Indaba zesiNdebele Ekuseni - Voice of America
Indaba zesiNdebele Ekuseni - August 02, 2024
This is VOA News, I'm Michael Brown, a massive multinational prisoner swap on Thursday saw the release of two dozen people, including Americans held in Russian jails and the largest such exchange since the Cold War, what is corresponding to Zachary Coleman reports. Eight prisoners held in the west were part of the swap. Germany confirmed they include Vadim Krasikov. Krasikov is a colonel in the Russian FSB Security Service, who was serving the life sentence in Germany for murdering an exiled dissident in a Berlin park. Russian President Vladimir Putin had indicated he wanted him back. Germany's government said releasing Krasikov was not an easy decision. The Kremlin said the prisoners released by the swap were pardoned by Putin decrees and that the move was aimed at returning Russian captives held abroad. The U.S. government on Thursday announced its recognizing opposition candidate Edmund Gonzalez as the winner of Venezuela's presidential election, despite the country's electoral authority giving the victory to President Nicolas Maduro, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement given the overwhelming evidence it is clear the U.S. and most importantly the Venezuelan people that Edmund Gonzalez won the most votes in Venezuela's July 28 presidential election. Nigeria's police fired tear gas at protesters in Abuja on Thursday as demonstrators, demonstrations that has broke out across the country against the worst cost of living crisis in a general operation. As always for details on much more news we invite you to join us at our website that is VOANews.com also on the VOA mobile app. This is VOA News. Israel says it has confirmed Hamas terrorist military wing chief Mohammed Dave was killed in a July strike because it attails from Sean Hogan. Another Israel's most wanted list for decades, Dave rose through the group's ranks over 30 years, developing its network of tunnels and its bomb making expertise. Hamas neither confirmed nor denied his death but one official said any word on deaths of its leaders was its responsibility alone. Sean Hogan from Reuters, AP correspondent Norman Hall reports legislation to limit presidential immunity has been introduced. In an attempt to reverse the Supreme Court's landmark decision last month, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer's introduced legislation reaffirming that presidents do not have immunity for criminal actions. Schumer's No Kings Act would attempt to invalidate the court's decision by clarifying that Congress, not the Supreme Court, determinants to whom federal criminal law is applied. The court's conservative majority decided July 1st that presidents have brought immunity from criminal prosecution for actions taken within their official duties. The decision threw into doubt the Justice Department's case against Republican former President Donald Trump for his efforts to overturn his 2020 election laws. Mark Haul, Washington. "Dave Easley, Lisa Dwyer that is, reports that Chipmaker Intel corporation is cutting 15% of its massive workforce." Intel is expected to cut about 15,000 jobs as it tries to turn its business around to compete with more successful rivals like Nvidia and AMD. The job cuts come on the heels of a disappointing quarter and forecast for the iconic chipmaker founded in 1968 at the start of the PC revolution. Next week, Intel will announce an enhanced retirement offering for eligible employees and offer an application program for voluntary departures. The company is aiming to save 10 billion dollars in 2025 with a focus on driving down costs. I'm Lisa Dwyer. "The war in Sudan and the restrictions on aid deliveries have caused famine at least one site in North Dauffer and have likely led to famine conditions in other parts of the conflict region, a committee on food security experts released on Thursday. For more news, please join us at our website, VOANews.com. I'm Michael Brown. VOA News. The largest prisoner swap between the U.S. and Russia since the end of the Cold War. Today was a very good day. And we're going to build on it, drawing inspiration and continued courage from it for all of those who were held hostage or wrongfully detained around the world. At least three protesters are killed in Nigeria. And if you don't like pulling weeds, have I got a robot for you? Nobody really wants to go through a field weeding on a really wet windy cold day, so why not give it to a robot? For the best way of describing it is a Scoboy with a magnifying glass. Today is Friday, August 2nd. I'm Scott Walterman and I'm Alexis Strope. Today we're bringing on Paul, Evan, also Vladimir. The United States and Russia have completed a 24-person prisoner swap, the largest in post-Soviet history with Moscow releasing journalist Evan Gerskovich and fellow American Paul Whalen in a multinational deal that set two dozen people free. The swap involved 16 political prisoners exchanged for eight individuals requested by the Kremlin. More now from Reuters correspondent Zachary Goldman. A massive multinational prisoner swap on Thursday saw the release of two dozen people, including Americans held in Russian jails. And now their brutal ordeal is over, and they're free. U.S. President Joe Biden said the released include Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gerskovich, former U.S. Marine Paul Whalen, Russian-American journalist Alsu Karmasheva and Vladimir Karamorza, a British Russian activist. The deal that made this possible was a feat of diplomacy and friendship. The exchange was coordinated by Turkey and this Russian government jet was seen at the airport in Ankara on Thursday. The White House said the U.S. had negotiated the complex trade with Russia and other countries. They still would not have been made possible without our allies. Germany, Poland, Slovenia, and Norway and Turkey, they all stepped up and they stood with us. They stood with us. And they made bold and brave decisions. Release prisoners being held in their countries who are justifiably being held. Eight prisoners held in the west were part of the swap. Germany confirmed they include Vadim Krasakov. Krasakov is a colonel in the Russian FSB Security Service, who was serving the life sentence in Germany for murdering an exiled dissident in a Berlin park. Russian President Vladimir Putin had indicated he wanted him back. Germany's government said releasing Krasakov was not an easy decision. What's remarkable about this prisoner swap is the scope and the scale. Timothy Fry is a professor at Columbia University and the author of a book about Putin's Russia. Certainly. I think it's a big win for the Biden administration. Of course, one always has to be worried that exchanging prisoners, political prisoners for criminals will only encourage rogue states, not only Russia, but other states as well, from taking innocent foreigners as hostages and using them as bargaining chips. The Kremlin said the prisoners released by the swap were pardoned by Putin decrees and that the move was aimed at returning Russian captives held abroad. Reuters correspondent Zachary Goldman. 16 people released from Russian jails in exchange for eight people Russia wanted back from the west. What is the game, the goal, in all of this on Russia's part? To help us understand why these people were arrested in Russia and why they were released, joining us is Sergei Sonovitch, a fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. What do you think we're looking at from a strategic standpoint on the Russian side of this swap? Think about the people who are who are actually exchanged a foreign journalist, and intimidating foreign journalists is an important part of fresh information control strategy. It doesn't only involve abducting, like in the case of Evan Kirschkiewicz, but also expelling people, harassing, surveilling, and all sorts of other problems that foreign journalists, you know, leave for a holiday back home and then they deny entry or deny fees and so forth. Organizations now, I think, even foreign organizations are being declared for an agent and desired organization and so forth. So that is a part of a system that allows Kremlin to operate sort of out of the limelight and do their dirty business in darkness. Second, political, political prisoners, they were arrested to make sure that nobody in Russia who is against Putin and against the war. And again, these people exist, even according to some official polling data, it's millions of people, maybe tens of millions, to keep them quiet. Some are facing really harsh punishments like people in this case who were serving 25-year prison sentences and so forth. So that is an important function here, and one important thing I want to note is that it's not unheard of even in Putin's Russia for people to get released. It could be an amnesty. Imagine Putin decides that he wants to stop a war in Ukraine, declares victory, and there is an amnesty attached to that or this kind of prisoner exchange. But what never once happened in Putin's Russia is that any of the quickly growing set of laws that these people violated was ever built. For all these laws about disagreeing with the Russian government, describing the war in terms different from the official minister of defense spokesperson, all these laws will remain on the books, meaning that other people will feel this empty cells. So you're saying that this is how they send a message to journalists and citizens who I don't know, might disagree with the government to watch themselves? Yes, so when it comes to people who are doing any kind of opposition activity or even human rights monitoring, just helping people, whether it's refugees from Ukraine or LGBT people or whoever, intimidating them is a goal of its own. This exchange will not get rid of the stain that Putin created on Russian reputation, because Evan Gerskovich, again, he was born to refugees from USSR in Princeton United States, and he learned Russian, he went to Russia, and he even invited his parents to visit, to see that country is different from what they remember from 1970s. And the next time they visited him in a cell in the 4th of a KGB prison, not every country gets such a great coverage that Evan Gerskovich was providing to Russia, really goal in places, talking to people, understanding the country, he loved Russia, and this is the kind of treatment he got. There weren't only foreigners in this exchange, there were Russian citizens too. Talk about that for us. The fact that Russia was ready to exchange its own citizens, it's sort of bizarre in a way, and I think it's also part of the Kremlin strategy. They always wanted to say that domestic opposition is not really Russian politicians, or journalists, or thinkers. This is planted, this is CIA at work. These people get directions and money from U.S. embassy, and this exchange, which for many of these people, is truly life-saving, because, you know, Sasha Scalia, for instance, who was doing a peaceful protest against the war, she had particular conditions that required a certain diet, and of course, in prison, it was not available. Ilya Yashin spent months on end in solitary confinement with rats and their rotten food, and, you know, without heating, winter, or a condition in summer, it's really brutal, and remember what happened with Alexei Navalny. Putin, of course, will use it to portray them as really not Russian, but of United States, or Britain, like in Vladimir Karmorsakis. So I think we should all be grateful for German leaders, American leaders, who thought not only about their citizens, but about other people who are fighting for democracy and peace in Russia. But, you know, at the same time, we will also need to realize how problematic this is, that, you know, Putin continues to get his demands met. Sergey Sonovich, a fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. Following the assassination of a Hezbollah leader in Beirut, and a Hamas leader in Tehran this week, Israel announced it had killed the head of Hamas's military wing, Muhammad Dave, last month, details now from Reuters correspondent Sean Hogan. The IDF, announcing on Thursday an intelligence assessment, confirmed his death when their fighter jets struck the site in Han Eunice on July 13th. Dave is believed to have been one of the masterminds of Hamas's October 7th attack on southern Israel, which triggered the Gaza war. One of Hamas's most dominant figures, and top of Israel's most wanted list for decades, Dave rose through the group's ranks over 30 years, developing its network of tunnels and its bomb-making expertise. Hamas neither confirmed nor denied his death, but one official said any word on deaths of its leaders was its responsibility alone. Scores of Palestinians were killed and airstrikes that killed Dave, medics and Gaza say. The announcement came as crowds gathered in Tehran for the funeral procession of Hamas's leader, Ismail Haniyeh. Haniyeh was assassinated in the Iranian capital with both Iran and Hamas blaming Israel, which hasn't denied or confirmed a role in his killing. Hezbollah and Hamas are backed by Iran. These latest killings have raised concern of a future escalation in hostilities in the Middle East. Israel has said it does not seek regional war, but that it would respond forcefully to any attack. And now on the 300th day of warfare and Gaza, hopes for a hostage deal and ceasefire have dimmed. That was Reddit's correspondent Sean Hogan. At least three protesters were killed in Nigeria on Thursday. We get the latest now from Reuters correspondent Alice Rizzo. Police fired tear gas to disperse crowds of protesters in Nigeria's capital Abuja on Thursday, as thousands rallied across several cities over an escalating cost of living and governance issues. Reuters's video showed people marching across Africa's most populous nation to show discontent with economic reforms that have led to rampant inflation and inflicted increasing hardship on ordinary Nigerians. In Lagos, armed police watched, as protesters marched towards the government house before heading to two locations that were authorized for the protests. Some shopping malls in the city were shut and guarded by a heavy police presence. Consumer inflation in Nigeria rose to a new 28-year high of 34.19% in annual terms in June. As well as soaring inflation, Nigerians are also grappling with widespread insecurity, which damaged the farming sector, while armed gangs, kidnap residents, and school children for ransom in the north. President Boletinubu has asked citizens to bear with his reforms and has vowed to pursue changes he says are needed to keep the country afloat. He signed a new minimum wage into law on Monday to help workers cope with hardship caused by his economic changes, but many other countries, 200 million people, are either self-employed or do not have jobs. Reuters correspondent, Alice Rizzo. We're following these other stories from around the world. The United States has recognized Edmundo Ghazalasarutia as the winner of the Venezuelan election. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said it is clear to the United States and, most importantly, to the Venezuelan people that Ghazalas won. African health officials say epochs cases have surged by 160% so far this year, warning that the risk of further spread is high given the lack of treatments or vaccines on the continent. Former Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush will join an effort to commemorate America's 250th anniversary in 2026. They're highlighting the initiative's attempts to build bipartisan momentum in an era of extreme political polarization. In our continuing coverage of the 2024 US presidential election, Republican candidate Donald Trump and likely Democratic candidate Kamala Harris are both out on the campaign trail where Trump questioned Harris' racial identity and Harris challenged Trump to debate. With fewer than 100 days before the election, P.O.A. correspondent Scott Stearns looks at the state of the race and what voters are saying about the candidates. Republican candidate Donald Trump told supporters in the key swing state of Pennsylvania that his likely Democratic opponent is a fraud. The radical left Democrat party bosses have installed a puppet candidate to fight only for themselves. Kamala Harris got zero votes. She's totally scripted, owned, and controlled by the donors and the power brokers who created her campaign and who rip off our government and make billions and billions of dollars. Former President Donald Trump. Earlier in the day, Trump had a contentious meeting with black journalists where he questioned the racial identity of Harris, whose mother was Indian and her father is black. She was always of Indian heritage and she was only promoting Indian heritage. I didn't know she was black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn black and now she wants to be known as black. So I don't know is she Indian or is she black? Harris has long self-identified as both black and South Asian American since becoming the likely Democratic presidential candidate. She's drawn even with Trump in seven key swing states. According to political polling by Bloomberg News and The Morning Consult, largely on the strength of greater support from young black and Hispanic voters. So the momentum in this race is shifting and there are signs that Donald Trump is feeling it. You may have noticed. Harris told a rally Tuesday in Georgia that Trump seems to have a lot to say about her but does not want to debate in September as scheduled. Well Donald. I do hope you'll reconsider to meet me on the debate stage. Because as the saying goes, if you've got something to say, Harris is expected to announce her vice presidential pick in the coming days and still has the party's convention in Chicago to help convince voters that she's a better choice than Trump. In North Carolina, voter Wanda Cherry says she's excited about the Democratic Party switch from President Jill Biden to Harris. I'm glad that the president realized that we need somebody younger to run the country. Somebody that has the smart and the willingness to run. Georgia voter T Stan Lee does not believe Harris is ready to be president. First her being the candidate is kind of this is really this is like horrific to me because first of all she's not prepared to be president and it seems like she's already president now. Georgia voter Phil Ownby says Harris has reinvigorated the presidential race. I will vote for her and I'm excited to do so. I generally think she may be a little liberal on certain issues but in order to safeguard her democracy I definitely vote for her. In California, voter Marina George says Trump's support is strong enough to defeat any challenger. Even when the camel hair is coming in anyone they put they're not going to win. It's just making the Democrat party break apart even more and faster and everything that they're doing is good for the Republicans. Nationally the Bloomberg poll shows Harris and Trump in a statistical tie with fewer than a hundred days to go before election day. Scott Stern's VOA news. China is expanding its imports of semi-processed agricultural products from Africa in an effort to address a trade imbalance and also as a way of diversifying global food chains amid geopolitical tensions. Kate Bartlett visits South Africa's rural Limpopo province where avocado farmers are getting ready to export their products to the Chinese market for the first time. Derek Duncan is the CEO of a South African fruit growth association and has been working with Chinese inspectors to open so-called green lanes to get avocado exports off the ground. China has long been the African continent's biggest trade partner but the Asian giant exports some 60 billion dollars more in goods to Africa each year than it imports. In South Africa's case China exported 11 billion dollars more than it imported in 2022 the most recent year for which figures are available. Because there's been a strong impetus from the Chinese as well to make sure that this deal happens because they're aware of that trade imbalance and that they need to be taking more exports from South Africa. The avocado deal with Beijing was made last year when South Africa hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping on a state visit alongside the summit of the breaks group of emerging economies. At the time South Africa urged China to address the trade deficit. Lauren Johnston is an associate professor of China studies at the University of Sydney. Another kind of bigger geo-strategic reason for the push on food exports is similar to kind of diversify the global agricultural supply chain. You've had this pressure on China you've got the soybean pressure from the US you've got different pressures and trade tensions between Australia and China. As part of its agricultural push in Africa, China also imports soybean citrus wine and Roivos tea from South Africa, avocados and tea from Kenya and coffee from Rwanda and Ethiopia. China's new ambassador to South Africa Wu Peng has promised measures are being taken to speed up the export of more agricultural products to China. The potential of this is huge says Clive Garrett, marketing manager for ZZ2, a South African farming conglomerate which will soon be exporting its avocados to China. Until October in 2023 South Africa really could only export to Europe a little bit to the Middle East but now since then we've had Japan, China and India open to us and these are very exciting markets because the per capita consumption in these markets is still incredibly low. So we see huge opportunities of going into these markets. According to industry estimates there are some 300 million people in China earning enough to buy imported fruit. That can only be good news for farmers and workers here in this bucolic mountain town. Kate Bartlett, VIA News, Zaneen, Limpopo, South Africa. VIOA's International Edition continues. I'm Alexis Drop. And I'm Scott Walterman. Turbulence is knocking a beloved instant noodle offering off of Korean Air's economy menu. Cups of shin, rummian instant noodles have become a favorite among Korean air travelers over the years but a spokesperson for the soul-based airline says they will no longer be available for economy class passengers starting August 15th. Weeling up and down a field, a farming robot dubbed "claws" uses patented concentrated light technology to eliminate weeds without damaging the surrounding crops or soil. The approach is not only effective but also sustainable according to Earth rover CEO James Miller. Reuters correspondent Arthi Thiaperin has more. Bloss stands for Concentrated Light, Autonomous Weeding and Scouting. The robot was designed by Earth rover. James Miller is the CEO of the Agriculture Tech Start-up. So the best way of describing it is a scoreboy with a magnifying glass. So it concentrates the light onto a small focal point on the meristem, the growing point of the weed and delivers a small pulse of energy which is enough to kill the weed. It takes an individual photograph and assesses the crop beneath it, identifies the crop, protects that and then identifies the weeds around it and says their enemy, I'm targeting those. And that all happens in split second and starts shooting at the weeds. Miller says this method is more sustainable by reducing greenhouse gas emissions that could be released during soil disturbance. To help monitor crop health, claws is equipped with eight built-in cameras. It collects real time data using AI computer vision which is then sent to Earth rover's farm control and intelligence system. The information allows farmers to make timely decisions about the health and growth of the crop. Claws runs on battery and solar power and operates autonomously in different terrains and weather conditions. Earth rover has plans to deliver units to customers for testing in 2025. Commercial availability is slated for 2026. That was Reuters correspondent Arthi Thiaparen. 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, videos, stories and more, follow VOA news on your favorite social media platform and online at VOANews.com. In Washington, with Alexa Stroke, I'm Scott Walter-Mean.