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This is VOA News. I'm Alexis Strope.
The Republican presidential ticket has been nominated at the Republican National Convention. AP correspondent Jackie Quinn reports. "Are we ready to nominate a vice president?" The lieutenant governor of Ohio presenting his state's junior U.S. Senator J.D. Vance to the convention. "... a man who loves America and will represent our people with moral courage." Vance swept to national prominence with his "Hillbilly Elegy" memoir and opposed Donald Trump in 2016, but changed his position and was rewarded with a Trump endorsement when he ran for Senate in 2022. Now he and Trump had their party's ticket announced by House Speaker Mike Johnson. "I formally declare President Donald J. Trump and J.D. Vance as the Republican nominees for president and vice president of the United States." I'm Jackie Quinn. The motive behind a 20-year-old gunman's attempt on the life of Donald Trump remained a mystery two days later. Reuters correspondent Zachary Goelman has more. The suspect, Thomas Matthew Crooks, was killed by Secret Service's sharp shooters and the FBI says the motive behind the gunman's attempt on the life of Donald Trump remains a mystery. Officials said Crooks was able to slip onto a rooftop location 150 yards from the stage where Trump was speaking in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday. Police said he then began firing an AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle purchased by his father. The bullets killed a 50-year-old man, critically wounded two other spectators and struck Trump's ear. Two years ago, Crooks graduated from a local high school. One classmate, who asked not to be identified, said he showed no particular interest in politics. The classmate told Reuters, quote, "Nothing crazy ever came up in any conversation." Reuters correspondent Zachary Goelman. For additional stories, visit voanews.com. This is VOA News. A federal judge in Florida has thrown out the classified documents case of former President Donald Trump. AP Washington correspondent Sagar Meghani has the story. Trump's lawyers had asked Judge Aileen Cannon to throw out the case, arguing special counsel Jack Smith was illegally appointed. Cannon, a Trump appointee, agreed. It's a stunning and abrupt end to a prosecution that had been seen from the start as the most perilous of all the legal threats Trump faced. Since the attempted killing of the ex-president, some Republicans have blamed President Biden and demanded prosecutors drop all four criminal cases against Trump, including one in which he's been convicted. Sagar Meghani, at the White House. Bolivia's embattled president has announced the discovery of vast natural gas reserves just north of the capital, describing it as the biggest find in nearly two decades that could help the cash-strapped country reverse its falling production. President Luis Arce calls the find a, quote, "mega field," saying it has some 1.7 trillion cubic meters of gas at a likely market value of $6.8 billion. He says the trove, named Mayaya X-1, is a way to revive Bolivia's gas industry. That was the engine of robust growth in the early 2000s, a period of booming exports and declining poverty that experts have called Bolivia's, quote, "economic miracle." A bill that would have made Gambia the first country in the world to reverse a ban on female genital mutilation has been rejected by lawmakers and will not move to a third reading, parliament speaker said on Monday. David Doyle from Reuters reports. The bill had sparked a public debate around the practice in the Muslim majority country. The lawmaker who took the proposal to parliament, Almameh Gibba, said he was upholding religion, culture and tradition. But many Islamic scholars dispute his arguments. The World Health Organization says FGM has no health benefits and can lead to excessive bleeding, shock, psychological problems and even death. Parliament voted again on Monday ahead of third and final reading scheduled for later this month. Around 30 lawmakers voted against each clause, prompting the speaker, Fabakary Tombong Jatta, to stop the bill moving forward to the final reading. David Doyle From Reuters. Media reports say the embassy of Azerbaijan in Tehran has resumed its work after more than a year of negotiations between the two countries to ease tensions. Relations between Tehran and Baku soured after a gunman in January, 2023 stormed Azerbaijan's embassy, killing its security chief and wounding two guards. But the Azeri president called it a "terrorist attack." Baku accused Tehran of supporting hardline Islamists who tried to overthrow its government, a charge Tehran denied. Azerbaijan's decision to open an embassy in Israel, Iran's archenemy, also contributed to the deterioration in ties. I'm Alexis Strope, VOA ... |