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From Washington, this is VOA news. I'm David Byrd reporting. In just a couple of hours, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will accept her party's nomination for president.
Ahead of her speech, her campaign manager Robby Mook said that she would "lay out very clearly the choices that people face" in the November 8 election. On Wednesday night, Mrs. Clinton appeared briefly on stage with President Barack Obama at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In his speech to the convention, Mr. Obama said that Clinton has the character needed to lead the country. "And no matter how daunting the odds; no matter how much people try to knock her down, she never, ever quits. That is the Hillary I know. That's the Hillary I've come to admire." Clinton has said on numerous occasions she needs to earn voters' trust, which was shaken in part because of her use of a private unsecured email server while she was secretary of state. VOA will carry Mrs. Clinton's acceptance speech live at 2:00 Universal Time. Meanwhile, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump campaigned in Iowa Thursday and said a lot of lies are being told about him at the Democratic convention. "And they're not talking about the real world, you know. They're not talking about radical Islamic terrorism. They're not talking about borders where people just pour across. They're not talking about the crime, the kind of crime that we have in this nation." Earlier, Trump said he was being sarcastic when he encouraged Russia to hack into Hillary Clinton's email server to find deleted emails from her years as secretary of state. This is VOA news. Russia's defense minister says that four corridors will be set up to permit civilians and unarmed fighters to leave the now-besieged rebel-held eastern districts of Aleppo. The Syrian government, meanwhile, is promising amnesty to fighters who surrender within three months. Aleppo has been surrounded and nearly 300,000 people are trapped inside. As Lisa Schlein reports from Geneva, the U.N. special envoy for Syria says he is seriously concerned about the welfare of people in the city. News of the Russian military proposal came while the U.N. Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura was attending a weekly meeting of the Humanitarian Access Task Force. De Mistura says he and his colleagues were taken by surprise. "It is premature for me and others to actually make any comments until we have further details on what has been and is the Russian proposal or initiative." Under the Russian proposal, civilians reportedly will be allowed to leave Aleppo through three routes and rebels through a fourth. An estimated 300,000 people are trapped in Aleppo. Government forces are encircling the city, making it impossible for aid agencies to bring in food, medicine and other essential supplies. Lisa Schlein, for VOA news, Geneva. The Syrian branch of al-Qaeda, the Al-Nusra Front, announced Thursday it was breaking ties with the global terror network. Its leader Abu Mohamad al-Jolani said the organization decided to stop operating under the banner of Al-Nusra and to set up a new front called Jabhat Fateh al-Sham. White House spokesman Josh Earnest says that the Obama administration is still committed to fighting extremism despite the news that the group was cutting ties with al-Qaeda. "President Obama and the rest of the Obama administration and our military actions have been focused on and directed against a variety of extremist groups inside of Syria, including both ISIL and the Nusra Front." Analysts said Al-Nusra aims to rebrand and defend itself as it comes under increased pressure after Moscow and Washington agreed to step up joint efforts against jihadist groups. Turkey's Supreme Military Council gathered Thursday in a hastily planned meeting to replace more than 2,400 military personnel dismissed on Wednesday. Turkey's military leaders must fill vacancies for 149 generals and admirals. The move comes as part of a wider purge of government officials and academic leaders following an attempted coup, which left nearly 300 people dead. On Wall Street, stock prices closed mixed. European markets and Asian markets were lower. I'm David Byrd in Washington. That's the latest world news from VOA. |