VOA NEWS

February 7, 2018

From Washington, this is VOA news. I'm Jonathan Jones reporting.



U.S. stock prices fluctuated wildly Tuesday after regaining ground following a sharply lower open. It came on the heels of sell-offs earlier in the day in Asia and Europe.

The volatility continued unabated one day after the Dow Jones Industrial Average shed the most points in one trading session in its more than 120-year history.



The U.S. Congress is poised to deadlock on extending government funding two days before another possible federal shutdown.

VOA Senate correspondent Michael Bowman reports.

The U.S. government funding has been extended four times since late last year and is set to expire once again at midnight Thursday.

Further complicating the picture is a continued standoff on immigration reform, with President Donald Trump and conservative Republicans so far unable to reach a deal with Democrats to protect young undocumented immigrants brought to America as children who will be at risk of deportation next month.

Michael Bowman, VOA news, the Capitol.



President Trump said on Tuesday he would welcome another federal government shutdown if Congress cannot agree on stiffer immigration restrictions.

He said, "If we don't change the legislation, if we don't get rid of these loopholes where killers are allowed to come into our country and continue to kill, if we don't change it, let's have a shutdown."

Trump spoke to a law enforcement panel at the White House that was talking about the violence carried out by the Hispanic criminal [game] gang MS-13.

Trump said, "I'd love to see a shutdown if we can't get this stuff taken care of."

His spokesperson said, "The president is not advocating for a shutdown."



This is VOA news.



Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon skipped a scheduled interview Tuesday with the House Intelligence Committee about his time as a key adviser to President Trump even after lawmakers subpoenaed him to appear.

Bannon could face a contempt of Congress charge for his failure to answer the subpoena, but it's not clear whether the committee would take any action against him.



Hundreds of people are fleeing Cameroon's English-speaking towns following clashes between the military and gunmen believed to be armed separatists.

Correspondent Moki Edwin Kindzeka reports from the French-speaking town of Mbouda, where some of the English-speakers are escaping to.

A dozen vehicles transporting at least 220 people from Cameroon's English-speaking Northwest region arrived in the French-speaking town of Mbouda Tuesday morning.

Cameroon says seven villages have been burned and at least 20 people, including soldiers and separatists, have been killed in the ongoing violence.

The unrest in Cameroon began in November 2016, when English-speaking teachers and lawyers in the Northwest and Southwest regions, frustrated with having to work in French, took to the streets calling for reforms and greater autonomy.

The situation degenerated with separatist calls for independence and the rise of an armed separatist movement, prompting a crackdown of the military.

Moki Edwin Kindzeka, for VOA news, Mbouda, western Cameroon.



South Africa's increasingly unpopular President Jacob Zuma, who is facing mounting pressure from his own party to resign, was stripped on Tuesday of what many saw as his ability to speak to the people of South Africa.

Parliament postponed the annual State of the Nation address Tuesday afternoon just 48 hours before Zuma was scheduled to appear at the National Assembly in Cape Town to address the nation.



And the Polish president said Tuesday he will sign a law that will penalize suggestions of Polish blame for Nazi crimes committed inside the country during the holocaust.

The law imposes fines and jail time on anyone calling the Nazi slaughter of Jews during World War II a Polish crime or Nazi death camps Polish death camps.

Some of the worst Nazi atrocities were committed on Polish soil.



You can find more on these and other late breaking and developing stories, from around the world, around the clock, at voanews.com and on the VOA news mobile app. I'm Jonathan Jones reporting from the world headquarters of the Voice of America in Washington.

That's the latest world news from VOA.