Indaba zesiNdebele Ekuseni - Voice of America
Indaba zesiNdebele Ekuseni - July 08, 2024
100 UTC on the voice of America. This is VOA news. I'm Christina Menente. France was on course for a hung bar element in Sunday's election, but the leftist alliance unexpectedly taking the top spot ahead of the far right. Olivia Zolino from Reuters reports. The leftist alliance gathers the hard lap, the socialist, and Greens. They were forecast to win up to 215 seats out of 577. According to pollsters projections, these projections are usually reliable. At the headquarters for the far right national rally, or RN, the mood was far more somber. With early results, placing them in third. The results are humiliation for French president Emmanuel Macron. His centrist alliance, which he founded to underpin his first presidential run in 2017, was projected to be narrowly second. He called the snap election after his ticket was trounced in European parliament elections last month. Voters punished him and his ruling alliance for a cost of living crisis and failing public services, as well as over immigration and security. Olivia Zolino from Reuters, Europeans are looking to safeguard NATO, AP correspondent Jackie Quinn reports. NATO allies are starting to gather in the nation's capital, and Donald Trump appears to be high on their agenda. Observers say discussions among NATO leaders are largely focused on Donald Trump. And whether the former president may be returned to power, they're said to be looking at quote, Trump proofing the alliance, working to make the body more self-sufficient, and taking over the U.S. role, organizing support for Ukraine. Trump has sometimes threatened to pull the U.S. out of NATO. There are also concerns over far right parties, making political advances in Europe. The NATO summit begins Tuesday in Washington, with President Biden hosting 31 allied leaders. I'm Jackie Quinn. - This is VOA News. Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, accused South Korean President Yun Sogur of generating tensions on the Korean peninsula to divert attention from problems at home, state media said, on Monday. Tensions between the two Koreas are running high after Pyongyang signed a mutual defense pact with Russia and sent trash-filled balloons over the border, while South Korea has had training exercises with Japan and the United States. A Ukrainian drone strike triggering explosions in Western Russia. AP correspondent Nayyun Kim reports. - A village in Western Russia has been evacuated after a Ukrainian drone was shot down, setting fire to a nearby warehouse. The region's governor, Alexander Gusev, said the falling debris had triggered several explosions in the Voronez area. A Ukrainian security official told the Associated Press a strike was carried out in Voronez on a Russian warehouse during ammunition. Speaking anonymously, they believe the facility was being used to supply weapons to Russian troops in Ukraine. No casualties have been reported. I'm Nayyun Kim. - A memorial concert was held in Kenya's Capitol Nairobi on Sunday for those killed in anti-government protests that were sparked by proposed tax hikes. David Doyle from Rotors has more. - At least 39 people died during clashes with police during several days of unrest. The protests became violent after demonstrators briefly stormed Parliament and the police opened fire. Boniface Mwangi organized this concert. - Government is listening now because of the protest. So we are kind of happy, but there's also a lot of sadness because so many people died for the government to listen. - During a concert, there were repeated calls for a rutto to resign. The government has blamed protest violence on opportunistic criminals, but activists say those responsible were thugs hired by politicians to discredit the protest movement. - Reuters, David Doyle. June 2024 was the hottest on record, the EU's Climate Monitoring Service said on Monday, continuing a record-breaking streak. - It is likely that 2024 to be warmer than 2023. The thing is, 2023 was quite remarkable by the magnitude of the temperature that we knew so in the second half of the year. - That was EU Copernicus climate scientist Julian Nicholas. He and other climate scientists blame human caused climate change in the El Nino natural weather phenomenon. Japan and the Philippines have signed the Reciprocal Access Agreement, a defense pact, allowing their troops to enter each other's country for joint military training on Monday. It will take effect after ratification by each of the country's legislatures. I'm Christina Menente, VOA News. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) - A surprise French election. (audience cheering) (speaking in foreign language) - Social justice won tonight. Environmental justice has won. Tonight, the people won. - A memorial concert for those who died in Kenya's protests. Government is listening now because of the protests. So we are kind of happy, but it is also a lot of sadness. - And they spent a year in a mock Mars habitat. The crew and their families have committed a year of their lives in service to NASA, to the country and to humanity's exploration of space. - Today is Monday, July 8th. And this is VOA's international edition. (upbeat music) I'm Scott Walterman. (audience cheering) - Left wing supporters appeared relieved and hopeful. As the parliamentary elections of France's legislative run-off were announced on Sunday with the new popular front leading the polls and pulling off an upset for far-right rivals. (audience cheering) (speaking in foreign language) - French green leader, Maureen Tundagier, on Sunday, saying social justice won tonight. Environmental justice has won. Tonight, the people won. French Prime Minister Gabrielle Taz said he will submit his resignation to President Emmanuel Macron on Monday. There was stunned silence, clenched jaws and tears at the RN party headquarters. They expected to take power Sunday. Now the left disalliance, which gathers the hard left, the socialists and greens, a forecast to win up to 215 seats out of 577. The results also a huge loss for President Macron. His centrist alliance, which he founded to underpin his first presidential run in 2017, was projected to be narrowly second. So let's dig into this. Joining us now to talk about it is Frédéric Laurent, a professor and chair of the political science department at the University of Montreal. Most people are saying this is a real surprise, is it? - It is, it's a huge surprise. Ever since Macron launched the elections, everyone expected that the Assemblyman, Al-Nacional, would come first. Most people thought it would become the next government, but even those who within expect that they would, that they would win the election, thought that they would get the most votes and they came in third. So that's a huge surprise, yeah. - Now, what does this mean technically for the government? The Prime Minister says he's gonna resign. So a new Prime Minister and a new government has to be formed, but the left coalition really has the most votes. So they get to pick the Prime Minister theoretically, right? - Well, not necessarily. So the first thing is, again, let me reiterate, that the Assemblyman of the National Rally will not be the next French government. So that is out of the question. Then what is possible? The party, and it's not a party, the electoral alliance that came in first, the left, got only 175 or 180 seats. So there are 100 seats short of a majority, which means that they would not be able to form a government if they don't get other parties to support them. And nobody will support them as long as La France has to meet which is the far left part of the new popular front is inside that alliance. So the idea that you would have a left-wing government is also out of the question. One possibility is that that leaves two possibilities. One possibility would be to have a new coalition government in France, something that's never really been done before. And that would require some people from the left getting together with some people from Macron's party with the centrists together. They would have a majority of the seats. But for that to happen, the left parties have to basically cut their links with the far left. So that's not gonna be easy given that they ran at this election together. But still, it's a real scenario. And the other scenario is given that the National Assembly is really split in three parts, that no one will rule with the far right, which is about a third of the seats. There could be something like a technical government, a government of experts of technocrats that would get the support of a majority of the parties from the right to the left for some kind of non-partisan program that could last for a number of months and perhaps a number of years. - So this is really uncharted territory then, right? - Totally, because the fifth republic was created by Charles de Raul because he hated the super parliamentary system of the fourth republic, which was established after World War II. He thought it was a very unstable form of government. So he wanted a majority based government and that's what the system delivered until very recently until today. And now for the first time, it not only will the president not have a majority in the National Assembly, which has happened in the past, but there's no majority, which means that parties have to find a way to work with each other. So it's going to go back to this very parliamentary system that France knew in the '40s and the '50s. - What does this say about his presidency? - What it means is that his presidency ends in failure. He, his entire strategy when he won in 2017 was that he would be able to go to move beyond the left and the right and run and govern as a progressive, as a centrist technocrat against the far right that he would basically completely transform the political landscape, which he did transform the political landscape. And he had a super majority for a good seven years, but now the left-right divide is back with vengeance except that it's less well-structured, less organized than it was in the past. So his political legacy is really, I would say, in tatters, especially given that the current crisis that France will go through is of his own making. So Macron didn't have to call these elections. He had no reasons to call these elections. And they ended up basically not destroying his party, but it's really because they did, you know, they lost a lot of seats, but they did a much better showing than everyone expected they would. But they did so despite Macron. So Gabriel Bader, the departing prime minister, when he gave a speech today, said very clearly, I was against the elections, I had to live with it. And so he was, and other people will do the same thing. He's from my cosparty, but they've basically decided that he was no longer there. There boss, if you like, which for a party, which was really created around the kind of boss, you know, sort of not clientelistic, but a patrimonial, if you like, structure is really quite something. So he's, yeah, he's lost most, you know, he's lost all the influence that he had in France. - So the lesson here is, don't be so over the moment when you're doing political strategy. - Yeah, I mean, I think, I mean, what's really strange about this decision that he, so he would say, how can you fault me for being a Democrat? You know, I gave the French people their voice. And if that's what they want, that's what they want. So I think that's the strongest argument that he can make for calling on these elections. But the question is, why now? I mean, why not in three years? I mean, there were elections three years ago, Parliament was not, you know, blocked or paralyzed or anything like that, contrary to what he said. So there was no good reason to do it now, except if you think that Macron had a great strategy that he would be able to win again and clearly he did not. So at best one could say that it was a failed bet. - Professor Federique Moron, Chair of the Political Science Department at the University of Montreal. We're following these other stories from around the world. Hungry Prime Minister Viktor Orban is in Beijing for talks with China's Xi Jinping. The U.S. military withdrew its personnel from Niger's Air Base 101, the capital of Naomi on Sunday. Niger's ruling junta in April ordered the U.S. to withdraw about 1,000 military personnel from the country following the coup last year. The Philippines and Japan are set to sign on Monday a key defense pact that will allow the deployment of troops in each other's territory. (dramatic music) In our continuing coverage of the 2024 presidential election, U.S. presidential candidates Joe Biden and Donald Trump differ sharply on immigration, both, smart over immigration at their first presidential debate. After temporarily restricting asylum claims at the U.S.-Mexico border, Biden announced protections for undocumented immigrants married to U.S. citizens. Trump, on the other hand, says he will launch large-scale deportations. Few ways immigration correspondent, Alimbaras, has the story. U.S. President Joe Biden says some undocumented immigrants married to U.S. citizens will be allowed to apply for permanent residency without first leaving the country through a new parole program. These couples have been raising families, sending their kids to church and school, paying taxes, contributing to our country for every, for 10 years or more. Biden's move follows his suspension of asylum claims at the southern border when the number of migrants crossing without authorization, which is a daily average of 2,500. I'm not interested in playing politics with border or immigration. I'm interested in fixing it. The asylum suspension does not include victims of human trafficking migrants facing medical emergencies or unaccompanied children. I think Biden, when he started, had very good intentions. More generally, or his policies seemed to be more pro-immigrant. We're coming to an election, right? Time. So now it's like, what needs to be given or give out or, you know, give away in order to appease the different pressures that are having. Trump says Biden's plan for spouses of U.S. citizens is, quote, "a direct attack on American democracy." When I'm re-elected, Joe Biden's illegal amnesty plan would be ripped up and thrown out on the very first day that we're backing up on it. Trump promises large-scale deportations. We have no choice within moments of by inauguration. We will begin the largest domestic deportation operation in America. (cheers and applause) We have no choice because this is not sustainable. He talks about focusing on deporting millions and bringing the National Guard to do so, using large-scale round-ups and create camps while people wait to be deported. I need to be clear. It's like, I don't think the United States has the capacity to do the things that his campaign about. Immigration sharply divides American voters with more than 60 percent of Trump supporters backing a national effort to the port undocumented immigrants according to peer research data. That polling shows Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters are also shifting on the issue, with 16 percent saying undocumented immigrants should not be allowed to stay. That is up for 9 percent of those voters who are invited and Trump last faced off in 2020. Alina Barrow's VOA News, Washington. Violence against reporters covering environmental issues is on the increase. VOA's Robin Gas reports that the incidents are detailed in a new report from UNESCO and media advocates. Gunners join news covers illegal gold mining destroying the country's forest. Abundant pits and mining settlements dot the road, leading into the remaining part of the forest. When journalists Arras Dusasari Dankour went to investigate armed men in uniform, confronted him and his crew. They stole with my camera technician for the camera and broke it in the process. They made them delete every footage we had on the camera. They smashed our windscreen, punched my driver several times in the face and it was horrible. Gunners, 2022 journalist of the year, Asari Dankour documents the environmental cost of illegal gold mining. His stories expose the connections of illegal mining to the spread of disease, deforestation and widespread pollution in rivers and streams. The International Federation of Journalists finds reporting on poaching. Illegal mining and illegal logging is hazardous across Africa. But legal mining is also problematic. Here's Louis Tomasi, Africa Director of the International Federation of Journalists. Journalists who report on the activities of these big corporations are seriously threatened. Tomasi says environmental journalists face attacks, detention and arrests. And in Africa he adds dangers exist in every nation with valuable and exploitable resources. They are subjected to serious threats, which actually force them to abandon the line of thought or the reports. In its May report, press and planet in danger, UNESCO finds 749 journalists and media outlets attacked globally from 2009 to 2023. And 44 reporters slain for their environmental coverage. Here's Guillermo Canella, UNESCO's chief of freedom of expression and safety of journalists section. It shows it's a planetary problem. Journalists were trying to uncover corruption or whatever related to environmental issues. They are being attacked everywhere. According to UNESCO attacks against environmental reporters are rising sharply. For journalists on the ground, the risks are ever present. So constantly I face danger. I face a lot of danger during my work. Armed people, people who wouldn't want the truth to come out. And so I must say that every trip is a risk. A sorry Dunkour says he's only armed with a camera, a drone and his crew. But ads, he cannot let the violence stop him from revealing the environmental damage being done. Robin Guess, VOA News. (upbeat music) - VOA's international edition continues. I'm Scott Woltzerman. (upbeat music) Thousands of Israeli protesters got that outside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's private home in Jerusalem on Sunday. Home for the government to resign. And for the release of hostages held by Hamas. David Marked nine months since the October 7th attack. - I came here to stop the war and hopefully send Vibio. - Efforts to secure a hostage deal between Israel and Hamas and Gaza after nine months of war. Gain momentum in the last couple of days with officials expressing optimism but saying gaps still remain between the sides. A memorial concert was held in Kenya's capital, Nairobi on Sunday for those killed in anti-government protests that were sparked by proposed tax hikes. For more on this, here's Reuters correspondent, David Doyle. - At least 39 people died during clashes with police during several days of unrest. The protests became violent after demonstrators briefly stormed parliament and the police opened fire. Boniface Moangi organised this concert. - Government is listening now because of the protests. So we are kind of happy, but there's also a lot of sadness because so many people died for the government to listen. (upbeat music) - President William Ruto has scrapped the tax hikes that sparked the unrest. However, protesters have vowed to remain on the streets in what has transformed into a nationwide youth led movement against corruption and misgovernance. (cheering) On Friday, Ruto proposed spending cuts and borrowing in roughly equal measure to fill a $2.7 billion budget hole caused by the withdrawal of Kenya's finance bill. - It's a 22 to late. We need much, much more. We need pay cuts. We have our president has like guzzlers and guzzlers of cars that you travel with. He's ever traveling. He's never in the country. He has a very big government. We have excessive employees, civil servants. We have to change. - During a concert, there were repeated calls for Ruto to resign. White crosses were planted for those who had died. - The government has blamed protest violence on opportunistic criminals, but activists say those responsible were thugs hired by politicians to discredit the protest movement. - Reuters correspondent David Doyle reporting. And finally... - Hey! (cheering) - Four astronauts emerging at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston after staying in a simulated Mars habitat to study and conduct experiments for one year. - The path to Mars is beset with challenges. And the crew and their families have committed a year of their lives in service to NASA, to the country and to humanity's exploration of space. - During the one year stay, the crew simulated life and resource limitations on Mars, which included growing and harvesting vegetables, going on Mars walks and the evens simulated the communication delay with Earth. You know, the time it would take for a radio and video to travel the distance from Mars to Earth and back again. - I am so proud and honored to be part of this crew. - A flight to Mars would be about an average of seven months, depending on where Mars is at the time of launch. Round trip would be almost two years because the astronauts would have to wait for the planets to line up again. Then begin the seven month trip home, which is why they're practicing living in a Mars sim. This has been International Edition on the Voice of America. On behalf of everyone here at VOA, thank you so much for spending this time with us. For pictures, stories, videos, and more, follow VOA News on your favorite social media platform and online at VOA News.com in Washington. I'm Scott Waltman. Next, an editorial reflecting the views of the United States government. - The information collected for the State Department's annual International Religious Freedom Report is an example of database policy making, said U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom, Rashad Hussein, at the documents release. - In this report's pages are the stories of thousands of individuals who are in each way trying to live according to their own conscience. - Ambassador Hussein highlighted the case of Hakalam Samson, a Baptist pastor who was unjustly detained because he advocated for religious freedom for everyone in Burma. - Samson is among the many activists and religious leaders, including Christians, Buddhists, and Muslims, that the regime in Burma has targeted for brutal repression and imprisonment. - The report also turned a spotlight on ongoing repression in China against Muslim Uyghurs, Tibetan Buddhists, Christians, and Falun Gong practitioners. Present at the release of the report was Falun Gong member Yua Zhang, now a U.S. resident who was imprisoned and tortured in China and who eagerly seeks to be reunited with her husband, still imprisoned for his religious beliefs. The report also documents cases where violence is occurring at the societal level. - In India, for example, Christian communities reported that local police aided mobs that disrupted worship services over accusations of conversion activities or stood by while mobs attacked them and then arrested the victims on conversion charges. While in Nigeria, a mob stoned a Muslim man accused of blasphemy. - But Ambassador Hussein also spoke of hope. We know the powerful change that's possible when governments and civil society come together to stand up for religious freedom. - Aasya Bebe is no longer in the jail in Pakistan facing a death sentence. Miriam Ibrahim and the daughter she gave birth to in a Sudanese jail are free. Bishop Rolando Alvarez, while exiled from his home country of Nicaragua, is with his fellow priests at the Vatican. And after a perilous path out of Iran, Fatima Mary Muhammadi is now able to tell her story about her quest for freedom. - That's what this work is all about, Ambassador Hussein. And that's why it is so important for this report to cast light on all those who are facing religious persecution around the world. That was an editorial reflecting the view