Indaba zesiNdebele Ekuseni - Voice of America
Indaba zesiNdebele Ekuseni - August 27, 2024
This is Beaway News. I'm Tommy Vick Neil and escalation fears pro on the border between Israel and Lebanon. Many in the Lebanese capital Beirut say the country's economy cannot afford a new war. Reuters corresponded Trevor Coral. The hostilities between Hezbollah and the Israeli military have taken a particularly hard toll on bus drivers says Ali Ayub. The whole country has stopped. The situation in the whole country is bad. Nothing is working in the country. Lebanon had already been hauled out by a five year economic crisis resulting in lost jobs and less need for daily commutes. Hezbollah and Israel have been trading rocket fire for nearly 10 months in parallel with the war in Gaza with exchanges mostly limited to the border area. But the effects have been felt nationwide. A huge Russian missile and drone salvo launched at Ukraine on Monday targeted energy facilities nationwide and left several people dead more from Reuters correspond to Olivia Zelina. Thousands of residents took shelter underground as sirens blared through Kyiv overnight. I would like to see a response to Moscow so that they will feel what we feel says this woman. Ukrainian officials say Russia launched more than 200 missiles and drones in the attack. And neighboring NATO member Poland reported a drone had probably entered its air space during the bombardment. Kyiv said the attack targeted power or other critical infrastructure in at least 10 regions. The Taliban is rejecting concerns and criticism raised by the United Nations over new vice in virtue laws that include a ban on women's voices and bare faces in public on Sunday, the head of the UN mission in Afghanistan said the law showed a distressing vision for the country's future. This is VY News 13 US service members were killed three years ago on Monday during a suicide bombing as US troops were withdrawing from Afghanistan. The attack at the Kabul airport also left 18 US service members critically injured and killed 170 Afghan civilians via ways. Can you do it? Marking the third anniversary of the bombing, families of the fallen are pressing the Biden administration for accountability for those responsible for the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan. The war in Afghanistan was the longest war in US history, spanning almost two decades. President Joe Biden and his administration defended his decision to bring all troops home in 2021, saying they had long achieved the mission of diminishing al-Qaeda and preventing Afghanistan from ever being a terrorist haven. Genia Dulo, VY News, Simi Valley, California, that's all from devastating floods caused by relentless monsoon rain and overflowing rivers and bangled water. The U.S. has now risen to 23 with about 1.24 million families stranded across 11 districts according to officials Monday. A flood waters recede slowly. Many of the 5.7 million affected remain isolated in an urgent need of food, clean water, medicine and dry clothes above all in the remote areas where block roads have hindered the state of the country. The U.S. has now been in the state of the country. The U.S. has a dash meteorological department said that flood conditions could persist at the monsoon rains continued as water levels were receding very slowly. Canada announced Monday it is launching a 100% tariff on imports of Chinese made electric vehicles matching U.S. tariffs imposed over what western government say or China's security adviser Jake Sullivan during a meeting with the Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Cabinet Minister Sunday Sullivan is making us first visit to Beijing Tuesday. The Philippine Coast Guard says that China deployed an excessive force of 40 ships that blocked two Philippine vessels from delivering food and other supplies to Manila's largest Coast Guard ship and disputed shoal. Countries blamed each other for their confrontation Monday it is a been a shoal and the latest flare up of their territorial disputes in the South China Sea. I'm Tommy McNeil of U.A. News. ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ It is really outrageous that after COVID we're going back into the same situation. The U.A. wants to vaccinate an estimated 640,000 children in Gaza for polio. The vaccines have come in. We're calling for calm. We're calling for humanitarian pauses that will allow the vaccination programs to pass and pumpkin spice. It's as American as apple pie. If you look at pumpkin spice coffee or latte, there are versions of these in over 80 countries. But the craze only happens in North America. Today is Tuesday, August 27th, and this is VOA's International Edition. ♪♪ I'm Scott Walterman. We should be have a mechanism that at the press of a button we can globally push in what needs to happen in terms of access to diagnostics, to therapeutics, and particularly to vaccines. That's Helen Reese, Africa CDC's Epochs Emergency Committee member. Well, a host of factors have held back vaccine access in Congo, including a lack of funding, competing disease outbreaks and slow progress by authorities there, which only approved the use of the shot domestically in June, and did not request help for months. There is another major factor holding back access. That is the lack of an official approval from the World Health Organization for the two main impacts vaccines. It is really outrageous that after COVID, we're going back into the same situation that, you know, the African region once again has access to vaccines easily, and that to actually get access to it is requiring these very complex negotiations with WHO as a conduit. Another issue is getting to the people who need care and vaccination. Well, sometimes it's dangerous to travel where those people are. Health workers say armed gangs and rebel groups are obstructing their access to towns and villages. The United Nations says international awareness is needed to reduce the upsurge of the virus. Steve Miller narrates this story from Moki Edwin Kinzica. Officials in the Central African Republic or C.A.R. say health workers striving to contain an outbreak of the M.P.C. virus are complaining of difficulties gaining safe access to towns and villages where armed gangs operate. Some say the C.A.R. is health minister. Some say says armed groups should know that civilians whose lives are threatened by an unprecedented M.P.C. virus outbreak meet urgent assistance. Says from less than 10 suspected cases in 2023, C.A.R. has reported about 45 M.P.C. cases this year, and additional victims in bush and remote areas may be unreported. M.P.C. says armed groups in conflict zones like Bayounga town near the Congo border should assist the C.A.R. government in stopping the disease. Some say spoke on C.A.R. state TV. The Democratic Republic of Congo or D.R.C. is another country with internal armed conflict. The WHO says that the country has more than 95% of the total of about 17,000 cases of M.P.C. reported globally this year. The Central African state reports close to 530 deaths from the disease. The U.N. says within the past few months the virus is spread to five D.R.C. neighbor nations. C.A.R., Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda. Lugunza Malasi, Joseph, is a former Doctors Without Borders staff member and is now a political advisor to Democratic Republic of Congo's environmental minister. He says the virus spreads rapidly because humanitarian workers have difficulties securely visiting conflict prone sub-Saharan communities. Lugunza spoke to FOA via messaging app from Kincasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo. People run from areas where there is conflict and in that running away there is no observation of hygiene. People just stand for their lives. This poses a problem because you can't teach people to observe health measures when they are first running for their own lives. Health professionals sometimes give to cross areas that are not secure if they can be attacked. They can be killed and so forth. Cameroon officials also say rebels are making it nearly impossible for health workers to have safe access to English-speaking regions where there are ongoing conflicts between government troops and armed separatists fighting to carve out independent states or regions from the French majority country. Since July, Cameroon has reported at least 40 suspected impacts cases, the Republic of Congo says it is confirmed 19 of 60 suspected cases in its territory and is checking its borders against mass movements from CAR and DRC where there are armed conflicts. Nigeria also says its humanitarian workers are being restricted from educating civilians to protect themselves from impacts after 32 states reported at least one confirmed case of the impacts virus. Nigeria has been fighting for more than 10 years against Boko Haram terrorists near its northern border with Chad, Cameroon, and Niger. Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon, C-A-R-N, DRC say they are deploying government troops to protect both civilians and health and humanitarian workers from rebels and armed groups. None of the sub-haring countries have reported deaths of humanitarian workers. For Moki Edwin-Kinsica, I'm Steve Miller. >> Let's dig into the issues that aren't only in play with this current impacts emergency but with all the viruses that have and can spread globally. Joining us is Dr. Kizmikia Corbett-Hellaire, who played a key role in developing the COVID-19 vaccine. She's an assistant professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. It's a difficult arena to reach people in Africa where this originated. >> I mean, the truth is that's a fairly -- it's a dense question and it's a fairly political question. When you say we, are you speaking about us? >> I'm talking about the world. I'm like the United Nations, the United States, Great Britain, those countries and organizations that we have vaccines stockpiled for impacts. How does the world react better than we did in this instance? >> The thing is, it's very hard to get everyone on the same accord around what's important from a public health standpoint when you're thinking about the entire world. It's not our first rodeo where we've had public health measures that work, whether they be vaccines or otherwise, but we haven't been able to get them where they need to go. This is a particular sticking situation because the reasons why aren't always able to be controlled by the people there's going to be some like intricate, detailed organizational things that have to happen on a governmental front in order for us to penetrate the systems that are necessary to be penetrated right now and also in the future. One of the things that becomes more and more apparent every single time there's an outbreak is that we're oftentimes talking in reactionary ways, which is, in my opinion, the opposite of how public health should work. You know, we always say, like, how can we do things right now? But I always beg of people to whether they be regulatory people or the general public whenever we can help scientists, public health practitioners, et cetera, to think about how we can make systems better for the future. But what happens in tomorrow's -- in the case of tomorrow's virus? Sure, and this is the perfect point that illustrates your point. I mean, this is the perfect situation that illustrates your point. There was an M-POC's outbreak two years ago, and now here we are again. Yeah, and here we will be again and again. I mean, I think history is important to repeat itself, and I think we're in this time where awareness of viral outbreaks is more heightened because we're on the, you know, at the end of the pandemic. That was pretty detrimental around the globe. Following that, M-POC's, and then, you know, we've had sprouts of bird food here and there, and there's a recent outbreak in Saudi Arabia of Saudi Arabia. So, certainly not going anywhere. Our senses are heightened, and surveillance measures in so many instances are heightened to detect them. And so, what that does, though, is, unfortunately, it kind of shines a light on the systems that we have not necessarily prepared in the best way. It seems to me, is it just that we know about it now? Has it been this way? Or is it getting worse that there are more global alerts from WHO in the last 10, 15 years? I think one could argue either or a combination of both. Well, first, I think that one thing that we have to do is we have to define worse, right? I think the way that you are saying is you mean are there more outbreaks of novel viruses or pathogens happening more frequently now than ever before? Exactly. So, we had Ebola in the Obama administration, then the pandemic, and then these two outbreaks of epochs, and as you said, a number of things in between. Right, and I think that the short answer to that is that probably, over time, changes happen in the world, becoming more populated in some instances, in some places. I think, you know, urbanization of certain areas, I think, you know, global warming probably in most definitely plays some part in this. There, and then, you know, and then you know, and then we have the fortunate side of being more technologically advanced is the ability to have very quick surveillance in the case of an outbreak. Coordinated communication systems, you know, that operate such that if something is happening across the globe, you know, that information, viral sequences from whatever outbreak is happening could be at our fingertips, you know, the next day even. I think it's a little, I think there's a little bit of both. I think what is, what becomes frightening, as we say that, is that, you know, if it is becoming more, if these types of outbreaks are becoming more frequent, then, you know, what are we going to do about that? And how are we going to, what's the sustainability given the current system, given the current, what I would consider to be lack of preparedness, what I would consider to be, you know, differential or inadequate funding towards some viruses versus others, what I would consider to be sometimes even a lack of enthusiasm, quite frankly, being prepared for things is less attractive, scientifically, you know, from a government standpoint, is less attractive than being in the moment and being able to respond adequately. What would you do? Oh, gosh. A lot of things. But, you know, I think, I think that what's important to note is that this is not a situation that, for which we can band-aid, right? It's these outbreaks and pandemics. These are surgical. The fix is surgical. Operationally, things are becoming less and less disjointed and more smooth as more and more outbreaks are happening. We have currently, right? You have the vaccine. You've just got to get it into the arms. Right. You have to get it into the arms and then, you know, then one would say, like, oh, even when you can't get it into the arms and you have hesitancy and what do you do about that? And then that's when, like, the next school communication needs to have to be dedication in multiple different ways in order for it all to work together for the good and protect yourself. Thank you so much for the time and the perspective. Yes, of course. All right. Well, thank you so much. Dr. Kizmiki, a Corbett Helier with the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The UN wants to vaccinate about 640,000 children in Gaza for polio. They had hoped to do it this coming weekend, but now that's in jeopardy after U.N. 8 operations ground to a halt on Monday. Over 3,000 people in total will be working on the campaign. Over 1,000 of them drawn from UNRA, which is essentially the largest primary health care provider left in the Gaza Strip. The vaccines have come in. We're calling for calm. We're calling for humanitarian pauses that will allow the vaccination programs to pass and be implemented successfully. The vaccination effort may not happen after Israel issued new evacuation orders on Sunday for the central Gaza Strip where the UN operation center is located. Russia launched another attack on Monday's power system on Monday, also from Ukraine. Word that it has a new homegrown long-range weapon that will allow it to strike deep into Russia without having to ask permission from its allies. It has the characteristics of a missile and a drone. Russia has dominated the sky since the outbreak of the war in February 2022. President Volatomor Zelinsky confirmed on Saturday its weapon. Ukrainian military video hinted that its range is 430 miles on par with U.S. supplied missiles which Ukraine has restricted from launching deep into Russia for fear of escalation. We're following these other stories from around the world. At least 73 people were killed in Pakistan's province of Balochistan when separatist militants attacked police organizations, railway lines and highways. The assaults were the most widespreading years by ethnic militants fighting a decade's long insurgency to win secession of the resource-rich southwestern province owned a major Chinese-led project such as a port and a golden copper mine. French President Emmanuel Macron says the arrest in France of Pavel Duroff, the popular messaging app Telegram was not a political move but part of an independent investigation. In France's first public comment on the arrest Macron posted on Exxon Monday that his country is deeply committed to freedom of expression but "freedoms are upheld within illegal framework both on social media and in real life to protect citizens and respect their fundamental rights." In our continuing coverage of the 2024 presidential election, since 2020, Asian Americans have been the fastest-growing group of eligible voters in the U.S. According to Pew Research Center in 2022, California had the most eligible Asian American voters in the U.S. followed by New York and Texas. From Houston, Elizabeth Lee has more on the potential challenges of the Asian American vote. For flavors from Asia, Houston Texas is a one-stop shop. The foods found here reflect the melting pot of Asian cultures living in the counties that make up the greater Houston region. One of them is suburban Fort Bend County, where Asians make up more than 21 percent of the population. It's also where Chinese American immigrant J.J. Clements lives. I think for either party, they really cannot, cannot for to ignore the Asian community. Asian Americans are among the fastest-growing ethnic groups in the U.S. According to census data. Voter turnout among this group has also seen record increases in the past two presidential elections. In recent release, two ads targeting Asians. More Asian Americans call themselves Democrat than Republican. One reason, more than half of Asian American voters are immigrant. Korean American Becky Kim is a first-time voter. I think Trump's policy is her minorities a lot. Richard Murray is senior research fellow at the University of Houston. He took aim at illegal immigrants from Mexico or South America, but also restricted legal immigration. Still, a 2024 survey of Asian American voters found that 22 percent identify as Republicans. That includes Chinese American Daniel Wong. Less government, yes, what Asian one. You know, more freedom and less tax. The survey also found 31 percent of Asian American voters identify as independents, but 42 percent of Asian American voters surveyed say they have not been contacted by political candidates or a political party. Daniel Wong, who had served in local elected offices, Asian American voters are partly responsible. We are not organized. We don't understand the American political system. That's why we don't know how we're going to energize, put our energy together to suit for whatever common goal which we don't have. The projected 15 million Asian Americans eligible to vote have roots in different countries. Unifying Asian voters has been difficult. Getting Asians to donate to campaigns has also been a challenge. Something Wong saw up close while running for a city council seat. Asian, they are not used to donate to the political means. But they are not used to voting because they are not allowed to vote. Clemmons had also run for local office. Asian society, I don't think the like a question community they have a habit to give. So you have to educate them and you need to, I'll reach them. During the last presidential election, close to 60 percent of Asian Americans voted. Political activists say forming relationships with new Asian Americans will mobilize them to get involved. Elizabeth Lee, VOA News, Houston. ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ VOA's international edition continues. I'm Scott Walterman. In Sudan, surging waters have burst through a dam, wiped out at least 20 villages and left at least 30 people dead. Our humanitarian partners at local authorities are assessing the affected areas and will have additional clarity on the extent of the damage in the coming days. UN spokesman Stefan Dzurak. Sudan's dams, roads, and bridges were already in disrepair before the war between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary rapid support forces. ♪♪ And finally... ...is as American as he gets. Dr. Marco Palma is a professor and director of the Human Behavior Laboratory at Texas A&M AgriLife Research. If you look at Bumpkin's spice coffee or latte, there are versions of these in over 80 countries, but the craze only happens in North America, and there's one of the oldest native crops in the United States. Here in the United States, about this time of year, you'll start to see all kinds of products with pumpkin flavoring, from donuts to coffee to cookies. It's a Halloween Thanksgiving thing, mostly, and it goes all the way back to the beginning. Christopher Columbus speaks about Bumpkin's early on, and it's one of the most interesting things about Bumpkin's eight pumpkin kinds in different forms. We drank pumpkin pies in early versions of beer. George Washington mentions pumpkin spice as part of his farms. That's right, pumpkin spice beer. And it's not just the taste. There's an emotional aspect to the craze in America. There's a lot more limited window when people can get it. That brings about many issues related to having something that is rare, that is special, and that people want to try. If we look at the reasons for consuming, that brings appeal for emotional consumption, it's about what lies ahead. The many beautiful things that we enjoy during the fall, and pumpkin spice is a way to build different factors. One is exclusivity. People fear missing out on that exclusivity, and it also signals the start of a new season that brings many things ahead, including football, including many other activities that we enjoy as Americans. This has been international edition on the Voice of America. On behalf of everyone here at VOA, thank you so much for all of VOA News on your favorite social media platform and online at VOANews.com. In Washington, I'm Scott Walterman.