Indaba zesiNdebele Ekuseni - Voice of America
Indaba zesiNdebele Ekuseni - July 11, 2024
18 U.T.T. right here on V-- [MUSIC PLAYING] This is viewing news. I'm Richard Green. US Senator Peter Welch of the northeastern state of Vermont is calling on President Joe Biden to end his re-election campaign. Welch is the first senator in the president's Democratic Party to urge Biden to step aside, after his dismal debate against Republican former president Donald Trump last month, he be correspondent Ben Thomas has more. He says he does it with sadness, but writing in the Washington Post says the stakes could not be higher, and we cannot unsee President Biden's disastrous debate performance. Still, the first term senator says Vermoners love Biden, and Barbara Wade in Cabot says-- I think he's been one of our best presidents ever. He's accomplished so much that is not being touted. Beth Wade adds-- Going to be 77 myself, I feel my age. Everything's a little creaky. I don't move like I did. He doesn't write her. But that doesn't mean we're not with it, and we're not capable. Barbara Wade says she would vote for any alternative to Donald Trump, but worries. If it means that more people will vote for Trump, then that's the danger. I'm Ben Thomas. The rising voices urging Biden to quit the race came as the president and his wife, Jill, welcomed NATO leaders and partners to her dinner at the White House Wednesday night. Biden applauded the Western Military Alliance's 75th anniversary, which he described as "in neighborhood of nations." 75 years ago, when our nation's created NATO, former president Truman said-- and I quote-- what we're about to do here is a neighborly act, a neighborly act. The allies in this room not only share a common language, don't share a common language. We do not share a common border, but we are neighbors. We're neighbors because we all share common beliefs, indignity, equality, democracy, freedom. This is VUA News. Biden will hold a press conference Thursday at the end of the NATO summit. Observers say the president needs to pull off a strong performance before reporters to end growing concerns that he is still able to continue in the race and as president. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg stated during a press conference early Wednesday that NATO's 32 allies had collectively identified China as a decisive enabler of Warsaw's war in Ukraine, calling it an important message. China provides dual-use equipment, microelectronics, a lot of other tools which are enabling Russia to build the missiles, to build the bombs, to build the aircraft, to build the weapons they're using to attack Ukraine. Additionally, Stoltenberg highlighted historic increases in defense investment within the alliance, noting that 23 allies are now investing at least 2% of their GDP in defense compared to just three allies meeting this percentage in 2014. Russia has declared the Moscow Times newspaper undesirable amid a crackdown on criticism. AP correspondent Lisa Dwyer reports. It was designated as a foreign agent late last year. The new designation means the newspaper, which is popular with those in Russia's expat community, must stop work of any kind in Russia. It also subjects any Russian who cooperates with a paper to up to five years in prison. The Moscow Times already moved its editorial operations out of Russia in 2022 after the passage of a law imposing stiff penalties for material regarded as discretting Russian military and its war in Ukraine. I'm Lisa Dwyer. April long heat waves and temperatures in the Western U.S. City of Las Vegas soaring above 46 degrees Celsius for the fifth consecutive day Wednesday. The heat waves set the gambling destinations all-time temperature record of 48.8 degrees Celsius on Sunday. National Weather Service meteorologist Morgan Stesman told the Associated Press that June was the hottest month on record in Las Vegas. If you look back at the month of June and we look at the average temperature overall, that set the hottest on record for the Las Vegas area with an average temperature of about 94.6 degrees Fahrenheit. And our previous hottest June ever was in 2016 and this broke that record by 1.8 degrees. Stesman says the Las Vegas area has been under an excessive heat warning on three separate occasions this summer. Totally in about 12 days of dangerous heat with a little relief even after the sun goes down. Follow us 24 hours a day, seven days a week at viewanews.com. I'm Richard Green, fourth, view A News. [MUSIC PLAYING] NATO promises irreversible path to membership for Ukraine. We also decided to take further steps to being Ukraine even closer to NATO. How in Baldwin's manslaughter trial gets underway. The prop gun was placed in Mr. Baldwin's hands and cold gun was announced, meaning it had been checked and double checked by those responsible to ensure the gun was safe. And what that brings can tell us about our own brains. We've set up a colony of bats like a cave of bats, both males and females. And they live 24/7 in this laboratory cave. Today is Thursday, July 11, and this is Beaway's International Edition. [MUSIC PLAYING] I'm Scott Walterman. As Ukraine continues its vital reforms, we'll continue to support them on the irreversible path to NATO membership. NATO Secretary General Jan Soltenberg Wednesday announcing plans to bring Ukraine closer to NATO and reiterating NATO's intention to let Ukraine join the alliance. In the way that this is a strong message from NATO allies that we really want Ukraine to join and that we are working with Ukraine to make that happen, words are important. And the words create expectation, creates an agenda, defines an ambition, but of course, as important as words, the language in the decoration is actually what we then have agreed to do. So in many ways, action speaks at least as loudly as words. So I think you need to understand the decoration with the reference to irreversible path to membership to get it with what we do. Additionally, NATO pledged another $43 billion for Ukraine's fight against Russia. Topic number two at the NATO Summit on Wednesday was NATO member spending and readiness. We have deployed combat ready forces on NATO's Eastern flank, put in place the most comprehensive defense plan since the Cold War. And we now have over 500,000 forces at high readiness in the alliance. Today, we decided to adapt NATO's command structure, improve our interior air and missile defense systems, and to go further to match our defense plans with the necessary capabilities. All of this has been made possible by historic increases in defense investment across the alliance. When we made the pledge to invest 2% of GDP in defense back in 2014 at the NATO Summit, only three allies met the march. Today, 23 allies are investing at least 2% of GDP in defense at a high number. Let's dig in on this. Joining us to talk about it is University of Southern California Professor Robert English, Director of the USC School of International Relations and an expert on the politics of Russia and the region. So today, the strongest language that I can remember coming from NATO about Ukraine, saying that their path to NATO membership was irreversible. You know, verbally, outwardly, there were some impressive steps forward and phrases like irreversible and language like, you know, a robust bridge to NATO membership. Those are nice, but they aren't binding commitments. And many Ukrainians have been frustrated because it's over 15 years since the Bucharest NATO Summit declared that they would inevitably become members. It said it was just a question of time, not weather, but when. And since then, they've been at war with Russia. They've been attacked all these years have passed. They've tried to, you know, meet the requirements set for them. And so there will be plenty who welcome this language, but ask, is it really something new or just new words that still lack an ironclad commitment? Because we all know, ultimately, that these things depend on the politics of the moment. Whatever a group of NATO leaders declare does not bind individual member states to vote yes when it comes up on the agenda at whatever time a Ukraine is deemed finally institutionally and militarily ready. There can still be a spoiler like Hungary, like Turkey. And unfortunately, it could be countries like Slovakia or Bulgaria, where public opinion polls show a lot of public skepticism about Ukraine joining NATO any time in the near future. I guess I'm giving you the glass half-empty view and trying to tamp down some of the enthusiasm because when we look at what's really concrete and not just verbal, there's a lot less there. Well, Stodenberg did make reference to that. The difference between saying something and doing something. And he didn't promise, but he did say, our actions speak as loud as our words at some point in this announcement. Yeah, well, the actions that we see, the concrete commitments that will be carried out over the next three months, six months, nine months, include, and these were cited as the achievements by Secretary Blinken. They include the delivery of these F-16 fighter jets. Well, these have been promised for over a year. The fact that they're arriving soon is really not new. It's coincidental. It's nice that they can be announced that over the next few weeks, they will literally be in the Ukrainian Air Force. But it's not something new, right? We also have the delivery of, you know, Patriot, more air defense systems. Those are desperately needed. And again, the cynic can look at them and say, this is just Abe that should have been delivered faster and in greater quantity months ago. And it's nice that it's arriving now, but it simply staunches the wound. It's not really building up any kind of new Ukrainian capability to fight back against Russia. So those are better than not having those weapons. And some of the other things, right? So we have a new, the announcement of a new sort of coordination center for Ukraine aid from NATO countries that will be headquartered in Germany. But again, that aid has been coordinated. Those deliveries have been underway. So it's nice that there'll be a new institutional headquarters. But once again, it's not a new program. It doesn't bind Ukraine to NATO. This is simply the coordination of aid from NATO countries to a non-NATO member. One by one, we can go through the list and see increased levels of cooperation, deliveries that are finally coming through. They mainly have to do with supporting Ukraine in the moment and giving Ukraine the capability to fight back against Russia, but not with integrating Ukraine into NATO any time in the near future. - So let me ask you this. So the European countries have been notoriously historically slow in doing anything, but I sense in this NATO meeting that NATO has changed somewhat, that the European NATO members have been shaken up, shaken up by the possibility of a cooler US commitment, the possibility of, well, the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. And I get the sense that they've been sort of jolted into an action, a... - A greater seriousness, right? - Yes. - It's true. - Yes, is that true, do you think? - Yeah, that's palpable. And that is noteworthy. I don't mean to be absolutely a cynic and, you know, gainsay every bit of progress. There's a lot that's significant here. I am simply pointing out that words like irreversible, guaranteed, are a little overblown, because everyone knows that if Trump is elected, even if the other European allies are increasing their commitments, are increasing their own spending, NATO will suffer from having lost American leadership. And again, I point to the attitudes, the sort of concerning attitudes in many central European countries that have started to turn against the war, but really wish that Ukraine would just enter negotiations and end this war sooner rather than later. So those same opinion polls in countries like Slovakia, certainly Hungary, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Romania, show that a majority of the population are very skeptical. It's only in the 10s, 20s, maybe 30% say that Ukraine should be in NATO anytime in the next decade. So that puts ratification at risk. That means that it might not only be an Orban or an Erdogan who throws a monkey wrench into Ukraine's progress, but someone like Afizo and Slovakia or some unknown future leader in one of these other countries. So there's a lot of work yet to be done. And I think what is clear is that the war has to end. Nobody has any illusions about Ukraine joining NATO while the combat is still underway. The war has to end, but I am very skeptical of language like you're reversible. And I know a lot of Ukrainians are too. They're quietly disappointed because they've been told this now for over 15 years. - Always good to get a reality check. Thank you so much for the time. - I hope I'm wrong. And I hope that renewed seriousness and the European allies ability to work with or without the US at the helm impresses us in the coming months. We'll see. - Thank you so much for the insight. - Okay. - Yes. - Very good. - All right. - We'll talk again sometime soon, I'm sure. - Okay, bye-bye. - All right, bye-bye. - University of Southern California, Professor Robert English. (upbeat music) With following these other stories from around the world, Mali's ruling Hunta announced on Wednesday that it was reauthorizing activities of political parties and political associations which it had suspended in April. Iraqi authorities on Wednesday announced the Turkish military's renewed operations and the incursions into Northern Iraq urging Ankara to solve security issues diplomatically. Two opposing factions of Bolivia's ruling party, Moss, clashed violently on Wednesday showing the internal divisions between supporters of incumbent Bolivian president, Luis Arce and former president, Ivan Morales as they seek to lead the race in the 2025 elections. (upbeat music) In our continuing coverage of the 2024 US presidential election, if former US president Donald Trump is victorious in November in his rematch against incumbent president Joe Biden, he may seek to place the entire federal bureaucracy under direct presidential control. That move is outlined in a playbook crafted by more than 100 conservative organizations for Trump's second administration. Details now from the OA's chief national correspondent, Steve Herman at the White House. Donald Trump campaigning for president eight years ago promised to bend Washington's bureaucracy to his will. - If I'm elected president, we are going to drain the swamp in Washington, DC. Trump's continuing vow to drain the swamp, meaning to rid government of those who impose policy but are unaccountable to the president is now backed with a blueprint crafted by more than 100 conservative groups. Project 2025 published by the Right-Wing Heritage Foundation instructs how to swing a wrecking ball against the administrative state. Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts's warning, there may be violence along the journey to its implementation. - We are in the process of the Second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be. - After that incendiary comment, Trump tried to distance himself from Project 2025, asserting that while he knows nothing about it and its authors, I disagree with some of the things they're saying. The project's head, Paul Dan's appearing on C-SPAN, left no doubt Trump's words and ideas were the inspiration. - He was president for four years, so many of the ideas are carry-ons from his original work. So I would like to think that a lot of it does kind of spring from that first term of Trump. - V.O.A. requested an interview with the Heritage Foundation. The think tank said it could not make anyone available, but he mailed a statement stressing Project 2025, does not speak for any candidate or campaign. Project 2025 seeks to eliminate the checks and balances of the writers of the Constitution, such as James Madison and Thomas Jefferson, crafted through dividing power among the executive legislative and judicial branches of the government. According to Will Marshall, the president of the Progressive Policy Institute. - Madison and Jefferson ought to be spinning in their graves when they see how much power they want to concentrate in the next president's hands. And if that president happens to be Donald Trump, then it's a kind of a nightmare for the country, given the way he's misused power in the past. - President Joe Biden's reelection campaign has made Project 2025 a primary target, setting up a separate website dedicated to criticism of it and highlighting liberal media reaction. - Critics are calling it the fascist playbook, and it should be one of the reasons, if not the reason, that you vote this November. - The sweeping plan also calls for slashing government funding for renewable energy and climate change mitigation. The Department of Education would be eliminated. The federal Bureau of Investigation would be overhauled top to bottom, as would the US Agency for Global Media, which oversees the voice of America. Steve Herman, VOA News at the White House. - More pressure on US President Joe Biden Wednesday when actor and leading Democratic supporter George Clooney urged him to drop his reelection bid while party heavyweight Nancy Pelosi declined to back his candidacy, following his disastrous debate performance against Republican challenger Donald Trump. With most of the free world voting this year, about half the planet's population will be able to vote in elections this year. Just a moment to warn everyone of online election scams. Associated Press correspondent Jennifer King says, online political ads that become a lucrative platform for scammers. - Many political ads on social media are legitimate, but it turns out weak regulations and enforcement mean the ads have become a sprawling web of misinformation and rip-offs. Click here, the ads say, take a survey, get a free gift, give us your credit card number for shipping and get scammed. Professor Jennifer Stromer-Galley led research for the election graph project at Syracuse University. Their dive into sites found ads that promised free political merchandise but didn't mention an $80 charge that would later appear. Right-leaning ads were more likely to target men, progressive ads were more likely to target women. Researchers also found deep fake celebrity endorsements and false claims about political topics. Stromer's research examined more than 2,200 groups on Facebook or Instagram that ran ads between September and May. The ads were seen more than one billion times. I'm Jennifer King. (upbeat music) (applause) (upbeat music) (applause) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) - We always international edition continues. I'm Scott Walterman. A New Mexico prosecutor on Wednesday said, Alec Baldwin broke the cardinal rules of gun safety in the 2021 killing of the movie Rust Cinematographer. A Baldwin's lawyer said he was failed by firearms experts on set. Reuters correspondent Zachary Goldman runs down day one of Baldwin's trial for us. - The evidence will show that someone who played make believe with a real gun and violated the cardinal rules of firearm safety is the defendant, Alexander Baldwin. - A New Mexico prosecutor on Wednesday accused the Hollywood star Alec Baldwin of ignoring safety protocols in the 2021 killing of a cinematographer during rehearsal on the set of a low budget Western movie titled Rust. - My understanding, you were in the room when the lady was going, so we're still holding the gun. - Yeah. - Okay. - Cox the hammer points it straight at Miss Hutchins and fires that gun. - Cinematographer Halina Hutchins was killed by a live round fired from a gun in Baldwin's hand. Hutchins' death was Hollywood's first on set shooting fatality in three decades. The trial is largely unprecedented in US history, holding an actor criminally responsible for a gun death during filming. - And I draw the gun slowly and aim off camera and this was to be nothing in there. - Baldwin who is charged with involuntary manslaughter has insisted the gun went off on its own and that his finger was never on the trigger. - This was an unspeakable tragedy but Alec Baldwin committed no crime. - Defense Attorney Alex Spiro said blame lay with the film's armorer, Hannah Guterres and first assistant director Dave Halls. - The most critical issue in this case is how a real bullet got on a movie set and you will hear no evidence, not one word, that Alec Baldwin had anything to do with that real bullet being brought onto that set. - Spiro said during his opening arguments that no one saw Baldwin intentionally pull the trigger and that it was the responsibility of firearms safety experts to ensure a firearm was safe for an actor to use it as a prop. - The prop gun was placed in Mr. Baldwin's hands and a cold gun was announced. Meaning it had been checked and double checked by those responsible to ensure the gun was safe. - Armorer Guterres, whose job on the set of rust included managing firearms safely, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in March for loading the live round. Prosecutors will have to persuade jurors Baldwin is guilty of willful and reckless criminal negligence. - Reuters correspondent Zachary Goldman. (upbeat music) And finally, so what we've done is we've set up a on-e-the-ath, like a cave of bats. Yes, bats, did you know that bats are able to remember complex social structures including whether another bat is a friend or foe? - That's according to scientists in Israel who've been studying Egyptian fruit bats in their brains. And we burn them in the lab and create a colony of between five and 10 animals, wolves, males and females. And they live 24/7 in this laboratory cave. And then we develop methods for tracking the identities, positions and head directions of all the bats. They found that the part of the bat's brain that impacts learning and memory formation is very similar to human brains. So they hope their bat study can help us understand and even treat human brain disorders. - All summer disease, for example, starts in the hippocampus, intralic cortex in the surrounding regions. Epilepsy, that's the biggest locus and the depression, you name it. This has been international edition of The Voice of America. - On behalf of everyone here at VOA, thank you so much for joining us. For pictures, stories, videos and more, follow VOA News on your favorite social media platform and online at VOANews.com. You can also download our apps for Apple and Google. In Washington, I'm Scott Walterman. Next, an editorial reflecting the views of the United States government. - In an effort to curb the lawlessness and egregious gang violence in Haiti and at the request of the Haitian government, the United Nations approved a one-year policing mission there. The plan is to deploy 2,500 officers from various countries with Kenya in the lead. The first contingent of 400 Kenyans arrived in Porto Prince in late June. Their mission is to quell the lawlessness and to help Haiti's government to reassert its authority over the country. Today, 23 gangs control around 80% of Porto Prince. Since February, they have been attacking government infrastructure as a result of the violence some 580,000 people have been displaced. The Kenyan-led multinational security support mission is the international community's response to calls from the Haitian people for support. Said Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement, Todd Robinson. - The heroin situation caused by gang violence in Haiti is a threat to stability in the region and demands an international response. The MSS mandate supports the Haitian national police in their steadfast efforts to restore security and democratic order. - The U.S. government is providing over $300 million in assistance and up to $60 million in equipment for this mission said Assistant Secretary Robinson. - We delivered armored vehicles, drones, personal protective equipment, and assorted items for the HMP. The international support has helped bolster the Haitian national police's ability to defend against the recent brutal wave of gang attacks. And we look forward to further support from the international community to support this mission. - In a recent meeting, Secretary Blinken and Haitian Prime Minister Gary Konie discussed the mission's next steps and the need for the establishment of an inclusive and credible provisional electoral council. Said Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Brian Nichols. - This critical step toward that will give the Haitian people an opportunity to select their leaders democratically for the first time in years. The Secretary reaffirmed that the United States and other international partners stand ready to support the Haitian people, not only through our support for the multinational security support mission and the Haitian national police, but other are broad humanitarian, economic, and development efforts in support of the Haitian people. - The United States support for the people of Haiti remains unwavering, said Assistant Secretary Nichols. We stand with the international community in supporting this historic effort and will continue to do all that we can to be supportive. That was an editorial reflection.