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This is VOA News. Reporting by remote, I'm David Byrd. Presidents Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin held their first summit on Wednesday, with both men saying the talks were constructive and straightforward. We get more from AP's Sagar Meghani. In Geneva, both leaders described constructive talks lasting about three hours. "There were no threats, just simple assertions." Through an interpreter, Putin says he and the president generally spoke the same language. "I think there was no hostility, quite the contrary." They'd agreed to return their ambassadors to Washington and Moscow and work toward a new nuclear arms treaty. But there's sharp disagreement on cyberattacks. Putin denies Russia is involved while U.S. intelligence indicates otherwise. The president says he made clear attacks on major American infrastructure are unacceptable. "Whether I stopped it from happening again, he knows I will take action." Sagar Meghani, Washington.
The U.S. Federal Reserve signaled Wednesday that it might act sooner than previously planned to start dialing back the low-interest-rate policies that have helped fuel a swift rebound from the pandemic recession but have also coincided with rising inflation. The Fed's policymakers forecast that they would raise their benchmark short-term rate, which influences many consumer and business loans, twice by late 2023. They had previously estimated that no rate hike would occur before 2024. In a statement after its latest policy meeting, the FED also said it expects the pandemic to have a diminishing effect on the economy as vaccinations increase, thereby allowing for more growth. The news from the Federal Reserve unnerved investors on Wall Street. The Dow Jones Industrials dropped .77 percent, the S&P 500 lost .54 percent while the NASDAQ fell by .24 percent. This is VOA News.
