22/10/2024
FTS 9.30
*Cuba continues to restore power grid
*Palestine: UNICEF calls for urgent action to protect children
FTS 9.30
*Cuba continues to restore power grid
*Palestine: UNICEF calls for urgent action to protect children
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NewsTranscript
00:00Russia and Persia met with President of the World Development Bank Dilma Rousseff as world
00:17leaders continue to arrive for BRICS summit.
00:22On Monday night, Cuba confirmed 1,931 connected circuits as the country continues to recover
00:27its electric system, and the United Nations Children's Fund reiterates its call for urgent
00:34action on the dire conditions in which thousands of children are surviving in the Gaza Strip.
00:51Hello and welcome from the south, I'm Luis Alberto Matos from the Telestudio Studios
00:55in Havana, Cuba.
00:57Let's begin with the news.
00:58In Russia, the host president of the BRICS summit, Vladimir Putin, met on Tuesday morning
01:02with the president of the New Development Bank, Dilma Rousseff.
01:05The Russian head of state assured that the increase of transactions in local currency
01:09allows to reduce commissions for debt servicing, increasing the financial independence of member
01:14countries.
01:15For her part, Rousseff, as president of the financial entity, assured that the BRICS will
01:19be able to include other countries of the Global South in the funding plans.
01:23These talks aim to de-polarize, to de-polarize and ponder that the group's plans also contribute
01:30to minimize geopolitical risks.
01:45In the same context, President Putin has held bilateral meetings with certain members invited
01:50to the BRICS summit.
01:51Among them is President Narendra Modi and President Cyril Ramaphosa, expected reunion
01:56with President of China Xi Jinping and President of Egypt at the Fatal Sisyphe.
02:11And to go deeper on the importance of this year's BRICS summit, we are joined by U.S.
02:15human rights and labor rights lawyer, Dan Kovalec.
02:18Hello Dan, welcome to From the South.
02:22Good morning.
02:23Hi, good morning.
02:24Dan, all is ready for the summit to begin in a couple of hours.
02:26This summit, in particular, comes in a key moment in the international arena, all eyes
02:31are on what the BRICS 2024 summit can produce.
02:34So what can we expect and how important is this year's summit?
02:38Well, it's very important.
02:41I mean, I think the world is waiting, you know, for the expansion of this multipolar
02:48world of another pole to essentially protect the rest of the world from the West and the
02:55United States.
02:57There's some hope that eventually a new currency will come out of this to compete with the
03:02U.S. dollar.
03:03I guess Putin has signaled that that won't come at this meeting, but I think eventually
03:07that will come.
03:08And I think the one thing I understand will come out of this is that Venezuela will be
03:14admitted as a full partner of BRICS.
03:19Growth of the BRICS format is one of the main topics in this year.
03:23Earlier this year, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates
03:26joined the bloc.
03:27Other countries, as you were saying, have expressed their readiness, like Venezuela,
03:31Cuba and many others.
03:33So the question is, how can BRICS, as it continues to grow, bring about that multipolar world
03:37with enhanced cooperation and win-win trade among the peoples of the world?
03:43I think the main thing they can do is to try to protect countries from U.S. sanctions.
03:49Right now, the U.S. has 30 percent of the world's population under sanctions, and the
03:54only way it's able to do that is through its dominance of the world economy, through the
04:01dominance of the U.S. dollar.
04:03And so I think BRICS will have to come up with a new currency that will be able to compete
04:11with the U.S. dollar so countries don't have to depend on the dollar, and therefore the
04:17sanctions won't hurt as much.
04:20And of course, BRICS will open up new paths of trade, again, that will allow countries
04:25to be able to avoid the worst of the sanctions.
04:31Just earlier today, President Putin had a meeting with the New Development Bank President
04:36Dilma Rousseff.
04:37You were talking about enhancing these transactions in national currencies and in the idea of
04:43creating a new currency for BRICS countries to trade in for the benefit of the nation.
04:49How could this currency be?
04:51How would it work?
04:53Well, I'm not an economist, so I'm not exactly sure how it will work, but I think ultimately
04:59if you get buy-in from all these countries, which represent, I think that will end up
05:07representing a majority of the world's population.
05:09I mean, when you have China and India alone, you have a huge percentage of the world's
05:14population.
05:15So if you have all these countries buy into a new currency, and if that currency is backed
05:20by something, by oil, for example, or gold, I think that they would have a real chance
05:26to compete with the U.S. dollar, which is frankly backed on nothing but the full faith
05:32and credit clause of the U.S. Constitution.
05:35And I think people are realizing they can't really put faith in the dollar because, again,
05:42it's based on nothing.
05:44And the U.S. is so far in debt that the dollar, again, once there's an alternative to it,
05:52I think the dollar will collapse.
05:56Another important topic coming to the table in this summit, aside from the growth of BRICS,
06:00is also the Israeli ongoing aggressions against the peoples of the Middle East.
06:04What role can BRICS play to bring an end to the Tel Aviv expansionist policies and secure
06:09peace and stability in the Middle Eastern region?
06:12Well, again, when you have key members of BRICS like Russia, China, Iran, you have a
06:19bloc that really could stop this genocide if they wanted to.
06:25And that might require a military intervention of some kind.
06:29And Russia's already intervened in Syria to end that dirty war that the West started
06:37in 2011.
06:41And I think Putin's been making noise that if Israel keeps going farther into Lebanon,
06:48and certainly if it goes into Syria, that they will have Russia to contend to.
06:52So I do think this represents a bloc that could end this war.
06:59Also, high interest in the Ukraine crisis.
07:02Many nations are talking about how to bring an end to a negotiated process.
07:07President Putin himself said that he is willing to negotiate with Ukraine if it's done in
07:12the framework of the document drawn up in Turkey, where Ukraine will declare itself
07:16neutral and will reduce its armaments, and will, of course, not join NATO.
07:20So do you think, how could this process happen in this BRICS summit?
07:23What can come out of this?
07:26Well, first of all, we have to remember there was a deal that seemed that both sides could
07:31live with back in March 2022, meaning within about a month of the war starting, frankly,
07:38in which Ukraine could have kept all of the land it had prior to the special military
07:43operations beginning in February of 2022.
07:47And the US and UK intervened to kill that peace deal.
07:50So obviously, peace is possible, though I think in this, by now, it's not going to be
07:55on terms that were offered then.
07:58I don't think they're going to be able to get back those four voted to go with Russia.
08:02But certainly, again, I think the countries that are in BRICS and the BRICS alliance can
08:10play a big role in helping negotiate a peace deal.
08:15Thank you, Dan, for your time here in From the South.
08:20It's been our pleasure.
08:21We're going to stay tuned with everything that happens on BRICS and we're going to be
08:23reporting here in From the South.
08:25Let's now take a short break, but remember, you can join us on TikTok at Telesur English.
08:29We will find news in different formats, news updates, and much more.
08:33We're going to be right back.
08:37Stay with us.
08:50Welcome back.
08:58In Cuba, the Electric Union confirmed returning the service to 70.89% of the population.
09:03Authorities assured that 1,931 circuits have already been re-established, in addition to
09:09having restored 65 megawatts of electricity in the western pin of the Rio province.
09:14They further reported that the Fulton Thermoelectric plant was currently operating in the eastern
09:19OlquĂn province.
09:20Moreover, a little bit further in Las Tunas province, experts have been working on connecting
09:25other circuits, so recovery stopped temporarily.
09:28Likewise, they informed that they were advancing the resumption of the Carlos Manuel de Cespedes
09:33power station in Cienfuegos province.
09:35Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health stated that all vital services, including hospitals, count
09:40with electricity.
09:49The Government of Colombia presents a plan of action to increase biodiversity protection
10:06to 34% by 2030, on the first day of sessions of the United Nations COP16 conference on
10:12biodiversity.
10:13The plan represents a commitment to peace and nature through the acceleration of territorial
10:17planning as a participatory process.
10:20Likewise, the proposal includes promoting the social-ecological transition portfolio
10:25to implement strategic projects in seven sectors that integrate criteria for the conservation,
10:30restoration and recovery of ecosystems.
10:32The Colombian Minister of Environment, Susana Muhammad, assured that a strategy will be
10:36established to mobilize resources from all sources to fulfill the ambition set out in
10:42the Biodiversity Action Plan, as well as holding talks with the communities.
10:47As COP16 hosts, we take the lead, for example, we are one of the countries that presents
10:59the complete plan after two years of the Conming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, and what we
11:03have done reflects how we are going to meet the goals of the Global Framework.
11:07The plan seeks to bring together four strategic commitments to 2030 for the protection of
11:11biodiversity and six goals that include within them 23 goals of the framework in accordance
11:16with our specific contextual situation.
11:19These goals have to do first with going from 24% of the national territory, that today
11:24is under environmental protection measures both in the continental part to 34%, and in
11:28the oceanic part we have further reached 30%, but we are going to gain 34%.
11:35In Mexico, dozens of people attended the funeral of human rights activist priest Marcelo PĂ©rez,
11:39who was shot to death in the state of Chiapas.
11:42Israeli funeral attendees paid homage to the parish priest and demanded the government justice
11:46for the crime.
11:47PĂ©rez was murdered inside his truck on Sunday morning, when leaving the church of Guadalupe
11:51after celebrating a mass in the city of San CristĂłbal de las Casas.
11:55In regards to the incident, President Klaus Schoenbaum informed on Monday that investigations
11:59are underway and that the Secretary of Government has made contact with the local and ecclesiastical
12:04authorities.
12:11Of course we regret this incident, and we cannot speculate.
12:14We need the investigations to be carried out.
12:17Today the Secretary of Citizen Security is in contact with the governor and we are going
12:21to see if the case is taken over by the Attorney General's office or if it stays in the state,
12:26but we need the authorities, the Attorney General's office to carry out the investigation
12:30and to collaborate and cooperate in everything that is required.
12:34We have a second short break coming up, but before we invite you to visit our YouTube
12:39channel at TeleSuelo English, there you'll be able to re-watch our interviews, top stories,
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12:45Hit the subscribe button and activate the notification bell to stay up to date on the
12:48world's most recent events.
12:49Found your break?
12:50Don't go away.
13:13Welcome back.
13:31The United Nations Children's Fund's Rage Race has called for urgent action on the dire
13:35conditions in which thousands of children are surviving in the Gaza Strip.
13:39In this context, human rights organizations have recently launched a global action to
13:44draw attention to the appalling reality of Gazan children, with the motto,
13:47The number one killer of children on earth is Israel.
13:50The campaign takes into account the staggering number of minors killed by Zionist troops.
13:55Also in this regard, the UN Commissioner General for Palestinian Refugees, Philip Lazzarini,
14:00confirmed that Israeli authorities continue to deny the entry of missions to northern
14:04Gaza and denounced that they have turned humanitarian aid into a tool for their military purposes.
14:28Let's go back to Russia as the BRICS 2024 summit is set to begin shortly.
14:33We are joined with our special envoy, Jonas Soner, who has more details from the ground.
15:03Jonas, thank you very much for joining us here in the Global South, because the BRICS
15:05summit is starting.
15:08The leaders have started arriving today.
15:11They were met by the Russian authorities and they have already started having bilateral
15:17meetings.
15:18I don't know if you can see it in the background, here we see the Chinese President Xi Jinping
15:25right now having a bilateral meeting with the Russian President Vladimir Putin.
15:31This is the day of bilateral meetings between the leaders.
15:3536 countries will attend the summit.
15:3822 of them will be represented at the level of head of government, head of state, so a
15:44huge representation and they will discuss several issues.
15:48They have already started discussing these issues.
15:51One of them is the expansion, the enlargement of BRICS.
15:55There is a new model in discussion, that is the partner country status.
15:59The Russian Presidential Aide Yuri Ushakov has introduced, has declared, announced that
16:05model actually is as in the discussion.
16:08That model would mean that around 30 countries that want to join the alliance would be able
16:16to get a kind of partner status that is not full membership but already included into
16:23the alliance.
16:24Ushakov said that 15 countries are candidates for that status.
16:30There is also a lot of discussion about economic relations, economic cooperation, basically
16:36about how to create an alternative global financial system, how to arrange cross-border
16:43payments without having to use the US dollar, networking of commercial banks and central
16:49banks is in discussion, blockchain-induced cryptocurrencies are discussed here, but also
16:58establishing for commodities BRICS-owned trade platforms which would also liberate
17:06the alliance from Western domination, as for instance grain or oil products could be traded
17:13and their prices determined on these trade platforms in BRICS countries.
17:19That would be a liberation from Western domination because right now this is happening in trade
17:26exchange places in London or New York.
17:30So there is a lot of discussion going on.
17:33Tomorrow the summit will take up pace.
17:37Tonight we expect there will be a welcome meeting of the leaders, a short one, and then
17:43they will have an informal dinner and tomorrow the sessions will start.
17:48There will be two sessions tomorrow between the leaders and the third day they will come
17:53together in the so-called BRICS Plus format with all the countries that would like to
17:58join the alliance.
18:00Remember this summit takes place in parallel to another summit in Washington DC where the
18:07representatives of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank are meeting.
18:12They are celebrating the 18th anniversary of the Bretton Woods Agreement which was a
18:18step to establish the US dollar hegemony but here right now this system is getting
18:25a huge competition.
18:27There is an alternative being discussed here to that system established back in 1944.
18:34All the people that we spoke to here, experts and delegation members said this is a long
18:40process, one has to be patient, they are optimistic but they are also careful.
18:46This is not an easy task to establish such an alternative financial system but it is
18:51an urgent need as several countries are facing the threat or the damage of being attacked
19:01by sanctions.
19:02So this is the Russian presidency that is pursuing this but we hear and read that the
19:07Chinese part also supports this.
19:10So next year Russia will take over the presidency of the New Development Bank while Brazil will
19:17take over the presidency of BRICS and this tandem may then pursue further this process
19:24of de-dollarization.
19:25Thank you Juniors for the updated information from the ground.
19:29That was our special envoy Slavik Kazan with all the details that is happening in this
19:33BRICS summit as it is kick-starting, as he was saying bilateral meetings have been happening
19:37over the day between the different heads of states, over 22 heads of states are present
19:42in Kazan for this important BRICS summit.
19:44Right now at this very moment President Biden reporting from Russia and Chinese President
19:49Xi Jinping are holding bilateral talks as they continue to enhance relations and cooperation
19:54between the both countries which have seen an increase in trade and relations over the
19:59past 3-4 years.
20:00Like this we have come to the end of this news brief.
20:03You can find this and many other stories on our website at TelesureEnglish.net and
20:07join us on social media, Facebook, Instagram, Telegram and TikTok.
20:12For Telesure English, I'm Luis Alberto Matos, thank you for watching.