Indaba zesiNdebele Ekuseni - Voice of America
Indaba zesiNdebele Ekuseni - July 16, 2024
force for the years. This is the elay news. I'm Tommy McNeil. The White House Party on Monday, or should say the Republican Party on Monday officially nominated former President Donald Trump to run again for the White House at the start of the party's national convention in Milwaukee, Donald Trump's son, Eric, represented the state of Florida. And the wake of the assassination attempt Trump said he is revising his acceptance speech to emphasize national unity rather than highlight his differences with President Joe Biden. Trump victory in the U.S. November elections would put into question Washington's continued support for Ukraine as its war against Russia drags on by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Monday he was not concerned about that prospect. Trump has been noncommittal about continued support for Ukraine if he were elected during his debate with U.S. President Joe Biden. Trump indicated he felt the U.S. was spending too much on the war in Ukraine. And following a meeting with Trump earlier this year, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, said Trump assured him aid to Ukraine would stop if he were elected. But speaking in a news conference in Kyiv Monday, Zelensky said he was not afraid of a Trump presidency. Zelensky said he met with several Republican governors while in Washington last week for the NATO summit and said he was assured of the party's backing. Jeff Kuster, the U.A. News. European Commission says that the Commission President and other top EU officials will boycott informal meetings hosted by Hungary while the country holds the EU's rotating presidency. This is the U.A. News. European Union's foreign policy chief, Joseph Orell, said that he described Israel's massive air strike over the weekend as an unbearable and unacceptable event. Israel said that it targeted Hamas's shadowy military commander, Mohammad Dif, in a strike Saturday in the crowd at southern Gaza Strip that killed at least 90 people, including children. Speaking in Brussels at a joint news conference with Jordan's foreign minister who is in Brussels to attend the 15th EU, Jordan Council meeting, Burelle said that the rise in civilian casualties must end. The massive bombing with heavy death toll in Magwasia refugee camp on Saturday is unbearable and acceptable. The constant rise of the number of civilian casualties, I said, is unbearable and underlined the urgency of establishing ceasefire. At least 300 people were wounded in Saturday's strike. One of the deadliest in the nine-month war sparked by Hamas's October 7th assault on southern Israel that killed about 1200 people, mostly civilians, and took more than 200 hostage. 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. That's according to Parliament speaker on Monday, David Doyle with Reuters. The bill had sparked a public debate around the practice of the Muslim majority country. The lawmaker who took the proposal to Parliament, Al-Mannejiba, 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 a third and final reading scheduled for later this month. Around 30 lawmakers voted against each clause, prompting the speaker, Fabbakari Tombungjata, to stop the bill moving forward to the final reading. President Paul Kagami has won 99% of the vote and provisional results from Rwanda's presidential election. According to election authorities, it's an outcome that was widely expected as a country's longtime ruler aims to extend his three-decade grip on power as opponents were collectively getting under 1% of the vote and provisional results accounting for 79% of all ballots cast. Result mirrored the outcome in 2017 when Kagami took nearly 99% of the vote. Final results are expected by July 27th, although it could be announced sooner. I'm Tommy McNeil, VOA News. Donald Trump picks U.S. Senator JD Vance as his vice presidential candidate. Hey, I'm super excited about JD Vance, he's a business man. We have two great business men, and that's what our country needs, we need business leaders. A federal judge throws out the stolen documents case against Trump. This is a huge win for Donald Trump, but it also affects the appointment of special councils in other cases. Hunter Biden is being prosecuted by special counsel David Weiss, an honoring the former fire chief who was killed while shielding his daughters during the Trump rally. He wouldn't want us to sit here and be sad, but he would hate it. Today is Tuesday, July 16th, and this is the OA's International Edition. I'm Scott Walterman, it is my honor to nominate Donald J. Trump for the office of the United States. President ever to be twice and peached and twice acquitted in the country's only ex-president convicted of criminal charges, he has often struggled to stay afloat. His blunders, multitude of scandals, vitriolic statements have shocked millions of Americans. Many heads of state see him as a danger to global stability and the fight against global warming. He has stood accused of indulging far-right groups and disparaging immigrants, but each time he is said to be sunk, he roars back to the surface, and this week he is riding very high. On Monday, the Republican National Convention overlooked Trump's vows of vengeance against his political enemies and swatted aside his various legal woes to formally nominate him as the party's flagbearer going into the November election against President Joe Biden. He triumphantly entered the convention hall where the convention is taking place in Milwaukee. His first appearance since the assassination attempt this past weekend, joining us now from the convention hall in Milwaukee, is VOA's Carolyn Prusudy. What was it like when Trump walked into the convention hall? Thunderous, applause, cheers, people pulling out their phones, reaching around others to get that all-important photo of the former president coming into the room, but not just coming into the RNC, the Republican National Convention, but also his first appearance since being the target of that attempted assassination. After that, it was interesting because they actually had the camera on him on the jumbo shrine before he even got to his seat in the bleacher, and that's when the people in their seats, the delegates realized that he was in the arena, and that's when the applause of the accused began. I saw that when he walked up on stage, there were a number of people on stage. He went down the line of everyone who was there shook hands, waved to the crowd. You could hear the chanting, "Fight, fight, fight," and USA, and we loved Trump. We could see the convention center explode. Absolutely, and those mantras continue all during the rest of the speeches. In fact, at one point, they said, they started chanting, "We want Trump. We want Trump," and for a second, I thought he may then go to the stage and speak, but we always knew that he wasn't on the schedule, he wasn't expected to speak tonight, nor was J.D. Vance his new VP pick. So he stayed in the seat, he stood a lot, he waved a lot. I think his supporters really got what they needed tonight to get them through the next couple of days until they hear him when he officially accepted the nomination. How did he look? Oh, he looked great. He had a bandage over his right ear, and the bandage was white, and it covered his ear entirely, but he looked, you know, with his same reddish complexion. He looked fine, he looked healthy, and he wasn't pale at all, and he was energetic. He was always standing up and sitting down at pertinent times during the speeches. He was looking at J.D. Vance, shaking J.D. Vance's hand, pulling him in. He was on the jumbotron quite a bit during the rest of the speeches, and a lot of people referenced him in the stands. But I assume that this just really amped everything up in Milwaukee tonight. Absolutely, and I can tell you, these delegates are going to their hotels and won't be able to sleep, because I'm sure their adrenaline is racing. I mean, I don't know when this arena will be cleared out. You know, you can hear the music behind me. I don't know when the band was stopped playing, but people are throwing their seats there, so talking everybody, they're grabbing their signs that leave Trump. They're not really hurrying toward the exit. Well, this was the big thing. This is what they were waiting for, and you're not wrong. It's the first time we've seen him since the assassination attempt, say what you will, who knows how to put on a show. Absolutely. This is what they needed. They really needed to see Trump the first night of the convention. They really did. They needed to know that he was okay. They needed to know he was healthy, because of course, all we have heard from him or seen from him is a true social post, that he was okay, and that he was lying into Milwaukee last night, which he did. So these supporters, these delegates really needed to see him in person. And now they saw him. They appreciate the energy he had and the response he had to everyone. And now they can continue throughout their week now supporting all the speakers, supporting the platform, and being energized by being a delegate for the Republican Party. All right, VOA's Carolyn Prusudy in Milwaukee in the convention center. Thank you for the update. Absolutely. As we just heard from Carolyn, Trump announced his selection of U.S. Senator J.D. Vance as his vice presidential nominee. Joining us now to talk about that is John Mark Hansen, a professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Chicago. Let's start at the beginning. Explain to people who aren't as familiar with the process of American elections. Why? What are the reasons you pick a vice president? Well, traditionally it was to balance the ticket as it's called, which means selecting a vice presidential nominee who either comes from a different region of the country, or comes from a different part of the party, a different faction of the party. So why J.D. Vance? I assume that the choice of Vance is in part with the idea that Vance is someone who could help appeal to sling voters in neighboring states in the Midwest, in the old Rust Belt, particularly in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, those areas right around Ohio. The evidence we have actually suggests that the vice presidential pick is useful only in states that are the home state of the vice presidential nominee. And we've lately seen presidents really depart from that, and instead try to pick someone with whom they just feel a great deal of comfort. I would assume that that is what's happening here, overall, more than anything, because given the nature of the relationship between Donald Trump and his base, did it really matter who he picked as vice president? I don't really think so. The loyalty is to Donald Trump. There's a kind of cultish aspect to the Republican Party these days, and particularly to the MAGA crowd that make America great again, crowd, where what really matters is Donald Trump, and everything else is kind of ancillary to that. He is young. He's going to be if elected the second youngest vice president going into office, isn't that? I think that's true. It could well be. I think the youngest was Theodore Roosevelt. He would be very young. He's only a first term senator. He's only been serving for a couple of years. He's someone who has, shall we say, well, I'm not sure I can use this word on your broadcast, but sucked up to President Trump to put it plainly. Someone who has gone out of his way to flatter Trump and to parrot the things that Trump says in an even stronger language. He started as a never-trumper, and has even said that he regrets saying the things he said against former President Trump at the time, but he has made that circle like most of the other people in the party, many of whom started as a never-trumper, and then came around. Yes, that's true. He was a never-trumper, and so were several of the other people that he was considering for the vice presidential nomination, thinking in particular Marco Rubio from Florida. We're very critical of Trump when he ran in 2016, and Rubio, of course, ran against Trump in 2016. Trump also seems to delight, though, in having in his presence people who have been willing to abase themselves to him, put it that way. What would you guess Vance's role on the campaign trail is going to be? Well, the thing that, you know, the thing that's out there, of course, is the assassination attempt two days ago on President Trump in Pennsylvania, and the result of that, according to Donald Trump, is that he's going to try to hit notes of unity and the nation coming together behind the leadership of Donald Trump. But of course, the comments that Senator Vance made about the shooting were hardly, let's come together, kind of comments. He was even more extreme than most in basically saying that the assassination attempt was a Democratic party plot to kill Donald Trump, for which there's absolutely no evidence. And I would be absolutely shocked if there are any evidence that it was even a plot, as opposed to the work of a very unhappy young man. So the choice of Vance, in that respect, kind of cuts against this new message that he wants to give. And maybe that means that he's just wanting a vice president who does the traditional vice presidential role, which is to be the attack dog, and allows the president then to sort of float above all of the divisiveness and the criticism of the campaign. Although, given Donald Trump's persona, I think it's going to be very, very hard for him to avoid mucking into that himself. All right, well, we shall see, shall we? Yes, we will. It's going to be a hard few months. Thank you so very much for the time. Yeah, thank you. John Mark Hanson, a professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Chicago. As is the case with all national political conventions, there are protesters in Milwaukee. It needs to be needed to be taken back. Our country is being threatened, with someone who can reason and as followers, and we get our country to keep our country safe. Organizers said about 3,500 people from across the U.S. rallied in response to the, quote, GOP agenda. Donald Trump received good news on Monday. The dismissal of his classified documents case, a federal judge in Florida dismissed the case and with us now to talk about the case is Harold Crint, a professor of law at Chicago Kent College of Law. So let's start at the very top, explain this ruling to us so that we can understand it. Sure, the Constitution allows the president to appoint subordinates within the executive branch and there are two types or classifications of officers of the United States. The first is superior officers and only the president can appoint superior officers. The second level is called an inferior office with less importance and Congress can choose whether to give the president that authority to appoint an inferior officer or rather allow the heads of the department or the courts of law to appoint an inferior officer in the executive branch. And in this case, the Judge Cannon focused on the fact that she thought that the special counsel was more likely an inferior officer than a superior officer, so she hedged a bit and said that if that's true, then the attorney general Merritt Garland could only appoint the special counsel, Jack Smith, if there was a statute from Congress empowering him to do so and therefore she concluded that there was a no constitutional authority for the appointment of the special counsel. Is it unusual? Is this an unusual ruling? So there have been several clashes with respect to the status of special counsels in the past. Most notably, they're the Supreme Court's decision in Morrison v. Olson, which had to do with the special counsel the generation ago appointed. The court investigated whether or not it was constitutional for the attorney general in that case for the special court to appoint an independent counsel to pursue an investigation of a covered executive official. That was under the independent counsel statute, which has since expired. Since then there was a struggle with respect to the special counsel appointed to investigate President Trump during his office for his Russia-related duties. And so these challenges have percolated over the past. And just I could add that if you looked simply at the statutes, you could say it's not clear whether Congress exercises authority to give the attorney general the power to appoint a special counsel in this context. But if you look at the history of special counsels have been appointed for the last 50 years, including the fact that there was a special counsel appointed to investigate President Nixon, and that case went up all the way to the Supreme Court in the case by the name of the United States v. Nixon, as a matter of history, a one would have thought that the special counsel would have been on firm ground. So that's the surprise of this case is that we have perhaps not an unbroken history of use of special counsels to prosecute high-level officials, including most recently Hunter Biden. But the fact that the fact that she departed from this relatively strong history of prior attorney general appointments of special counsel. Well, speaking of the Hunter Biden special prosecutor, she ruled that this was a one-off not to apply to any other cases. Explain that. So she has an authority to apply this ruling to other cases. But if you are Hunter Biden, and if your appeal is still not final, if he asks me, I would advise him to see if he could raise this issue on appeal from his conviction and throw it out on that basis. And will I assume the government will appeal this case? Where do they go? Because the government will appeal and in two things in terms of what comes next. The first is that there is no double jeopardy attaching in this case. So if the ruling is eventually overturned, expression in Trump can still be subject to investigation for the obstruction charges relating from what he did at Mar-a-Lago. The second thing is it doesn't really affect the timing because it was very unlikely for this case to go ahead prior to the election anyway. Very interesting. Thank you so much for the time and the explanation so that we could understand it. Sure. I'm glad I was at least of marginal help and take care. Bye-bye. Harold Crint, a professor of law at Chicago Kent College of Law. Now to follow up on the assassination attempt from the weekend, the FBI has given us an update and says that their technical specialists have gained access to Thomas Matthew Crook's phone and they continue to analyze his electronics devices. The search of his home and vehicle are complete. The FBI says they've conducted about 100 interviews of law enforcement personnel, event attendees and other witnesses and they've also received hundreds of digital media tips that include photos and videos taken at the scene. US President Joe Biden did a sit-down interview with NBC News and its main anchor Lester Holt, its Biden's first interview since the assassination attempt on Trump. Biden said it was a mistake for him to urge supporters to put Republican rival Donald Trump in the bullseye but he says he does not use inflammatory language while Trump does. How do you talk about the threat to democracy which is real when a president says things like he says to just not saying he's a main site somebody? Look I'm not engaged in that rhetoric. Now my opponent is engaged in that rhetoric. He talks about it to be a bloodbath if he loses, talking about how he's going to forgive all those I guess to spend the sentences of all those who were arrested and sentenced to go to jail because what happened is in the Capitol. I'm not out there making fun of like when I remember the picture of Donald Trump when Nancy Pelosi's husband was hit with the hammer going talking about joking about it. Biden also said it was okay to have his age questioned but that he was sure he was up for the job and would prove it over the coming months. The idea that I'm the old guy I am I'm old but I'm only three years older than Trump. Number one and number two my mental security has been pretty damn good. I've gotten more done than any president has in a long long time in three and a half years so I'm willing to be judged on that. I understand I understand why people say God he's 81 years old. What's he going to be when he's 83 years old or 84 years old? So legitimate question for the ask. President Joe Biden on NBC News interviewed by Lester Holt and finally we're going to look at as positive as possible. He's a great man that deserves honor and respect in the highest of high. The local community is mourning the loss of former fire chief Corey Camparator who was tragically killed while shielding his daughters during a shooting at that Trump rally in Butler County on Saturday. Craig Chair and Choney served alongside Camparator at the Buffalo Township Volunteer Fire Company. He wouldn't want us to sit here and be sad. He would hate it from what I've gotten known him and just hear another people talk it's the last thing he'd want. The firehouse has draped his gear in black and displayed it as a memorial. Meanwhile the local community is rallied around the family. A GoFundMe campaign is raised over $150,000 to support them. This has been international edition on the Voice of America. On behalf of everyone at the OA, thank you so much for spending this time with us. Follow VOA News on your favorite social media platform and on our website at loynews.com. In Washington I'm Scott Walker. Next an editorial reflecting the views of the United States government. On July 13th a gunman attempted to assassinate former president and Republican candidate for president Donald Trump at a political rally in Pennsylvania. Fortunately the bullet meant for him only grazed his right ear but another American citizen was killed and several others were seriously injured by the shooter. In an Oval Office address President Joe Biden stressed we cannot we must not go down this road in America. There's no place in America this kind of violence for any violence ever. Period. No exceptions. We can't allow this violence to be normalized. President Biden noted that the political rhetoric in this country has gotten very heated. It's time to cool it down he stressed and we all have a responsibility to do that. While disagreement is inevitable in American democracy President Biden said politics must not become a literal battlefield. In American democracy we debate and disagree. We compare and contrast the character of the candidates the records the issues the agenda and the vision for America said President Biden. But in America we resolve our differences at the ballot box not with bullets. The power to change America should always rest in the hands of the people not in the hands of a would-be assassins said President Biden. From the beginning our founders understood the power of passion and so they created a democracy that gave reason and balance a chance to prevail over brute force President Biden explained. That's American we must be. American democracy arguments are made in good faith. American democracy where the rule of law is respected. American democracy where decency dignity fair play aren't just quaint notions but living breathing realities. We owe that to those who came before us to those who gave their lives for this country. We owe that to ourselves we owe it to our children and our grandchildren. >> That was a matter of time.