Probe finds Beijing seeking to mislead, sow distrust ahead of US election

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washington — U.S. intelligence agencies this week emphasized that Russia, Iran and China remain the primary external forces attempting to influence American voters ahead of the November presidential election.  The Office of the Director of National Intelligence reported that the Kremlin is the most active player, using artificial intelligence, fake accounts and fabricated images to promote narratives favorable to Donald Trump’s candidacy.  In contrast, China has not sought to directly influence the outcome of the 2024 presidential race. Sarah Cook, an independent analyst specializing in disinformation, noted that this restraint stems partly from a strong bipartisan consensus in Washington regarding themore

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Brazil imposes new fine, demands payments before letting X resume

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SAO PAULO/BRASILIA BRAZIL — Brazil’s Supreme Court said on Friday that social platform X still needs to pay just over $5 million in pending fines, including a new one, before it will be allowed to resume its service in the country, according to a court document.  Earlier this week, the Elon Musk-owned U.S. firm told the court it had complied with orders to stop the spread of misinformation and asked it to lift a ban on the platform.  But Judge Alexandre de Moraes responded on Friday with a ruling that X and its legal representative in Brazil must still agree tomore

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Harris visits Border Patrol leaders in Arizona

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DOUGLAS, Arizona — U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris walked a scrubby stretch of fence line along Arizona’s border with Mexico on Friday, seeking to project an image of strength against illegal migration as she confronts one of her biggest vulnerabilities in the November election. In her first trip to the international boundary since becoming the Democratic presidential nominee, Harris chatted with local Border Patrol leaders as they strode along a rust-colored stretch of wall built during Barack Obama’s presidency. Temperatures in Douglas, Arizona, neared 37.7 degrees Celsius during a conversation that lasted about half an hour. “They’ve got a tough job,more

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US charges Iranians with hacking attempt to disrupt US election

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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 butmore

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

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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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Newsmax settles Smartmatic defamation suit over 2020 false election claims 

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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 amore

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Harris promises tax breaks, investments for US manufacturers

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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 likemore

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Harris to campaign on Arizona’s border with Mexico

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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.more

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CrowdStrike executive apologizes to Congress for July global tech outage

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WASHINGTON — An executive at cybersecurity company CrowdStrike apologized in testimony to Congress for sparking a global technology outage over the summer.  “We let our customers down,” said Adam Meyers, who leads CrowdStrike’s threat intelligence division, in a hearing before a U.S. House cybersecurity subcommittee Tuesday.  Austin, Texas-based CrowdStrike has blamed a bug in an update that allowed its cybersecurity systems to push bad data out to millions of customer computers, setting off a global tech outage in July that grounded flights, took TV broadcasts off air and disrupted banks, hospitals and retailers.  “Everywhere Americans turned, basic societal functions were unavailable,”more

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Trump pledges sweeping tariffs, says they will keep jobs in US

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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 waymore

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Former executive gets 2 years in prison for role in FTX fraud

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new york — Caroline Ellison, a former top executive in Sam Bankman-Fried’s fallen FTX cryptocurrency empire, was sentenced to two years in prison on Tuesday after she apologized repeatedly to everyone hurt by a fraud that stole billions of dollars from investors, lenders and customers.  U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan said Ellison’s cooperation was “very, very substantial” and “remarkable.”  But he said a prison sentence was necessary because she had participated in what might be the “greatest financial fraud ever perpetrated in this country and probably anywhere else” or at least close to it.  He said in such a seriousmore

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Will pro-Palestinian opposition hurt Harris in Michigan?

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

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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 Trumpmore

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Biden proposes banning Chinese vehicles from US roads with software crackdown 

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Washington — The U.S. Commerce Department on Monday proposed prohibiting key Chinese software and hardware in connected vehicles on American roads due to national security concerns — a move that would effectively bar nearly all Chinese cars from entering the U.S. market. The planned regulation, first reported by Reuters, would also force American and other major automakers in the coming years to remove key Chinese software and hardware from vehicles in the United States. The Biden administration has raised serious concerns about the collection of data by Chinese companies on U.S. drivers and infrastructure through connected vehicles as well as about potentialmore

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