Police in the U.S. state of Virginia say 12 people have been killed and six others wounded in a shooting at a municipal building in Virginia Beach. Authorities say the suspected shooter is dead. It is not clear if the gunman took his own life or was killed by police. The city’s police chief, James Cervera, said the suspect was a longtime current municipal employee and described him as “disgruntled.” He said one police officer was among the wounded. Police say the shooting took place Friday at Building Two of the Virginia Beach municipal complex, which houses the city’s public works, public utilities and planning departments. “This is the most devastating day in the history of Virginia Beach,” Mayor Bobby Dyer said at a news conference with the police chief. “The people involved are our friends, co-workers, neighbors, colleagues.” Few other details about the shooting were immediately available. …

A prominent exiled Russian opposition figure says recently leaked documents show Russian meddling in U.S. affairs was more sophisticated, ambitious and potentially more dire than the social media influence campaigns during the 2016 election.    First reported by NBC, the documents involve Kremlin-linked oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin and other figures whom special prosecutor Robert Mueller has already indicted for interfering in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Released by Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s London-based Dossier Center, the latest communications reveal a 2018 plot to radicalize African-Americans, stoke violence and train politically disaffected ethnic minorities to carry out domestic terror attacks ahead of the 2020 U.S. elections.    Khodorkovsky, a self-exiled Russian oligarch-turned-Kremlin opponent, told VOA’s Russian service in a Skype interview that the material suggests a drastic escalation of Russian meddling in U.S. affairs. “From a legal point of view, there are sufficient grounds to declare an investigation” of an international criminal conspiracy, Khodorkovsky said. “If I were …

Missouri’s only abortion clinic will stay open at least a few more days after a judge on Friday granted a request by Planned Parenthood for a temporary restraining order, allowing the facility to keep operating until a hearing on Tuesday. Planned Parenthood sued Missouri this week after state health officials said the license for Reproductive Health Services of Planned Parenthood in St. Louis was in jeopardy, meaning the clinic could have closed at midnight unless the judge granted the request for a temporary restraining order. “Today is a victory for women across Missouri, but this fight is far from over,” Planned Parenthood President Leana Wen said in a statement after Circuit Court Judge Michael Stelzer agreed to the organization’s request. Representatives for the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services could not immediately be reached for comment. Health officials had refused to renew the clinic’s license because, they said, they …

Americans are getting older and family size is shrinking, which means the nation will have fewer working-age adults going forward. “I think it is a cause for concern if we are calibrating our expectations of having a strongly growing population,” says David Kelly, chief global strategist for JP Morgan Asset Management. “If you’re investing in things like the housing industry or the auto industry and you need an ever-growing population, then you have to adjust to a world in which the U.S. population is growing more slowly.” By 2030, one in five U.S. residents — 20%— will be older than 65, compared with 13% in 2010 and just under 10% in 1970. Various studies show that not only does an aging population cut into economic growth, but older workers who stay in the workforce tend to be less productive. Meanwhile, as Americans age, the U.S. birth rate dropped to a …

VOA News Center Associate Producer Jesusemen Oni contributed reporting from Washington.  WASHINGTON — Mexico’s foreign minister says he has starting negotiating with U.S. officials after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to impose tariffs on Mexican products related to the migrant surge at the border. Marcelo Ebrard said on Twitter Friday that he had spoken to U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo by phone and said face-to-face talks between the two would take place Wednesday in Washington. “The summit to resolve the U.S. dispute with our country will be on Wednesday in Washington,” Ebrard said. “We will be firm and defend the dignity of Mexico.” Earlier Friday, Mexico’s president responded to the U.S. tariff threats with caution urging “dialogue” over “coercive measures.” “I want to reiterate that we are not going to fall into any provocation; but we are going to be prudent, and we are going to respect the authorities of the …

In a surprise announcement that could derail a major trade deal, President Donald Trump says he is placing a 5% tariff on all Mexican imports, effective June 10, to pressure the country to do more to crack down on the surge of Central American migrants trying to cross the U.S. border.   He said the percentage will gradually increase – up to 25% – “until the Illegal Immigration problem is remedied.”   The decision showed the administration going to new lengths, and looking for new levers, to pressure Mexico to take action – even if those risk upending other policy priorities, like the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, a trade deal that is the cornerstone of Trump’s legislative agenda and seen as beneficial to his reelection effort. It also risks further damaging the already strained relationship between the U.S. and Mexico, two countries whose economies are deeply intertwined.   Trump made the …

Police raids on the home and office of a San Francisco reporter have sparked a debate over press freedoms, and led to calls for the resignation of the city’s police chief.   The raids, which occurred on May 10, were the result of a police report leaked to freelance journalist Bryan Carmody. The reporter was kept in handcuffs for more than five hours as police seized his cellphones, flash drives, cameras and computers.   The leaked report concerned the death in February of the city’s public defender, Jeff Adachi, a frequent critic of the San Francisco Police Department. An autopsy found that Adachi’s death at age 59 was caused by cocaine and alcohol, aggravating a heart condition. The report allegedly contained salacious details of Adachi’s last hours.   Police Chief Bill Scott initially defended the raids, which were conducted under several warrants, and accused Carmody of involvement in a conspiracy …

An appeals court says it will speedily consider President Donald Trump’s challenge to congressional subpoenas seeking financial records from two banks he did business with. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan issued a brief order Friday setting a schedule for written arguments to be submitted by July 18, with oral arguments to soon follow. Lawyers on both sides in the dispute had recommended the expedited schedule after U.S. District Judge Edgardo Ramos (RAY-mohs) ruled nine days ago that Trump, his family and his companies were unlikely to succeed in their lawsuit. Trump sued to stop the House Financial Services and Intelligence committees from getting documents from Deutsche Bank and Capital One. The Lawsuit said the requests were unlawful and unconstitutional. …

U.S. officials are touting a “measurable decrease” in the number of U.S. troops in Syria, though they refuse to say just how many remain in the country to aid in the fight against remnants of the Islamic State terror group. The director of the Pentagon’s Defeat IS Task Force, Chris Maier, became the latest official to weigh in on troop levels, describing the withdrawal only in general terms. “It’s been a measurable decrease,” he told reporters late Thursday. “The number of U.S. forces that are present now is quite a bit lower than when the drawdown began. “U.S. force numbers will continue to draw down as conditions continue to, we hope, improve,” he added. Maier’s comments come just over a week after the U.S. Special Representative for Syria, Ambassador James Jeffrey, told U.S. lawmakers the number of troops in Syria was “considerably fewer” than it was in December, when President …

Lawyers for former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning are renewing efforts to get her released from a northern Virginia jail. Manning’s lawyers filed court papers Friday asking a federal judge to reconsider his decision to send Manning to the Alexandria jail for refusing to testify to a grand jury investigating WikiLeaks. The motion argues that a new indictment of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on espionage charges makes Manning’s testimony irrelevant. “What remains to be seen is whether the government can claim with a straight face to have an ongoing need for her testimony,” lawyers Moira Meltzer-Cohen, Sandra Freeman, and Christopher Leibig wrote in their motion. Manning has been jailed for civil contempt since May 16. She could remain in jail for up to 18 months — the length of the grand-jury term. Judge Anthony Trenga also ordered fines of $500 a day to kick in after 30 days of confinement …

A Navy SEAL platoon leader court-martialed on war crimes charges was released by a military judge from base confinement in San Diego Thursday, 11 days before he is to stand trial in a case that has attracted the attention of President Donald Trump. The Navy captain presiding over the case ordered Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher freed from custody at the end of a five-hour pretrial hearing on several defense motions stemming from his lawyers’ accusations of prosecutorial misconduct. Gallagher’s team contends that Navy prosecutors and their investigators illegally snooped on the defense and reporters in a transgression that merits dismissal of the charges or disqualification of the lead prosecutor from the case. ​Back in court Friday The judge, Captain Aaron Rugh, adjourned the hearing for the day without ruling on those requests. Instead, to the apparent surprise of everyone present, the judge said he was ordering Gallagher’s release as …

A U.S. congressional bill to sanction companies that help China’s expansion in a disputed Asian sea is expected to spark retaliation, if passed, without stopping Chinese maritime activity. China might impose its own sanctions on U.S. companies or individuals or make it harder for them to operate in China, analysts say. The bill pending in the Senate would not change Beijing’s course in the contested waterway, the South China Sea, they add. Beijing claims about 90% of the 3.5 million-square-kilometer sea. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam contest the Chinese claims, particularly in waters overlapping exclusive economic zones. Since 2010, China has angered the other governments by landfilling small sea islets for military use. Chinese officials cite historical usage records to back their sovereignty claims. “China would certainly be expected to retaliate. They could impose their own sanctions against U.S. companies and U.S. business as well,” said Jay Batongbacal, …

A Republican redistricting expert advocated for adding a citizenship question to the 2020 census to give an electoral edge to white people and Republicans, opponents of the move alleged in a court filing Thursday. The filing in Manhattan federal court said a trove of newly discovered documents revealed that Thomas Hofeller, a longtime Republican gerrymandering guru, played a key role in pushing the Trump administration to include a citizenship question on the census for the first time since 1950. GOP strategist Lawyers for opponents of adding the question said the files, found on Hofeller’s computer drives after he died last year, also showed that he contributed vital language to a Justice Department letter used to justify the question on the grounds that it was needed to protect minority voting rights. In reality, the lawyers argued, the documents show the census change is part of a wider Republican effort to restrict …

Government health officials say there have been 971 cases of measles in the United States so far this year, the most cases since 1994, when there were 963 cases for the entire year. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday if current outbreaks in and around New York City continue into the fall, the United States could lose its status as a country that has eliminated measles. “That loss would be a huge blow for the nation and erase the hard work done by all levels of public health,” a CDC statement said. Measles was declared eliminated in the U.S. in 2000, and the CDC says one of the primary reasons is the availability and widespread use of a safe and effective vaccine. Fighting anti-vaccine propaganda The CDC, World Health Organization, and other experts are fighting propaganda from parents and anti-vaccine activists who refuse to inoculate their children, …

If there is one thing highlighted by Ramy, a Hulu show about an Arab American Muslim millennial, it is that there are generational differences between the more traditional Arab Muslims who immigrated to America and those who were born and grew up here.    “I was the first generation trying to marry the two worlds and see how people from my culture, who see this comedy, react to my interpretation of being an American Muslim and my dilemmas as a millennial,” said comedian Ramy Youssef, who wrote and stars in the new comedy that is roughly based on his life.    The comedian describes his show as funny, darkly satirical and down to earth, aiming to dispel stereotypes about Muslims in America. Ramy is a 10-episode series that follows a young Arab American Muslim as he tries to define his moral compass while juggling family relationships, romance and job security — or the lack …

A group of detained asylum-seekers sued the U.S. government Thursday claiming immigration officials in five Southern states are systematically denying them parole. In the second lawsuit of its kind filed against the Trump administration, legal advocacy groups representing 12 plaintiffs are seeking class action status on behalf of hundreds of asylum seekers being held in detention centers in Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee. In addition to Central American migrants, the plaintiffs include a member of a Cameroonian opposition party and Cuban and Venezuelan political dissidents. Migrants who arrive at U.S. ports of entry and ask for refuge in the United States are not eligible for bond hearings in front of a judge, but they can be released from detention on parole for humanitarian reasons under a 2009 U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) policy. Denying parole The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., by the American …

The Trump administration has renewed a push to overhaul America’s oft-criticized immigration system amid an accelerating surge of Central American migrants and asylum-seekers arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border. In one effort to end illegal immigration, President Donald Trump tweeted late Thursday the U.S. would begin imposing a rising tariff on Mexican imports until the “illegal migrants” stop trying traveling through the country to reach America. VOA’s Michael Bowman reports. …

The United States is giving Mexico 10 days to stop illegal migrants from heading north or the country will be slapped with tariffs on all of its products.   U.S. President Donald Trump made the announcement in a tweet Thursday evening. “On June 10th, the United States will impose a 5% Tariff on all goods coming into our Country from Mexico, until such time as illegal migrants coming through Mexico, and into our Country, STOP,” Trump tweeted. Until “the illegal immigration problem is remedied,” tariffs will continue to rise monthly, going as high as 25% by October 1. “Mexico’s passive cooperation in allowing this mass incursion constitutes an emergency and extraordinary threat to the national security and economy of the United States,” Trump said in a subsequent statement. “Mexico has very strong immigration laws and could easily halt the illegal flow of migrants, including by returning them to their home countries.”  Mexico’s deputy …

The Trump administration is committed to making fossil fuels cleaner rather than imposing “draconian” regulations on coal and oil, U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry said Thursday at an energy conference in Salt Lake City. Perry previously said the administration wants to spend $500 million next year on fossil fuel research and development as demand plummets for coal and surges for natural gas.    “Instead of punishing fuels that produce emissions through regulation, we’re seeking to reduce those emissions by innovation,” Perry said at the conference. Fossil fuel emissions have been cited by scientists as a major source of global warming.    U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres recently said the world must change how it fuels factories, vehicles and homes to limit future global warming. Perry said the Trump administration has proven it can make energy cleaner, but he provided no details involving coal and other fossil fuels, other than the closing …

Turkey’s currency surged Thursday on rising speculation a looming crisis could be averted between Ankara and Washington. The revived optimism follows a telephone conversation between President Donald Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The Wednesday call came as Washington threatens to impose sanctions on its NATO ally over Ankara’s procurement of the Russian S-400 missile system. Washington says the missiles threaten to compromise NATO defense systems, especially the United States’ latest F-35 fighter jets. In talks with Trump, Erdogan sought to allay such concerns. “The [Turkish] President has reiterated an earlier offer for the formation of a joint working group on Turkey’s plan to procure the S-400 defense system from the Russian Federation,” tweeted Fahrettin Altun, Turkey’s presidential communications director. Ankara insists steps can be taken to ensure the S-400 doesn’t compromise NATO security. U.S. officials have been skeptical of such claims, but both presidents appear committed to dialogue. …