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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Republicans in swing states say they see scant signs of groups door-knocking for Trump

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Lansing, Michigan — Republican activists in swing states say they have seen little sign of the teams tasked with knocking on doors and turning out infrequent voters on behalf of Donald Trump, raising concerns about the party’s presidential nominee relying on outside groups for an important part of his campaign operations. Trump and the Republican National Committee he controls opted to share get-out-the-vote duties in key parts of the most competitive states this year with groups such as America PAC, the organization supported by billionaire Elon Musk. It is difficult to demonstrate that something is not happening. But with fewer thanmore

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US to propose ban on Chinese software, hardware in connected vehicles, sources say

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Washington — The U.S. Commerce Department is expected on Monday to propose prohibiting Chinese software and hardware in connected and autonomous vehicles on American roads due to national security concerns, two sources told Reuters. The Biden administration has raised serious concerns about the collection of data by Chinese companies on U.S. drivers and infrastructure as well as the potential foreign manipulation of vehicles connected to the internet and navigation systems. The proposed regulation would ban the import and sale of vehicles from China with key communications or automated driving system software or hardware, said the two sources, who declined to bemore

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Trump campaigns in North Carolina without state’s top Republican candidate

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WILMINGTON, N.C. — Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump returned to North Carolina on Saturday, stumping in the southern battleground state that both Democrats and Republicans are treating as increasingly critical to victory in November. But the former president campaigned in Wilmington, along the state’s southern coast, without Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson, the Republican gubernatorial nominee and one of the former president’s top surrogates in the state, following a CNN report about his alleged posts on a pornography website’s message board. Robinson has denied writing the posts, which include lewd and racist comments, saying Thursday that he wouldn’t be forced out ofmore

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Harris steps up outreach to Mormon voters in battleground Arizona 

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PHOENIX — Vice President Kamala Harris is stepping up her efforts to win over voters who belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, enlisting prominent members of the faith to make the case in pivotal Arizona that Donald Trump does not align with the church’s values. Her state campaign announced on Thursday an advisory committee to formalize the outreach to current and former members of the church, widely known as the Mormon church. With nearly 450,000 church members in Arizona, about 6% of the state’s population, Latter-day Saints and former church members could prove critical in what willmore

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Harris agrees to CNN debate, Trump rejects idea 

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Washington — U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris has accepted an invitation from CNN to participate in another debate against Donald Trump on October 23 and urges her Republican rival to face her less than two weeks ahead of the November 5 presidential election, the Democratic candidate’s campaign said on Saturday.  “Vice President Harris is ready for another opportunity to share a stage with Donald Trump, and she has accepted CNN’s invitation to a debate on October 23. Donald Trump should have no problem agreeing to this debate,” Jen O’Malley Dillon, the chair of the Harris campaign, said in a statement.  Askedmore

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California governor signs law to protect children from social media addiction

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SACRAMENTO, California — California will make it illegal for social media platforms to knowingly provide addictive feeds to children without parental consent beginning in 2027 under a new law Governor Gavin Newsom signed Friday.  California follows New York state, which passed a law earlier this year allowing parents to block their kids from getting social media posts suggested by a platform’s algorithm. Utah has passed laws in recent years aimed at limiting children’s access to social media, but those have faced challenges in court.  The California law will take effect in a state home to some of the largest technology companiesmore

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Culture war in US education lurks as election issue

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U.S. presidential candidates Donald Trump and Kamala Harris have focused their campaigns mainly on hot-button issues such as immigration, abortion and the economy. But the culture clash over how to handle gender identity matters in elementary and secondary schools is also a campaign issue, with loud voices on all sides. VOA’s Laurel Bowman reports. Videographer: Saqib Ul Islam …

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