From Washington, this is VOA news. I'm David DeForest reporting. Britain has a new leader.

Theresa May became Britain's new prime minister on Wednesday and immediately put together a new cabinet.

"As we leave the European Union, we will forge a bold, new, positive role for ourselves in the world, and we will make Britain a country that works not for a privileged few but for every one of us."

David Davis will take the newly formed job of minister in charge of negotiations with the EU. Those talks are expected to take as long as two years.

In a surprise choice, she named former London Mayor Boris Johnson as her foreign secretary. Johnson led the campaign to drop out of the European Union.

Ms. May also appointed other Brexit supporters to major cabinet posts, including former Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond as finance minister and Amber Rudd to her old job of home secretary.

The United States has launched a new trade enforcement action against China at the World Trade Organization. The action was taken because China charges export duties on nine raw materials. That makes those more expensive for U.S. manufacturers.

The U.S. military has deployed about 40 soldiers to South Sudan's capital following days of fighting that has left hundreds of people dead and raised fears of renewed civil war.

The military's Africa Command says the troops were sent to Juba to safeguard the U.S. embassy and help carry out a State Department order for non-essential personnel to leave the country.

The United Nations peacekeeping chief has urged the Security Council to consider imposing an arms embargo on South Sudan.

Hervé Ladsous reiterated secretary Ban Ki-moon's call for targeted sanctions on South Sudanese leaders and military commanders.

This is VOA news.

New public opinion polling in key U.S. states shows Republican Donald Trump is gaining ground on Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Quinnipiac University said Wednesday its recent surveys showed Trump with a 42-39 percent lead in Florida, reversing an 8-point Clinton edge three weeks ago.

The pollster said Trump has pulled to a 43-41 lead in Pennsylvania, where Clinton had previously been up by one point.

The two candidates remain tied in a third state, Ohio.

Funerals for three of the five police officers killed in last week's sniper attack in Dallas, Texas, were held Wednesday. Hundreds of law enforcement officials paid their last respects to their fallen comrades.

The NATO-Russia Council met Wednesday in Brussels.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the [address] meeting address the crisis in Ukraine. He told reporters that there was no meeting of the minds and that NATO does not and will not recognize Russia's annexation of Crimea.

"Russia also raised a proposal on air safety in the Baltic Sea. Allies will study this proposal carefully."

The council was set up 14 years ago to help avert crises between NATO nations and Russia.

The chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, NBC Universal executive Jeff Shell, was denied entry to Russia and detained for several hours when he flew to Moscow on business this week.

The chairman of the agency that oversees the Voice of America and other U.S. government broadcasters was pulled out of a line of people who had just arrived Tuesday in Moscow.

Shell says he was detained for two hours in a locked room before authorities put him on a flight to Amsterdam.

The BBG chairman told colleagues he was told he was being denied entry to Russia permanently and now is subject to a life-time ban.

Iraqi officials say at least eight people were killed and 11 wounded when a suicide bomber blew up a car at a police checkpoint north of Baghdad.

The bomber reportedly slammed the vehicle into a checkpoint Wednesday in the al-Rashidiya district, a predominantly Shiite neighborhood. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility.

The Taliban is dismissing as "empty talk" a U.S. military announcement that it would base hundreds of extra troops close to Afghanistan (and) that the troops would be ready to deploy [if] to the war zone if needed.

The Islamist insurgency's statement came a day after the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan revealed that about 400 American troops will be placed, in his words, "over the horizon."

In Washington, I'm David DeForest.

That's the latest world news from VOA.