Handbook prepared for Trump to take direct control of government bureaucracy

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If former U.S. president Donald Trump wins the November presidential election, he may seek to place the entire federal bureaucracy under direct presidential control. That move is outlined in a playbook crafted by more than 100 conservative organizations for a prospective second Trump term. VOA’s chief national correspondent Steve Herman reports. VOA footage by Adam Greenbaum.
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Namibia struggles with growing seal population that threatens fishing industry

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Windhoek, Namibia — Namibia will attempt to reduce the local seal population by 80,000 this year, officials recently announced, despite opposition from animal rights groups.

The Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources said the reduction is necessary to maintain balance in the ecosystem and keep the seals from hurting the nation’s fishing industry.

Seal numbers increased from 1.3 million to 1.6 million over the past three years, said Annely Haifene, executive director of the marine ministry.

She told VOA this is an indication of a healthy marine ecosystem but is also a threat to the $10 billion fishing industry, which is one of the largest contributors to Namibia’s economy, because seals prey on the fish.

Last year’s seal harvest was disappointing, Haifene said, with the companies that hold rights to catch seals along Namibia’s Atlantic coastline harvesting less than 50% of the “total allowable catch.”

“The challenge is really the market,” she said. “There is no demand for pup’s products, and therefore, even if you harvest them, you will likely not get any economic sense out of the pups.”

Markets for the bulls are difficult, too, she said.

The main market for seal pelts and food products is China, but demand has dropped because of an international ban on seal fur.

Last year, the total allowable catch for seal pups was 80,000. Only 3,764, or 5% of the target, was harvested. The companies harvested a larger proportion of adult seals, catching about 3,100 of the 6,000 allowed.

Haifene blamed animal rights groups for last year’s the low numbers.

Naude Dreyer of Ocean Conservation Namibia said Namibia’s attempts to reduce the seal population is having the opposite effect of what the ministry is trying to achieve.

“By taking out the biggest bulls in the group, you are messing with the harem structures in the groups,” he said. “Normally a big bull will have up to 50 females underneath him, which he would then be fighting with other big bulls to keep them exclusively his. By taking out those big bulls, this allows much younger males to come in and do the mating.”

Namibia is the only country in the Global South where seal harvesting takes place. Other countries that harvest seals include the United States, Canada, Denmark, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Finland and Sweden.

Namibian seals live in three colonies along the country’s 1,500-kilometer (932-mile) coastline.

This year’s harvest is set to end in November. Authorities believe the harvest will be less than last year’s due to declining interest in seal products on the international market.
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Kenyan president warns of huge consequences over debt plan failure

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NAIROBI, Kenya — The ballooning debt in East Africa’s economic hub of Kenya is expected to grow even more after deadly protests forced the rejection of a finance bill that President William Ruto said was needed to raise revenue. He now warns “it will have huge consequences.”

Facing public calls to resign, Ruto said the government will turn to slashing a $2.7 billion budget deficit by half and borrowing the rest, without saying from where.

After anger over bloated bureaucracy and luxurious lives of senior officials helped to fuel the protests, Ruto also promised funding cuts in his own office and said funding would stop for the offices of the first lady, the wife of the vice president and the wife of the prime Cabinet secretary. Almost four dozen state enterprises with overlapping roles will be closed.

Ruto has become deeply unpopular in his two years in office over his quest to introduce taxes meant to enable Kenya to repay its $80 billion public debt to lenders that include the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and China. 

The public debt makes up about 70% of Kenya’s gross domestic product, the highest in 20 years.

How Ruto’s administration will find the money to pay off debt without further angering millions of Kenyans barely getting by, and without slowing down the economy, is the key question. The economy grew 5.6% in 2023.

Economist Mbui Wagacha, a former adviser to previous President Uhuru Kenyatta, said Kenya needs a professional budget and management body like the Office of Management and Budget in the United States. Currently, Kenya’s treasury makes budget estimates and forwards them to the parliamentary finance committee, which creates the finance bills.

“Parliament has abdicated its mandate on the public finances in the Constitution, and it’s looking after its own interests,” Wagacha said in an interview.

He said further borrowing by Kenya could be “disastrous” and proposed a strategy of using diplomacy to attract investment and restructuring the debt to get creditors to write off some of it.

Another economist, Ken Gichinga, agreed that government borrowing will slow down Kenya’s economy. Businesses still haven’t recovered from the effects of the COVID pandemic and the war in Ukraine, he said.

“When the government borrows more, interest rates go up. And when interest rates go up, businesses slow down, the economy slows down, due to the high cost of repayment,” Gichinga said.

Kenya’s president has advocated self-sustainability, saying the country should raise more revenue instead borrowing. “If we are a serious state, we must be able to enhance our taxes,” he said in May.

But Kenyans have rejected attempts to raise taxes as they struggle with rising prices on basic goods, even storming parliament during the recent protests.

Last week, days after announcing he would not sign the finance bill he once championed, Ruto said that he had worked hard “to pull Kenya out of a debt trap” and that huge consequences lie ahead.

Wagacha said economic growth must come before the government increases revenue targets and tax collection.

“You create an expanded economy with employment and with investment, and people have money in their pockets. It’s much easier for them to hear about your request for taxes,” he said.

He suggested making access to low-interest credit easier for businesses in key sectors such as tourism and agriculture, saying small businesses hold the key to Kenya’s economic growth as they tend to absorb many employees. That could help address high youth unemployment.

The government should give incentives to businesses to create jobs with low taxation and lower interest rates, Gichinga said. “At the end of the day, we need a jobs-centered economic policy. That’s what we’ve been lacking,” he said.

The IMF, which had suggested some of the controversial tax changes, has been a target of Kenya’s public dissatisfaction. Some protesters had posters with messages such as “IMF stop colonialism.”

In a statement late last month, the IMF said it was monitoring the situation in Kenya, adding that its main goal was to help it “overcome the difficult economic challenges it faces and improve its economic prospects and the well-being of its people.”

The IMF needs to do more for Kenya beyond focusing on debt sustainability and be a “strong development partner,” Gichinga said.
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In ‘Rust’ trial, Alec Baldwin accused of breaking gun rules; defense blames experts

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SANTA FE, New Mexico — A New Mexico prosecutor on Wednesday said Alec Baldwin broke “cardinal rules” of gun safety in the 2021 killing of “Rust” cinematographer Halyna Hutchins while his lawyer said he was failed by firearms experts. 

The 66-year-old Baldwin, on trial in Hollywood’s first on-set shooting fatality in three decades, took notes at the defense table and listened calmly to opening statements in his involuntary manslaughter trial. The trial is largely unprecedented in U.S. history, holding an actor criminally responsible for a gun death during filming. 

A New Mexico jury of 12 and four alternates — 11 women and five men — heard prosecutor Erlinda Johnson outline arguments that Baldwin disregarded safety during filming of the low-budget movie before pointing a gun at Hutchins during a rehearsal, cocking it and pulling the trigger as they set up a camera shot on a set southwest of Santa Fe. 

“The evidence will show that someone who played make believe with a real gun and violated the cardinal rules of firearm safety is the defendant, Alexander Baldwin,” Johnson said. 

Baldwin’s wife Hilaria Baldwin sat in the second row of the public gallery, his brother Stephen Baldwin in front of her. 

His lawyer Alex Spiro pointed to “Rust” armorer Hannah Gutierrez — head of gun safety — and first assistant director Dave Halls — responsible for overall set safety. Both have been convicted in the shooting, and Spiro said they did not check the rounds in the gun to ensure it was safe for Baldwin to use.  

“There were people responsible for firearms safety but actor Alec Baldwin committed no crime,” said Spiro. 

Hutchins was killed, and director Joel Souza wounded when Baldwin’s reproduction 1873 Single Action Army revolver fired a live round, inadvertently loaded by Gutierrez. 

Since a police interview on Oct. 21, 2021, the day of the shooting, Baldwin has argued the gun just “went off.”  

In an ABC News interview two months later, Baldwin told George Stephanopoulos he did not pull the trigger. A 2022 FBI test found the gun was in normal working condition and would not fire from full cock without the trigger being pulled. 

Spiro said during his opening arguments that no one saw Baldwin “intentionally pull the trigger,” but that it was the responsibility of firearms safety experts to ensure a firearm was safe for an actor “to wave it, to point it, to pull the trigger, like actors do.”  

State prosecutors charged Baldwin with involuntary manslaughter in January 2022. They dropped charges three months later after Baldwin’s lawyers presented photographic evidence the gun was modified, arguing it would fire more easily, bolstering the actor’s accidental discharge argument. 

Prosecutors called a grand jury to reinstate the charge in January after an independent firearms expert confirmed the 2022 FBI study. 

FBI testing broke the gun, and Baldwin’s lawyers will tell jurors that destruction of the weapon prevented them from proving the gun was modified. 

Armorer Gutierrez, whose job on the set of “Rust” included managing firearms safely, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in March for loading the live round.

Prosecutors will have to persuade jurors Baldwin is also guilty of willful and reckless criminal negligence.
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Astronauts confident Boeing space capsule can safely return to Earth

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CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida — Two astronauts who should have been back on Earth weeks ago said Wednesday that they’re confident that Boeing’s space capsule can return them safely, despite breakdowns.

NASA test pilots Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams launched aboard Boeing’s new Starliner capsule early last month, the first people to ride it. Leaks and thruster failures almost derailed their arrival at the International Space Station and have kept them there much longer than planned.

In their first news conference from orbit, they said they expect to return once thruster testing is complete on Earth. They said they’re not complaining about getting extra time in orbit and are enjoying helping the station crew.

“I have a real good feeling in my heart that the spacecraft will bring us home, no problem,” Williams told reporters.

The two rocketed into orbit on June 5 on the test flight, which was originally supposed to last eight days.

NASA ordered the Starliner and SpaceX Dragon capsules a decade ago for astronaut flights to and from the space station, paying each company billions of dollars. SpaceX’s first taxi flight with astronauts was in 2020. Boeing’s first crew flight was repeatedly delayed because of software and other issues.
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US-built pier will be put back in Gaza for several days to move aid, then permanently removed

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WASHINGTON — The pier built by the U.S. military to bring humanitarian aid to Gaza will be reinstalled Wednesday to be used for several days, but then the plan is to pull it out permanently, several U.S. officials said. It would deal the final blow to a project long plagued by bad weather, security uncertainties and difficulties getting food into the hands of starving Palestinians.

The officials said the goal is to clear whatever aid has piled up in Cyprus and on the floating dock offshore and get it to the secure area on the beach in Gaza. Once that has been done, the Army will dismantle the pier and depart. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because final details are still being worked out.

Officials had hoped the pier would provide a critical flow of aid to starving residents in Gaza as the nine-month-long war drags on. But while more than 8.6 million kilograms of food has gotten into Gaza via the pier, the project has been hampered by persistent heavy seas and stalled deliveries due to ongoing security threats as Israeli troops continue their offensive against Hamas in Gaza.

The decision comes as Israeli troops make another push deeper into Gaza City, which Hamas says could threaten long-running negotiations over a cease-fire and hostage release, after the two sides had appeared to have narrowed the gaps in recent days.

U.S. troops removed the pier on June 28 because of bad weather and moved it to the port of Ashdod in Israel. But distribution of the aid had already stopped due to security concerns.

The United Nations suspended deliveries from the pier on June 9, a day after the Israeli military used the area around it for airlifts after a hostage rescue that killed more than 270 Palestinians. U.S. and Israeli officials said no part of the pier itself was used in the raid, but U.N. officials said any perception in Gaza that the project was used may endanger their aid work.

As a result, aid brought through the pier into the secure area on the beach piled up for days while talks continued between the U.N. and Israel. More recently, the World Food Program hired a contractor to move the aid from the beach to prevent the food and other supplies from spoiling.

The Pentagon said all along that the pier was only a temporary project, designed to prod Israel into opening and allowing aid to flow better through land routes — which are far more productive than the U.S.-led sea route.

And the weather now is projected only to get worse.

The pier was damaged by high winds and heavy seas on May 25, just a bit more than a week after it began operating, and was removed for repairs. It was reconnected on June 7, but removed again due to bad weather on June 14. It was put back days later, but heavy seas again forced its removal on June 28.
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Biden launches NATO summit with sober warning about global threats

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U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday welcomed NATO leaders and heralded the alliance’s 75th anniversary while making the case for peace through strength amid the largest challenge to peace Europe has faced in decades. Other administration officials made similar arguments for bolstering defense to fight global threats. VOA White House correspondent Anita Powell reports from Washington
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