Indira Lakshmanan on NPR 1A's Global Friday News Roundup

Pulitzer Center Executive Editor Indira Lakshmanan appeared on the August 24, 2018 edition of NPR's 1A. The rundown for the segment follows:

The fallout from the grand jury report released in Pennsylvania about sexual abuse by priests within the Catholic Church has international repercussions.

The Pope will meet with abuse survivors in Ireland, after he released a statement responding to the report in which he said the Church “showed no care for the little ones; we abandoned them.”

In Nicaragua, protests continue against the government of President Daniel Ortega, and the government is cracking down on the opposition. The Miami Herald reports that “in four months of protests, more than 2,000 people in Nicaragua have been arrested, according to media reports. About 400 people are currently detained, many of whom are considered political prisoners. And, according to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR), there have been 322 deaths in the protests.”

The government says those in prison are “violent provocateurs,” according to al-Jazeera.

President Trump’s attention turned to South Africa this week.

I have asked Secretary of State @SecPompeo to closely study the South Africa land and farm seizures and expropriations and the large scale killing of farmers. “South African Government is now seizing land from white farmers.” @TuckerCarlson @FoxNews

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 23, 2018

The South African government responded this way, according to The Wall Street Journal:

“South Africa totally rejects this narrow perception which only seeks to divide our nation and reminds us of our colonial past,” the government said in a message from its official Twitter account Thursday morning. “South Africa will speed up the pace of land reform in a careful and inclusive manner that does not divide our nation.”

From The Washington Post:

The episode represented a case study in how the president runs his administration. The apparent basis of Trump’s directions to the nation’s top diplomat were accusations leveled by Fox — accusations that echo talking points used by white-nationalist groups, including an organization that has referred to “the so-called apartheid” and the “so-called ‘historical injustices of the past.’”

This is reportedly the first time the American president has used the word “Africa” in a tweet, though he’s verbally expressed his sentiments about African nations and Haiti previously.

And the president has proceeded with his tariff policy, leveling 10 percent tariffs on “another $16 billion worth of Chinese products, bringing the total so far to $50 billion,” according to The New York Times.

In India, nearly 200 people have died since August 8 due to flooding in Kerala, according to The Indian Express.

But the BBC reports that the flooding didn’t have to have such devastating consequences. “Officials and experts have said the floods in Kerala – which has 44 rivers flowing through it – would not have been so severe if authorities had gradually released water from at least 30 dams.”

Text by Gabrielle Healy.

To listen to the full show with guest panelists, executive editor of the Pulitzer Center Indira Lakshmanan, along with Uri Friedman, staff writer of The Atlantic, and covering global affairs Rosiland Jordan, State Department/specials correspondent of Al Jazeera English Television on the Friday global news round up on NPR 1A, click here.