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The United States and the European Union plan to announce on Monday a joint effort aimed at identifying semiconductor supply disruptions as well as countering Russian disinformation, officials said. The U.S. officials are visiting the French scientific hub of Saclay for a meet up of the Trade and Technology Council, created last year as China increasingly exerts its technology clout. U.S. officials acknowledged that Russia's invasion of Ukraine has broadened the council's scope, but said the Western bloc still has its eye on competition from China. The two sides will announce an "early warning system" for semiconductors supply disruptions, hoping to avoid excessive competition between Western powers for the vital tech component. The industry has suffered from a shortage of components for chipmaking, blamed on a boom in global demand for electronic products and pandemic snarled supply chains. "We hope to agree on high levels of subsidies — that they will not be more than what is necessary and proportionate and appropriate," Margrethe Vestager, the European Commissioner for Competition, told reporters Sunday. The aim is that "as both Washington and Brussels look to encourage semiconductor investment in our respective countries, we do so in a coordinated fashion and don't simply encourage a subsidy race," a U.S. official said separately, speaking on condition of anonymity. The United States already put in place its own early warning system in 2021 that looked at supply chains in Southeast Asia and "has been very helpful in helping us get ahead of a couple of potential shutdowns earlier this year," the US. .official said. The official added that the two sides are looking ahead to supply disruptions caused by pandemic lockdowns in China — the only major economy still hewing to a zero-Covid strategy. The European Union and United States will also announce joint measures on fighting disinformation and hacking, especially from Russia, including a guide on cybersecurity best practices for small- and medium-sized companies and a task force on trusted technology suppliers, the official said. "It's not a European matter but a global matter," she said. U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai are visiting for the talks. Secretary of State Antony Blinken attended an opening dinner on Monday before cutting short his visit to head to Abu Dhabi for the funeral of late leader Sheikh Khalifa.

African Beat showcases the latest and the greatest of contemporary African music and conversation. From Benga to Juju, Hip Life to Bongo Flava, Bubu to Soukous and more, host David Vandy has his finger on the pulse of the hottest African music and related issues today.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

U.S. President Joe Biden is scheduled to travel Tuesday to the city of Buffalo, New York, where authorities are investigating an attack at a grocery store by what Biden said was a gunman “armed with weapons of war and a hate-filled soul.” The president and his wife, Jill, will “grieve with the community that lost ten lives in a senseless and horrific mass shooting,” according to the White House. Speaking Sunday in Washington, Biden said the U.S. Justice Department is investigating the shooting as “a hate crime, a racially motivated act of white supremacy and violent extremism.” “We must all work together to address the hate that remains a stain on the soul of America,” Biden said. U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres condemned the shooting, with his spokesman saying Sunday that Guterres was “appalled by the killing of 10 people in a vile act of racist violent extremism in Buffalo.” Authorities identified the 18-year-old shooter as Payton Gendron, of Conklin, New York, about 330 kilometers southeast of Buffalo. He is white and 11 of the 13 shooting victims were Black. Authorities said he carried out the attack while wearing military gear and livestreaming it with a helmet camera. He eventually dropped his weapon and surrendered to police inside the Tops Friendly Market, located in a predominantly Black neighborhood in the city of 255,000 people. Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown told CBS’s “Face the Nation” show Sunday that police “are going through every element, every detail in this shooter’s background to piece together why this happened, how this happened, and the reason that this person came to the city of Buffalo to perpetrate this horrific crime.” “We are certainly saddened that someone drove from hundreds of miles away, someone not from this community that did not know this community that came here to take as many Black lives as possible, who did this in a willful, premeditated fashion, planning this,” said Brown, who is Buffalo’s first Black mayor. “But we are a strong community, and we will keep moving forward,” he said. “This is a community that is experiencing development. People have been hoping and waiting for investment and growth and opportunity. We won’t let hateful ideology stop the progress that we are seeing and experiencing in the city of Buffalo.” As is often the case after mass shootings in the United States, Brown called on Congress to enact tougher gun control laws, saying, “We have to put more pressure on lawmakers in Washington, those that have been obstructionists, to sensible gun control, to reforming the way guns are allowed to proliferate and fall into the wrong hands in this country.” Such pleas after past mass shootings have mostly gone unheeded, with scant changes in gun control laws. Wearing a hospital gown, Gendron was arraigned in court Saturday night on first-degree murder charges and ordered detained without bail. Another court hearing is scheduled in the coming days. At an earlier news briefing, Erie County Sheriff John Garcia pointedly called the shooting a hate crime. “This was pure evil. It was straight up [a] racially motivated hate crime from somebody outside of our community, outside of the City of Good Neighbors … coming into our community and trying to inflict that evil upon us,” Garcia said. Investigators said they are reviewing a lengthy statement that they suspect was posted online by the gunman describing his white supremacist motivations and ideology. The 180-page document details the author’s radicalization on internet forums, as well as a plan to target a predominantly Black neighborhood. The author also described himself as a fascist and antisemite. The statement repeats a far-right conspiracy theory that baselessly argues that the white population in Western countries is being reduced — or “replaced” — by non-white immigrants. Mayor Brown said the combination of guns and such ideology is combustible. “It’s not just Buffalo, New York. It’s communities in every corner of this country that are unsafe with guns and with the hateful ideology that has been allowed to proliferate on social media and the internet,” he told CBS. “That has to be reined in. That has to be stopped. It’s not free speech. It’s not American speech. It’s hate speech. And it must be ended."

A man opened fire during a lunch reception at a Southern California church on Sunday, killing one person and wounding five senior citizens before being stopped and hog-tied by parishioners in what a sheriff's official called an act of “exceptional heroism and bravery.” Four of the five people wounded suffered critical gunshot injuries during the violence at Geneva Presbyterian Church in the city of Laguna Woods, Orange County Sheriff's Department officials said. The suspect in the shooting, an Asian man in his 60s, was in custody and deputies recovered two handguns at the scene, Undersheriff Jeff Hallock said. A motive for the shooting wasn't immediately known but investigators don't believe the gunman lives in the community, he said. The majority of those inside the church at the time were believed to be of Taiwanese descent, said Carrie Braun, a sheriff's spokesperson. Between 30 and 40 members of the Irvine Taiwanese Presbyterian Church were gathered for lunch after a morning church service at Geneva when gunfire erupted shortly before 1:30 p.m., officials said. When deputies arrived, parishioners had the gunman hog-tied and in custody. “That group of churchgoers displayed what we believe is exceptional heroism and bravery in intervening to stop the suspect. They undoubtedly prevented additional injuries and fatalities,” Hallock said. “I think it's safe to say that had people not intervened, it could have been much worse.” The wounded victims were four Asian men, who were 66, 75, 82, and 92 years old, and an 86-year-old Asian woman, the sheriff's department said. Authorities originally said only four of the five surviving victims had been shot. Information about the person who was killed was not immediately released. The investigation was in its early stages, Hallock said. He said the many unanswered questions include whether the assailant attended the church service, if he was known to church members, and how many shots were fired. The afternoon lunch reception was honoring a former pastor of the Taiwanese congregation, according to a statement from the Presbytery of Los Ranchos, a church administrative body. “Please keep the leadership of the Taiwanese congregation and Geneva in your prayers as they care for the those traumatized by this shooting,” the presbytery's Tom Cramer said in a statement on Facebook. Federal agents from the FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives responded. The FBI also sent agents to the scene to assist the sheriff. Laguna Woods was built as a senior living community and later became a city. More than 80% of residents in the city of 18,000 people about 80 kilometers southeast of Los Angeles are at least 65. Gov. Gavin Newsom's office said on Twitter that he was closely monitoring the situation. “No one should have to fear going to their place of worship. Our thoughts are with the victims, community, and all those impacted by this tragic event,” the tweet said. The incident occurred in an area with a cluster of houses of worship, including Catholic, Lutheran and Methodist churches and a Jewish synagogue. On its website, Geneva Presbyterian Church describes its mission as “to remember, tell, and live the way of Jesus by being just, kind, and humble.” “All are welcome here. Really, we mean that! Geneva aspires to be an inclusive congregation worshipping, learning, connecting, giving and serving together.” The shooting came a day after an 18-year-old man shot and killed 10 people at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York. “This is upsetting and disturbing news, especially less than a day after a mass shooting in Buffalo,” said U.S. Rep Katie Porter, whose district includes Laguna Woods. “This should not be our new normal. I will work hard to support the victims and their families.”

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North Korea reported more than 392,000 new fever cases detected Sunday, as an additional eight deaths brought the toll of known deaths in its “explosive” fever epidemic to 50, according to state media. Data released by official KCNA on Monday said a cumulative 1,213,550 people in the North had been sickened by the “fever of unknown origins,” since late April through 6 p.m. the previous day. More than half a million people were under medical treatment, while more than 648,630 others had recovered, it said. The number of confirmed COVID-19 patients had also risen to at least 168, North Korean state television KCTV said on Monday, belatedly reporting counts registered through 6 p.m. Saturday. It said Pyongyang remained the epicenter accounting for a quarter of the cases at 42, while 20 others were confirmed in North Pyongan Province, bordering China. Concerning deaths accounted for through Saturday, 22 were caused by symptoms and 17 medical side effects, KCTV said, and that more than half were people in their 50s and older. Among them were also six children under 10 years old. Another emergency meeting of the Workers’ Party political bureau was held Sunday, KCNA said, where leader Kim Jong Un heavily criticized a delay in the transfer of medicines from state reserves to pharmacies, which were instructed to be open 24-hours-a-day over the weekend. It said Kim issued an order to immediately mobilize the party’s Central Military Commission to help stabilize the supply of medicine in Pyongyang, including dispatching the “powerful forces of the People’s Army.” Kim also called for “vigilance in the acute anti-epidemic war,” reprimanding the Cabinet and public officials for their “irresponsible work attitude and executing ability.” North Korea raised its COVID-19 readiness to a “maximum emergency epidemic prevention system” last Thursday when for the first time in the pandemic, it recognized the presence of the “malicious virus” within its borders. Analysis of samples taken from a group of fever-ridden people in Pyongyang produced one case of the coronavirus subvariant BA.2, also known as the “stealth” omicron variant because it contains genetic mutations making it hard to discern from delta variant, health experts say. KCNA said, during an on-site inspection of local pharmacies later Sunday, Kim found them to be in sub-standard condition, lacking storage space other than the display cases and noting some pharmacists not wearing white gowns. KCTV over the weekend offered self-treatment advice such as keeping mouths clean by frequently rinsing with saltwater. Its main broadsheet, Rodong Sinmun, also encouraged people to eat fruits rich in vitamin C and to avoid grilled and oily foods that are harder to digest. Calling SOS China has sent an advance medical team into North Korea, according to a South Korean broadcaster YTN, in what would be the first dispatch of people across the China-North Korea border, mostly sealed since February 2020 due to the global outbreak of COVID-19. The team of around 10 people had been dispatched over the weekend after Pyongyang reached out for quarantine assistance, the YTN reported Monday citing unnamed sources in Beijing. Yonhap News also reported Sunday that the North had requested COVID-19 supplies and equipment from Beijing, though specifics were unknown. North Korea leader Kim Jong Un last Saturday had called on his officials to draw lessons from the experience of advanced countries, singling out China as having attained an “abundance” of quarantine achievements. New South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol in his first parliamentary address Monday reiterated his government’s willingness to send humanitarian assistance in the form of vaccines, medical supplies and medical personnel to North Korea. Should North Korea reach out for help, Seoul would not hold back on needed support, he said. A spokesperson at Seoul’s Unification Ministry, soon after the address, told reporters the agency would “swiftly” contact North Korea to determine what the reclusive state needs to fight the rapidly growing transmission of what is suspected to be COVID-19. He added the ministry conducted assessments over the weekend on what supplies are available and when they would be ready to be sent. The U.S. State Department said it had no plans to send direct medical assistance to North Korea, but that it would support a decision by COVAX — a global vaccine-sharing program led by the U.N. and other health organizations with the aim of donating COVID-19 vaccines to low- and middle-income countries — to allocate doses to Pyongyang. It urged North Korea to work with the international community to promptly vaccinate its estimated 26 million people.

Gunmen in Brazil opened fire outside a bar in the northern city of Altamira, killing four people and wounding four others, officials said Sunday. Security camera footage from the shooting late Saturday showed a crowd of patrons sitting at tables outside the bar when two attackers with handguns approached and shot multiple people, then ran away. Authorities are investigating the attack as a “possible conflict between criminal factions,” Para state Governor Helder Barbalho said in a statement. There have been at least 12 murders in Altamira in less than two weeks, including the latest shootings, according to local media reports. Authorities said they were investigating whether the crimes were related. Barbalho, who traveled to the city of 117,000 people Sunday, said he had launched a 50-officer task force to investigate. Para state has been the scene of bloody turf wars in the past between rival drug gangs and mafia-like militia groups.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Mali said Sunday it was withdrawing from a west African force fighting jihadists to protest its being rejected as head of the G5 regional group, which also includes Mauritania, Chad, Burkina and Niger.  "The government of Mali is deciding to withdraw from all the organs and bodies of the G5 Sahel, including the joint force" fighting the jihadists, it said in a statement.  The G5 Sahel was created in 2014 and its anti-jihadist force launched in 2017.  A conference of heads of state of the G5 Sahel scheduled for February 2022 in Bamako had been due to mark "the start of the Malian presidency of the G5."  But nearly four months after the mandate indicated this meeting "has still not taken place," the statement said.  Bamako "firmly rejects the argument of a G5 member state which advances the internal national political situation to reject Mali's exercising the G5 Sahel presidency," the statement said, without naming the country.  The Mali government said "the opposition of some G5 Sahel member states to Mali's presidency is linked to maneuvers by a state outside the region aiming desperately to isolate Mali," without naming that country.  Mali has been since January 9 the target of a series of economic and diplomatic sanctions from west African states to punish the military junta's bid to stay in power for several more years, following coups in August 2020 and May 2021.  The junta has opted for a two-year transition while the Economic Community of West African States has urged Bamako to organize elections in 16 months maximum.   Beyond Mali and Burkina, the G5 Sahel, composed of around 5,000 troops, includes Mauritania, Chad and Niger.  The military coups in Mali and Burkina Faso are undermining the regional force's opertional capacity, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a report to Security Council on May 11.  "I am deeply concerned by the rapidly deteriorating security situation in the Sahel, as well as by the potentially debilitating effect the uncertain political situation in Mali, Burkina Faso and beyond will have on efforts to further operationalize the G5-Sahel Joint Force," Guterres' report said. 

International Edition delivers insight into world news through eye-witnesses, correspondent reports and analysis from experts and news makers. We also keep you in touch with social media, science and entertainment trends.

Each morning, Daybreak Africa looks at the latest developments on the continent, starting with headline news and providing in-depth interviews, reports from VOA correspondents, sports news as well as listener comments.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Pope Francis on Sunday declared 10 people saints of the Roman Catholic Church, including an anti-Nazi Dutch priest murdered in the Dachau concentration camp and a French hermit monk assassinated in Algeria.    The 85-year-old pope, who has been using a wheelchair due to knee and leg pain, was driven to the altar at the start of the ceremony, which was attended by more than 50,000 people in St Peter's Square. It was the one of the largest gatherings there since the easing of COVID-19 restrictions earlier this year.    Francis limped to a chair behind the altar but stood to individually greet some participants. He read his homily while seated but stood during other parts of the Mass and read his homily in a strong voice, often going off script, and walked to greet cardinals afterwards.  Francis read the canonization proclamations while seated in front of the altar and 10 cheers went up in the crowd as he officially declared each of 10 saints.  Titus Brandsma, who was a member of the Carmelite religious order and served as president of the Catholic university at Nijmegen, began speaking out against Nazi ideology even before World War II and the German invasion of the Netherlands in 1940.  During the Nazi occupation, he spoke out against anti-Jewish laws. He urged Dutch Catholic newspapers not to print Nazi propaganda.  He was arrested in 1942 and held in Dutch jails before being taken to Dachau, near Munich, where he was subjected to biological experimentation and killed by lethal injection the same year at the age of 61. He is considered a martyr, having died because of what the Church calls "in hatred of the faith."  The other well-known new saint is Charles de Foucauld, a 19th century French nobleman, soldier, explorer, and geographer who later experienced a personal conversion and became a priest, living as a hermit among the poor Berbers in North Africa.  He published the first Tuareg-French dictionary and translated Tuareg poems into French. De Foucauld was killed during a kidnapping attempt by Bedouin tribal raiders in Algeria in 1916.  The other eight who were declared saints on Sunday included Devasahayam Pillai, who was killed for converting to Christianity in 18th century India, and Cesar de Bus, a 16th century French priest who founded a religious order.    The others were two Italian priests, three Italian nuns, and a French nun, all of whom who lived between the 16th and 20th centuries.  "These saints favored the spiritual and social growth of their nations and the whole human family, while sadly in the world today, distances are widening, tensions and wars are increasing," Francis said after the Mass.  World leaders had to be "protagonists of peace and not of war," he said in an apparent reference to Ukraine.  Miracles have been attributed to all the new saints.    The Roman Catholic Church teaches that only God performs miracles, but that saints, who are believed to be with God in heaven, intercede on behalf of people who pray to them.  Several other Catholics killed in Nazi concentration camps have already been declared saints. They include Polish priest Maximilian Kolbe and Sister Edith Stein, a German nun who converted from Judaism. Both were killed in the Auschwitz camp in Nazi-occupied Poland. 

Somalia’s parliament has reelected former President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud following marathon voting in Mogadishu on Sunday. The voting took place in the heavily guarded Mogadishu airport with African Union forces securing the tent inside a hangar, where the secret balloting took place. In a joint session of the two houses of the parliament, the Upper House and Lower House, 327 lawmakers cast ballots for 36 presidential candidates in three rounds of voting. Outgoing President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo and his immediate predecessor, Mohamud, competed in the final round of voting, needing a simple majority to win. It was a rematch of the 2017 election when Farmaajo beat Mohamud to become president. “Out of 327 parliamentarians who voted the final round, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud got 214 (votes), while President Farmaajo got 110, three votes spoiled,” Speaker Adan Mohamed Nur said. “He is the legitimate president from this hour.” Farmaajo congratulated Mohamud during a live broadcast on national television. “Thanks to Allah for allowing us to complete our election tonight. I thank those who voted for me and those who voted against me,” Farmaajo said. “I want to welcome my brother, the new president. Congratulations.” Mohamud was immediately sworn in. In a brief speech, Mohamud thanked Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble for leading the election process. Mohamud said he would not be looking to go against Farmaajo supporters. “There will be no revenge,” he said. “If we have differences, we will use the country’s laws to settle it.” Voting The voting went into the third round after no candidate won the two-thirds (220) majority required for a candidate to win outright in the first and second rounds. In the first round, Mohamud finished third, with 52 votes. But he finished on top in the second round with 110 votes. Farmaajo finished second in the first round with 59 votes, and 83 in the second round. The president of Somalia’s semi-autonomous Puntland region, Said Abdullahi Dani, and former Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire finished third and fourth in the race, respectively. Mohamud was president from September 2012 to February 2017. In his previous administration, he led with a “six pillar policy” plan topped by stability and the rule of law, peace-building, reconciliation, economic recovery and national unity. When he left power in February 2017, the main challenge to Somalia’s stability was the insurgent group al-Shabab. His successor failed to remove the al-Shabab threat, too. Earlier this month, the militant group attacked an Africa Union military base in the town of El-Baraf, killing at least 30 Burundian peacekeepers. Mohamud was born in the town of Jalalaqsi in the Hiran region in 1955. He graduated from Somali National University with a bachelor's degree in technology and received a master’s in technical education from Barkatullah University. He was awarded an honorary doctorate by the same school in 2015. In 1999, he cofounded the Somali Institute of Management and Administration Development (SIMAD) in Mogadishu, which later became one of the biggest universities in Mogadishu. In 2008, Mohamud was appointed as the CEO of Telecom Somalia. In 2011, he entered politics and established the independent Peace and Development Party (PDP), which elected him as the party's chair. In August 2012, Mohamud was selected as a member of parliament. The following month he was elected president of Somalia. Marathon election process Mohamud was elected by an indirect election as the country’s leaders could not agree on an election model. On February 20, 2020, Farmaajo signed a landmark election law that allowed popular voting. But it immediately hit a snag because the government did not control the entire country. Key Somali regional leaders and opposition politicians resisted the initiative, accusing Farmaajo of concentrating power at the center of the country and weakening the role of other regions. In June 2020, National Independent Election Commission (NIEC) chair Halima Ismail Ibrahim ruled out holding direct elections by Nov. 27, 2020, as scheduled, the date the parliament’s mandate expired. Halima gave the parliament two options: An electionbased on biometric registration that she proposed to take place in August 2021; and a manual-based registration that could have been held in March 2021. She cited that buying voting machines and election equipment, securing election centers and enacting a mass awareness campaign would take months to complete. That sparked a long political tussle that forced a return to the indirect election where clans and regional leaders played a role in who is elected to parliament. On Sept. 17, 2020, the sides agreed that elections would take place in two towns in each of the federal member states, and in Mogadishu. They also agreed that 101 electoral delegates would elect each lawmaker. The September 17 agreement faced a setback on April 12, 2021, when the Somali parliament controversially extended the mandate of the parliament and the president by two years. This led to violence in Mogadishu and condemnations by the international community. On May 1, the Somali lawmakers retreated from the controversial term extension plan and accepted a return to the Sept. 17 agreement. On that same day, Farmaajo handed over the security and management of the election process to Prime Minister Roble. On July 29, 2021, the first MP was elected. On May 6, 2022, the last MP was elected. Allegations of voter irregularities overshadowed the election process. The election results of at least four seats were nullified amid fraud concerns, two were later approved, one was recontested and one remains nullified. Roble himself admitted the election was not taking place as scheduled and fired several members of the election disputes resolution team. Challenges The new president faces the same challenges that has impeded the country’s progress. In addition to ongoing droughts and al-Shabab, the country’s federal system is not functioning properly. Ibrahim, the chair of the National Independent Electoral Committee, says key among the challenges is settling the constitution. “We have a federal system but it’s incomplete, the constitutional is incomplete,” she said. She also said the new president needs to work on making sure the Somali people directly elect the next president. She said the election model the country is going to adopt must be stated in the constitution. The other key challenge is tackling the country’s security problems. Al-Shabab has been fighting the Somali government for nearly 15 years. Jihan Abdullahi Hassan, former director of the Somali Ministry of Defense, said the new president must restore discipline among the military. “The army has mingled in politics,” she said. “The first task is to separate the army from the politics.” Jihan said the country needs a clear national security policy, better-equipped army and a unified front against al-Shabab. “Al-Shabab can be defeated,” she said. “The important thing is to have a well-defined overall national security policy between the federal government and the federal member states.”

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.