Indaba zesiNdebele Ekuseni - Voice of America
Indaba zesiNdebele Ekuseni - July 31, 2024
This is VOA News. I'm Tommy McNeil. Iran's paramilitary revolutionary guard said Hamas leader Ishmael Hanye was assassinated in Tehran. That statement gave no details on how he was killed, suspicion immediately fell in Israel, which is vowed to kill Hamas leaders over the group's October 7 attack on Israel. Israel itself did not immediately comment. There was no immediate reaction from the White House. Meanwhile, an Israeli strike on Tuesday on the densely populated southern suburbs of Beirut, heightened fears of an escalation of wider conflict in the Middle East. Scores of supporters of the Venezuelan opposition gathered on the streets of Caracas on Tuesday after a disputed president-election of mini-chanting freedom. The opposition leader, Maria Karina Machado, asked her supporters to remain peaceful even to provoke by government allies. The protest in Venezuela spread on Tuesday, as anger grew over the awarding of Sunday's election to President Nicolas Maduro, despite opposition claims that they had clinched a landslide victory. Far-right protesters fueled by anger and false online rumors hurled bottles and stones at police, wounding more than 20 police officers Tuesday outside Northwest England Mosque, near where three girls were fatally stabbed the day earlier. The Prime Minister Keir Starmer condemned the thuggery and said that the crowd had hijacked what had earlier been a peaceful vigil, attending by hundreds in the center of South Port to mourn the dead and tend surviving stabbing victims, seven of whom were in critical condition. This is Vele News. Hundreds of rescue workers are searching through debris from landslides that have killed at least 151 people in southern India. Torrential rains triggered torrents of mud and water that swept through tea estates and villages. The police officer, who uses one name, says that another 186 people were injured by landslides that hit hilly areas in Caracas State's District early Tuesday, flattening houses, uprooting trees and destroying a bridge, the efforts of over 300 rescuers were hampered by black roads and unstable terrain. Acting Secret Service boss says that he cannot defend why a roof in the Trump rally shooting was unsecured. Ronald Rose says he went to the Pennsylvania site, climbed on the roof and laid in the shooter's position. What I saw made me ashamed as a former protective detail agent. I cannot defend why that roof was not better secured. Ro told two Senate panels while his agency failed, he's also troubled local law enforcement never reported seeing a gunman on the roof before the shooting. We didn't know that there was this incident going on. The FBI is also sharing new details about the shooter, saying a social media account believed associated with him supported political violence and extreme views. An announcement of China's car giant BYD will build a billion dollar factory in Turkey, marking a big turnaround relations between the two countries, details from VOA's Dorian Jones from Istanbul. July saw China's BYD car giant sign an agreement to build a billion dollar factory in Turkey. The factory will produce 150,000 vehicles annually, mainly for the European Union market. Analysts say the planned factory is a way to avoid the EU's new tariffs on Chinese vehicles and they say the new investment is also a sign of a shift in Beijing's policy after years of avoiding investing in Turkey. And Jones, VOA News Istanbul. After days of delays and uncertainty over water quality in the river, the women's and men's Olympic triathlon races will go forward Wednesday with a swim in the famed Paris waterway. The decision to go ahead with the swim for the triathlon competition is a big win for the city. Olympics organizers and athletes, officials undertook an ambitious plan, including 1.4 billion euros and infrastructure improvements to clean up the long polluted and have been steadfast in their insistence that the swimming portion of the triathlon and marathon swimming events next week could be safe. >> Israel hits Beirut in retaliation for a weekend rocket attack on the Golan Heights. >> The IDF carried out a targeted strike in Beirut on Fuachukur, also known as Seydmussen. >> Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro calls out the federal police and military to put down protests over the election results. >> A growing number of fine dining restaurants in Singapore are looking to put insects on the menu. >> Singapore approved 16 species of insects for consumption, including crickets and grass hoppers. The IDF carried out a targeted strike in Beirut on Fuachukur, also known as Seydmussen. >> Hezbollah's most senior military commander, and the head of its strategic unit. >> That's Israeli military spokesperson, Rear Admiral Daniel Haggari, Fuachukur was the commander responsible for the Majd al-Shams massacre in which 12 children were murdered after Hezbollah fired an Iranian Falak-1 rocket directly at a soccer field in northern Israel on Saturday evening. He was a senior terrorist who was the blood who has the blood of Israelis and many others on his hands. >> Let's get the latest on the ground in Lebanon. Joining us now is VOA's Jacob Russell in Beirut. Thank you so much for joining us to give us the update. >> No problem. >> What do we know now? What's happening? >> Well, basically early in the evening, the Israeli defense forces confirmed that they had conducted what they called a targeted strike in Beirut. They claimed that the target was the commander who was responsible for the strike on Muslims fans a few days ago on the 27th of July, a strike which, as should be noted, Hezbollah have did any involvement in. They didn't name the commander in the attribution, but he has been locally named as Mohsen Shukad, who's also known as Frei Shukad, who is in charge of missile and rocket operations and is also known to be a close advisor of Nasser al-Nasser al-Nasser. It does seem that he escaped the strike, although there were casualties, early reports are that there have been one or two deaths and up to 20 injuries, as children included in those injured. It does appear that he himself was not in the building, but he had left the building by the time it was struck. >> Why do you think Hezbollah is denying the rocket was theirs? Are they afraid of escalation or do you get the sense that, you know, might actually not have been them? >> So there is no information in the public realm that confirms or denies their involvement in it. The circumstances do seem to indicate that it is quite feasible that it could have been one of their rockets, as they were firing into the general area, and they were firing at the time at a military outpost that was a matter of maybe only two miles from the area where that rocket landed. I think there was no, at the moment, Hezbollah and the Israeli Defense Forces are playing a very tense game of striking each other while trying to control the situation and not allow it to escalate into all-out war. And I think that Hezbollah did not, as they have so far, generally avoided causing too many civilian casualties and their strikes. And I think that the nature of this strike, the fact that it was children killed, the fact that it was children who were playing at the time who were killed and the images that came out of it, if it was Hezbollah who launched that rocket, which is a reasonable assumption to make, then I think that they wanted to deny responsibility, knowing that it would cause, it would necessitate a higher level of retaliation than they were ready to bear. What's the sense on the ground among the people that live there? Are they nervous? Are they worried that this thing is going to escalate? Absolutely. Yeah, there's a great deal of tension here, which is, you know, there is often a great deal of tension here in Lebanon, so people have developed various kind of ways of dealing with it and continuing to live their lives, but no, this is definitely a moment of high tension. People are afraid. They don't want to be dragged into a wall. Hezbollah does command a great deal of support, especially amongst the Shia community in Lebanon, but also increasingly amongst people who have been so outraged by the killing that they have seen going on in Gaza, that they have, although they may not have previously had much affection for Hezbollah, they are beginning to see Hezbollah as one of the only entities in the region that is making significant moves to stand up to what is happening in Gaza. What they see as unjustifies civilian casualties in Gaza. Interesting. Well, thank you so much for the update. Stay safe. Thank you very much. The way Jacob Russell in Beirut, the Israeli military says their target was killed despite reports that he escaped another day of nationwide protests in Venezuela as international criticism of President Nicholas Maduro mounts a day after election authorities declared him the winner of the country's election opposition leader, Maria Karina Machado addressed the crowd, asking her supporters to remain peaceful, even if provoked by government allies. Maduro's office says it has ordered police and army units to put down the protests. Security forces fired tear gas and rubber bullets at protesters. The Nora Faguera, a political refugee and president of Venezuela's Parliament in exile in Spain, says that Maduro is naked before the world. The world knows he committed fraud. We're following these other stories from around the world. U.S. officials in Manila have announced $500 million in funding to boost Philippine defenses and make progress in a proposed military intelligence sharing pact with shared concerns over China's increasingly aggressive actions in the region. A number of Russian dissidents and people convicted for their opposition to Moscow's war in Ukraine have disappeared from Russian prisons in recent days. Rights activists say it's a possible sign that a prisoner swap with the West may be close. Russia's defense ministry said on Tuesday its forces have captured the settlement of Pibben in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine. In our continuing coverage of the 2024 U.S. presidential election, access to abortion is one of the main topics in this year's U.S. presidential race. The Kamala Harris campaign is betting on support for abortion rights driving voters to the polls in November, while Donald Trump and the Republican Party have toned down their anti-abortion stances on the matter in public. The OA's Veronica Balderas Iglesias has more. U.S. women's reproductive rights are often center stage, advice president and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris' campaign events. We who believe in reproductive freedom will stop Donald Trump's extreme abortion bans because we trust women to make decisions about their own body and not have their governmental than what to do. Former President Donald Trump praised the Supreme Court's 2022 overturning of federal protections on abortion access. His stresses he favors each U.S. state deciding on whether to grant or block it. The Democrats really, not all of them, because most of them agree with us, they're the radical ones, whereas our position is that abortion is now back to the states. Trump and the Republican Party have recently toned down their abortion rhetoric, which at times included calls for national abortion bans. That's no accident, says Rutgers University polling expert Ashley Toning. We saw in the midterms and in special elections, when abortion is either directly or indirectly on the ballot, how consequential that has been to elections and that the voters are coming out on the side in support of reproductive health issues and abortion issues. Democrats are betting on a pro choice platform and expressing support for abortion providers. For instance, on July 23rd, Vice President Harris' husband, dog M. Huff, visited a reproductive health center in McLean, Virginia. The move was praised by the center's medical director, Dr. Jessica Rubino. I do believe that this is one of the most important topics for the election. It is really important that the Vice President, that the second gentleman, focus on this, continue to engage with us and work on coming up with a plan. Among anti-abortion groups, there are those who doubt that reproductive rights will drive a record number of voters to the polls in November. The Trump ticket probably won't sharply increase their focus on abortion, even as the Harris campaign does, in the opinion of National Right to Life Committee President Carol Tobias. I think they're going to be talking about what they think is important and I don't know how much they will be responding to her. I think they definitely have to talk about the unborn child being a member of the human family that deserves protection. Analysts expect that Trump campaign will continue to prioritize the economy when courting voters. As historically, that has been American's top concern in presidential elections. Veronique van der Acilesia, VOA News, McLean, Virginia. The acting director of the U.S. agency charged with protecting high-profile officials called the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump earlier this month, a failure on multiple levels. VOA national security correspondent Jeff Seldin has more on the latest effort by U.S. lawmakers to get answers on what went wrong. One week after taking charge of the U.S. Secret Service, the new acting director promised to do better. What I saw made me ashamed. Ronald Rose said the failure to account for a gunman on the roof of a building overlooking former President Donald Trump's July 13th rally in rural western Pennsylvania was indefensible. I could not, and I will not, and I cannot understand why there was not better coverage or at least somebody looking at that roofline when that's where they were posted. Rose said it's his understanding that responsibility for covering that roof had been assigned to a local law enforcement sniper team, which should have had a clear view of the shooter. But that wasn't the only breakdown. Information on the shooter would have been identified as a suspicious person never made it to Trump's protective detail, and Secret Service drones, which should have been flying over the side of the rally, never made it into the air, due to a lack of mobile connectivity even as the shooter was flying his own drone, hours before Trump took to the stage. We could have perhaps found him. We could have maybe stopped him. Maybe on that particular day, he would have decided this isn't the day to do it because law enforcement just found me flying my drone. Not all lawmakers were satisfied. My question is, why don't you relieve everybody of duty who made bad judgement? Republican Senator Josh Hawley. What more do you need to investigate to know that there were critical enough failures that some individuals ought to be held accountable? Being Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe pushed back. I will tell you, Senator, that I will not rush to judgement, that people will be held accountable, and I will do so with integrity. The former director of the Secret Service resigned last week, a day after repeatedly refusing to answer questions from lawmakers about what went wrong. Yet, even as lawmakers demand accountability, questions about the attempted assassination of Donald Trump remain unanswered. FBI Deputy Director Paula Beit told lawmakers that even after more than 460 interviews, investigators still don't know why 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks snuck up onto a roof and took eight shots at the former president. But in just the last day, they may have caught a break, discovering a social media account that may belong to the shooter. There were over 700 comments posted from this account. And they hint at an embrace of violence. Some of these comments, if ultimately attributable to the shooter, appear to reflect anti-Semitic and anti-immigration themes to espouse political violence and are described as extreme in nature. But a Beit admitted other social media posts possibly linked to the shooter indicate contrasting political views. And officials have said the shooter showed an interest in both Trump and current US President Joe Biden, Jeff Selden, VOA News, Washington. VOA's International Edition continues, I'm Scott Walterman. And I'm Alexis Strope, an announcement that China's car giant BYD will build a billion dollar factory in Turkey marks a big turnaround in relations between the two countries. The move comes after years of tensions over Ankara's support of Chinese minority weakers. As Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul, the two countries are increasingly finding common ground not only economically but diplomatically. July saw China's BYD car giant sign an agreement to build a billion dollar factory in Turkey. The factory will produce 150,000 vehicles annually, mainly for the European Union market. Analysts say the deal marks a turning point in Turkish-Chinese relations. Sebel Karabel is director of the Asia-Pacific Department of Istanbul's Giddick University. This deal has the potential to reduce the trade imbalance, the trade deficit to the detriment, which is to the detriment of Turkey, and on the other hand, for China, it is also important because the products produced here will be exempt from tariffs due to the fact that Turkey has customs union with the European Union. Analysts say the planned factory is a way to avoid the EU's new tariffs on Chinese vehicles. And they say the new investment is also a sign of a shift in Beijing's policy after years of avoiding investing in Turkey. Jairen Ehrgench is a China specialist at the centre for European policy studies. You don't see the investments in Turkey. And the reason for that is China perceives Turkey as a high political risk country in the region. But that is changing, and some in the Uyghur community are worried that Turkey may be turning on them. Ukraine has been critical of Beijing's crackdown on its predominantly Muslim Uyghur minority and has offered refuge to many. Observers say Uyghur dissidents fear Beijing's billion-dollar investment in Turkey could be part of a deal structuring Turkish Foreign Minister Haqam Fedans' recent visit to China. Chadash Unger of Istanbul's Marmar University. There are rumours, of course, that the Chinese side is pressing for the ratification of this extradition agreement that they would want Uyghurs in Turkey, some of them at least, to be returned to China, to be tried in China, etc. Others suggest China's pivot towards Turkey and NATO member could be part of Beijing's increasing competition for global influence, especially with the United States. Analysts say that Ankara and Beijing are finding increasing diplomatic common ground, including criticism of Israel's war on Hamas. Again, Chadash Unger of Istanbul's Marmar University. If you take, for instance, the Gaza issue right now, Turkey and China, and even without trying, they see eye-to-eye on this issue. They are foreign policies like a line, overlap, and it becomes very much different from most of the other western countries. So there are certain issues at a global level, at a regional level, that China seems to be a much better partner than the western countries. Ankara, welcome Beijing's hosting of Palestinian leaders this month. Israel's war is threatening to escalate, and observers say that can only provide more common ground between Ankara and Beijing. Dorian Jones, VOA News, Istanbul. At the Olympics, Team USA diver Alison Gibson is on a mission to get an entire Kenyan school sponsored before the end of the Olympic Games. More on her quest in this story from Reuters correspondent Freddie Joyner. Two-time US Olympic diver Alison Gibson has more than just a medal in her sights this summer in Paris. Leading into Olympic trials and through Olympic trials, I thought, "Wow, if I make the Olympics, I can build an initiative of, hey, let's get every child sponsored." The motivation came after Gibson met Mary Kamau, executive director of the Charity Missions of Hope International, that built schools and hospitals in Kenya. The two sparked up a conversation and Gibson decided to help. So I sponsored a child, and I was sitting there thinking, and I'm like, "Man, I want to do more with this. I want to do more with this. I want to help." And so I remember going into my Olympic trials final, and all I could think about was like, I was like, "God, please help me make the Olympics so that I can launch this." Gibson made it to Paris, and her next goal was trying to convince others at the Games to sponsor children that included NBA legend LeBron James, who's the United States flag bearer during the opening ceremony. And he said, "Okay, give me your phone, open your notes." So I did. I gave him my phone, I opened my notes, and he typed in the name of the CMO of his foundation, and he said, "Email her." He said, "I can't make any promises that we'll do anything," but he said, "Email her and see what we can do." Missions of Hope International was started by Kamau with her husband in 2000. The charity has now set up 35 schools with over 30,000 students in Kenya. In the last 25 years, we have learned a lot of lessons, but one thing that we have learned is that the needs of these communities, the most vulnerable communities, are overwhelming. Gibson went into retirement after a disappointing finish at the Tokyo Olympics, but she decided to return to use her platform to transform the lives of others. I am so excited for her, I'm happy for her, I'm praying for her like crazy. I won't have to be able to win at the Olympics. I feel like she's so much part of my life now, she's part of the missions of Hope International and the changes that we are making in this world impacting the lives of the children, and she's part of this story. Reuters correspondent Freddie Joyner. The games aren't even halfway through, and countries are already making their pitches to host future ones. Indonesia wants the Olympics to be part of its new capital city as the country eyes economic expansion. "I think we should be able to win at some point in the near future, for our 100 year independence, which is 2045, because number one, Indonesia is engine of growth of the world as it is already today. And the amount of demography that we have is not small, which is about 285 million people, but if you combine with ASEAN, that's close to a billion people. And I think Indonesia is also a top destination for tourists and people all over the world." Anitya Bakari is the chief of Indonesia's team at Paris 2024. Part of the Olympic plan is to use the new capital city, new Santerra, which is currently under construction in East Borneo. "To build a city, we need to be in stages 2036 or 2040, whichever we can, is good this and away. I think within 20 years or so, Indonesia should be able to keep hosting international events. And yeah, it keeps our mind focused that we see, okay, momentum needs to be there, trajectory needs to be there, but overall, you know, this is a game of, again, solidarity." The new Indonesian capital will open officially this August with a dedication ceremony. "And finally," Fancy Salad garnished with black-filled crickets, or satay chicken skewers with some extra protein. "Fancy some crickets on your satay, or mealworms with pasta, look no further than the house of seafood in Singapore's northeastern coast." "They have been calling me, my phone is ringing non-stop, a lot of customers calling me said they want to put this thing, they want to test insects." Francis Ng is the owner of the restaurant. "I think for a beginner, you should use the house crickets, this is easy going. You go, go, go, go, go." Now while it's new in Singapore, it's not uncommon in Asia for insects to be part of the diet. Paul Tang is the Dean and Managing Director of the National Institute of Education International. "Country style, Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos have had many, many generations of consumers eating insects. So there's no young factor anymore, it's part of the normal diet. Now we need to build an insect couple, because we don't have a history eating insects." "Okay, but the test is the taste. Here's a diner at the restaurant." "But if you eat it with the eye closed, you can tell it, it's a crickets." "Surprisingly, she did not say it tastes like chicken, she said it tastes like shrimp." 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 vohnews.com. In Washington, with Alexa Stroke, I'm Scott Walterman. (upbeat music)