Indaba zesiNdebele Ekuseni - Voice of America
Indaba zesiNdebele Ekuseni - August 29, 2024
this is viewing news on Richard Green authorities in France of issue preliminary charges against telegram messaging app CEO Pavel de Rov AP correspondent Lisa Dwyer reports allegations against Russian-born durov who is also a French citizen include that his platform is being used for child sexual abuse material and drug trafficking and that telegram refused to share information with investigators when required by French law the loudest outrage over durov's arrest appears to be from Russia who says it's an infringement upon freedom of speech even though Russia also sought to block the app for allowing opposition activists to use the platform and try to force them to hand over information from the 2013-2014 uprising in Ukraine that led to the ousting of a pro-kremlin president. I'm Lisa Dwyer a bonus of Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro took the distree's Wednesday to revive protest disputing the results of the recent presidential election. AP correspondent Haya Panjuani has more. The demonstrations in the capital Caracas come exactly a month after the fraud July 28th vote in which Maduro was declared the winner despite strong evidence that opposition candidate at Mundo Gonzales won by a nearly two-to-one margin. In weeks of on-again off-again demonstrations the opposition's rallying cry has been constant but so far ineffective. Opponents are demanding that election officials publish results from each polling station that they say would expose Maduro's attempts to steal the election. I'm Haya Panjuani. Tefun Chen made landfall in Japan south-western Kegashimo perfection Thursday. The storm struck the island of Kuyushu carrying wind gusts of 198 km/h. Japan a meteorological agency says the typhoon could be one of the strongest to ever hit the region. This is Vuey News. Chief cabinet secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters that at least three people were dead because of the typhoon with one person missing and two others severely injured. More than 250,000 households and seven prefectures are experiencing power outages while major automakers Toyota and Nissan have suspended operations in some are all of the domestic factories. The UN World Food Program is investigating two of its top officials in Sudan over allegations including fraud and concealing information from donors about its ability to deliver food to civilians amid the nation's dire hunger crisis that's according to several people with knowledge of the probe. That story from correspondent Freddy Joyner's of Reuters. Five of the sources who spoke to Reuters say investigators are looking at whether WFP staff sought to hide the alleged role of Sudan's army in obstructing aid amid a brutal 16-month war with a rival paramilitary for control of the country. When asked about the probe, the WFP said allegations of individual misconduct related to irregularities and pockets of our operation in Sudan are under urgent review by its inspector general's office. Meanwhile, the US government's aid agency, US aid, the single largest donor to the WFP said the allegations were deeply concerning and must be thoroughly investigated. Battling severe hunger on many fronts. The World Food Program is currently seeking close to $23 billion in funding to feed millions of people. That was Reuters correspondent Freddy Joyner. Prosecutors and friends say a 33-year-old man accused in an arson attack on a synagogue last weekend said he wanted to defend the Palestinians and change Israel's policy in Gaza. A police officer was injured after the suspects sent multiple fires around the Bethlehem synagogue Saturday in the Mediterranean resort town of La Grande Mott. A new study published Wednesday found that wildfires in Swift Canada's Woodlands last year released more greenhouse gases than some of the largest emitting countries. Where this correspondent Angela Johnston said the study is calling in to question national emissions budgets that rely on forests to be carbon stores. Fire scorched about 37 million acres across the country or about 4% of Canada's forests. That adds up to 647 megatons of carbon. More than seven of the 10 biggest national emitters in 2022. Canada does not include natural phenomena like wildfires in its annual greenhouse gas emissions inventory. According to a 2021 strategy, through the fears the global carbon budget may be based on inaccurate calculations. That budget is the estimated amount of greenhouse gases the world can keep emitting while holding warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. I'm Richard Green for VOA News. Israel launches a large scale military operation in the West Bank. Our idea forces began this counter-terrorism operation in Janine and Tulkarum. The MPAC's virus is changing quickly, making it harder to stop. The virus is changing faster than expected and it's often happening in areas where experts do not have the funding or equipment to properly track the virus. In giving children a war, a chance to live a better life together. I come here and I meet those people that were supposed to be bad and I played sports with them. I had meals with them, we cried together, we laughed together and for me that was very special. Today is Thursday, August 29th and this is VOA's international edition. I'm Scott Walterman. We are targeting armed terrorists from the air and the ground dismantling explosives planted under the road and confiscating large quantities of weapons. Israeli forces launched a large operation in the occupied West Bank overnight and into Wednesday. The Israelis say they killed Moss militants, made arrests and sealed off the city of Janine. The ongoing operation was among the largest in the West Bank in months and a reminder that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict extends beyond the war in Gaza. More now from Reuters correspondent Fiona Jones. Israeli forces raided areas of the occupied territory including cities Janine and Tal Khan in an operation involving helicopters and drones. It followed a series of smaller raids in the area over recent weeks as Israeli forces sought to crush Palestinian militant fighters. Masud Najah is the father of young men killed in an attack in two baths. He said there was a surprise raid in his neighborhood and when opening his front door it felt like something came down on him from the sky. He said there was an explosion and when he put his hand on his chest there was shrapnel and blood. In Janine, Palestinian men assessed a damaged car that was targeted by an Israeli drone. The Israeli military said this strike had killed three militant fighters and in Tal Khan another video obtained by Reuters showed a bulldozer digging up streets. Israeli forces are battling Hamas fighters in Gaza and facing a major escalation of tensions with the Iranian-backed Hezbollah movement in southern Lebanon. The armed factions of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah said they were detonating bombs against Israeli troops in the West Bank. The Israeli military said Wednesday's operation followed a sharp rise in militant activity in recent months with more than 150 attacks involving shooting or explosives from Tal Khan and Janine in the past year. Thousands of Palestinians have been arrested in raids and more than 660 fighters and civilians have been killed in the West Bank and East Jerusalem since the war in Gaza began. That's according to Palestinian health ministry figures. Reuters correspondent Fiona Jones reporting, "Will this end the recent incursion by Israeli troops into central Gaza slow or even halt the ceasefire talks which continue in Cairo?" Joining us to talk about this is Michael Domenoa, who he's with defense priorities, a former CIA career military analyst and counter-terrorism officer. He worked on sensitive national security problems in the Middle East. So we've seen this you know fairly heavy incursion into the West Bank and there's still negotiations ongoing in Cairo but the two seem to be counter, right? Is there a way to actually wind this thing down? Well I think it's certainly not looking like that is the objective right now, at least from an Israeli perspective, right? I mean this is the most significant incursion into the West Bank since 2002. You had a number of Palestinian civilians that were killed today as a result of these various military activities by Israel and so I think there's very much I think some truth to the idea that this is sort of you know continuing to sort of open new fronts is at odds with the idea of fulsomely pursuing hostage and ceasefire negotiations and so I think again Prime Minister Netanyahu and many of his comments over the last eight months have made it clear that what Israel is trying to do here, whether anyone agrees with it or not, is to sort of reframe the security environment in which it has to exist and I think that involves the operations we saw in Gaza over most of the last year and it involves the West Bank and it also involves this you know unanswered question of Hezbollah's presence south of the Latani River and I think it's still plausible that we see some kind of Israeli incursion into Lebanon to try to settle that question at some point in the future too. And you're right I they have gone back into central Gaza because they say that there are still Hamas fighters there but that seems like a never-ending loop. You clear central Gaza then you go back to southern Gaza then they reappear in the northern part of Gaza and you know everybody's been saying since day one it's virtually impossible to wipe Hamas out. Right and as a former intelligence officer we dealt with this every day whether we're talking about Iraq or Syria or any of the other various conflicts that the United States has been involved in over the last 20 years. This is sort of a key lesson when it comes to counter terrorism and counterinsurgency operations right. I mean the idea that you're going to sort of that this is even a militarily achievable objective sort of flies in the face of an awful lot of data and a lot of a lot of evidence that that we've learned that we've that we've amassed over the past several decades on on how this stuff works. For the people who live in Gaza this is like a never-ending nightmare because they're caught in the middle between Hamas and Israel and they keep getting told move here move here and then here becomes unsafe move somewhere else. Right. Is there going to be anything left of Gaza when this is done? Well I think it's I think it's hard to say I mean if you look at some of the the latest reporting that we saw this week I mean as many as I believe 44% of all of the structures in the Rafa area at least had been destroyed and most of Gaza has been significantly affected by um all of the various fighting over the past year and so I don't know I don't know if there's going to be much left and I think that also raises the important questions of post-conflict governance and these sort of uh core concept that you just outlined being totally infeasible we cannot ask uh whether it's the Israelis whether it's the US government whether it's even other Arab states in the region you know you can't ask this mass of of humanity you know millions of people to sort of just continue to run in circles there has to be some kind of plan for the aftermath and I know that um you know members of the Biden administration have paid lip service to this idea but I don't see much movement uh especially in Washington to try to actually work to understand what that's going to look like or to put pressure on various actors in the region whether they are the Saudis or the Israelis or the Egyptians or the Qataris or whoever else uh to to have some sort of plan for that and I think that's the thing that makes me concerned about the sort of length of this conflict but if you talk to a lot of Israeli officials um there's a lot of confidence right that that this is sort of a limited uh operation you know that that sort of there's a plan here and they can wrap all this up you know in sort of a brief timeline I think you even saw Benny Gantz you know say that you know uh a conflict with Hezbollah they could win in three days right which which I don't think is accurate militarily speaking but but you don't see uh any of that on on the party on the part of any of these other actors here right there there's not really a lot of clarity on what the plan is and what it looks like after and that's why I think a lot of that confidence on the Israeli side is misplaced uh this could go on for years uh and years and years uh given the massive amount of destruction that we've seen over the past uh eight to 12 months with no real end in sight what do you think happens in the immediate future it appears that it's going to be status quo for as long as we can see into the future yeah and and if you if you look at um I believe it was Horets and some other outlets uh that had reported earlier in the conflict you know previous Israeli intelligence assessments that looked at how long it would take for a you know sort of a full pacification of Gaza those estimates were four to five years right and we're so so even be uh you know even the previous intelligence that has been you know work that has been done on this issue points to this being a long-term conflict regardless of what you know various Israeli politicians may try to spin it as and I think yes we're going to see the status quo continue for quite some time here you're going to see more uh Israeli operations in the west bank and more Israeli operations in the go on heights and then I also think the big question is still not off the table here and I know we just went through a previous escalation cycle where Hezbollah responded for the killing of Swatchooker on July 31st and you know we've seen these sort of back and forths of various intensity over the last year but the core problem for Israel with now a hundred thousand Israelis displaced in the north is this presence of Hezbollah south of the Latani River and the UN has tried to address this question and various other international organizations have tried to address this question and no one has really been able to solve it and so I think you're it's it's plausible to me that what we do see in the future is some kind of ground incursion into southern Lebanon to at least push Hezbollah further north uh to to create room for those Israelis to return to their homes in the north and that of course would sort of cross many of the red lines that we've discussed for the last you know several months as far as widening the war including other actors in the region on a scale that is greater than what we've seen for the past several months so that's my concern in the long term and I think the United States should be working with all of its partners now as in the region to include the Israelis to not have them do that because I think once you cross into that territory we're dealing with something that looks very different than even 2006 right the the last time that the Israelis went into the ground in Lebanon I think we'd be looking at something very different given the capabilities of not just Hezbollah but the Houthis and Iran and all these other actors and the way they've changed over the past decades so that's my big concern in the long term thanks so much for the time thank you very much Michael Domena with defense priorities [Music] scientists studying the new MPOC strain that is spread out of the Democratic Republic of Congo say the virus is changing faster than expected and often in areas where experts lack the funding and equipment to properly track it an update now from Reuters correspondent Angela Johnston Reuters spoke to half a dozen scientists in Africa Europe and the US who outlined a number of unknowns he has been working blindly in Africa Dr. Domena Agoyna is an infectious diseases expert in Nigeria who chairs the World Health Organization's MPOC's emergency committee we don't have the required knowledge about MPOC's natural history transmission the dynamics risk factors of MPOC's need to understand your disease for you to develop or design preventive strategies against such a disease MPOC's formerly known as monkey POC's is a viral infection that causes pus-filled lesions and flu-like symptoms cases are usually mild but they can be deadly the virus has been around in Africa for decades but an international surge in 2022 prompted the WHO to declare a global health emergency for about 10 months now there's a new strain and a new WHO emergency declaration the situation constitutes a public emergency of international concern the UN agencies this Congo has had more than 600 MPOC's deaths this year and more than 18,000 suspected cases of the new strain and its earlier iteration there have been cases in four other African countries as well as in Sweden and Thailand among people who had traveled to Africa scientists say a response is complicated by several outbreaks happening at once in some cases the spread has been linked to human contact with infected animals it can also spread through close contact with an infected person mutated versions of the virus can essentially be considered a sexually transmitted disease since South African epidemiologist Dr. Salim Abdul Karim who chairs the Africa CDC's MPOC's advisory committee it's case identification contact tracing and vaccinating and monitoring and treating giving vocal access to contact so this is not rocket science we do this for other infections and so we can do it for impacts an Africa CDC senior official said on Wednesday that the continent has secured less than 10 percent of an estimated 245 million dollars needed to fight the surging outbreak and there's no timeline yet on 100s of thousands of vaccine doses might reach the DRC Reuters correspondent Angela Johnston supporters of Venezuela's political opposition held rallies on Wednesday marked the one month anniversary of July's disputed election speaking to the crowd opposition leader Maria Karina Machado talked about an inter-American commission on human rights report which says the government in retaliation for these protests have detained 2,500 people including more than 150 children she's saying in prison children kidnapped by Venezuelan president Nicholas Maduro she says children who have been beaten forced to record videos where they praise Nicholas Maduro this has no name she says 13 14 year old children there is no name for this we're following these other stories from around the world Russia's foreign ministry has announced 92 editions to its list of Americans banned from entering the country including some journalists who formerly worked in Russia in US law enforcement and business figures as well the new list of banned Americans includes 11 current or former staff members of the Wall Street Journal 5 New York Times journalist and 4 from the Washington Post it brings the number of banned Americans to about 2,000 the video may have exceeded Wall Street estimates and its profit jumped thanks to the chip making dominance that has cemented NVIDIA's place as the poster child of artificial intelligence but investors seem less than impressed NVIDIA shares slip nearly 4% in after hours trading the Paralympic flag is raised into the night sky as Paris celebrated the start of its second Olympics on Wednesday just weeks after hosting the Olympics Paris inaugurated the 2024 Paralympics on Wednesday with an early four power long opening ceremony in the heart of the city Russia is endangering the Zaparesia nuclear power plant according to the United Nations at a UN Security Council meeting on the situation Marislav Yanka Assistant Secretary General for Europe Central Asia and the America said we're alarmed regarding reports of incidents around the nuclear facilities in Ukraine and Russia in August the International Atomic Energy Agency IAEA reported deterioration of the nuclear safety situation at Ukraine's Zaparesia nuclear power plant on 17 August a drone strike hit the road around the site perimeter on 11 August significant fire at one of the cooling towers resulted in considerable damage there's also concern over the safety of the cursed nuclear power plant in Russia [Music] IAEA's international edition continues I'm Scott Walterman there's a little town in western Hungary called Papa Tazir the local government has transformed this little town and its municipal buildings and private structures into sustainable structures as we hear in this report by Reuters corresponding Christie Kilburn it's attracting new residents tourists and investors there are eco-friendly installations all over the Hungarian village of Papa Tazir like these solar panels on the roof of a kindergarten or this water mill owned by a local Papa Tazir has transformed most of the village into sustainable structures and hopes to boost tourism initially Mayor Bella Valfinger wanted to save money on energy so he started modernizing insulation and heating systems as well as installing solar panels with solar panels generating all necessary electricity the village reaps the benefits when energy prices rocket for more than two years we have been completely off the grid from gas so when the sudden gas price rises came in the past year and a half it effectively did not affect us now the area's sustainability has attracted young families tourists and investors renewable energy green buildings and electric machinery have made the small town appealing the mayor said there's been a continuous inflow of people within a few years nearly 50 children and parents have moved into the village which is now home to about 1,200 some residents have built their own systems to provide energy for their homes and businesses here's local entrepreneur Sander Ilko this 10 kilowatt system covers my whole work process with all the machines we use and all the needs of my whole house too Sander Shwarz owns a water mill I renovated the water mill with great effort as far as I know I was the first one who embarked on a water mill renovation like this then soon after someone else followed so we have started a process which we hope will continue if we have a lot of money we have a lot of money we have a lot of money Mayor Volfinger says he plans to develop tourism by leveraging 25 disused water mills as attractions and accommodations writers correspondent Kristi Kilburn reporting and finally perhaps we can see the kinds of tipping points that we need to avoid the kind of violence that we see today in the summer of 1993 46 is really Palestinian Egyptian and American kids gathered at a camp in the U.S. state of Maine the camp was the brainchild of journalist and author John Wallach who wanted to provide children of war the chance to build a more secure future every year more kids come to the camp and experience the world in a way they simply couldn't in the places from which they come VOA's Jeff Swicoid takes us there each summer kids from conflict regions in the middle east central Asia and U.S. gather in this quiet setting in U.S. state of Maine to build understanding and friendship it's part of a project called Seeds of Peace I think for many of them this is the first time they're really able to meet face-to-face to have the kinds of slow conversations that enable them to better understand their different lived experiences kids often arrive at camp with all the negative stereotypes found in their segregated communities Shahams Hafez of Egypt was a camper in 2018 and returned this year as a counselor and then I come here and I meet those people that were supposed to be bad and I played sports with them I had meals with them we cried together we laughed together for me that was very special there are plenty of the usual summer camp activities but there are also daily sessions where participants talk about conflicts that ravage their communities armor says it's not all fun and games this is not an easy place to be this is a hard place to be on on many days it is emotional it is difficult and it needs to be because the issues that they're dealing with are real organizers say the goal is to break barriers and build enduring friendships 18 year old Alizie Amir Parvez a Pakistan says she built a friendship with a fellow camper by sharing spices on meals she brought spices back from home that I didn't bring so every meal we'd be like oh give me the chocolate salad like I need that right now officials say once personal relationships are formed campers begin to see conflict in a different way Alizie's friend 15 year old Anna Jod Satchdev is from Mumbai what really stuck with me was like one has to got to be conflict being more political than it is about the actual people off the land for security reasons sees a piece ask us not to speak to kids from the Middle East Kamala Amashorewe is a camp counselor who escaped from the Gaza war to come here and talk about peace is a huge challenge for for for kids sees a piece says that a research indicates 80 percent of more than 8,000 alumni are still actively working to transform conflict if we can continue to add more people to that kind of a collective working together across borders within borders to create that kind of world then perhaps we can see the kinds of tipping points that we need to avoid the kind of violence that we see today just like or the only news that main this has been international edition on the voice of America on behalf of everyone at VOA thank you so much for being with us for pictures stories videos and more follow VOA news on your favorite social media platform and online at VOA news.com in Washington I'm Scott Walter-Mish