housing and households," he added. Reform not expected The People's Daily, the Communist Party's official newspaper, appeared to confirm lower expectations when it warned last week that "reform is not about changing direction and transformation is not about changing color." Ting Lu, chief China economist at Nomura, said the meeting was "intended to generate and discuss big, long-term ideas and structural reforms instead of making short-term policy adjustments." The Third Plenum has previously been an occasion for the party's top leadership to unveil major economic policy shifts. In 1978, then-leader Deng Xiaoping used the meeting to announce market reforms that would put China on the path to dazzling economic growth by opening it to the world. And more recently following the closed-door meeting in 2013, the leadership pledged to give the free market a "decisive" role in resource allocation, as well as other sweeping changes to economic and social policy. Stubbornly low Beijing has said it is aiming for 5% growth this year — enviable for many Western countries but a far cry from the double-digit expansion that for years drove the Chinese economy. But the economic uncertainty is also fueling a vicious cycle that has kept consumption stubbornly low. Among the most urgent issues facing the economy is the beleaguered property sector, which long served as a key engine for growth but is now mired in debt, with several top firms facing liquidation. Authorities have moved in recent months to ease pressure on developers and restore confidence, including by encouraging local governments to buy up unsold homes. Analysts say much more is required for a full rebound, as the country's economy has yet to bounce back more than 18 months after damaging Covid-19 restrictions ended.

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.