Zelenskyy says Ukraine creating 'buffer zone' in Russia to prevent attacks | The Excerpt
On Monday’s episode of The Excerpt podcast: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Ukraine is creating a 'buffer zone' in Russia. The Democratic National Convention kicks off in Chicago. USA TODAY National Correspondent Deborah Barfield Berry discusses the leadership role Black women hold at this week's convention. Chicago braces for the convention with major security measures. USA TODAY Breaking News and Education Reporter Zachary Schermele breaks down how the vice presidential candidates compare on education.
Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.
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Taylor Wilson:
Good morning. I'm Taylor Wilson, and today is Monday, August 19th, 2024. This is The Excerpt.
Today we look at Ukraine's incursion into Russian territory. Plus, it's Democratic Convention Week. And how do the vice presidential candidates differ when it comes to education?
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said yesterday that his military's offensive into Russia's curse region will create a buffer zone to discourage Russian attacks into Ukraine. Ukraine forces appeared determined to push back any Russian effort to retake the seized land, which is estimated at almost 400 square miles. Ukraine has held it for almost two weeks. The commander of Ukraine's Air Force says a second bridge in the region was badly damaged as Kiev tries to weaken Russia's combat operations.
Russia criticized Western allies of Ukraine at the UN last week for not condemning Kiev's push into the Russian region, accusing Ukrainian forces of killing civilians and questioning the goals of the assault. Russia invaded Ukraine two and a half years ago and now holds almost 20% of Ukrainian territory in the country's east and south. Russia yesterday carried out its third ballistic missile attack on Kiev this month. But the Capital's military administration said preliminary data indicated most of the projectiles were shot down.
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The Democratic National Convention kicks off this week in Chicago. Unlike the Republican Convention, the DNC decided to confirm their nominee during a virtual roll call earlier this month to satisfy ballot deadlines in several states. According to a press release, 99% of participating delegates supported Kamala Harris in the virtual call. And Harris, along with running mate Tim Walz accepted the nomination a day later. But Harris has not yet formally accepted the nomination, which he will do at the convention later this week. We'll have you covered with all things DNC all week long, including interviews with our reporters on site in Chicago right here on The Excerpt.
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Black women are in charge at this week's convention, I spoke with USA TODAY national correspondent, Deborah Barfield Berry, to learn more.
Deborah, thanks for joining me today.
Deborah Barfield Berry:
Thank you for having me, Taylor.
Taylor Wilson:
So Deborah, a woman of color will be a presidential nominee for a major political party for the first time, this is of course Kamala Harris. And as you write, Black women will be leading many of the key roles at the convention. Tell us about Minyon Moore in her role this week.
Deborah Barfield Berry:
Minyon is a chair of the convention, which means she has a big role trying to make sure everything happens and happens well. So needless to say, she's been working really hard, especially with the change as recent as a few weeks ago. She is a long time Democratic political activist, has been in the game, been in the field for a long time, whether it is helping Jesse Jackson with one of his presidential biz, being an advisor to Biden, and literally just been a political strategist for a lot of candidates along the way, oftentimes behind the scene, but everybody gives her credit and her props for always doing the job and getting it done.
Taylor Wilson:
So this isn't necessarily anything new. Black women have worked for generations mobilizing voters for the Democratic Party. One major figure, Deborah, who stands out when it comes to convention history in particular, was Fannie Lou Hamer. What can you tell us about her?
Deborah Barfield Berry:
This was 60 years ago this month that Ms. Hamer went to the Democratic Convention in Atlantic City as part of the Mississippi delegation, which at the time was all white. She and some other people of color who were fighting to make sure that Black people are part of the delegation. So, many of the activists I talked to over the years, I've written about Ms. Hamer a few times, always kind of gave her the nod and respect because she, in a lot of ways, led the way. She was a Mississippi sharecropper. She wasn't very well-educated, but yet she was fighting the fight not just in Atlantic City but in Mississippi, which as we all know was very hostile territory, needless to say, during the Civil Rights movement. So they all feel some kind of way about making sure they acknowledge her and the legacy she left for them.
In addition to Ms. Hamer, everybody brings up Shirley Chisholm for a lot of reasons that makes sense. And part of it is because she was the first Black woman elected to Congress. She also ran for president. She didn't win her party nomination, but she made history just by running and really kind of putting a dent and inspiring generations of activists then and now. So when you talk about Donna Brazile, when you talk about Minyon Moore, when you talk about Marsha Fudge and all of them, all of them will pay to Ms. Chisholm because they look at her as one of the women who took charge or led a charge back in the '60s and '70s. Again, they say they stand on her shoulders as well as Ms. Hames and many others before them.
Taylor Wilson:
Who are some of the other Black women in major leadership roles at this week's convention?
Deborah Barfield Berry:
Well, you have a few. Some of them are not in the very public places, but there are many of them. There are Christie George, who's the executive director of the host committee. You have Keiana Barrett, who's also like a senior advisor. You have Reverend Leah Daughtry who was commissioned CEO twice, which was a rare move. She also is going to give the vacation and also give out the rules report. You have Donna Brazile, again, another longtime political activist. She's on the credentialing committee. And then you have Marsha Fudge, the former HUD secretary who's co-chair of the credentialing committee. So several of them will have a role in somewhat at this convention.
Taylor Wilson:
And as you write in the piece, Deborah, more speakers really from a diverse range of marginalized communities are expected to speak at the convention compared with years past. Who are we talking about here and why is that so important?
Deborah Barfield Berry:
Well, they haven't finalized all of the whose yet, who the particular people are. I tried, I'm still trying to get some of those folks. But they talked about having people from the LGBTQ community. They talked about making sure there are people from more marginalized communities, whether it be faith leaders, whether it be Native Americans, people from Latino communities, just making sure that there is a diverse panel of people and diverse programming because as the organizers say, that's who makes up the Democratic Party and they want to make sure that they highlight the diversity of the party.
Taylor Wilson:
So going forward, even beyond this week in the convention, how can we expect Black women to continue being involved with the Harris campaign and Democrats over the next few months?
Deborah Barfield Berry:
Well, while this story focused on many of the women who are leading the convention in some way, there's a whole lot of action going on in other places. I've written about that a couple of weeks ago. There are women hosting rallies. There are women hosting Zoom calls that attract thousands, like women with Black women had what? 44,000 on their call a couple of weeks ago. And they continue to host those calls on Sundays. You have Black women-led organizations, civic engagement groups that are literally on the ground doing everything from voter registration, planning bus tours through rural and urban communities. They're, in their language, fired up and they're doing all they can to support her bid. They started that. Soon it was announced, and they vowed to continue to do that up until November 5th.
Taylor Wilson:
Deborah Barfield Barry is a national correspondent with USA TODAY. Thanks as always, Deborah.
Deborah Barfield Berry:
Thank you as always, Taylor.
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Taylor Wilson:
As Chicago gears up for this week's convention, so two are security measures ahead of expected protests. An estimated 50,000 delegates, politicians, and party activists are expected to attend this week's convention with possibly tens of thousands of demonstrators. Fences, barricades and parked snowplows have already limited movement in key downtown areas and helicopters were heard overhead in recent days.
Similar to the Republican Convention held last month in Milwaukee, the Democratic Convention is a national special security event with the Secret Service in charge. That means significant road closures, vehicle searches, and closer to the event sites TSA style screenings. The convention is happening amid the war in Gaza and follows the July 13th attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump along with mass transit sabotage during the Paris Olympics. Things in Chicago though are off to a mostly smooth start. Yesterday, a relatively small crowd of protesters marched several blocks down Michigan Avenue at times outnumbered by police officers. Marchers protested to support Gaza, reproductive rights, and the LGBTQ community. You can read more about Chicago's preparations this week with a link in today's show notes.
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The vice presidential candidates, Tim Walz and JD Vance have different visions for the future of America's schools. I spoke with USA TODAY Breaking News and Education Reporter Zach Schermele for more.
Hello, Zach.
Zach Schermele:
Hey, Taylor. Thanks for having me.
Taylor Wilson:
Thanks for hopping on. What are the backgrounds with JD Vance and Tim Walz when it comes to education?
Zach Schermele:
These are two very different men for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is they have really distinct ideas about what the role of schools are, both K-12 schools and colleges and universities. You have Tim Walz, Kamala Harris's pick for vice president and the governor of Minnesota. He's a former high school history teacher. He was also a football coach. And as governor, he enacted a good bit of legislation that was centered around education. There's this photo of him last year signing a state bill into law that guaranteed free meals to students and he's sort of beaming and kids are hugging him. And that has become an image that I think some Democrats are really pleased with in terms of his policy record on education.
And then you have JD Vance, Donald Trump's running mate. This is a guy who really sees a lot wrong with the American education system, especially with colleges and universities. And his characterizations of the state of schooling in this country are pretty dire, and his thinking is in line with a lot of members of the Republican Party right now, that parents should have more control over what it is that their kids learn and where they learn it.
Taylor Wilson:
Zach, there are clearly some big differences on education between these two candidates. How do they differ on their ideas of public schools?
Zach Schermele:
Yeah, Walz is a big defender of public education. In fact, at his first rally with Kamala Harris in Philadelphia, he nodded to his wife's decades long career as a public school teacher and he said, "Don't ever underestimate teachers. My dad was a teacher, my brothers and sisters and I followed in their footsteps." And three out of the four of the siblings are married to teachers. Democrats traditionally, Taylor, have been more ardent defenders of public education, while Republicans tend to value private education to a greater degree and support something called school choice, which nods to this idea of public money going towards some forms of private schooling, often in the form of vouchers.
I think in recent years when it comes to how we talk about education policy at the national level, there are a lot of culture war issues that come up about things like pandemic closures and the rights of LGBTQ+ students, for instance. But school choice is one of those more traditional policy debates that is bound to come up in November. I talked to one mom in Nevada, for instance, who said it's her number one issue and it's going to be something that she thinks a lot about as she goes to vote.
Taylor Wilson:
And unfortunately, we can't talk about school really without talking about school safety. How do they compare on this sack and in particular how it pertains to guns in schools?
Zach Schermele:
Tim Walz hasn't always been the toughest politician on gun control policy after that school shooting a few years ago in Parkland, Florida, though he has become much more in favor of common sense gun control reforms, and he says he supports a complete ban on assault weapons.
Vance, on the other hand, is an avid supporter of the Second Amendment, and he has called Red Flag Laws, which gun control advocates argue help decrease violent shootings a "slippery slope." He's also made some controversial remarks about the degree to which gun violence is a significant problem in this country.
Taylor Wilson:
And how do they view LGBTQ+ issues and sex discrimination issues in school?
Zach Schermele:
This is something that I think is really interesting in this debate. So Walz's support for LGBTQ+ students dates all the way back to the nineties when he helped start his Minnesota High School's Gay Straight Alliance. He really went out of his way to create a safe space for queer students at a time when classrooms were a lot less inclusive compared to today.
Vance has equated teaching children about gender identity and sexual orientation with grooming. He also introduced a congressional bill last year that would banned gender-affirming care for minors nationwide. He's voiced opposition to increasing diverse viewpoints in the classroom and accused teachers of radicalizing children when they teach them about LGBTQ+ identities. He also likes to criticize so-called DEI programs, diversity, equity and inclusion programs, and he's likened the concept of DEI to racism in the past.
Taylor Wilson:
So Zach, how big an issue really is education shaking out to be this election cycle on the campaign trail and also just for the American voters?
Zach Schermele:
I think, Taylor, people care a lot about their kids and what happens to their kids. We tend to think of K-12 education policy in particular as a state's issue because it largely is, but there are some elements of education policy that the federal government has had a big hand in in recent years. Think things like school lunches, which became free nationwide during the pandemic when Trump was still president. Tim Walz's record, especially, is thrusting education into the spotlight in a way that is going to keep all of us talking about it over the next few very long months for all of us reporters who live in Washington.
Taylor Wilson:
I'm sure we'll be checking in again over the next couple months. Zach Schermele covers Breaking News and Education or USA TODAY. Thank you, Zach.
Zach Schermele:
Thank you.
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Taylor Wilson:
Thanks for listening to The Excerpt. You can get the podcast wherever you get your pods. And if you're on a smart speaker, just ask for The Excerpt. I'm Taylor Wilson, and I'll be back tomorrow with more of The Excerpt from USA TODAY.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Zelenskyy says Ukraine creating 'buffer zone' in Russia | The Excerpt
