ВИБОРЧА ГАЗЕТА

Trump meets Zelenskyy amid tension, Republican criticism of Kyiv

Former U.S. President Donald Trump met Friday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in New York, where Trump repeated claims that he would be able to end the war in Ukraine by making a deal with Russia. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara has this report.
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US charges Iranians with hacking attempt to disrupt US election

WASHINGTON — The U.S. government said Friday it filed criminal charges against three members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps for hacking attempts aimed at disrupting the U.S. presidential election.

The indictment is the latest effort by President Joe Biden’s administration to counter foreign efforts to interfere in the November 5 presidential election between Republican Donald Trump and his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris.

The U.S. Treasury Department also said it was imposing sanctions on seven members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Iran has previously denied involvement.

The Trump campaign said in August it had been hacked by Iran but said the perpetrators were not able to get private information. Several news outlets have said they declined to publish internal campaign documents that were offered to them.
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Harris will campaign on Arizona’s border with Mexico in attempted show of strength on immigration 

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How do JD Vance and Tim Walz differ on foreign policy?

The foreign policy positions of the two vice presidential candidates are coming into sharper focus. Democratic nominee Tim Walz and Republican nominee JD Vance present distinctly different approaches to global challenges. These contrasting views underscore how each candidate’s foreign policy priorities could influence America’s role on the world stage.
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Former Trump adviser describes China’s ideology as ‘danger to all of us’

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Newsmax settles Smartmatic defamation suit over 2020 false election claims 

WILMINGTON, Delaware — Newsmax Media reached a confidential settlement of a lawsuit by Smartmatic, the voting machine maker that had alleged it was defamed by the news outlet’s false claims that its machines were rigged to help steal the 2020 U.S. presidential election from Donald Trump, the companies said Thursday. 

The agreement came on the eve of a four-week jury trial, with opening arguments scheduled to begin in Wilmington on September 30.  

“Newsmax is pleased to announce it has resolved the litigation brought by Smartmatic through a confidential settlement,” the company said in a statement. 

Smartmatic also said in a statement it was pleased to have reached a deal. 

“Lying to the American people has consequences. Smartmatic will not stop until the perpetrators are held accountable,” it said.  

Smartmatic sued Newsmax in 2021, alleging it broadcast damaging misinformation falsely claiming the company switched votes in the 2020 election, that its machines had been hacked and that it was funded by corrupt dictators.  

Smartmatic alleged that Newsmax profited from its false reporting. Trump amplified Newsmax’s reporting on social media, and the broadcaster’s audience jumped tenfold after the election, vaulting it over cable news rivals such as CNBC and Fox Business, according to Nielsen Ratings. 

Smartmatic’s machines were used only in Los Angeles County in the 2020 election, and it has said there has never been a security breach with its equipment, which has recorded billions of votes, largely in non-U.S. elections.  

Both Newsmax and Smartmatic’s U.S. affiliate are based in Boca Raton, Florida. 

Newsmax said it had a First Amendment right to report claims by Trump and his supporters, which were often made in court filings challenging the election. 

The company also clarified its reporting about Smartmatic in December 2020 and invited Smartmatic representatives to come on the air to explain their side of the story to Newsmax viewers. Smartmatic did not accept that invitation. 

Newsmax has described its coverage of Smartmatic as “minor.” 

Smartmatic has not publicly estimated the damages at stake, but Newsmax told the court on September 16 that the voting machine company was seeking $400 million to $600 million and described the case as “bet your company” litigation.  

Newsmax had $67 million in assets at the end of 2022, according to a securities filing, and said in a June investor presentation that it hoped to file for a public offering of its stock this year or early 2025. 

“We are now looking forward to our day in court against Fox Corp. and Fox News for their disinformation campaign,” Smartmatic said.  

The company is suing Fox in New York for $2.7 billion. 

False claims about the 2020 election have led to several defamation settlements or verdicts.  

Fox agreed to settle defamation claims by Dominion Voting Systems last year for $787.5 million, which was the biggest defamation settlement by a U.S. media company, according to legal experts. Dominion is also seeking up to $1.6 billion in damages against Newsmax, which is in litigation in the Delaware court. 

A jury decided last year that former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani had to pay more than $148 million in damages to two former Georgia election workers he defamed through false accusations that they helped rig the 2020 election against Trump. Giuliani appealed.
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Why are politicians called lame ducks?

Joe Biden is said to be entering the lame-duck period of his presidency, but what does that mean?
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US gun owners’ views unchanged by Trump assassination attempts

U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump has been the target of two assassination attempts during this campaign. VOA spoke with some gun owners, who say the shootings have not changed their views on gun laws. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias has our story. Some VOA footage by Genia Dulot.
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Harris promises tax breaks, investments for US manufacturers

PITTSBURGH — U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris said on Wednesday she would offer tax credits to domestic manufacturers and invest in sectors that will “define the next century,” as she detailed her economic plan to boost the U.S. middle class.

Speaking at the Economic Club of Pittsburgh in the battleground state of Pennsylvania, the Democratic candidate in the November 5 presidential election said she would give tax credits to U.S. manufacturers for retooling or rebuilding existing factories and expanding “good union jobs,” and double the number of registered apprenticeships during her first term.

Harris also promised new investments in industries like bio-manufacturing, aerospace, artificial intelligence and clean energy.

Harris’ speech, which lasted just under 40 minutes, did not detail how these policies would work. She highlighted her upbringing by a single mother, in contrast with former President Donald Trump, the wealthy son of a New York real estate developer.

“I have pledged that building a strong middle class will be the defining goal of my presidency,” Harris said, adding that she sees the election as a moment of choice between two “fundamentally different” visions of the U.S. economy held by her and her Republican opponent, Trump.

The vice president and Trump are focusing their campaign messaging on the economy, which Reuters/Ipsos polling shows is voters’ top concern, as the election approaches.

The divide between rich and poor has grown in recent decades. The share of American households in the middle class, defined as those with two-thirds to double that of median household income, has dropped from around 62% in 1970 to 51% in 2023, Pew Research shows. These households’ income has also not grown as fast as those in the top tier.

Harris said she was committed to working with the private sector and entrepreneurs to help grow the middle class. She told the audience that she is “a capitalist” who believes in “free and fair markets,” and described her policies as pragmatic rather than rooted in ideology.

Harris in recent months has blunted Trump’s advantage on the economy, with a Reuters/Ipsos poll published on Tuesday showing the Republican candidate with a marginal advantage of 2 percentage points on “the economy, unemployment and jobs,” down from an 11-point lead in late July.

Trump discussed his economic plan in North Carolina on Wednesday and said Harris’ role as vice president gave her the chance now to improve the economic record of the Biden administration.

“Families are suffering now. So if she has a plan, she should stop grandstanding and do it,” he said. While Trump has proposed across-the-board tariffs on foreign-made goods — a proposal backed by a slim majority of voters — Harris is focusing on providing incentives for businesses to keep their operations in the U.S.

Boosting American manufacturing in industries such as semiconductors and bringing back jobs that have moved overseas in recent decades have also been major goals for Biden. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the CHIPS and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act — all passed in 2021 and 2022 — fund a range of subsidies and tax incentives that encourage companies to place projects in disadvantaged regions.
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Harris to campaign on Arizona’s border with Mexico

WASHINGTON — Vice President Kamala Harris will visit the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona on Friday as her campaign tries to turn the larger issue of immigration from a liability into a strength and hopes to counter a line of frequent, searing political attacks from former President Donald Trump. 

Her campaign announced Wednesday that Harris would be in Douglas, Arizona, across the border from Agua Prieta, Mexico. 

Trump has built his campaign partly around calling for cracking down on immigration and the southern border, even endorsing using police and the military to carry out mass deportations should he be elected in November. Harris has increasingly tried to seize on the issue and turn it back against her opponent, though polls show voters continue to trust Trump more on it. 

Trump wasted little time reacting to word of Harris’ trip. He told a rally crowd in Mint Hill, North Carolina, that Harris was going to the border “for political reasons” and because “their polls are tanking.” 

“When Kamala speaks about the border, her credibility is less than zero,” Trump said. “I hope you’re going to remember that on Friday. When she tells you about the border, ask her just one simple question: “Why didn’t you do it four years ago?” 

That picks up on a theme Trump mentions at nearly all of his campaign rallies, scoffing at Harris as a former Biden administration “border czar,” arguing that she oversaw softer federal policies that allowed millions of people into the country illegally. 

President Joe Biden tasked Harris with working to address the root causes of immigration patterns that have caused many people fleeing violence and drug gangs in Central America to head to the U.S. border and seek asylum, though she was not called border czar. 

Since taking over for Biden at the top of the Democratic presidential ticket, Harris has leaned into her experience as a former attorney general of California, saying that she frequently visited the border and prosecuted drug- and people-smuggling gangs in that post. As she campaigns around the country, the vice president has also lamented the collapse of a bipartisan border security deal in Congress that most Republican lawmakers rejected at Trump’s behest. 

Harris has worked to make immigration an issue that can help her win supporters, saying that Trump would rather play politics with the issue than seek solutions, while also promising more humane treatment of immigrants should she win the White House. 

In June, Biden announced rules that bar migrants from being granted asylum when U.S. officials deem that the southern border is overwhelmed. Since then, arrests for illegal border crossings have fallen. 

Despite that, a new poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research released this month found that Trump has an advantage over Harris on whom voters trust to better handle immigration. This issue was a problem for Biden, as well: Illegal immigration and crossings at the U.S. border with Mexico have been a challenge during much of his administration. The poll also found that Republicans are more likely to care about immigration.
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Campaigns seek to mobilize voters in swing state of Georgia 

Early voting for the U.S. presidential election in the state of Georgia begins October 15. Polls show a close contest there between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump. VOA’s Kane Farabaugh has more from Atlanta, Georgia.
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Trump pledges sweeping tariffs, says they will keep jobs in US

SAVANNAH, Ga. — Donald Trump on Tuesday pledged to stop U.S. businesses from shipping jobs overseas and to take other countries’ jobs and factories by relying heavily on sweeping tariffs to boost auto manufacturing — despite warnings that domestic consumers would pay more and a lack of specifics about how his plans would work.

“I want German car companies to become American car companies. I want them to build their plants here,” Trump declared during a speech in Savannah, Georgia.

Trump added that, if elected, he’d put a 100% tariff on every car imported from Mexico and that the only way to avoid those charges would be for an automaker to build the cars in the U.S.

His ideas, if enacted, could cause a huge upheaval in the American auto industry. Many automakers now build smaller, lower-priced vehicles in Mexico — facilitated by a trade agreement Trump negotiated while president — or in other countries because their profit margins are slim. The lower labor costs help the companies make money on those vehicles.

German and other foreign automakers already have extensive manufacturing operations in the U.S., and many now build more vehicles here than they send. BMW, for instance, has an 8 million-square-foot campus in South Carolina that employs 11,000 people building more than 1,500 SUVs per day for the U.S. and 120 export markets. Mercedes and Volkswagen also have large factories here.

If German automakers were to increase production here, they likely would have to take it from factories in Germany, which then would run below their capacity and be less efficient, said Sam Abuelsamid, principal research analyst for Guidehouse Insights.

“It makes no sense,” he said.

Trump proposes ‘new American industrialism’ — without specifics

Trump has proposed using tariffs on imports and other measures to boost American industry — even as economists have cautioned that U.S. consumers would bear the costs of tariffs and other Trump proposals like staging the largest deportation operation in U.S. history.

The former president laid out a broad array of economic proposals during a speech in the key swing state of Georgia, promising to create a special ambassador to help lure foreign manufacturers to the U.S. and further entice them by offering access to federal land.

Additionally, he called for lowering the U.S. corporate tax rate from 21% to 15%, but only for companies that produce in the U.S. Harris, the Democratic nominee, wants to raise the corporate tax rate to 28%. It had been 35% when Trump became president in 2017, and he later signed legislation lowering it.

“We’re putting America first,” Trump said. “This new American industrialism will create millions and millions of jobs.”

Trump also suggested wiping away some environmental regulations to boost energy production, saying America has “got the oil, it’s got the gas. We have everything. The only thing we don’t have is smart people leading our country.”

Tuesday’s series of economic proposals raised a lot of questions, but the former president hasn’t given specific answers on his ideas, which could substantially affect their impact and how much they cost. He has not specified, for example, whether his U.S.-focused corporate tax cuts would apply to companies that assemble their products domestically out of imports.

Trump also suggested he would use a newly created envoy, and his own personal efforts, to recruit foreign companies. But he had a spotty record in the White House of attracting foreign investment. In one infamous case, Trump promised a $10 billion investment by Taiwan-based electronics giant Foxconn in Wisconsin, creating potentially 13,000 new jobs, that the company never delivered.

His calls to offer federal land, meanwhile, might clash with Bureau of Land Management restrictions on foreign entities looking to lease lands. It also wasn’t clear whether companies from China would be excluded, given Trump’s longtime accusations that China is hurting American business.
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Will pro-Palestinian opposition hurt Harris in Michigan?

The Uncommitted National Movement that began as a protest against President Joe Biden’s policies on the war in Gaza last week announced they will not endorse Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential candidate. Another pro-Palestinian group “Abandon Harris” says they’re working to ensure her defeat. Could these movements impact election results in battleground states? White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara brings this story from Michigan, the state with the highest percentage of Arab Americans.
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What is the Electoral College?

One of the more confusing parts of the U.S. electoral system is that presidents are not elected through direct popular vote but through a mechanism called the Electoral College. Here’s how it works.
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TikTok removes Russian media accounts for ‘covert influence operations’

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AI not yet a ‘revolutionary influence tool,’ US says

washington — Russia, Iran and China are not giving up on the use of artificial intelligence to sway American voters ahead of November’s presidential election even though U.S. intelligence agencies assess the use of AI has so far failed to revolutionize the election influence efforts.

The new appraisal released late Monday from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence comes just more than 40 days before U.S. voters head to the polls. It follows what officials describe as a “steady state” of influence operations by Moscow, Tehran and Beijing aimed at impacting the race between former Republican President Donald Trump and current Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris, as well as other statewide and local elections.

“Foreign actors are using AI to more quickly and convincingly tailor synthetic content,” said a U.S. intelligence official, who briefed reporters on the condition of anonymity to discuss the latest findings.

“AI is an enabler,” the official added. “A malign influence accelerant, not yet a revolutionary influence tool.”

It is not the first time U.S. officials have expressed caution about how AI could impact the November election.

A top official at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the U.S. agency charged with overseeing election security, told VOA earlier this month that to this point the malicious use of AI has not been able to live up to some of the hype.

“Generative AI is not going to fundamentally introduce new threats to this election cycle,” said CISA senior adviser Cait Conley. “What we’re seeing is consistent with what we expected to see.”

That does not mean, however, that U.S. adversaries are not trying.

The new U.S. intelligence assessment indicates Russia, Iran and China have used AI to generate text, images, audio and video and distribute them across all major social media platforms.

Russia, Iran and China have yet to respond to requests for comment.

All three have previously rejected U.S. allegations regarding election influence campaigns.

While U.S. intelligence officials would not say how many U.S. voters have been exposed to such malign AI products, there is reason to think that some of the efforts are, at least for the moment, falling short.

“The quality is not as believable as you might expect,” said the U.S. intelligence official.

One reason, the official said, is because Russia, Iran and China have struggled to overcome restrictions built into some of the more advanced AI tools while simultaneously encountering difficulties developing their own AI models.

There are also indications that all three U.S. adversaries have to this point failed to find ways to more effectively use AI to find and target receptive audiences.

“To do scaled AI operations is not cheap,” according to Clint Watts, a former FBI special agent and counterterror consultant who heads up the Microsoft Threat Analysis Center (MTAC).

“Some of the infrastructure and the resources of it [AI], the models, the data it needs to be trained [on] – very challenging at the moment,” Watts told a cybersecurity summit in Washington earlier this month. “You can make more of everything misinformation, disinformation, but it doesn’t mean they’ll be very good.”

In some cases, U.S. adversaries see traditional tactics, which do not rely on AI, as equally effective.

For instance, U.S. intelligence officials on Monday said a video claiming that Vice President Harris injured a girl in a 2011 hit-and-run accident was staged by Russian influence actors, confirming an assessment last week by Microsoft.

The officials also said altered videos showing Harris speaking slowly, also the result of Russian influence actors, could have been done without relying on AI.

For now, experts and intelligence officials agree that when it comes to AI, Russia, Iran and China have settled on quantity over quality.

Microsoft has tracked hundreds of instances of AI use by Russia, Iran and China over the past 14 months. And while U.S. intelligence officials would not say how much AI-generated material has been disseminated, they agree Russian-linked actors, especially, have been leading the way.

“These items include AI-generated content of and about prominent U.S. figures … consistent with Russia’s broader efforts to boost the former president’s candidacy and denigrate the vice president and the Democratic Party,” the U.S. intelligence official said, calling Russia one of the most sophisticated actors in knowing how to target American voters.

Those efforts included an AI-boosted effort to spread disinformation with a series of fake web domains masquerading as legitimate U.S. news sites, interrupted earlier this month by the U.S. Department of Justice.

Iran, which has sought to hurt the re-election bid by former President Trump, has also copied the Russian playbook, according to the new U.S. assessment, seeking to sow discord among U.S. voters.

Tehran has also been experimenting, using AI to help spread its influence campaign not just in English, but also in Spanish, especially when seeking to generate anger among voters over immigration.

“One of the benefits of generative AI models is to overcome various language barriers,” the U.S. intelligence official said.

“So Iran can use the tools to help do that,” the official added, calling immigration “obviously an issue where Iran perceives they could stoke discord.”

Beijing, in some ways, has opted for a more sophisticated use of AI, according to the U.S. assessment, using it to generate fake news anchors in addition to fake social media accounts.

But independent analysts have questioned the reach of China’s efforts under its ongoing operation known as “Spamouflage.”

A recent report by the social media analytics firm Graphika found that, with few exceptions, the Chinese accounts “failed to garner significant traction in authentic online communities discussing the election.”

U.S. intelligence officials have also said the majority of the Chinese efforts have been aimed not at Trump or Harris, but at state and local candidates perceived as hostile to Beijing.

U.S. intelligence officials on Monday refused to say how many other countries are using AI in an effort to influence the outcome of the U.S. presidential election.

Earlier this month, U.S. Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said Washington was “seeing more actors in this space acting more aggressively in a more polarized environment and doing more with technologies, in particular AI.”
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