Indaba zesiNdebele Ekuseni - Voice of America
Indaba zesiNdebele Ekuseni - July 23, 2024
[MUSIC] This is "Veealy News." I'm Tommy McNeil. You as Vice President, Kamahara spoke to campaign staffers Monday and acknowledged the rollercoaster of the last several weeks, but expressed confidence a day after President Joe Biden dropped out of this year's presidential race. On the next 106 days, we have work to do. We have doors to knock on. We have people to talk to. We have phone calls to make. And we have an election to win. [CHEERING] Harris has publicly received the backing of more than two-thirds of the Democratic delegates she needs to become her party's nominee. Republican vice presidential nominee JB Vance used his first solo campaign rallies Monday to throw fresh barbs at Vice President Kamala Harris a day after President Joe Biden threw the presidential election into a table by dropping out and endorsing his second in command to lead Democrats against President Donald, former President Donald Trump. The Ohio Senator campaigned at his former high school in middle town before an evening stop, and Virginia, too, venues intended to play up as conservative populist appeal across the Rust Belt in small-town America that he said the Biden-Harris administration has forgotten. His really prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in Washington this week and scheduled speech to Congress in meeting at the White House. Beowie's Patsy Padakaswara. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu left to travel to another battlefield. This one political, as the U.S. presidential campaign is upended following President Joe Biden's decision not to run for his second term. Regardless through the American people choose as our next president, Israel remains America's indispensable and strong ally in the Middle East. Analysts say in the potential race for the White House, Netanyahu would prefer a Republican. Netanyahu has reportedly requested a meeting with former President Trump who launched significant pro-Israel policies during his term, Patsy Padakaswara. Beowie News, Washington. And this is Beowie News. You know, Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheeto on Monday testified about the agency's failure to prevent the assassination attempt against Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. Beowie's congressional correspondent Catherine Chippson tells us more. The head of the United States Secret Service, Kimberly Cheeto, answering lawmakers' questions about the shooting for the first time was blunt. We failed. Cheeto said a full report on the agency's failure to protect the former president would be released within 90 days. Lawmakers said that was unacceptable during an election season that has already proved to be contentious. Some called on her to resign. Catherine Chippson, Beowie News. The fallout from a massive IT outage continues as businesses work to get their online systems back up and running after an infected software update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike wreaked havoc across the globe. Beowie's Tina Trini. How did a global IT outage of this scale happen in the first place? The Heat Bezadon, a computer science professor at the University of New Haven, says failures in quality control testing likely fueled the chaotic domino effect that followed the update. Typically, when a new software page where the software update comes in, at least in critical infrastructure, it's the policy of the IT department or the IT staff to first test out the update on an isolated machine. If everything goes according to the plan, they roll it out to other machines. Tina Trini, Beowie News, New York. The EU's top diplomats as hungry will not be allowed to host a Strategic EU Meeting next month. That's because the Prime Minister Viktor Orban's surprise self-proclaimed peace mission trips to Moscow and Beijing and the brokering an end to the war in Ukraine. EU partners overwhelmingly saw that as an undermining of their support for Kyiv, EU Foreign Affairs Chief Joseph Barrell said the upcoming Foreign and Defense Minister's meeting would take place in Brussels instead of Budapest. Hungry blasted that decision. Hungry currently holds a rotating EU presidency and had expected to host the annual late August gathering. Orban is close to Russia. An armed group has killed at least 26 villagers in Central Mali near the border with Burkina Faso. A local official said Monday that the attack happened on Sunday as most of the victims were working on their farmlands. It is the latest in a series of violent attacks in the conflict hit region where the al Qaeda link JNMI extremist group often targets villagers in the region in a similar manner. The armed violence across Central and Northern Mali has raged on for than a decade. I'm Tommy McNeil, Beowie News. U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris makes her first appearance since President Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race. I, together with you, will do everything in my power to unite our Democratic Party, to unite our nation, and to win this election. Democrats and Republicans unite to call for the resignation of the Secret Service Director. The Director has lost the confidence of Congress and of the Olympics beginning. Harris, French restaurants are looking forward to serving up some of their famous cuisine. I'm trying not to think about the fact that I'm eating proglies. Today is Tuesday, July 23. And this is Beowie's international edition. I'm Scott Walterman. It is my great honor to have Joe's endorsement in this race. The U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris wanted President Joe Biden for his service to the country in her first public appearance on Monday since he abruptly ended his reelection bid and endorsed her as his successor. Joe Biden's legacy of accomplishment over the past three years is unmatched in modern history. In one term, he has already -- yes, you may clap. In one term, he has already surpassed the legacy of most presidents who have served two terms in office. And I first came to know President Biden through his son, Beowie. We worked together as attorneys general in our states. And back then, Beowie would often tell me stories about his dad. He would talk about the kind of father and the kind of man that Joe Biden is. The qualities that Beowie revered in his father are the same qualities that I have seen every day in our president. His honesty, his integrity, his commitment to his faith and his family, his big heart, and his love, deep love of our country. And I am firsthand witness that every day, our President Joe Biden fights for the American people, and we are deeply, deeply grateful for his service to our nation. Virtually all of the prominent Democrats who had been seen as potential challengers to Harris have lined up behind her. They include Governor's Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, Gavin Newsom of California, and Andy Beshear of Kentucky. On Monday, Harris also won the support of influential former Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who played a leading role in persuading Biden to end his campaign. President in the ancestral Indian hometown of Harris prayed for her victory in the election. We are very proud of her because a small village, a tiny village, in the south side of the Midwest, Tamil Nadu will become so popular and because of one single individual. And for that, we are proud. And this from her campaign in a statement on Monday, quote, "Team Harris raised $81 million in its first 24 hours, adding to the existing near quarter of a billion dollar war chest already amassed this election cycle." The campaign claimed the hall was the largest 24-hour raise in presidential history. President Biden's decision not to seek reelection has upended the U.S. presidential campaign. Just days after the opposing Republican party formally chose Donald Trump as its nominee. VOA correspondent Scott Stern's reports on voters' reactions to the shifting political landscape. President Joe Biden ending his run for re-election shocked Georgia voter John Diggs. I think a lot of people like me in the United States, who are particularly maybe in the middle, who, undecided or even leaning Democrat, we're still in shock. Biden should have quit sooner, says Georgia voter Johnny Bester. I was a little nervous about the direction of our country because of Biden being in office for such a long period of time. And I didn't want to see that again, to be honest. But then we think about candidacy and we look at Trump and then who else do we have? In the Midwest state of Ohio, Democratic voter Richard Freeman Biden would have lost to Donald Trump. Well, I think it's a good decision. I think he didn't have a chance against Trump. Too many people were concerned about his age, which I was too. In Nebraska, voter Kathy Lindmeyer says Biden has lost some mental sharpness since he was elected. I'm sad because I do feel that Biden did a good job and he really came into this wanting to unify the country. That didn't happen. In South Carolina, voter Mariana Hall says Biden's decision does nothing to change her support for Trump. I think it's going to be really interesting to watch the Democratic Party kind of scramble to determine who they're going to put in his place. I was seeing there were some things that they weren't really comfortable putting Kamala Harris in there because of all the negative against the current administration. Vice President Harris is the first choice for Washington state voter Jill Holm. We're rooting for Kamala. Love to see a female up there, you know, and I think Kamala is incredibly sharp with David. Speaks well. I think that she's ready. She has some really solid experience behind her. In the Pacific Northwest state of Oregon, voter David Strong is ready to back Harris. You know, it's not a given that Kamala Harris is going to be the nominee. If she's not, then I think there's going to be more bad blood within the Democratic Party. In New York, voter Stacy Pritz says it will be hard for any Democrat to beat Trump. He needs somebody who is younger. He will seem more calm to at least whether or not whoever it is can be Trump. No, no, it's better, though. I feel like we actually have a chance. New York or Madeline Mills says Biden's decision may have come too late. I wish that the Democratic Party had figured this out earlier so that it doesn't feel so rushed and chaotic at the moment. But I think that if Biden had stayed as a candidate, he would have lost to Trump anyway. While Biden is backing Harris to replace him as the Democratic Party's presidential nominee, that is a decision for delegates to the Party's convention next month in Chicago. Scott Stearns, the away news. Republican Vice Presidential candidate Senator J.D. Vance made his first solo campaign appearance Monday. This is not okay, ladies and gentlemen. You cannot, for three and a half years, take a guy who clearly didn't have the middle capacity to do the job. Kamala Harris lied about it. My Senate Democratic colleagues lied about it. The media lied about it. Every single person who saw Joe Biden knew that he wasn't capable of doing the job. And for three years, they said nothing until he became political deadweight. He was in his hometown of Middleton, Ohio. 2024 in the United States is very much like the year 1968 in the U.S. There was a presidential election in both years and many similarities. The incumbent president in 1968, Lyndon Johnson, chose not to seek another term. As has President Biden, the country was deeply divided in 1968 as it is now. Back then, there was over the Vietnam War and civil rights. In 1968, Presidential candidate Robert Kennedy was assassinated. There was an assassination attempt on candidate Trump a week ago. In 1968, the Democrats held a tumultuous convention in Chicago. This year, the Democratic National Convention is back in Chicago. So joining us to talk about all of this is Barbara A. Perry, a professor in Presidential Studies at the University of Virginia's Miller Center. Tell us your thoughts about the two years. It feels similar to me because I can remember 1968. I was 12 years old. It feels very similar to me because I can remember my father who first of all was part of what Nixon called the silent majority and was a blue collar worker for the Louisville Courier Journal. He was a photo engraver. He had been a lifelong Democrat, New Deal Democrat, a great hero of Franklin Roosevelt saving his family from the Depression because my dad's family lost their home in the Depression. And yet by 1968, I could hear him changing and saying, "I don't know what's happening to our country. Look at what's happening in the streets." So you had, immediately after the Martin Luther King assassination, the burning of American cities combined with the student, the anti-Vietnam War student protest. So my dad just had the sense that the United States was coming apart at the seams and that he thought that Hubert Humphrey once he got the nomination, and of course that has some parallels to the day that we can come back to. But my dad would say, "I just am afraid he's going to turn the country over to those students protesting in the streets, and those black people protesting in the streets, and so I'm going to vote for Nixon." He bought into the law and order theme of Richard Nixon. And we know that there are many people like that who bought into Donald Trump in 2016 and bought into Donald Trump in 2020 and will for a third time. So I do think there is, that is the big overarching similarity that to many people, the country feels like it's coming apart at the seams. Then you have President Johnson dropping out as Biden did. The second that, as you point out, is an incumbent president who is facing unpopularity, particularly over a war, decides to drop out after seeing the handwriting on the wall earlier in the case of Lyndon Johnson. So that's similar, but again much later in the case of Biden. And I'd forgotten about Hubert Humphrey. So Hubert Humphrey, the sitting vice president, takes the spot at the head of the ticket, upsetting people in the party. And we may see this, I've already seen some blowback to Kamala Harris being put in that position. In the case of Humphrey, he had run not in any one primary as a candidate for presidency because he was supporting his president who had made him vice president. And then as a ticket, they would be in the primaries and the caucuses, and in their case, the low approval ratings and the so-called credibility gap that had developed around Johnson, particularly involving the Vietnam War. So it hits us another parallel that here you have a vice president, a sitting vice president, the incumbent president steps out of the race, and the vice president steps in. And you have the Democratic Convention in Chicago, as they did in 1968. In 1968, yet brutal street demonstrations where the Chicago police used violent force against them. I don't think, first of all, you'll have nearly as many pro-Palestinian protesters in Chicago in 2024 as you had anti-Vietnam war protesters in the streets of Chicago in '68. You wouldn't have the dynamic of Richard Daly, the political boss, and fascistic, though Democratic mayor of Chicago, seeking his fascistic police on the protesters and having them shout as they're being beaten to bloody pulps and put in patty wagons. The whole world is watching, so I don't think it will be that bad. And I think that something else that will happen because Joe Biden made this decision and is still was and still is and will more so be beloved by the party. Lyndon Johnson was not being canonized in 1968 at the convention. More likely, Robert Kennedy Sr. was having been assassinated. But I think that the party will come together around Joe Biden and give him the send-off that he deserves, both for everything he's accomplished in his public life and in the presidency, and then making this very difficult but patriotic and selfless decision to step out. So I think that will bring them together. Thank you so much for the time and the insight. You're really on to something, and it's good to speak to someone with the maturity to understand that sometimes even though things, and I'm not minimizing how bad things are right now, they are bad and they are terribly polarized. But I believe we have overcome it in the past, and I hope we will in the future. And I'll quote Bill Clinton, "I still believe in a place called hope." Barbara A. Miller, a professor in presidential studies at the University of Virginia's Miller Center. We're following these other stories from around the world. The U.S. envoy to the United Nations announced $60 million in aid for Haiti Monday. It's been a month since the first contingent of Kenyan police arrived as part of an international security mission aimed at tackling gang violence. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin head to Asia this week to reassure allies and partners of U.S. support. As the November U.S. presidential election casts uncertainty over Washington's foreign policy, a magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck the Panama Costa Rica border on Monday. The quake was at a depth of 3 kilometers, damage assessments are still being made. A Russian court has sent in Stalsu, Kumashiva, a Russian-American radio-free Europe radio-liberty journalist to six-and-a-half years in prison for spreading false information about the Russian army, according to the court's press service on Monday. Kumashiva denies the charge, by the way, radio-free Europe radio-liberty like the Voice of America is an independent broadcaster under the U.S. Agency for Global Media. We get more on this now from VOA's Jessica Girit. In a closed-door trial Friday, Ausu Kumashiva received a six-and-a-half-year sentence for spreading what the Kremlin says is false information about the Russian army. The verdict appears linked to a book Kumashiva helped edit about Russians opposed to the war in Ukraine. It is unclear if other charges are still pending against the journalist for VOA's sister network, Radio-free Europe radio-liberty. RFERL president Stephen Capus called the trial a "mockery of justice". Media groups are condemning Russia's actions. Karolucha covers Eastern Europe for the Media Freedom Group, the International Press Institute. This just shows, again, how these trials against these two American journalists, this one, a Russian-American journalist, in Russia are, obviously, completely manipulated by Russian authorities. Klamashiva's verdict came the same day Russia convicted Evan Gushkovich. The Wall Street Journal reporter was sentenced to 16 years in prison on espionage charges that he denies. The U.S. is demanding both Americans be released. Matthew Miller is the U.S. State Department spokesperson. We remain focused on the case of Ausu Kumashiva. She is a dedicated journalist who is being targeted by Russian authorities for her uncompromising commitment to speaking the truth and her principled reporting. The convictions mark a rapid decline in media freedoms in Russia. The country ranks near the bottom of the world press freedom index, and Moscow is detaining at least 22 journalists, more than half of whom a foreign national says the Committee to protect journalists. RFERL, external affairs chief, Diane Selaney, says Klamashiva's unjust attention and the risks for its journalists are a daily concern. It is the new normal. It's sad to say this is sort of the state of the world right now. Journalists are not safe anymore in many places, and the ways to help them are minimal, actually, you know, and they are being targeted by authoritarian governments. Klamashiva's family in Prague says her detention hits at a personal level. B.B.B. Turin is one of Klamashiva's daughters. It would be one thing if she was only away from me for so long, but to know that she's in an unsafe place and that she's in danger and she's not comfortable, that's something that really makes me sad. The Russian embassy did not respond to VOA's requests for comment, but in the case of Gershkovich, the Kremlin has indicated it would be open to a prisoner swap, Jessica Jurit, VOA News. U.S. Secret Service Director, Kimberly Chiald, rejected bipartisan calls to resign on Monday for security failures that allowed a would-be assassin to wound Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. The U.S. House of Representatives oversight committee held a hearing to get information about the event, but with little information to share the hearing got heated. I believe your horrifying attitude and your lack of skilled leadership as a disgrace, your obvious skating today is shameful, and you should be fired immediately and go back to Garden Doritos. The committee's Republican chair, James Comer, and top Democrat, Jamie Raskin, normally bitterly divided on most issues, each called on Chiald to step down. And I don't want to add to the director's terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day, but I will be joining the chairman in calling for the resignation of the director, just because I think that this relationship is irretrievable at this point, and I think that the director has lost the confidence of Congress. The shooting on July 13th wounded Trump in the air killed one rally attendee and injured another. ♪♪ VUA's International Edition continues. I'm Scott Walterman. European Union Foreign Policy Chief Joseph Perrell said on Monday the next foreign and defense ministerial meetings will be held in Brussels rather than Budapest due to Hungary's recent position on the war in Ukraine. We have to send a signal. Even if it is a symbolic signal that's been against the foreign policy of the European Union, and disqualifying the policy of the European Union as the party of war has to have some consequences. Perrell said he had made the decision after a majority of ministers had spoken out over Hungary after Prime Minister Viktor Orban traveled to Moscow without the backing of his EU allies. Slovakia received the first two of 14 brand new F-16 fighter jets on Monday, aiming to replace Russian-made planes that had already donated to Ukraine. Slovakia has relied on Central European neighbors for air patrols since last year when it handed over a dozen MiG-29 fighters which were to be grounded due to lack of parts and maintenance, but which Kyiv could use in its war with Russia. NATO member Slovakia, which lies on the military alliance's eastern flank, is set to receive another 12 F-16s by the end of next year. There's a new front in global war readiness that is demanding U.S. attention. Associated Press correspondent Lisa Dwyer tells us that there's a new Pentagon report calling for the United States to beef up its infrastructure in the Arctic. A new Pentagon strategy says that the U.S. must invest more to upgrade sensors, communications, and space-based technologies in the Arctic to keep pace with China and Russia who are increasingly operating there including in joint military exercises. Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks says that now is a critical time for the Arctic. She says climate change increased activity by adversaries and degrading U.S. infrastructure are forcing the Department to rethink how to keep the Arctic secure and ensure that troops are well-equipped and protected. The Arctic presents an array of challenges including demands for deep water ports and additional ships that can handle the cold waters and breakthrough ice. I'm Lisa Dwyer. Russia's prosecutor general Igor Krasnoff arrived in Pyongyang and met North Korean officials according to North Korean state media on Tuesday. The latest sign of closer ties between the two countries. In a video provided by North Korea's official news agency, a plane carrying Krasnoff was seen landing at Pyongyang International Airport on Monday. The footage also showed him and other Russian delegates in a meeting with North Korea's Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Supreme People's Assembly. And finally, I'm trying not to think about the fact that I'm eating frog legs and just focus on the flavor. As Paris gets ready to host the Olympic Games and with it, millions of visitors from all over the world, French restaurants are looking forward to serving up some of their famous cuisine. If you're a Paris, why not try their local food and their local cuisine? From snails to frog legs, a deep dive into what French delicacies await Paris 2024 visitors. I try to be adventurous with my palate and my cuisine again because of my Nigerian heritage and I know that there are certain things that might be an acquired taste to people who are not originally Nigerian. So I try to have an open mind when I'm trying other cultures, free beans and cultural foods as well. And for the most part, I'm willing to try anything one. And if I like it, then great. If not, then I know and I will try it again. So in the end, what did you think of the frog legs? It's just like chicken. Doesn't everything? This has been International Edition on the Voice of America. On behalf of everyone 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. In Washington, I'm Scott Multerman. [MUSIC PLAYING]