U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump has been the target of two assassination attempts during this campaign. VOA spoke with some gun owners, who say the shootings have not changed their views on gun laws. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias has our story. Some VOA footage by Genia Dulot.
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Author: SeeUS
Hearing on Trump assassination attempts suggests failure was with Secret Service, not local police
WASHINGTON — Members of a bipartisan House panel investigating the Trump assassination attempts suggested during its first hearing Thursday that the failures that led to a gunman being able to open fire on former President Donald Trump were with the U.S. Secret Service, not local police.
In his opening statement, the Republican co-chair of the committee, Rep. Mike Kelly from Pennsylvania, blamed a cascade of failures by the Secret Service that allowed the gunman, Thomas Michael Crooks, to gain access to the roof of a nearby building and open fire on Trump. Trump was wounded and a man attending the rally with his family was killed.
“In the days leading up to the rally, it was not a single mistake that allowed Crooks to outmaneuver one of our country’s most elite group of security professionals. There were security failures on multiple fronts,” said Kelly.
The panel — composed of seven Republicans and six Democrats — has spent the last two months analyzing the security failures that allowed a gunman to scale a roof and open fire at the former president during a July 13 campaign rally in Pennsylvania. Now they are also investigating this month’s Secret Service arrest of a man with a rifle on Trump’s Florida golf course who sought to assassinate the Republican presidential nominee.
The suspect in the second assassination attempt, Ryan Wesley Routh, was allegedly aiming a rifle through the shrubbery surrounding Trump’s West Palm Beach golf course when he was detected by a Secret Service agent. The agent opened fire and Routh fled before being apprehended by local authorities.
The hearing Thursday is the first time the task force presents its findings to the public after spending weeks conducting nearly two dozen interviews with law enforcement and receiving more than 2,800 pages of documents from the Secret Service. It focuses on the use of local law enforcement by the Secret Service, featuring testimony from Pennsylvania and Butler County police officials.
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Harris promises tax breaks, investments for US manufacturers
PITTSBURGH — U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris said on Wednesday she would offer tax credits to domestic manufacturers and invest in sectors that will “define the next century,” as she detailed her economic plan to boost the U.S. middle class.
Speaking at the Economic Club of Pittsburgh in the battleground state of Pennsylvania, the Democratic candidate in the November 5 presidential election said she would give tax credits to U.S. manufacturers for retooling or rebuilding existing factories and expanding “good union jobs,” and double the number of registered apprenticeships during her first term.
Harris also promised new investments in industries like bio-manufacturing, aerospace, artificial intelligence and clean energy.
Harris’ speech, which lasted just under 40 minutes, did not detail how these policies would work. She highlighted her upbringing by a single mother, in contrast with former President Donald Trump, the wealthy son of a New York real estate developer.
“I have pledged that building a strong middle class will be the defining goal of my presidency,” Harris said, adding that she sees the election as a moment of choice between two “fundamentally different” visions of the U.S. economy held by her and her Republican opponent, Trump.
The vice president and Trump are focusing their campaign messaging on the economy, which Reuters/Ipsos polling shows is voters’ top concern, as the election approaches.
The divide between rich and poor has grown in recent decades. The share of American households in the middle class, defined as those with two-thirds to double that of median household income, has dropped from around 62% in 1970 to 51% in 2023, Pew Research shows. These households’ income has also not grown as fast as those in the top tier.
Harris said she was committed to working with the private sector and entrepreneurs to help grow the middle class. She told the audience that she is “a capitalist” who believes in “free and fair markets,” and described her policies as pragmatic rather than rooted in ideology.
Harris in recent months has blunted Trump’s advantage on the economy, with a Reuters/Ipsos poll published on Tuesday showing the Republican candidate with a marginal advantage of 2 percentage points on “the economy, unemployment and jobs,” down from an 11-point lead in late July.
Trump discussed his economic plan in North Carolina on Wednesday and said Harris’ role as vice president gave her the chance now to improve the economic record of the Biden administration.
“Families are suffering now. So if she has a plan, she should stop grandstanding and do it,” he said. While Trump has proposed across-the-board tariffs on foreign-made goods — a proposal backed by a slim majority of voters — Harris is focusing on providing incentives for businesses to keep their operations in the U.S.
Boosting American manufacturing in industries such as semiconductors and bringing back jobs that have moved overseas in recent decades have also been major goals for Biden. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the CHIPS and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act — all passed in 2021 and 2022 — fund a range of subsidies and tax incentives that encourage companies to place projects in disadvantaged regions.
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Hurricane Helene is expected to hit Florida as a major storm, strike far inland
TALLAHASSEE, Florida — An enormous Hurricane Helene swamped parts of Mexico on Wednesday as it churned on a path forecasters said would take it to Florida as a potentially catastrophic storm with a surge that could swallow entire homes, a chilling warning that sent residents scrambling for higher ground, closed schools, and led to states of emergency throughout the Southeast.
Helene’s center was about 735 kilometers southwest of Tampa, Florida, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said, and the hurricane was expected to intensify and accelerate as it crosses the Gulf of Mexico toward the Big Bend area of Florida’s northwestern coast. Landfall was expected sometime Thursday evening, and the hurricane center said by then it could be a major Category 4 storm with winds above 208 kph.
Tropical storm conditions were expected in southern Florida on Wednesday night, spreading northward and encompassing the rest of Florida as well as Georgia and South Carolina through Thursday night. The storm was moving north at 19 kph with top sustained winds of 140 kph Wednesday evening.
Helene could create a life-threatening storm surge as high as 6.1 meters in parts of the Big Bend region, forecasters said. Its tropical storm-force winds extended as far as 555 kilometers from its center.
The fast-moving storm’s wind and rain also could penetrate far inland: The hurricane center posted hurricane warnings well into Georgia and tropical storm warnings as far north as North Carolina, and it warned that much of the Southeast could experience prolonged power outages, toppled trees and dangerous flooding.
“Just hope and pray that everybody’s safe,” said Connie Dillard, of Tallahassee, as she shopped at a grocery store with thinning shelves of water and bread before hitting the highway out of town. “That’s all you can do.”
One insurance firm, Gallagher Re, is expecting billions of dollars in damage in the U.S. Around 18,000 linemen from out of state staged in Florida, ready to help restore power. Airports in St. Petersburg, Tallahassee and Tampa were planning to close on Thursday, and 62 hospitals, nursing homes and assisted living facilities evacuated their residents Wednesday.
Georgia activated 250 National Guard soldiers for rapid deployment. State game wardens, foresters and Department of Correction teams will help provide swift-water rescues and other emergency responses.
State meteorologist Will Lanxton said tropical storm-force winds are expected throughout Georgia. Lanxton said metro Atlanta hasn’t seen sustained tropical storm winds since Hurricane Irma in 2017.
“I think we’re going to see some significant power outages, probably nothing like we’ve seen, because it’s 159 counties wide,” said James Stallings, director of the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency.
In Tallahassee, where stations started to run out of gas, 19-year-old Florida A&M student Kameron Benjamin filled sandbags with his roommate to protect their apartment before evacuating. Their school and Florida State shut down.
“This hurricane is heading straight to Tallahassee, so I really don’t know what to expect,” Benjamin said.
As Big Bend residents battened down their homes, many saw the ghost of 2018’s Hurricane Michael. That storm rapidly intensified and crashed ashore as a Category 5 that laid waste to Panama City and parts of the rural Panhandle.
On Wednesday, the National Weather Service posted an urgent warning for residents along Apalachee Bay: “There is a danger of catastrophic and unsurvivable storm surge for Apalachee Bay,” it said. “Storm surge may begin to arrive as early as late Wednesday night ahead of the winds. This forecast, if realized, is a nightmare surge scenario for Apalachee Bay. Please, please, please take any evacuation orders seriously!”
“People are taking heed and hightailing it out of there for higher ground,” said Kristin Korinko, a Tallahassee resident who serves as the commodore of the Shell Point Sailboard Club, on the Gulf Coast about 48 kilometers south of Tallahassee.
For toughened Floridians who are used to hurricanes, Robbie Berg, a national warning coordinator for the hurricane center, advised: “Please do not compare it to other storms you may have experienced over the past year or two.”
Helene is forecast to be one of the largest storms in breadth in years to hit the region, said Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach. He said since 1988, only three Gulf hurricanes were bigger than Helene’s predicted size: 2017’s Irma, 2005’s Wilma and 1995’s Opal.
Areas 160 kilometers north of the Georgia-Florida line can expect hurricane conditions. More than half of Georgia’s public school districts and several universities canceled classes.
And for Atlanta, which is under a tropical storm watch, Helene could be the worst strike on a major Southern inland city in 35 years, said University of Georgia meteorology professor Marshall Shepherd.
“It’s going to be a lot like Hugo in Charlotte,” Shepherd said of the 1989 storm that struck the North Carolina city, knocking out power to 85% of customers as winds gusted above hurricane force.
Landslides were possible in southern Appalachia, with catastrophic flooding predicted in the Carolinas and Georgia, where all three governors declared emergencies. Rainfall is possible as far away as Tennessee, Kentucky and Indiana.
Parts of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula were under hurricane warnings as Helene wound between it and the western tip of Cuba and into the Gulf of Mexico. The storm formed Tuesday in the Caribbean, and it flooded streets and toppled trees as it passed offshore and brushed the resort city of Cancun.
In Cuba, authorities moved cattle to higher ground and medical brigades went to communities often cut off by storms. The government preventively shut off power in some communities as waves as high as 5 meters slammed Cortes Bay. In the Cayman Islands, schools remained closed as residents pumped water from flooded homes.
In the U.S., federal authorities positioned generators, food and water, along with search-and-rescue and power restoration teams.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis warned that Helene could be as strong as a Category 4 hurricane when it makes landfall. The state was providing buses to evacuate people in the Big Bend region and taking them to shelters in Tallahassee.
But near Florida’s center, outside Orlando, Walt Disney World said its only closures Thursday would be the Typhoon Lagoon water park and its miniature golf courses.
Helene is the eighth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, which began June 1. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has predicted an above-average Atlantic hurricane season this year because of record-warm ocean temperatures.
In the Pacific, former Hurricane John reformed Wednesday as a tropical storm and was strengthening as it threatened areas of Mexico’s western coast. Officials posted hurricane warnings for southwestern Mexico.
John hit the country’s southern Pacific coast late Monday, killing at least two people, triggering mudslides, and damaging homes and trees. It grew into a Category 3 hurricane in a matter of hours and made landfall east of Acapulco. It reemerged over the ocean after weakening inland.
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Biden reaches out to Africa at UN General Assembly
new york — President Joe Biden is turning to Africa in the sunset of his presidency. In the space of one day, in front of world leaders, he elevated Sudan’s conflict to a priority, announced he would travel to Angola and endorsed adding two seats for African countries to the U.N. Security Council.
In his valedictory speech to the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday, Biden made several brief overtures to the African continent — reminding world leaders of the evils of South Africa’s apartheid regime, calling for an end to Sudan’s grueling conflict and citing urgency in combating an mpox outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
But these two short lines may have the most weight:
“The U.N. needs to adapt to bring in new voices and new perspectives,” he said. “That’s why we support reforming and expanding the membership of the U.N. Security Council.”
For years, African leaders have called for a seat at this table. But critics point out that Washington does not support a critical privilege enjoyed by the current permanent members of the Security Council: veto power.
Cameron Hudson, a senior fellow in the Africa Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, says African nations are puzzled by Biden’s position.
“This is really, I think, an unfinished project of his, probably more words than reality,” he told VOA. The fact that Biden supported council membership for them but not veto power “has left Africans scratching their heads.”
John Fortier, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, said it mattered that Biden used this platform to call for an end to Sudan’s raging 17-month conflict, but he doubted whether that call would provoke action.
Trying to elevate issue
“This is one of the conflicts that is serious but has not been getting world attention, and I think his pointing to it is really to elevate it in world consciousness but not yet to really know how we’re going to see an end to this,” Fortier said.
This conflict has displaced millions of people and sparked a near-famine. And so, analysts say, it matters that the American president is putting pressure on the warring parties.
“I think Biden genuinely wants to alleviate the humanitarian crisis and resolve the conflict in Sudan,” said Daniel Volman, director of the African Security Research Project, in an email to VOA. “But I think he is reluctant to press countries like Egypt and the [United Arab] Emirates that are arming the generals, because they are key allies during the Gaza war.
“Also, Biden is being driven by pressure from some members of Congress to take stronger and more effective action. I think he will take some limited action, like the new funds for humanitarian aid just announced, but I don’t think this will yield significant results.”
And finally, Biden’s off-camera announcement that he will visit Angola next month allows him to keep his promise to visit the continent. But again, Hudson wondered how this long-delayed visit would land.
“Coming, as it does, at the very tail end of his administration, without much to, I think, really celebrate in terms of his involvement in Africa, I think the visit will ring rather hollow,” Hudson said.
Biden has four months left in his presidency.
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Campaigns seek to mobilize voters in swing state of Georgia
Early voting for the U.S. presidential election in the state of Georgia begins October 15. Polls show a close contest there between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump. VOA’s Kane Farabaugh has more from Atlanta, Georgia.
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CrowdStrike executive apologizes to Congress for July global tech outage
WASHINGTON — An executive at cybersecurity company CrowdStrike apologized in testimony to Congress for sparking a global technology outage over the summer.
“We let our customers down,” said Adam Meyers, who leads CrowdStrike’s threat intelligence division, in a hearing before a U.S. House cybersecurity subcommittee Tuesday.
Austin, Texas-based CrowdStrike has blamed a bug in an update that allowed its cybersecurity systems to push bad data out to millions of customer computers, setting off a global tech outage in July that grounded flights, took TV broadcasts off air and disrupted banks, hospitals and retailers.
“Everywhere Americans turned, basic societal functions were unavailable,” House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green said. “We cannot allow a mistake of this magnitude to happen again.”
The Tennessee Republican likened the impact of the outage to an attack “we would expect to be carefully executed by a malicious and sophisticated nation-state actor.”
“We’re deeply sorry and we are determined to prevent this from ever happening again,” Meyers told lawmakers while laying out the technical missteps that led to the outage of about 8.5 million computers running Microsoft’s Windows operating system.
Meyers said he wanted to “underscore that this was not a cyberattack” but was, instead, caused by a faulty “rapid-response content update” focused on addressing new threats. The company has since bolstered its content update procedures, he said.
The company still faces a number of lawsuits from people and businesses that were caught up in July’s mass outage.
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China ‘firmly opposes’ proposed ban on connected vehicles
Washington — On Wednesday, China’s commerce ministry said it “firmly opposes” the United States’ proposed ban on the sale of connected vehicles that use Chinese or Russian software and hardware technology.
Most new vehicles are considered to be “connected” because they can share data with other vehicles and infrastructure with the help of onboard software, hardware and internet access.
The U.S. warns that data collected by Chinese or Russian software in connected and autonomous vehicles could pose a threat to national security.
A spokesperson from China’s Ministry of Commerce said the proposed U.S. ban has no “factual basis, violates the principles of market economy and fair competition, and is a typical protectionist act.”
“China urges the United States to stop its wrong practice of generalizing national security, immediately revoke the relevant restrictions, and stop its unreasonable suppression of Chinese companies,” according to a ministry statement.
The proposed rule is the latest example of the deteriorating relationship between Washington and Beijing.
In February, the Biden Administration said it would probe Chinese cars that pose a risk to national security. The U.S. Department of Commerce said it opened the probe because vehicles “collect large amounts of sensitive data on their drivers and passengers (and) regularly use their cameras and sensors to record detailed information on U.S. infrastructure.”
The Biden Administration also implemented a 100% tariff on Chinese-made EVs earlier this month, citing unfair business practices and the potential for Chinese EVs to flood international markets.
The new proposed prohibition on connected vehicles applies both to the software and hardware that link vehicles to the outside world. It did not specify which manufacturers are likely to be impacted by the rule, which will be finalized after a 30-day period for public comment.
In a press release Tuesday, the Coalition for a Prosperous America, or CPA, voiced its support for the proposed ban.
“For years, the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] has aggressively pursued global dominance in the automotive industry building tremendous overcapacity to dominate their home market and to displace auto manufacturing worldwide,” said the CEO of CPA, Michael Stumo.
“The Commerce Department’s proposed ban on this technology is an important measure to protect our automotive sector and secure Americans’ sensitive information,” he added.
China’s commerce ministry also condemned the U.S. on Wednesday for its newly proposed ban and tariffs implemented earlier this month, saying Washington placed “high tariffs on Chinese cars, restricted participation in government procurement, and introduced discriminatory subsidy policies.”
“Now, on the grounds of so-called national security, it [Washington] has slandered Chinese connected car software, hardware and complete vehicles as ‘unsafe’ and restricted their use in the United States,” a ministry statement said.
Some information for this report came from Agence France-Presse.
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Secret Service failures before Trump rally shooting were ‘preventable,’ Senate panel finds
Washington — Multiple Secret Service failures ahead of the July rally for former President Donald Trump where a gunman opened fire were “foreseeable, preventable, and directly related to the events resulting in the assassination attempt that day,” according to a bipartisan Senate investigation released Wednesday.
Similar to the agency’s own internal investigation and an ongoing bipartisan House probe, the interim report from the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee found multiple failures on almost every level ahead of the Butler, Pennsylvania shooting, including in planning, communications, security and allocation of resources.
“The consequences of those failures were dire,” said Michigan Sen. Gary Peters, the Democratic chairman of the Homeland panel.
Investigators found that there was no clear chain of command among the Secret Service and other security agencies and no plan for coverage of the building where the shooter climbed up to fire the shots. Officials were operating on multiple, separate radio channels, leading to missed communications, and an inexperienced drone operator was stuck on a help line after his equipment wasn’t working correctly.
Communications among security officials were a “multi-step game of telephone,” Peters said.
The report found the Secret Service was notified about an individual on the roof of the building approximately two minutes before shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire, firing eight rounds in Trump’s direction less than 150 yards from where the former president was speaking. Trump, the 2024 Republican presidential nominee, was struck in the ear by a bullet or a bullet fragment in the assassination attempt, one rallygoer was killed and two others were injured before the gunman was killed by a Secret Service counter-sniper.
Approximately 22 seconds before Crooks fired, the report found, a local officer sent a radio alert that there was an armed individual on the building. But that information was not relayed to key Secret Service personnel who were interviewed by Senate investigators.
The panel also interviewed a Secret Service counter-sniper who reported seeing officers with their guns drawn running toward the building where the shooter was perched, but the person said they did not think to notify anyone to get Trump off the stage.
The Senate report comes just days after the Secret Service released a five-page document summarizing the key conclusions of a yet-to-be finalized Secret Service report on what went wrong, and ahead of a Thursday hearing that will be held by a bipartisan House task force investigating the shooting. The House panel is also investigating a second assassination attempt on Trump earlier this month when Secret Service agents arrested a man with a rifle hiding on the golf course at Trump’s Florida club.
Each investigation has found new details that reflect a massive breakdown in the former president’s security, and lawmakers say there is much more they want to find out as they try to prevent it from happening again.
“This was the result of multiple human failures of the Secret Service,” said Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, the top Republican on the panel.
The senators recommended that the Secret Service better define roles and responsibilities before any protective event, including by designating a single individual in charge of approving all the security plans. Investigators found that many of the people in charge denied that they had responsibility for planning or security failures, and deflected blame.
Advance agents interviewed by the committee said “that planning and security decisions were made jointly, with no specific individual responsible for approval,” the report said.
Communication with local authorities was also poor. Local law enforcement had raised concern two days earlier about security coverage of the building where the shooter perched, telling Secret Service agents during a walk through that they did not have the manpower to lock it down. Secret Service agents then gave investigators conflicting accounts about who was responsible for that security coverage, the report said.
The internal review released last week by the Secret Service also detailed multiple communications breakdowns, including an absence of clear guidance to local law enforcement and the failure to fix line-of-sight vulnerabilities at the rally grounds that left Trump open to sniper fire and “complacency” among some agents.
“This was a failure on the part of the United States Secret Service. It’s important that we hold ourselves to account for the failures of July 13th and that we use the lessons learned to make sure that we do not have another failure like this again,” said Ronald Rowe Jr., the agency’s acting director, after the report was released.
In addition to better defining responsibility for events, the senators recommended that the agency completely overhaul its communications operations at protective events and improve intelligence sharing. They also recommended that Congress evaluate whether more resources are needed.
Democrats and Republicans have disagreed on whether to give the Secret Service more money in the wake of its failures. A spending bill on track to pass before the end of the month includes an additional $231 million for the agency, but many Republicans have said that an internal overhaul is needed first.
“This is a management problem plain and simple,” said Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, the top Republican on the Homeland panel’s investigations subcommittee.
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US Congresswoman Kamlager-Dove condemns inaction on Sudan conflict
WASHINGTON — Fifty Democratic members of Congress sent a letter to President Joe Biden in late August requesting more humanitarian assistance for Sudan and calling on the U.S. to do more to help end the conflict. Leading the effort is U.S. Representative Sydney Kamlager-Dove of California, who told VOA in a recent interview that she is concerned that international partners aren’t doing enough to support humanitarian aid delivery to families affected by the conflict.
“Famine has erupted. Deaths are happening every day, and the warring parties are working together, in my opinion, to prevent the delivery of humanitarian aid,” she told VOA. “It is unconscionable. And it is inhumane.”
Without more aggressive leadership by the U.S., she said, the conflict risks international neglect amid the war Ukraine and an expanding conflict in the Middle East.
The following has been edited for length and clarity.
VOA: Your colleagues have joined you to raise awareness about Sudan. A lot of Sudanese who spoke to us say the world has forgotten them. How do you feel about their sentiments?
U.S. Representative Sydney Kamlager-Dove: I am disheartened to hear that, but I understand why they would say it, and that is exactly why I wrote this letter and encouraged my colleagues to sign on. Fifty Democratic members of Congress signed with me, to ask this administration to do more. We want them to raise awareness of this war. Get [U.S.] Secretary [of State Anthony] Blinken out in front. We want to rally our international partners to also take this more seriously and pledge more dollars to help with the support around humanitarian aid delivery. Because if we are not taking the lead on this, then it will signal to the rest of the world that this is not important and of course it is.
VOA: What about international attention? Are you getting that?
Kamlager-Dove: No, we’re not getting [international attention.] I have my own suspicions that people just don’t care, or don’t respect the continent of Africa. I think that is wildly ignorant. And we know with forces like China and Russia working to compete against us [the U.S.], and to dismantle democracies, we know that there are other agents and actors playing in this war as well. That is why it is incumbent upon us to take the lead and call for more aid and call for more discussions.
VOA: What about America’s foreign policy and its resources? Where does it go? I mean, I know that the war in Ukraine and Gaza is shifting attention.
Kamlager-Dove: Thankfully, we have an administration that is trying to engage. They finally got a special envoy, [Former U.S. Representative Tom Perriello], to Sudan. You know, a year too late, but he needs to be supported with more resources and more staff. It is very important that Secretary Blinken shows his face more on the continent and reminds folks that this administration cares.
VOA: The U.N. made an appeal for humanitarian assistance. They were projecting $2.7 billion and only 37% of that was received. What should be done to get pledges from donor countries?
Kamlager-Dove: Well, I do think we have to make a concerted effort to ask the international community to pledge more. It is important to give more, but if those resources are thwarted because you have bad actors keeping humanitarian aid from the people and the civilians that need it the most, then it doesn’t matter.
VOA: The U.S. government slapped sanctions on both sides in Sudan — the Rapid Support Forces [RSF] and some leaders of the Sudan Armed Forces [SAF]. And it appears like these sanctions are not biting hard because the two belligerent forces have decided not to sign any cease-fire. Are there other instruments of diplomacy in the toolbox that is yet to be used to bring pressure on these two groups?
Kamlager-Dove: Well, it is certainly unfortunate that neither party wants to show up to the negotiating table. It’s very hard to come to a resolution when you don’t even sit at the table. The other thing that is unfortunate is even if you have sanctions, you know, if you’re still able to buy guns and get the weapons into the country, then obviously you need different kinds of teeth and authority. I think we should be looking at the folks who are supplying the arms to the forces, because that is as important as sanctioning both SAF and RSF. If you don’t stop the flow of arms, what are you really doing?
VOA: When Perriello testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he mentioned that those aiding the war in Sudan must be held accountable, or the U.S.’s efforts will be in vain. How do you respond to that?
Kamlager-Dove: I wholeheartedly agree. We have an obligation to focus on what is happening in the Sudan. But I want to say I’m grateful that he was actually able to show up. You know, we have not had a full committee hearing in the Foreign Affairs Committee on Africa since the beginning of this term.
VOA: The last time we heard about funding [for Sudan] was 2017. And just a month ago, nongovernmental organizations, international aid agencies are saying Darfur is on the verge of famine, there’s famine already there. … If you are given an opportunity to speak directly to the people who are making decisions on where aid money should go, what would you tell them?
Kamlager-Dove: I would say the world is watching and the world is waiting. And every moment that you do not sit at the table and find a way, using any quiver that you have in your toolbox every day you wait is a day that someone dies in the Sudan. And this is not something that I am willing to keep in my heart. And this is not something that the United States should let happen. So, get off your tuchus (rear end) and find a way to bring about a cease-fire, and to make sure that humanitarian aid is able to get to the Sudan.
This Q&A originated in VOA’s English to Africa Service.
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Trump pledges sweeping tariffs, says they will keep jobs in US
SAVANNAH, Ga. — Donald Trump on Tuesday pledged to stop U.S. businesses from shipping jobs overseas and to take other countries’ jobs and factories by relying heavily on sweeping tariffs to boost auto manufacturing — despite warnings that domestic consumers would pay more and a lack of specifics about how his plans would work.
“I want German car companies to become American car companies. I want them to build their plants here,” Trump declared during a speech in Savannah, Georgia.
Trump added that, if elected, he’d put a 100% tariff on every car imported from Mexico and that the only way to avoid those charges would be for an automaker to build the cars in the U.S.
His ideas, if enacted, could cause a huge upheaval in the American auto industry. Many automakers now build smaller, lower-priced vehicles in Mexico — facilitated by a trade agreement Trump negotiated while president — or in other countries because their profit margins are slim. The lower labor costs help the companies make money on those vehicles.
German and other foreign automakers already have extensive manufacturing operations in the U.S., and many now build more vehicles here than they send. BMW, for instance, has an 8 million-square-foot campus in South Carolina that employs 11,000 people building more than 1,500 SUVs per day for the U.S. and 120 export markets. Mercedes and Volkswagen also have large factories here.
If German automakers were to increase production here, they likely would have to take it from factories in Germany, which then would run below their capacity and be less efficient, said Sam Abuelsamid, principal research analyst for Guidehouse Insights.
“It makes no sense,” he said.
Trump proposes ‘new American industrialism’ — without specifics
Trump has proposed using tariffs on imports and other measures to boost American industry — even as economists have cautioned that U.S. consumers would bear the costs of tariffs and other Trump proposals like staging the largest deportation operation in U.S. history.
The former president laid out a broad array of economic proposals during a speech in the key swing state of Georgia, promising to create a special ambassador to help lure foreign manufacturers to the U.S. and further entice them by offering access to federal land.
Additionally, he called for lowering the U.S. corporate tax rate from 21% to 15%, but only for companies that produce in the U.S. Harris, the Democratic nominee, wants to raise the corporate tax rate to 28%. It had been 35% when Trump became president in 2017, and he later signed legislation lowering it.
“We’re putting America first,” Trump said. “This new American industrialism will create millions and millions of jobs.”
Trump also suggested wiping away some environmental regulations to boost energy production, saying America has “got the oil, it’s got the gas. We have everything. The only thing we don’t have is smart people leading our country.”
Tuesday’s series of economic proposals raised a lot of questions, but the former president hasn’t given specific answers on his ideas, which could substantially affect their impact and how much they cost. He has not specified, for example, whether his U.S.-focused corporate tax cuts would apply to companies that assemble their products domestically out of imports.
Trump also suggested he would use a newly created envoy, and his own personal efforts, to recruit foreign companies. But he had a spotty record in the White House of attracting foreign investment. In one infamous case, Trump promised a $10 billion investment by Taiwan-based electronics giant Foxconn in Wisconsin, creating potentially 13,000 new jobs, that the company never delivered.
His calls to offer federal land, meanwhile, might clash with Bureau of Land Management restrictions on foreign entities looking to lease lands. It also wasn’t clear whether companies from China would be excluded, given Trump’s longtime accusations that China is hurting American business.
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Republican-led House Foreign Affairs Committee holds secretary of state in contempt
A U.S. House of Representatives panel held Secretary of State Antony Blinken in contempt Tuesday for failing to answer lawmakers’ questions about the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021. VOA’s congressional correspondent, Katherine Gypson, has more from Washington, with Amadullah Archiwal contributing.
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US Justice Department sues Visa, saying it monopolizes debit card markets
NEW YORK — The U.S. Justice Department filed an antitrust lawsuit against Visa on Tuesday, alleging that the financial services behemoth uses its size and dominance to stifle competition in the debit card market, costing consumers and businesses billions of dollars.
The complaint says Visa penalizes merchants and banks who don’t use Visa’s own payment processing technology to process debit transactions, even though alternatives exist. Visa earns an incremental fee from every transaction processed on its network.
According to the DOJ’s complaint, 60% of debit transactions in the United States run on Visa’s debit network, allowing it to charge over $7 billion in fees each year for processing those transactions.
“We allege that Visa has unlawfully amassed the power to extract fees that far exceed what it could charge in a competitive market,” said Attorney General Merrick Garland in a statement. “Merchants and banks pass along those costs to consumers, either by raising prices or reducing quality or service. As a result, Visa’s unlawful conduct affects not just the price of one thing — but the price of nearly everything.”
The Biden administration has aggressively gone after U.S. companies that it says act like middlemen, such as Ticketmaster parent Live Nation and the real estate software company RealPage, accusing them of burdening Americans with nonsensical fees and anticompetitive behavior. The administration has also brought charges of monopolistic behavior against technology giants such as Apple and Google.
According to the DOJ complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Visa leverages the vast number of transactions on its network to impose volume commitments on merchants and their banks, as well as on financial institutions that issue debit cards. That makes it difficult for merchants to use alternatives, such as lower-cost or smaller payment processors, instead of Visa’s payment processing technology, without incurring what DOJ described as “disloyalty penalties” from Visa.
The DOJ said Visa also stifled competition by paying to enter into partnership agreements with potential competitors.
In 2020, the DOJ sued to block the company’s $5.3 billion purchase of financial technology startup Plaid, calling it a monopolistic takeover of a potential competitor to Visa’s ubiquitous payments network. That acquisition was later called off.
Visa previously disclosed the Justice Department was investigating the company in 2021, saying in a regulatory filing it was cooperating with a DOJ investigation into its debit practices.
Since the pandemic, more consumers globally have been shopping online for goods and services, which has translated into more revenue for Visa in the form of fees. Even traditionally cash-heavy businesses such as bars, barbers and coffee shops have started accepting credit or debit cards as a form of payment, often via smartphones.
Visa processed $3.325 trillion in transactions on its network during the quarter ended June 30, up 7.4% from a year earlier. U.S. payments grew by 5.1%, which is faster than U.S. economic growth.
Visa, based in San Francisco, did not immediately have a comment.
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US Navy ship operating in Mideast damaged in incident, officials say
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — A U.S. Navy replenishment ship operating in the Middle East sustained damage in an incident which is under investigation, officials said Tuesday.
The damage to the USNS Big Horn comes after the oiler had supplied the USS Abraham Lincoln strike group and remained in the region amid heightened tensions over the Israel-Hamas war and Israel’s ongoing strikes targeting Hezbollah in Lebanon.
A U.S. Navy official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss matters yet to be made public, said the damage happened in the Mideast, but declined to elaborate on its location.
“All crew members are safe, and we’re assessing the situation, and we’ll provide additional information at a later time,” the official said. There was no sign of an oil leak from the vessel.
Another U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity for the same reason, said the vessel was being supported by private tugboats and an assessment was still ongoing for the vessel.
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Kmart closes its last full-scale US store
NEW YORK — Attention, Kmart shoppers, the end is near!
The erstwhile retail giant renowned for its Blue Light Specials — featuring a flashing blue orb affixed to a pole enticing shoppers to a flash sale — is shuttering its last full-scale store in mainland United States.
The store, located in swank Bridgehampton, New York, on Long Island, is slated to close Oct. 20, according to Denise Rivera, an employee who answered the phone at the store late Monday. The manager wasn’t available, she said.
That will leave only a small Kmart store in Miami. It has a handful of stores in Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Transformco, the company that bought the assets of Sears and Kmart out of the bankruptcy of Sears Holdings in 2019, did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment.
In its heyday, there were more than 2,000 Kmarts in the U.S.
Struggling to compete with Walmart’s low prices and Target’s trendier offerings, Kmart filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in early 2002 — becoming the largest U.S. retailer to take that step — and announced it would close more than 250 stores.
A few years later, hedge fund executive Edward Lampert combined Sears and Kmart and pledged to return them to their former greatness. But the 2008 recession and the rising dominance of Amazon contributed in derailing that mission. Sears filed for Chapter 11 in 2018 and now has just a handful of stores left in the U.S., where it once had thousands.
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Climate goal to triple global renewable energy by 2030 within reach, IEA says
LONDON — A goal to triple global renewable energy capacity by 2030 and cut fossil fuel use is within reach, the International Energy Agency said in a report on Tuesday, but will require a huge push to unlock bottlenecks such as permitting and grid connections.
The report comes as leaders from government and business come together at New York Climate week to try to drive forward action against climate change.
Almost 200 countries at the COP 28 climate summit in Dubai last year agreed to reach net zero emissions from the energy sector by 2050 and pledged to triple renewable energy capacity like wind and solar.
The IEA said the renewable energy goal “is within reach thanks to favorable economics, ample manufacturing potential and strong policies,” but said more renewable capacity by itself would not slash fossil fuel use and reduce costs for consumers.
“To unlock the full benefits of the tripling goal, countries need to make a concerted push to build and modernize 25 million kilometers of electricity grids by 2030… The world would also need 1,500 gigawatts (GW) of energy storage capacity by 2030,” the IEA said.
Countries at COP 28 also pledged to double energy efficiency measures to help curb power use, but this target will require governments to make efficiency much more of a policy priority.
Countries must embed the renewable and energy efficiency goals in their national plans to meet goals set under the Paris climate agreement, the IEA said.
Emissions from the global energy sector hit a record high last year.
Tripling renewable energy capacity and doubling energy efficiency measures to reduce power use could reduce global greenhouse gas emissions by 10 billion metric tons by the end of the decade compared with what is otherwise expected, the report said.
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FBI data shows violent crime down for a second consecutive year
washington — Violent crime in the United States is down for a second consecutive year, with law enforcement agencies reporting significant declines in murder and rapes, according to a just-released report from the FBI.
The FBI Crime in the Nation report released Monday found violent crime, overall, fell by 3% from 2022 to 2023, with murder and manslaughter rates dropping by 11.6% and rape down by more than 9%.
There were also smaller declines in the number of robberies and aggravated assaults.
Additionally, property crimes, which include burglary, fell by an estimated 2.4% year over year, though motor vehicle theft jumped by 12.6%.
FBI officials, briefing reporters on the report, described the drop in the number of murders as notable, saying the 11.6% decline is the largest recorded over the past 20 years.
Overall, the officials said the rate of all violent crimes in 2023 was 363.3 crimes per 100,000 inhabitants, down from a rate of 377.1 violent crimes per 100,000 inhabitants in 2022.
More than 16,000 U.S. state and local law enforcement agencies contributed data for the report, including all agencies serving cities with more than one million people.
The decrease in violent crimes across the U.S. continues a trend dating back to 2021, when crime rates fell after a spike in murders in 2020, during the coronavirus pandemic.
The violent crime rate also remains well below a peak in rates during the early 1990s.
Some crimes, though, have seen slight increases, including the number of aggravated assaults with knives, cutting instruments or other weapons.
The number of so-called “strong-arm” robberies – involving intimidation or a threat of the use of force – rose by 3.2%.
Assaults on police officers also jumped to a 10-year high according to the FBI report, including 60 officers murdered in the line of duty.
The number of hate crimes and victims of hate crimes also increased from 2022 to 2023, though FBI officials said the rise could have been impacted by an increase in the number of law enforcement agencies reporting hate crime data.
FBI officials declined to comment on whether the trends and the overall decrease in violent crime from 2022 to 2023 have extended into 2024. But a report issued by the non-partisan Council on Criminal Justice (CCJ) in July indicates the number of violent crimes continue to fall.
That study, based on monthly crime rates for dozens of major U.S. cities found murder rates fell by 13% in the first half of 2024 compared to the first six months of 2023. Assaults, assaults with guns and carjacking also fell.
But while the CCJ report called the overall trends encouraging, it noted, “many cities are still experiencing disturbingly high leve
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Biden proposes banning Chinese vehicles from US roads with software crackdown
Washington — The U.S. Commerce Department on Monday proposed prohibiting key Chinese software and hardware in connected vehicles on American roads due to national security concerns — a move that would effectively bar nearly all Chinese cars from entering the U.S. market.
The planned regulation, first reported by Reuters, would also force American and other major automakers in the coming years to remove key Chinese software and hardware from vehicles in the United States.
The Biden administration has raised serious concerns about the collection of data by Chinese companies on U.S. drivers and infrastructure through connected vehicles as well as about potential foreign manipulation of vehicles connected to the internet and navigation systems. The White House ordered an investigation into the potential dangers in February.
The prohibitions would prevent testing of self-driving cars on U.S. roads by Chinese automakers and extend to vehicle software and hardware produced by other U.S. foreign adversaries including Russia.
“When foreign adversaries build software to make a vehicle that means it can be used for surveillance, can be remotely controlled, which threatens the privacy and safety of Americans on the road,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told a briefing.
“In an extreme situation, a foreign adversary could shut down or take control of all their vehicles operating in the United States all at the same time causing crashes, blocking roads.”
The move is a significant escalation in the United States’ ongoing restrictions on Chinese vehicles, software and components. Earlier this month, the Biden administration locked in steep tariff hikes on Chinese imports, including a 100% duty on electric vehicles as well as new hikes on EV batteries and key minerals.
There are relatively few Chinese-made cars or light-duty trucks imported into the United States. But Raimondo said the department is acting “before suppliers, automakers and car components linked to China or Russia become commonplace and widespread in the U.S. automotive sector… We’re not going to wait until our roads are filled with cars and the risk is extremely significant before we act.”
Nearly all newer cars and trucks are considered “connected” with onboard network hardware that allows internet access, allowing them to share data with devices both inside and outside the vehicle.
A senior administration official confirmed the proposal would effectively ban all existing Chinese light-duty cars and trucks from the U.S. market, but added it would allow Chinese automakers to seek “specific authorizations” for exemptions.
The United States has ample evidence of China prepositioning malware in critical American infrastructure, White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told the same briefing.
“With potentially millions of vehicles on the road, each with 10- to 15-year lifespans the risk of disruption and sabotage increases dramatically,” Sullivan said.
The Chinese Embassy in Washington last month criticized planned action to limit Chinese vehicle exports to the United States: “China urges the U.S. to earnestly abide by market principles and international trade rules, and create a level playing field for companies from all countries. China will firmly defend its lawful rights and interests.”
The proposal calls for making software prohibitions effective in the 2027 model year while the hardware ban would take effect in the 2030 model year or January 2029.
The Commerce Department is giving the public 30 days to comment on the proposal and hopes to finalize it by Jan. 20. The rules would apply to all on-road vehicles but exclude agricultural or mining vehicles not used on public roads.
The Alliance For Automotive Innovation, a group representing major automakers including General Motors, Toyota, Volkswagen and Hyundai, has warned that changing hardware and software would take time.
The group noted connected vehicle hardware and software are developed around the world, including China, but could not detail to what extent Chinese-made components are prevalent in U.S. models.
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