Harris, Trump trade barbs over treatment of women

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U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump sparred over how women should be treated in society as they looked for votes Thursday in Arizona and Nevada, two Southwest political battleground states. Polling shows Harris, the Democratic candidate, and Trump, the Republican candidate, are virtually tied in the two states. Arizona and Nevada are among seven closely contested states across the 50-state country that are likely to determine the national outcome in next Tuesday’s election. In the other 43, polling shows Trump or Harris with either decisive or comfortable leads. Appeals to Latino voters are central to themore

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Donald J. Trump: An unconventional path to the presidency

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In this episode of “The Candidates,” VOA’s series on the 2024 presidential election, we look at former and perhaps future President Donald Trump. In just over nine years, he has thumbed his nose at the establishment, reshaped the Republican Party in his own image and further polarized an already divided country. VOA’s Tina Trinh explores Trump’s attempt at a historic political comeback. Video editor: Kyra Coffie, Toby Roberts …

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Musk a no show at start of court hearing on $1 million voter giveaway

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Philadelphia, Pennsylvania — Elon Musk did not show up at a Pennsylvania court hearing on Thursday to consider his $1 million giveaway to voters ahead of the Nov. 5election, which could put him at risk of being held in contempt of court. Musk, a billionaire entrepreneur backing Republican Donald Trump, had been ordered on Wednesday to attend the hearing, where a judge is considering Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner’s bid to halt the giveaway less than a week before the tightly contested presidential election between Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris. But Musk was not in the courtroom as the hearing gotmore

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Chinese online retailer Temu faces EU probe into rogue traders, illegal goods

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LONDON — The European Union is investigating Chinese online retailer Temu over suspicions it’s failing to prevent the sale of illegal products, the 27-nation bloc’s executive arm said on Thursday. The European Commission opened its investigation five months after adding Temu to the list of “very large online platforms” needing the strictest level of scrutiny under the bloc’s Digital Services Act. It’s a wide-ranging rulebook designed to clean up online platforms and keep internet users safe, with the threat of hefty fines. Temu started entering Western markets only in the past two years and has grown in popularity by offering cheapmore

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Trump, Harris discuss China through the lens of domestic concerns

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Washington — With domestic hot-button issues dominating the final week of the U.S. presidential campaign, any mention of the U.S.-China competition by candidates Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump has been through the lens of domestic concerns, analysts say. “American voters are more concerned about domestic issues. Polls show that the so-called China threat ranks behind the economy, immigration, abortion, climate, democracy and other issues for voters,” said Liu Yawei, director of the Carter Center’s China Program. According to a survey released by YouGov, a U.S. polling organization, only a minority of voters listed U.S. foreign policy asmore

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European allies face challenging times, whoever wins US presidential election

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BERLIN — The United States’ European allies are bracing for an America that’s less interested in them no matter who wins the presidential election — and for old traumas and new problems if Donald Trump returns to the White House. The election comes more than 2 1/2 years into Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, in which Washington has made the single biggest contribution to Kyiv’s defense. There are question marks over whether that would continue under Trump, and how committed he would be to NATO allies in general. A win by Vice President Kamala Harris could be expected to bring amore

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Musk’s X ineffective against surge of US election misinformation, report says

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The crowd-sourced fact-checking feature of Elon Musk’s X, Community Notes, is “failing to counter false” claims about the U.S. election, the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) said in a report Wednesday. Out of the 283 misleading posts that CCDH has analyzed on the digital social media platform, 209 or 74% of the posts did not show accurate notes to all X users correcting false and misleading claims about the elections, the report said. “The 209 misleading posts in our sample that did not display available Community Notes to all users have amassed 2.2 billion views,” CCDH said, urging themore

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Iran wary over US presidential election

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TEHRAN, Iran — America’s presidential election next week comes just after Iran marks the 45th anniversary of the 1979 U.S. Embassy hostage crisis — and for many, tensions between Tehran and Washington feel just as high as they did then. Iran remains locked in the Mideast wars roiling the region, with its allies — militant groups and fighters of its self-described “Axis of Resistance” — battered as Israel presses its war in the Gaza Strip targeting Hamas and its invasion of Lebanon amid devastating attacks against Hezbollah. At the same time, Iran still appears to be assessing damage from Israel’s strikesmore

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Americans are anxious and frustrated about the presidential campaign, an AP-NORC poll finds

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WASHINGTON — Most Americans are feeling a lot of emotions heading into Election Day, but excitement is not one of them. A new poll from The AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds that about 7 in 10 Americans report feeling anxious or frustrated about the 2024 presidential campaign, and a similar share say they’re interested. Only about one-third say they feel excited. There’s a broad feeling of uncertainty hanging over the 2024 presidential contest during the last week of the campaign. The race is competitive nationally and in key swing states, according to recent polls, with neither Democrat Kamala Harrismore

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US election merchandise sales offer insight on presidential winners 

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washington — As political scholars and pollsters try to predict the winner of the U.S. presidential election, some outsiders believe insight into the results can be found in a less conventional way — by looking at the sales of campaign merchandise. “It’s nine out of the last 11 elections. Our sales of the successful candidates’ [campaign merchandise] outpaced that of the candidates who lost in the elections,” Steve Ferber, co-owner of Lori Ferber Collectibles, told VOA Mandarin. “We found that pretty amazing — that there is a direct correlation between the items that are most popular of campaign items and themore

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Economic sentiment improves ahead of US elections 

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With the November presidential election less than a week away, some evidence has emerged that U.S. consumers, who have harbored negative sentiments about the state of the economy since the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, are beginning to appreciate its surprisingly robust performance over the past year or more. On Tuesday, the widely watched U.S. Consumer Confidence Index, an indicator that is correlated with economic growth, rose from 99.2 in September to 108.7 in October, the largest upward jump in more than three years. The Conference Board, which releases the index, also said its index tracking expectations about futuremore

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Harris, Trump head to political battleground states

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U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump headed to political battleground states on Wednesday in search of any edge they could find six days before the presidential election that may be the closest in decades. Harris, the Democratic candidate, and Trump, her Republican challenger, both appeared in the mid-Atlantic state of North Carolina before heading to the Upper Midwest state of Wisconsin, with Harris also campaigning in another key state, Pennsylvania in the East. The three states are among seven, along with Michigan in the Midwest, Georgia in the Southeast and Nevada and Arizona in the Southwest,more

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Harris promises to ‘represent all Americans’ after Biden ‘garbage’ remark

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WASHINGTON — Kamala Harris said she disagrees “with any criticism of people based on who they vote for,” reacting after U.S. President Joe Biden’s reference to Donald Trump’s supporters and “garbage.” “I will represent all Americans, including those who don’t vote for me,” the vice president said. Harris, the Democratic nominee for president, made the comment to reporters as she prepared to campaign in three states. Her words were an attempt to blunt the controversy over Biden’s rhetoric with less than a week until the end of the campaign. The tumult began Tuesday night around the time that Harris was deliveringmore

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Will there be a second term for former US first lady Melania Trump?

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Successful Slovenian model turned U.S. first lady, Melania Trump has had a bittersweet experience in the limelight since her husband, Donald Trump, was elected president in 2016. With the possibility of Melania Trump returning to the White House next year, here’s a look at her life and some voter expectations for her potential second term. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias has the story. …

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Is America about to make history with its first ‘first gentleman’?

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If Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris makes history in November by being elected America’s first female president, her husband Doug Emhoff would also break barriers as the country’s first ‘first gentleman.’ It would be the second time the former entertainment lawyer has made history, after spending almost four years as the nation’s first ‘second gentleman.’ VOA’s Dora Mekouar reports. …

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China launches new crew to its space station as it seeks to expand exploration

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JIUQUAN, China — China declared a “complete success” after it launched a new three-person crew to its orbiting space station early Wednesday as the country seeks to expand its exploration of outer space with missions to the moon and beyond. The Shenzhou-19 spaceship carrying the trio blasted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China at 4:27 a.m. local time atop a Long March-2F rocket, the backbone of China’s crewed space missions. “The crew condition is good and the launch has been successful,” the state broadcaster China Central Television announced. China built its own space station after being excludedmore

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For expats in Ukraine, election back in US hits home

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The outcome of the U.S. election and the possible changes in Washington’s foreign policy are of special significance to the 3 million American expatriates eligible to vote in next week’s U.S. presidential elections. In few places is that outcome more tangible than in Ukraine, where a few thousand Americans have, for various reasons, chosen to live after Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion. Lesia Bakalets speaks to several expatriates in Ukraine and sends this report from Kyiv. …

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