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President Joe Biden said Saturday that “everybody must condemn” the suspected assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, adding that he hoped to speak with his 2024 presidential rival soon.
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MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin — Milwaukee loves its Miller Beer, Brewers baseball and “Bronze Fonz” statue.

The deepest blue city in swing state Wisconsin, Milwaukee also loves Democrats.

So, it can be hard for some to swallow that Milwaukee is playing host to former President Donald Trump and the Republican National Convention this coming week while rival Chicago, the larger city just 90 miles to the south, welcomes President Joe Biden and Democrats in August.

It didn’t help smooth things over with wary Democrats after Trump used the word “horrible” when talking about Milwaukee just a month before the convention that begins Monday.

Adding to the angst, Milwaukee was supposed to host the Democratic National Convention in 2020, but it didn’t happen because of COVID. Owners of local restaurants, bars and venues say the number of reservations that were promised during the RNC aren’t materializing. And protesters complained the city was trying to keep them too far away from the convention site to have an impact.

“I wish I was out of town for it,” Jake Schneider, 29, said as he passed by the city’s statue of Fonzie, the character played by Henry Winkler in the 1970s sitcom “Happy Days,” which was set in Milwaukee. “I’m not super happy that it’s the Republican Party coming to town.”

Schneider, who lives in an apartment downtown, said Trump “sabotaged himself” with his comments about Milwaukee.

“I hope he’s proven wrong and sees how wonderful of a city it is,” Schneider said.

Ryan Clancy, a self-described democratic socialist who is a state representative and serves on the Milwaukee County Board, puts it more bluntly: “It is shameful that we rolled out the red carpet for the RNC.”

Still, Democratic and Republican convention boosters point to the potential economic boon and chance to show off Milwaukee and Wisconsin during the convention that runs through Thursday.

“Folks are ready to have the convention and have it be successful and elevate Milwaukee to the next level,” said Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson, a Democrat. “Donald Trump, regardless of where it happens, is going to be the Republican nominee. So, it didn’t matter if it happened in Milwaukee. It didn’t matter if it happened in Mar-a-Lago.”

Milwaukee has been in the national spotlight more in recent years, following the Bucks winning the national NBA championship in 2021 and the airing this spring of the latest season of “Top Chef,” a reality TV show that was filmed in the city and featured a Milwaukee chef who made the finals.

And as Trump’s “horrible” comment showed, Milwaukee has also long been a target for conservative Republicans who have pointed to its crime, low-ranking schools and financial struggles as an example of poor Democratic leadership.

“I hope this convention shows off all the best things about Milwaukee,” said Wisconsin Republican Party Chairman Brian Schimming. “But it is a city, like many other Democrat-run cities, that has extraordinarily significant issues.”

Democrats picked Milwaukee for the party’s last convention, but the 2020 DNC became an online event because of the pandemic.

The city’s back-to-back selection by Democrats and Republicans speaks to the swing state’s importance.

Wisconsin is one of a handful of battleground states likely to determine this year’s presidential race. It was one of the so-called “blue wall” states that Democrats once relied on, but Trump narrowly won in 2016, paving the way for his surprise victory. Biden flipped the state back in 2020, and both campaigns are targeting it heavily this year.

But there’s nothing swing about Milwaukee. It voted 79% for Biden in 2020. After his loss that year, Trump fought unsuccessfully to disqualify thousands of voters in Milwaukee, falsely portraying late-arriving returns driven by heavy absentee turnout as fraud.

Republicans say staging the convention in Milwaukee will energize their base. While the city itself is Democratic, the outlying suburbs are a battleground within a battleground state. Once deeply red, Democrats have made inroads since 2016 as suburban women, in particular, drift away from Trump and the conservative agenda.

Before the city was even chosen to host the convention, Clancy and other Democrats urged Milwaukee to drop out of the running, as Nashville did after Democrats there objected to hosting Republicans.

But by far the biggest kerfuffle came in June when Trump used the word “horrible” in talking about Milwaukee during a closed-door meeting with Republicans in Congress. While those in attendance disagreed over whether Trump was talking about crime, election concerns or something else, and he later said in a Wisconsin rally that he “loved” Milwaukee, for some Democrats it only reaffirmed earlier concerns about playing host to Republicans.

Mobcraft, a Milwaukee-based brewery, showed off the city’s Midwestern sense of humor and love of beer by releasing a “[not so] Horrible City IPA.”

As the convention nears, some local business owners are questioning estimates that the convention will bring in $200 million in revenue.

Only one of the six venues run by the Pabst Theater Group in Milwaukee is booked for the week of the convention, said Gary Witt, the group’s president and CEO. Witt said he will lose more than $100,000 by not having venues used, and he’s concerned about the impact the convention will have on other Milwaukee businesses.

“Once these people are all gone, we’re meaningless to them anyway,” Witt said of convention attendees.

Demonstrators are trying to spread counterprogramming throughout the week but have argued they’re being kept too far from the convention sites.

Omar Flores, chair of the March on the RNC Coalition, said he’s confident the protests will be peaceful and take advantage of the national platform they will have. He said the coalition had to fight to get a march route that will be in sight and sound of the convention, after Milwaukee’s Democratic leaders “completely sold us out, completely sold out the city and refused to listen to what any of the residents had to say.”
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NEW YORK — Dr. Ruth Westheimer, the diminutive sex therapist who became a pop icon, media star and best-selling author through her frank talk about once-taboo bedroom topics, has died. She was 96.

Westheimer died on Friday at her home in New York City, surrounded by her family, according to publicist and friend Pierre Lehu.

Westheimer never advocated risky sexual behavior. Instead, she encouraged an open dialogue on previously closeted issues that affected her audience of millions. Her one recurring theme was that there was nothing to be ashamed of.

“I still hold old-fashioned values, and I’m a bit of a square,” she told students at Michigan City High School in 2002. “Sex is a private art and a private matter. But still, it is a subject we must talk about.”

Westheimer’s giggly, German-accented voice, coupled with her 4-foot-7 frame, made her an unlikely looking — and sounding — outlet for “sexual literacy.” The contradiction was one of the keys to her success.

But it was her extensive knowledge and training, coupled with her humorous, nonjudgmental manner, that catapulted her local radio program, “Sexually Speaking,” into the national spotlight in the early 1980s. She had a nonjudgmental approach to what two consenting adults did in the privacy of their home.

Her radio success opened new doors, and in 1983 she wrote the first of more than 40 books: “Dr. Ruth’s Guide to Good Sex,” demystifying sex with rationality and humor. There was even a board game, Dr. Ruth’s Game of Good Sex.

She soon became a regular on the late-night television talk-show circuit, bringing her personality to the national stage. Her rise coincided with the early days of the AIDS epidemic, when frank sexual talk became a necessity.

“If we could bring about talking about sexual activity the way we talk about diet — the way we talk about food — without it having this kind of connotation that there’s something not right about it, then we would be a step further. But we have to do it with good taste,” she told Johnny Carson in 1982.

She normalized the use of words such as “penis” and “vagina” on radio and TV, aided by her Jewish grandmotherly accent, which The Wall Street Journal once said was “a cross between Henry Kissinger and Minnie Mouse.” People magazine included her in their list of “The Most Intriguing People of the Century.”

Westheimer defended abortion rights, suggested older people have sex after a good night’s sleep and was an outspoken advocate of condom use. She believed in monogamy.

In the 1980s, she stood up for gay men at the height of the AIDS epidemic and spoke out loudly for the LGBTQ community. She said she defended people deemed by some far-right Christians to be “subhuman” because of her own past.

Born Karola Ruth Siegel in Frankfurt, Germany, in 1928, she was an only child. At 10, she was sent by her parents to Switzerland to escape Kristallnacht — the Nazis’ 1938 pogrom that served as a precursor to the Holocaust. She never saw her parents again; Westheimer believed they were killed in the gas chambers at Auschwitz.

At the age of 16, she moved to Palestine and joined the Haganah, the underground movement for Israeli independence. She was trained as a sniper, although she said she never shot at anyone.

Her legs were severely wounded when a bomb exploded in her dormitory, killing many of her friends. She said it was only through the work of a “superb” surgeon that she could walk and ski again.

She married her first husband, an Israeli soldier, in 1950, and they moved to Paris as she pursued an education. Although not a high school graduate, Westheimer was accepted into the Sorbonne to study psychology after passing an entrance exam.

The marriage ended in 1955; the next year, Westheimer went to New York with her new boyfriend, a Frenchman who became her second husband and father to her daughter, Miriam.

In 1961, after a second divorce, she finally met her life partner: Manfred Westheimer, a fellow refugee from Nazi Germany. The couple was married and had a son, Joel. They remained wed for 36 years until “Fred” — as she called him — died of heart failure in 1997.

After receiving her doctorate in education from Columbia University, she went on to teach at Lehman College in the Bronx. While there she developed a specialty — instructing professors how to teach sex education. It would eventually become the core of her curriculum.

“I soon realized that while I knew enough about education, I did not really know enough about sex,” she wrote in her 1987 autobiography. Westheimer then decided take classes with the renowned sex therapist, Dr. Helen Singer Kaplan.

It was there that she had discovered her calling. Soon, as she once said in a typically folksy comment, she was dispensing sexual advice “like good chicken soup.”

In 1984, her radio program was nationally syndicated. A year later, she debuted in her own television program, “The Dr. Ruth Show,” which went on to win an Ace Award for excellence in cable television.

She also wrote a nationally syndicated advice column and later appeared in a line of videos produced by Playboy, preaching the virtues of open sexual discourse and good sex. She even had her own board game, “Dr. Ruth’s Game of Good Sex,” and a series of calendars.

Her rise was noteworthy for the culture of the time, in which then-President Ronald Reagan’s administration was hostile to Planned Parenthood and aligned with conservative voices.
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U.S. President Joe Biden’s halting performance at last month’s presidential debate triggered questions about the president’s age and ability to serve another four years. One group of voters that might empathize with the president’s plight are older people. Historically, people over 65 are the most reliable bloc of voters in presidential elections. VOA’s Dora Mekouar reports. VOA footage by Adam Greenbaum.
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Toronto, Canada — Canada says it is going shopping for 12 conventionally powered submarines capable of operating under the Arctic ice to enhance maritime security in a region that is fast gaining strategic significance in the face of climate change.

The purchase is expected to help ease mounting pressure on Ottawa — one of the lowest-spending NATO members — to meet the alliance’s commitment to spend 2% of GDP on defense.

“As the country with the longest coastline in the world, Canada needs a new fleet of submarines,” Canadian Defense Minister Bill Blair said in a statement Wednesday as NATO leaders were meeting in Washington.

The ministry said it has begun meeting with manufacturers and will formally invite bids for the sale in the fall.

“Canada’s key submarine capability requirements will be stealth, lethality, persistence and Arctic deployability — meaning that the submarine must have extended range and endurance,” the statement said.

“Canada’s new fleet will need to provide a unique combination of these requirements to ensure that Canada can detect, track, deter and, if necessary, defeat adversaries in all three of Canada’s oceans while contributing meaningfully alongside allies and enabling the government of Canada to deploy this fleet abroad in support of our partners and allies.”

A day later in Washington, Canada, the United States and Finland issued a joint statement announcing an agreement to build icebreakers for the Arctic region.

The pact calls for enhanced information sharing on polar icebreaker production, allowing for workers and experts from each country to train in shipyards across all three, and promoting to allies the purchase of polar icebreakers from American, Finnish or Canadian shipyards for their own needs, The Associated Press reported.

The AP quoted Daleep Singh, the White House deputy national security adviser for international economics, saying the agreement would demonstrate to Russia and China that the U.S. and allies will “doggedly pursue collaboration on industrial policy to increase our competitive edge.”

Singh noted that the U.S. has two icebreakers, and both are nearing the end of their usable life. Finland has 12 icebreakers and Canada has nine, while Russia has 36, according to U.S. Coast Guard data.

The same day in Washington, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that his government had signed “a trilateral letter of intent with Germany and Norway to establish a strategic partnership aimed at strengthening maritime security cooperation in the North Atlantic in support of NATO’s deterrence and defense.”

Trudeau also said for the first time that Canada expects to reach NATO’s 2% of GDP spending target by 2032. Canada also pledged $367 million in new military aid to Ukraine ahead of a meeting Wednesday between Trudeau and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

The commitments come in the face of mounting pressure for Canada to spend more on defense. A founding member of NATO, it is the alliance’s fifth-lowest spending member relative to GDP and until this week had pledged only to spend 1.76% of GDP by the 2029-30 budget year.

In a speech Monday, U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson called Canada’s level of defense spending “shameful.” Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell posted, “It’s time for our northern ally to invest seriously.”

NATO allies first agreed to the 2% defense spending threshold in 2006 and reaffirmed it in 2014 and 2023. This year, 23 of the 32 member states will meet or exceed that target.

Several nations have been stepping up their military and commercial capabilities in the Arctic as the receding ice pack makes navigation and petrochemical exploration in the Arctic Ocean more practicable. A sea route across Russia’s Arctic coastline promises to provide a shorter sea route between China and Europe.

Despite China’s distance from the Arctic Ocean, Beijing has dubbed itself a “near-Arctic country” to try to stake a bigger claim in the region.

VOA’s Zhang Zhenyu wrote this article and Adrianna Zhang contributed.
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MONTGOMERY, Ala. — A company has installed computerized vending machines to sell ammunition in grocery stores in Alabama, Oklahoma and Texas, allowing patrons to pick up bullets along with a gallon of milk.

American Rounds said their machines use an identification scanner and facial recognition software to verify the purchaser’s age and are as “quick and easy” to use as a computer tablet. But advocates worry that selling bullets out of vending machines will lead to more shootings in the U.S., where gun violence killed at least 33 people on Independence Day alone.

The company maintains the age-verification technology means that the transactions are as secure, or more secure, than online sales, which may not require the purchaser to submit proof of age, or at retail stores, where there is a risk of shoplifting.

“I’m very thankful for those who are taking the time to get to know us and not just making assumptions about what we’re about,” CEO Grant Magers said. “We are very pro-Second Amendment, but we are for responsible gun ownership, and we hope we’re improving the environment for the community.”

There have been 15 mass killings involving a firearm so far in 2024, compared to 39 in 2023, according to a database maintained in a partnership of The Associated Press, USA Today and Northeastern University.

“Innovations that make ammunition sales more secure via facial recognition, age verification, and the tracking of serial sales are promising safety measures that belong in gun stores, not in the place where you buy your kids milk,” said Nick Suplina, senior vice president for law and policy at Everytown for Gun Safety. “In a country awash in guns and ammo, where guns are the leading cause of deaths for kids, we don’t need to further normalize the sale and promotion of these products.”

Magers said grocery stores and others approached the Texas-based company, which began in 2023, about the idea of selling ammunition through automated technology. The company has one machine in Alabama, four in Oklahoma and one in Texas, with plans for another in Texas and one in Colorado in the coming weeks, he said.

“People I think got shocked when they thought about the idea of selling ammo at a grocery store,” Magers said. “But as we explained, how is that any different than Walmart?”

Federal law requires a person to be 18 to buy shotgun and rifle ammunition and 21 to buy handgun ammunition. Magers said their machines require a purchaser to be at least 21.

The machine works by requiring a customer to scan their driver’s license to validate that they are age 21 or older. The scan also checks that it is a valid license, he said. That is followed by a facial recognition scan to verify “you are who you are saying you are as a consumer,” he said.

“At that point you can complete your transaction of your product and you’re off and going,” he said. “The whole experience takes a minute and a half once you are familiar with the machine.”

The vending machine is another method of sale, joining retail stores and online retailers. A March report by Everytown for Gun Safety found that several major online ammunition retailers did not appear to verify their customers’ ages, despite requirements.

Last year, an online retailer settled a lawsuit brought by families of those killed and injured in a 2018 Texas high school shooting. The families said the 17-year-old shooter was able to buy ammunition from the retailer who failed to verify his age.

Vending machines for bullets or other age-restricted materials is not an entirely new idea. Companies have developed similar technology to sell alcoholic beverages. A company has marketed automated kiosks to sell cannabis products in dispensaries in states where marijuana is legal.

A Pennsylvania police officer created a company about 12 years ago that places bullet-vending machines in private gun clubs and ranges as a convenience for patrons. Those machines do not have the age verification mechanism but are only placed in locations with an age requirement to enter, Master Ammo owner Sam Piccinini said.

Piccinini spoke with a company years ago about incorporating the artificial intelligence technology to verify a purchaser’s age and identity, but at the time it was cost-prohibitive, he said. For American Rounds, one machine had to be removed from a site in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, because of disappointing sales, Magers said.

Magers said much of the early interest for the machines has been in rural communities where there may be few retailers that sell ammunition. The American Rounds machines are in Super C Mart and Fresh Value grocery stores in small cities, including Pell City, Alabama, which has a population over 13,600, and Noble, Oklahoma, where nearly 7,600 people live.

“Someone in that community might have to drive an hour or an hour and a half to get supplied if they want to go hunting, for instance,” Margers said. “Our grocery stores, they wanted to be able to offer their customer another category that they felt like would be popular.”
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READING, PA — Religion and politics frequently overlap in Reading, an old industrial city in one of the most pivotal swing states of this year’s presidential election.

In Pennsylvania, there is early precedent for this kind of thing. The state began as a haven for Quakers and other European religious minorities fleeing persecution. That includes the parents of Daniel Boone, the national folk hero born just miles from Reading, a town where the Latino population is now the majority.

Today, the Catholic mayor is also a migrant — and the first Latino to hold the office in Reading’s 276-year history. Mayor Eddie Moran is keenly aware of the pivotal role Pennsylvania could play in the high-stakes race, when a few thousand votes in communities like his could decide the future of the United States.

“Right now, with the growing Latino population and the influx of Latinos moving into cities such as Reading, it’s definitely an opportunity for the Latino vote to change the outcome of an election,” Moran says. “It’s not a secret anymore.”

A community of spirituality — and Latinos

In Reading, the sky is dotted with crosses atop church steeples, one after the other. Catholic church pews fill up on Sundays and many stand for the services. Elsewhere, often in nondescript buildings, evangelical and Pentecostal congregations gather to sing, pray and sometimes speak in tongues.

Outside, salsa, merengue and reggaeton music (often sung in Spanglish) blast from cars and houses along city streets first mapped out by William Penn’s sons — and that now serve a thriving downtown packed with restaurants proudly owned by Latinos.

This is a place where, when the mayor is told that his town is 65% Latino, he takes pride in saying: “It’s more like 70%.”

They believe in their political sway. A Pew Research Center survey conducted in 2022 found that eight in 10 Latino registered voters say their vote can affect the country’s direction at least “some.”

On a recent Sunday, Luis Hernandez, 65, born in Puerto Rico, knelt to pray near the altar at St. Peter the Apostle Catholic Church. Later, walking out after Mass, Hernandez said he’ll vote for Trump — even on the very day of the former president’s criminal convictions related to hush money for a porn star.

“Biden is old,” Hernandez says, and then reflects on how Trump is only a few years younger. “Yes, but you look at Trump and you see the difference. … Biden’s a good man. He’s decent. But he’s too old.”

In the weeks after he spoke, many more Americans would join in calls for Biden to withdraw from the race after his debate debacle, which crystallized growing concerns that, at 81, he’s too old.

Immigration is a key topic

It’s not just about Biden’s age or debate performance. It’s also, Hernandez says, about the border crisis. He says too many immigrants are arriving in the United States, including some he considers criminals. And, he adds, so much has changed since his Dominican-born father arrived in the 1960s — when, he says, it was easier to enter and stay in America.

For some, there are other issues as well.

“It’s the economy, immigration and abortion,” says German Vega, 41, a Dominican American who became a U.S. citizen in 2015. Vega, who describes himself as “pro-life,” voted for Trump in 2020 and plans to do so again in November.

“Biden doesn’t know what he’s saying. He doesn’t know what he’s doing, and we have a country divided,” Vega says. Trump is “a person of character. … He looks confident. He never gives up; he’s always fighting for what he believes.”

Of course, there are some here who just don’t favor taking sides — except if it’s for Jesus. Listen to Pastor Alex Lopez, a Puerto Rican who cuts hair in a barber shop on the first floor of his home on Saturdays, and preaches on the second floor on Sundays.

“We’re neutral,” he says. “We just believe in God.”

A city with deep industrial roots resurges

Reading was once synonymous with iron and steel. Those industries cemented the creation of the Reading Railroad (an early stop on the Monopoly gameboard) that helped fuel the Industrial Revolution and became, in the late 19th century, one of the country’s major corporations.

Today, the city of about 95,000 people, 65 miles northwest of Philadelphia, has a fast-increasing population. However, it is one of the state’s poorest cities, with a median household income of about $44,000, compared to about $72,000 in Pennsylvania.

Reading is 67% Latino, according to U.S. Census figures, and home to high concentrations of people of Dominican and Puerto Rican heritage — as well as Colombians and Mexicans, who own restaurants and other businesses around town.

Political candidates are taking notice of Reading’s political and economic power. The 2020 presidential election in Pennsylvania was decided by about 82,000 votes, and — according to the Pew Research Center — there are more than 600,000 eligible Latino voters in the state.

It’s true that Reading still leans mostly Democratic — Biden crushed Trump in the city by a margin of about 46 percentage points in 2020. However in that election, voting-age turnout in the city (about 35%) was significantly lower than the rest of the state (about 67%).

But the Trump campaign doesn’t want to miss out on the opportunity to turn it around. It recently teamed up with the Republican National Committee and Pennsylvania GOP to open a “Latino Americans for Trump” office in a red-brick building near the Democratic mayor’s downtown office.

Moran has made a plea to Biden and other Democrats to take notice and visit Reading before the election. It’s crucial, he says.

“I think that it’s still predominantly Democratic,” he says. “But the candidates need to come out and really explain that to the community.”

One development, Moran says, is that religious leaders are now less hesitant to get involved in politics.

“Things change, even for churches,” he says. Clergy “realize the importance that they hold as faith-based leaders and religious leaders and they’re making a call of action through their congregations.”

The message: Get out and vote

A few blocks from St. Peter’s, a crowd gathers inside First Baptist Church, which dates to the late 19th century.

In a sign of Reading’s changing demographics, the aging and shrinking congregation of white Protestants donated the building to Iglesia Jesucristo es el Rey (Church Jesus Christ is the King), a thriving Latino congregation of some 100 worshippers who have shared the building with First Baptist for nearly a decade.

Pastors Carol Pagan and her husband Jose, both from Puerto Rico, recently led prayer. At the end of the service, microphone in hand, the pastors encourage parishioners to vote in the election — irrespective of who they choose as the president.

“The right to vote is,” Carol Pagan says before her husband chimes in: “a civic responsibility.”

After the service, the congregation descends to the basement, where they share a traditional meal of chicken with rice and beans.

“I believe the principle of human rights have to do with both parties — or any party running,” Carol Pagan says. “I always think of the elderly, of the health system, of health insurance, and how it shouldn’t be so much about capitalism but more rights for all of us to be well.”

Both of the Pagans make clear that they won’t vote for Trump. They’re waiting, like others, for circumstances that might lead Biden to withdraw, so they can support another Democratic candidate.

“It’s our duty to shield that person with prayer — it doesn’t matter if that person is a Democrat or a Republican,” Carol Pagan says. “We owe them that.”
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nairobi, kenya — The combination of climate change and a growing world population may threaten global food security. As the United Nations marks World Population Day, changes in agriculture, especially in Africa, may be the only way forward.

The global population is expected to grow over the next 60 years, from 8.2 billion today to 10.3 billion in the 2080s. Much of that growth will occur in Africa, where many countries still have high fertility rates.

The United Nations Population Fund said climate change is expected to exacerbate global inequalities and trigger national and international migration.

U.N. agencies say 1 billion of the 1.3 billion people living in Africa struggle to afford healthy diets and hunger worsened between 2019 and 2022.

Food needs grow, farmland shrinks

Africa’s farmland has been shrinking because of persistent drought, while the growing population leaves less space to farm.

Chris Ojiewo, principal scientist at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center, said African farmers need to produce a lot of food in small spaces to feed the growing population.

“We cannot even think of a human way … or ethical way to stop population growth, so let it grow but let us people able to produce more within a small area,” said Ojiewo. “For example, where we are able to produce only one ton of maize per hectare, why don’t we work and that is what we are doing to improve this productivity to go beyond 1 ton to 2 to 3 to 4 to 5 to 10 tons per hectare, considering developing varieties but also production systems that enable us to produce in the intensified system but also to produce even when there is drought.”

Speaking at a conference in Mexico this week, Ann Vaughan, deputy assistant administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, said scientific research and technology can help farmers cope with climate change and assist them in cultivating diverse crops.

“To help make sure we are accelerating smart innovations so that farmers are getting access so even in the face of horrific drought, they are still able to produce food for themselves and their families,” said Vaughan. “… what that looks like is making sure we have the right science, the right seeds, the right private sector partners who are pulling and creating a demand for these types of seeds, diversifying so that you are not just growing maize but you are also growing cowpeas and other things which are more resilient to climate change and the brighter type of practices so that you are mixing intercropping and having less tilt.”

Initiative promotes sustainable practices

In 2010, the U.S. government launched Feed the Future, an initiative aimed at addressing the causes of hunger and poverty in developing countries worldwide.

The program improved African agriculture systems by promoting sustainable practices that considered climate challenges. That helped increase economic opportunities, employment and trade.

In some African countries, the dominance of maize crops as the primary source of food has worried experts. The crop relies on rain, and climate change is causing unpredictable rainfall patterns.

African farmers must change when and what they grow to produce enough food, said Ojiewo.

“Ensuring that production and productivity continue, whether in season or off-season, does not necessarily mean relying 100 percent on rain-fed agriculture,” said Ojiewo. “Diversification, as I mentioned here, does not mean overlying on one single crop for population survival. I know many countries are relying on maize in terms of cereals and ignoring some of the other crops that will fit into these systems.”

Due to increasing drought in several African countries, farmers are urged to cultivate crops such as cassava, sorghum, pigeon peas, and pearl millet, which are resilient to unpredictable and harsh conditions.
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NEW YORK — The Library of Congress has awarded a lifetime achievement prize to James McBride, whose acclaimed novels include The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, Deacon King Kong and The Good Lord Bird. 

Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden announced Thursday that McBride, whose story lines have ranged from the crusades of abolitionist John Brown to a Brooklyn neighborhood in the 1960s, is this year’s winner of the Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction. The award, previously given to Marilynne Robinson and Don DeLillo among others, is given to an American author who excels as a prose stylist and creative thinker. 

“I’m honored to bestow the Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction on a writer as imaginative and knowing as James McBride,” Hayden said in a statement. “McBride knows the American soul deeply, reflecting our struggles and triumphs in his fiction, which so many readers have intimately connected with. I, also, am one of his enthusiastic readers.” 

McBride, 66, said in a statement that he wished his mother were alive to hear of his prize. He then joked, “Does it mean I can use the Library? If so, I’m double thrilled.” 

McBride has been among the country’s most honored authors in recent years, winning a National Book Award for Good Lord Bird, the Kirkus Prize for The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store and the Carnegie Medal for Deacon King Kong, which Oprah Winfrey chose for her book club. In 2016, he was given a National Humanities Medal. 

On August 24, he will discuss The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store at the National Book Festival in Washington, D.C., a gathering hosted by the Library of Congress. 
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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — An oil tanker held by Iran for over a year after being seized amid tensions between Tehran and the United States was sailing Thursday toward international waters, tracking data showed.

The Marshall Islands-flagged tanker Advantage Sweet traveled toward the Strait of Hormuz, where it was seized in April 2023 by Iran’s navy while carrying $50 million worth of oil from Kuwait for Chevron Corporation. That’s according to tracking data analyzed by The Associated Press, which also listed the vessel’s destination at Khor Fakkan in the United Arab Emirates, which has been the first port of call for other vessels leaving Iranian detention.

Iran did not acknowledge the ship’s departure. It came after an Iranian court on Thursday ordered the U.S. government to pay over $6.7 billion in compensation over a Swedish company stopping its supply of special dressings and bandages for those afflicted by a rare skin disorder after Washington imposed sanctions on the Islamic Republic.

Iran’s government initially said it seized the Advantage Sweet because it hit another vessel, a claim not supported by any evidence. Then Iranian officials linked the Advantage Sweet’s seizure to the court case that was decided Thursday.

A report by the state-run IRNA news agency described the $6.7 billion order as being filed on behalf of 300 plaintiffs, including family members of victims and those physically and emotionally damaged. IRNA said about 20 patients died after the Swedish company’s decision.

Epidermolysis bullosa is a rare genetic condition that causes blisters all over the body and eyes. It can be incredibly painful and kill those afflicted. The young who suffer from the disease are known as “butterfly children” as their skin can appear as fragile as a butterfly’s wing.

The order comes as U.S. judges have issued rulings that call for billions of dollars to be paid by Iran over attacks linked to Tehran, as well as those detained by Iran and used as pawns in negotiations between the countries — something Iran has responded to with competing lawsuits accusing the U.S. of involvement in a 2017 Islamic State group attack. The United Nations’ highest court also last year rejected Tehran’s legal bid to free up some $2 billion in Iranian Central Bank assets frozen by U.S. authorities.

In 2018, then-President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the U.S. from Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, apparently sparking the Swedish company to withdraw from the Iranian market. Iran now says it locally produces the bandages.

Chevron, based in San Ramon, California, has maintained that the Advantage Sweet was “seized under false pretenses.” It has since written off the cargo as a loss.

The U.S. Navy has blamed Iran for a series of limpet mine attacks on vessels that damaged tankers in 2019, as well as for a fatal drone attack on an Israeli-linked oil tanker that killed two European crew members in 2021.

Tehran denies carrying out the attacks, but a wider shadow war between Iran and the West has played out in the region’s volatile waters. Iranian tanker seizures have been a part of it since 2019. The last major seizure came when Iran took two Greek tankers in May 2022 and held them until November of that year.
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WASHINGTON — NATO and Ukrainian leaders are to meet Thursday in Washington, a day after NATO allies bolstered support for Ukraine to join the alliance.

The NATO summit’s final day will also include talks with leaders from Australia, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea and the European Union addressing security challenges and cooperation.

A NATO communique released by the 32-member bloc Wednesday said Ukraine’s path to NATO membership is “irreversible.”

“It’s not a question of if, but when,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters Wednesday.

The United States was once deeply concerned about whether Ukraine was ready for NATO membership but now appears resolved to ensure Kyiv eventually joins the alliance.

“We’re providing that bridge to membership for Ukraine. It’s really a significant deliverable,” Michael Carpenter, the senior director for Europe at the National Security Council, told VOA.

Stoltenberg said that when fighting stops in Ukraine, NATO will need to ensure that halt will be the final end to violence there.

The way to ensure it stops for good, Stoltenberg said, is NATO membership for Ukraine. Otherwise, he said, Russia could continue its aggression.

Unlike the European Union, which began negotiations with Ukraine to join its ranks on June 25, there is no consensus yet about Ukraine joining NATO.

F-16 transfer under way

Meanwhile, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the first American-made F-16 fighter jets are currently being delivered to Ukraine and are expected to patrol Ukrainian skies in coming weeks.

“The transfer of F-16s is officially under way, and Ukraine will be flying F-16s this summer,” he said at the summit.

In a statement Wednesday, Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and U.S. President Joe Biden announced that the Dutch and Danish governments were providing the F-16s, while Belgium and Norway had committed to send more aircraft to Ukraine.

NATO member heads of state held their first working session of the summit Wednesday as they sought to boost the alliance’s support for Ukraine and enhance their own defense and deterrence efforts.

At the start of the session, Biden said Russia was ramping up its defense production with Chinese, North Korean and Iranian help.

To counter their efforts, he said, NATO members must continue to invest more in defense production.

“We cannot allow the alliance to fall behind,” Biden said.

China called out

In the NATO communique, all 32 allies on Wednesday also called on China to cease its support for Russia’s war effort against Kyiv, including its transfer of dual-use materials, such as weapons components, equipment and raw materials that aid Russia’s defense sector.

“The PRC cannot enable the largest war in Europe in recent history without this negatively impacting its interests and reputation,” the leaders wrote.

Asked by VOA whether the statement was a strong enough message to deter China from continuing to support Russia, Stoltenberg replied in the press conference that Wednesday’s declaration is “the strongest message that NATO allies have ever sent on China’s contributions to Russia’s illegal war against Ukraine.”

A spokesperson for China’s mission to the European Union rejected the NATO statement, calling it “filled with Cold War mentality and belligerent rhetoric.”

NATO allies invited Indo-Pacific partners from Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand to also attend this week’s summit. Officials say their inclusion reflects their importance during growing Chinese, North Korean, Russian and Iranian aggression.

Iulia Iarmolenko contributed to this report. Some information for this report was provided by Reuters
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LAS VEGAS — Las Vegas baked Wednesday in its record fifth consecutive day of temperatures sizzling at 46.1 Celsius or greater amid a lengthening hot spell that is expected to broil much of the U.S. into the weekend.

The temperature climbed to 46.1 shortly after 1 p.m. at Harry Reid International Airport, breaking the old mark of four consecutive days set in July 2005. And the record could be extended, or even doubled, by the weekend.

Even by desert standards, the prolonged baking that Nevada’s largest city is experiencing is nearly unprecedented, with forecasters calling it “the most extreme heat wave” since the National Weather Service began keeping records in Las Vegas in 1937.

Already the city has broken 16 heat records since June 1, well before the official start of summer, “and we’re not even halfway through July yet,” meteorologist Morgan Stessman said Wednesday. That includes an all-time high of 48.8 C set on Sunday, which beat the previous 47.2 C record.

Alyse Sobosan said this July has felt the hottest in the 15 years she has lived in Las Vegas. She said she doesn’t step outside during the day if she can help it.

“It’s oppressively hot,” she said. “It’s like you can’t really live your life.”

It’s also dangerously hot, health officials have emphasized. There have been at least nine heat-related deaths this year in Clark County, which encompasses Las Vegas, according to the county coroner’s office. Officials say the toll is likely higher.

“Even people of average age who are seemingly healthy can suffer heat illness when it’s so hot it’s hard for your body to cool down,” said Alexis Brignola, an epidemiologist at the Southern Nevada Health District.

For homeless residents and others without access to safe environments, officials have set up emergency cooling centers at community centers across southern Nevada.

The Las Vegas area has been under an excessive heat warning on three separate occasions this summer, totaling about 12 days of dangerous heat with little relief even after the sun goes down, Stessman said.

Keith Bailey and Lee Doss met early Wednesday morning at a Las Vegas park to beat the heat and exercise their dogs, Breakie, Ollie and Stanley.

“If I don’t get out by 8:30 in the morning, then it’s not going to happen that day,” Bailey said, wearing a sunhat while the dogs played in the grass.

More than 142 million people around the U.S. were under heat alerts Wednesday, especially in Western states, where dozens of locations tied or broke heat records over the weekend and are expected to keep doing so all week.

Oregon has seen record daily high temperatures, with Portland reaching 39.4 C and Salem and Eugene hitting 40.5 C on Tuesday. The number of potentially heat-related deaths in Oregon has risen to 10, according to the state medical examiner’s office. The latest two deaths involved a 54-year-old man in Jackson County and a 27-year-old man in Klamath County.

On the other side of the nation, the National Weather Service warned of major-to-extreme heat risk over portions of the East Coast.

An excessive heat warning remained in place Wednesday for the Philadelphia area, northern Delaware and nearly all of New Jersey. Temperatures were around 32.2 C for most of the region, and forecasters warned the heat index could soar as high as 42.2 C. The warning was due to expire at 8 p.m. Wednesday, though forecasters said there may be a need to extend it.

The heat was blamed for a motorcyclist’s death over the weekend in Death Valley National Park. At Death Valley on Tuesday, tourists queued for photos in front of a giant thermometer that was reading 48.9 C.

Simon Pell and Lisa Gregory from London left their air-conditioned RV to experience a midday blast of heat that would be unthinkable back home.

“I wanted to experience what it would feel like,” Pell said. “It’s an incredible experience.”

At the Grand Canyon, the National Park Service was investigating the third hiker death in recent weeks. Temperatures on parts of some trails can reach 49 C in the shade.

An excessive heat warning continued Wednesday in many parts of southern and central Arizona. Forecasters said the high in Phoenix was expected to reach 45.5 C after it hit 46.6 C Tuesday, tying the previous record for the date set in 1958.

Authorities were investigating the death of a 2-year-old who was left alone in a hot vehicle Tuesday afternoon in Marana, near Tucson, police said. At Lake Havasu, a 4-month-old died from heat-related complications Friday, the Mohave County Sheriff’s Department said.

The U.S. heat wave came as the global temperature in June was a record warm for the 13th straight month and marked the 12th straight month that the world was 1.5 degrees Celsius  warmer than pre-industrial times, the European climate service Copernicus said. Most of this heat, trapped by human-caused climate change, is from long-term warming from greenhouse gases emitted by the burning of coal, oil and natural gas, scientists say.

Firefighters in Henderson, Nevada, last week became the first in the region to deploy what city spokesperson Madeleine Skains called “polar pods,” devices filled with water and ice to cool a person exhibiting symptoms of heat stroke or a related medical emergency.

Extreme heat in the West has also dried out vegetation that fuels wildfires.

A blaze burning in northern Oregon, about 178 kilometers east of Portland, blew up to 28 square kilometers by Wednesday afternoon due to hot temperatures, gusty wind and low humidity, according to the Oregon State Fire Marshal. The Larch Creek Fire closed Highway 197 and forced evacuations for remote homes.

In California, firefighters were battling least 19 wildfires Wednesday, including a 117-square-kilometer blaze that prompted evacuation orders for about 200 homes in the mountains of Santa Barbara County.
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NATO allies on Wednesday pledged to support Ukraine on an “irreversible” path to integration while calling on China to cease all support for Russia’s war effort against Kyiv. This as new fighter jets are set to patrol the skies of Ukraine. VOA Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb has the details.
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new york — A U.S. judge on Wednesday said he would likely end bankruptcy for Rudy Giuliani, a onetime lawyer for former President Donald Trump. The move would enable lawsuits against Giuliani for defamation, sexual harassment and other claims to proceed in other courts.  

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Sean Lane said at a court hearing in White Plains, New York, that he would rule Friday on competing requests from Giuliani – who was New York City’s mayor from 1994 through 2001 – and his creditors about the future of his bankruptcy.  

Giuliani, 80, filed for bankruptcy protection in December after a Washington, D.C., court ordered him to pay $148 million to two Georgia election workers that he falsely accused of rigging votes in the 2020 presidential election, which Democrat Joe Biden won.  

The bankruptcy prevented the election workers from collecting on that judgment, while freezing other lawsuits stemming from Giuliani’s work for Trump, as he sought to overturn his loss in the 2020 election. 

Last week, Giuliani asked to convert his personal bankruptcy case into a straightforward liquidation, which would force him to sell nearly all of his assets. One group of creditors asked Lane to appoint a trustee to take over Giuliani’s finances and businesses, which could lead to a lengthy and contested bankruptcy liquidation, while another group said Giuliani should be kicked out of bankruptcy altogether.  

All three options pose significant risks for Giuliani. 

Lane said dismissal was likely the best option, given the difficulties the court has had in getting straight answers from Giuliani about his finances. A trustee would likely face the same problems getting Giuliani’s cooperation, while incurring additional expenses that would reduce Giuliani’s ability to pay creditors, Lane said.  

“I’m concerned that the difficulties we’ve encountered on transparency will continue,” Lane said.  

A dismissal of his bankruptcy would allow Giuliani’s creditors to resume lawsuits against him, but it would also give him more freedom to appeal the $148 million defamation judgment that forced him to seek bankruptcy protection.  

“We believe that the debtor’s best chance of getting an appellate determination would be dismissal,” Giuliani attorney Gary Fischoff said during Wednesday’s court hearing. 

Lane previously stopped Giuliani from spending money on the appeal while he was bankrupt, saying his Chapter 11 filing had paused litigation on both sides.  

Rachel Strickland, representing the former Georgia election workers, Wandrea “Shaye” Moss and her mother, Ruby Freeman, said Giuliani should be kicked out of bankruptcy so her clients can try to collect on their judgment against him.  

Giuliani “regards this court as a pause button on his woes while he continues to live his life unbothered,” Strickland told Lane.  

Moss and Freeman, who are Black, faced a deluge of racist and sexist messages, including threats of lynching, after Trump and his allies spread false claims that they were engaged in vote fraud. 

A committee representing Giuliani’s other creditors asked Lane to instead appoint a trustee to take over Giuliani’s finances and businesses, like his podcasting engagements and coffee promotions. Committee attorney Phil Dublin said ending the bankruptcy now would create a “race to the courthouse” among the many people who have sued Giuliani.  

Giuliani’s other creditors include former employee Noelle Dunphy, who has accused Giuliani of sexual assault and wage theft, and the voting machine companies Dominion and Smartmatic, who have also sued Giuliani for defamation. Giuliani has denied the allegations. 

In addition to the civil lawsuits, Giuliani is facing criminal charges in Georgia and Arizona for aiding Trump’s efforts to subvert the 2020 election results, and his false claims about the election have caused him to lose his license to practice law in New York. 
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If former U.S. president Donald Trump wins the November presidential election, he may seek to place the entire federal bureaucracy under direct presidential control. That move is outlined in a playbook crafted by more than 100 conservative organizations for a prospective second Trump term. VOA’s chief national correspondent Steve Herman reports. VOA footage by Adam Greenbaum.
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SANTA FE, New Mexico — A New Mexico prosecutor on Wednesday said Alec Baldwin broke “cardinal rules” of gun safety in the 2021 killing of “Rust” cinematographer Halyna Hutchins while his lawyer said he was failed by firearms experts. 

The 66-year-old Baldwin, on trial in Hollywood’s first on-set shooting fatality in three decades, took notes at the defense table and listened calmly to opening statements in his involuntary manslaughter trial. The trial is largely unprecedented in U.S. history, holding an actor criminally responsible for a gun death during filming. 

A New Mexico jury of 12 and four alternates — 11 women and five men — heard prosecutor Erlinda Johnson outline arguments that Baldwin disregarded safety during filming of the low-budget movie before pointing a gun at Hutchins during a rehearsal, cocking it and pulling the trigger as they set up a camera shot on a set southwest of Santa Fe. 

“The evidence will show that someone who played make believe with a real gun and violated the cardinal rules of firearm safety is the defendant, Alexander Baldwin,” Johnson said. 

Baldwin’s wife Hilaria Baldwin sat in the second row of the public gallery, his brother Stephen Baldwin in front of her. 

His lawyer Alex Spiro pointed to “Rust” armorer Hannah Gutierrez — head of gun safety — and first assistant director Dave Halls — responsible for overall set safety. Both have been convicted in the shooting, and Spiro said they did not check the rounds in the gun to ensure it was safe for Baldwin to use.  

“There were people responsible for firearms safety but actor Alec Baldwin committed no crime,” said Spiro. 

Hutchins was killed, and director Joel Souza wounded when Baldwin’s reproduction 1873 Single Action Army revolver fired a live round, inadvertently loaded by Gutierrez. 

Since a police interview on Oct. 21, 2021, the day of the shooting, Baldwin has argued the gun just “went off.”  

In an ABC News interview two months later, Baldwin told George Stephanopoulos he did not pull the trigger. A 2022 FBI test found the gun was in normal working condition and would not fire from full cock without the trigger being pulled. 

Spiro said during his opening arguments that no one saw Baldwin “intentionally pull the trigger,” but that it was the responsibility of firearms safety experts to ensure a firearm was safe for an actor “to wave it, to point it, to pull the trigger, like actors do.”  

State prosecutors charged Baldwin with involuntary manslaughter in January 2022. They dropped charges three months later after Baldwin’s lawyers presented photographic evidence the gun was modified, arguing it would fire more easily, bolstering the actor’s accidental discharge argument. 

Prosecutors called a grand jury to reinstate the charge in January after an independent firearms expert confirmed the 2022 FBI study. 

FBI testing broke the gun, and Baldwin’s lawyers will tell jurors that destruction of the weapon prevented them from proving the gun was modified. 

Armorer Gutierrez, whose job on the set of “Rust” included managing firearms safely, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in March for loading the live round.

Prosecutors will have to persuade jurors Baldwin is also guilty of willful and reckless criminal negligence.
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CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida — Two astronauts who should have been back on Earth weeks ago said Wednesday that they’re confident that Boeing’s space capsule can return them safely, despite breakdowns.

NASA test pilots Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams launched aboard Boeing’s new Starliner capsule early last month, the first people to ride it. Leaks and thruster failures almost derailed their arrival at the International Space Station and have kept them there much longer than planned.

In their first news conference from orbit, they said they expect to return once thruster testing is complete on Earth. They said they’re not complaining about getting extra time in orbit and are enjoying helping the station crew.

“I have a real good feeling in my heart that the spacecraft will bring us home, no problem,” Williams told reporters.

The two rocketed into orbit on June 5 on the test flight, which was originally supposed to last eight days.

NASA ordered the Starliner and SpaceX Dragon capsules a decade ago for astronaut flights to and from the space station, paying each company billions of dollars. SpaceX’s first taxi flight with astronauts was in 2020. Boeing’s first crew flight was repeatedly delayed because of software and other issues.
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