Issues in the News - Voice of America

As election day approaches, U.S. officials issue warnings about potential violence from domestic extremists. The concerns go beyond election day into January and the inauguration. Also, as America continues to become more ethnically diverse as divisions over immigration and the nation’s division deepen. It’s become a major theme in the presidential campaign.

An ominous report from the UN paints a dire picture about the direction the planet is heading without immediate climate action. The report says if the current pace continues it will result in global warming of more than 3 degrees Celsius by the end of the century. Will abortion play a role in the U.S. presidential election? Former President Donald Trump takes credit for overturning the U.S. Supreme Court decision which guaranteed the right to abortions in the U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris has promised to reinstate a national abortion protection law.

South Korea’s spy agency says North Korea has sent 1,500 special forces troops to Russia for training and likely deployment for combat in the war in Ukraine. The allegation comes a day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he believed 10,000 North Korean soldiers could join the war, based on intelligence information. The U.S. expresses concern. We talk with VOA National Security Correspondent Jeff Seldin and Naoko Aoki, a political scientist at RAND.

The week began with a somber milestone in the Middle East marking the one-year anniversary of the October 7th Hamas attack on Israel as the region edges closer to all-out war. Reflecting on the past year and what the future holds, a conversation with John Lyndon, Executive Director of the Alliance for Middle East Peace. Two massive hurricanes that hit the United States became the poster child for climate change. We talked with Michael Wehner, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Fears of a wider regional war in the Middle East may already be a reality after Iran’s missile attack and Israel’s military operations targeting militants on two fronts. Could the U.S. be dragged into war? After months of working toward a peace agreement and warnings of a wider war, what if anything can the Biden Administration do? We get perspective from Bruce Riedel, with the Brookings Institution’s Center for Middle East Policy. Intensifying hostilities come just days ahead of the one-year mark of the October 7 Hamas massacre in southern Israel that sparked the war in Gaza.

World leaders meeting in New York this week for the U.N. General Assembly were contending with multiple escalating global conflicts. Israeli Prime Minister vowed to continue targeting Hezbollah militants in Lebanon, dimming hopes for a ceasefire and raising fears it could spiral into an all-out regional war. The speech came a day after Palestinian President Abbas urged the UN to stop the war in Gaza, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy traveled to New York to sit down with Former President Donald Trump after meetings with President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.

Tensions are reaching a boiling point between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Rocket fire pounded northern Israel Friday while Israeli warplanes carried out intense airstrikes on southern Lebanon, including a rare strike on the Beirut suburbs. A Former U.S. Ambassador to Israel shares his concerns for a broader regional conflict. The crisis will be one of many complex global issues world leaders will confront next week at the UN General Assembly. And what does Israel’s expanding military operation mean for any sort of ceasefire deal and the fate of the hostages still being held in Gaza? We’ll speak with a member of the Hostages Family Forum.

President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer met at the White House Friday as Ukraine intensifies pressure to loosen restrictions of U.S. and U.K. provided weapons to strike Russia. With the U.S. presidential election less than two months away, the next president will have to contend with ongoing conflicts and other serious foreign policy issues. A look at the differences in potential approach of each candidate and what’s at stake. And despite their historically low record of turnout, could young voters tip the scales in deciding the winner?

Outrage over the murders of 6 hostages in Gaza, Israelis came out in droves demanding a ceasefire deal, as Prime Minister Netanyahu dug into his own demands. A conversation on the sentiment on the ground from policy expert Shira Efron with the Israel Policy Forum. Israel’s military operation in the West bank left dozens of people dead, including an American woman attending a demonstration against settlement expansion. Another warning from the U.N. on the humanitarian situation in Gaza and a conversation with a Doctors without Borders physician in Khan Younis on the polio vaccination efforts.

Israel agrees to a series of daily humanitarian pauses for a major polio vaccination campaign in Gaza, as a resurgence of the highly contagious virus creates alarm. Israel continues its large-scale military operation in the West Bank. John Lyndon, Executive Director with the Alliance for Middle East Peace on the motivation and why now. Also, we hear from a Russian American journalist freed from jail by the Kremlin and look at the rising threats to those risking their lives to bring truth to light.