Author: PolitCens

washington — Hackers linked to the Chinese government have broken into parts of the U.S. telecommunications system in a breach that might be connected to an attempt to access data from the presidential campaigns of Republican nominee Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Kamala Harris.  

The FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency late Friday said they were investigating “unauthorized access” to commercial telecommunications infrastructure, attributing the attack to Chinese-affiliated actors.

The agencies said they immediately notified affected companies once the breach was detected and had offered assistance, though there might be additional victims.

“The investigation is ongoing, and we encourage any organization that believes it might be a victim to engage its local FBI field office or CISA,” the statement said.

“Agencies across the U.S. government are collaborating to aggressively mitigate this threat and are coordinating with our industry partners to strengthen cyber defenses across the commercial communications sector,” it added.

The Chinese Embassy in Washington dismissed the U.S. hacking allegations as disinformation, calling the U.S. “the origin and the biggest perpetrator of cyberattacks.”

“For some time, the U.S. has compiled and spread all kinds of disinformation about the so-called Chinese hacking threats,” said embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu in an email to VOA.

“China’s position is consistent and clear,” he said. “China firmly opposes and combats cyberattacks and cyber theft in all forms.”

Word of the breach linked to China followed a report by The New York Times on Friday that Chinese hackers are thought to have broken into telecommunications networks to target the Trump campaign.

People familiar with the investigation told the Times that the Chinese hackers specifically looked to access data from phones used by Trump and his running mate, Republican Senator JD Vance.

Separately, a person familiar with the investigation told VOA that people affiliated with the campaign of Vice President Harris were also targeted. 

Investigators are still trying to determine what data the hackers were able to get, if any, and whether the hackers could listen in on conversations in real time.  

The FBI declined to comment on the Trump and Harris campaign breaches.

In a statement shared with VOA, the Trump campaign acknowledged the breach and blamed Harris for letting it happen.

“This is the continuation of election interference by Kamala Harris and Democrats who will stop at nothing, including emboldening China and Iran attacking critical American infrastructure, to prevent President Trump from returning to the White House,” said Steven Cheung, the Trump campaign communications director.

“Their dangerous and violent rhetoric has given permission to those who wish to harm President Trump,” Cheung added.

The Trump campaign did not respond to questions asking for more details on how Harris or her campaign enabled the Chinese hack.

The Harris campaign has yet to respond to VOA’s request for comment.

U.S. intelligence agencies have warned for months that foreign adversaries have been using a combination of cyberattacks and influence operations to meddle with the November 5 U.S. presidential election.

According to a declassified intelligence assessment issued this week, “foreign actors — particularly Russia, Iran and China — remain intent on fanning divisive narratives to divide Americans and undermine Americans’ confidence in the U.S. democratic system consistent with what they perceive to be in their interests.”

It further warned that Russia and Iran were formulating plans to spark election-related violence.

In addition, reports issued this week by private cybersecurity firms likewise indicated a significant uptick in activity by actors linked to Russia, China and Iran.

All three nations have repeatedly denied accusations of election meddling.

And while U.S. intelligence officials assess there is little agreement among the three countries on the desired outcomes of the presidential election — Russia is said to want a Trump win, Iran is said to be rooting for Harris, and China sees both as equally bad — the Trump campaign has become a frequent target of attacks.

Last month, the U.S. Justice Department charged three Iranian hackers tied to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in connection with a hack-and-leak operation seeking to undermine Trump’s reelection bid.

U.S. intelligence officials have also accused Iran of trying to ensnare the campaign of current U.S. President Joe Biden before he stepped down in favor of Harris.

But U.S. security officials have been even more leery of China.

U.S. agencies, led by CISA and the FBI, have been warning that China-linked hackers have burrowed into U.S. computer systems and networks, in some case hiding for years.

The China-linked group, known as Volt Typhoon, has been “positioning itself to launch destructive cyberattacks that would jeopardize the physical safety of Americans,” according to an advisory issued in February.

“What we’ve found to date is likely the tip of the iceberg,” CISA Director Jen Easterly said in a statement at the time.
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WASHINGTON — Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of major government contractor SpaceX and a key ally of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, has been in regular contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin for the last two years, The Wall Street Journal reported.

A person familiar with the situation, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter, confirmed to The Associated Press that Musk and Putin have had contact through calls. The person didn’t provide additional details about the frequency of the calls, when they occurred or their content.

Musk, the world’s richest person who also owns Tesla and the social media platform X, has emerged as a leading voice on the American right. He’s poured millions of dollars into Trump’s presidential bid and turned the platform once known as Twitter into a site popular with Trump supporters, as well as conspiracy theorists, extremists and Russian propagandists.

Musk’s contacts with Putin raise national security questions, given his companies’ work for the government, and highlight concerns about Russian influence in American politics.

Here’s what to know:

What they talked about

Musk and Putin have spoken repeatedly about personal matters, business and geopolitics, The Journal reported Thursday, citing multiple current and former officials in the United States, Europe and Russia.

During one talk, Putin asked Musk not to activate his Starlink satellite system over Taiwan as a favor for Chinese President Xi Jinping, whose ties to Putin have grown closer, The Journal reported. Putin and Xi have met more than 40 times since 2013. 

Russia has denied the conversations took place. In 2022, Musk said he’d spoken to Putin only once, in a call 18 months earlier focused on space.

The Chinese Embassy in Washington said Friday that it was “not aware of the specifics” of any requests made by Putin on China’s behalf.

There was no immediate response to messages left with X and Tesla seeking Musk’s comment.

What the talks mean for national security

Musk’s relationship with Putin raises national security questions given the billions of dollars in government contracts awarded to SpaceX, a critical partner to NASA and government satellite programs.

Trump also has vowed to give Musk a role in his administration if he wins next month.

The head of any large defense contractor would face similar questions if they held private talks with one of America’s greatest adversaries, said Bradley Bowman, a former West Point assistant professor and Senate national security adviser who now serves as senior director of the Center on Military and Political Power at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington-based defense think tank.

Bowman said the timing of the calls as reported by The Journal and Musk’s changing views on Ukraine was a “disturbing coincidence.”

“The policy of the U.S. government is to try to isolate Vladimir Putin, and Elon Musk is directly undercutting that,” Bowman said. “What is Putin doing with Musk? Putin is trying to reduce his international isolation and impact American foreign policy.”

The request from Putin on Starlink as a favor to China is also likely to get attention, given U.S. support for Taiwan and concerns about the growing partnership between the Kremlin and Beijing.

Musk, whose Tesla operates Gigafactory Shanghai, has developed a close relationship with China’s top leaders. His remarks about China have been friendly, and he has suggested Taiwan cede some control to Beijing by becoming a special administrative region.

Moscow has growing ties to other American adversaries. The U.S. has accused Russia of sending ballistic missiles to Iran and said North Korea sent troops to Russia, possibly for combat in Ukraine.

On Ukraine, Musk’s views have shifted since he initially supported Kyiv following Russia’s invasion in 2022 and provided it with his Starlink system for communications.

Musk then refused to allow Ukraine in 2023 to use Starlink for a surprise attack on Russian soldiers in Crimea.

He also floated a proposal to end the war that would have required Ukraine to drop its plans for NATO membership and given Russia permanent control of Crimea, which it seized in 2014. The plan infuriated Ukrainian leaders.

One person familiar with the talks between Musk and Putin told The Journal that there is no evidence the contact between Musk and Putin represents a security problem for the U.S.

Asked about Musk’s contacts with Putin, White House national security spokesperson John Kirby told reporters Friday that he had no information to share.

The CIA, Pentagon and National Security Agency had no comment. The State Department didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

Musk’s close ties to Trump

Musk recently appeared at a Trump rally, sporting a Make America Great Again hat and delivered an ominous warning that if Trump lost the race, “this will be the last election.”

Last year, Musk mocked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s request for aid for his country with a meme and said in February that the U.S. should cut its assistance because Ukraine couldn’t win.

Trump, who has praised Putin’s leadership and criticized the NATO alliance and U.S. aid for Ukraine, has raised questions about what he would be willing to concede if he’s elected in a negotiation over Ukraine’s future.

U.S. intelligence officials and private tech analysts have concluded that Russia is working to covertly support Trump with disinformation and propaganda targeting his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris. Since he took over X, it has become a leading online source of Russian propaganda and disinformation aimed at Americans.

Trump has faced scrutiny over his own recent contacts with Putin, outlined in a new book by Watergate journalist Bob Woodward.

Woodward quoted an unnamed Trump aide who said the former president and Putin may have had as many as seven conversations since Trump lost reelection in 2020.

Before one of the calls, the aide said they were asked to leave Trump’s office to give the two privacy.

The Trump campaign and the Kremlin have denied those calls occurred.

In response to questions about Musk and Putin, Trump campaign press secretary Karoline Leavitt called the billionaire “a once-in-a-generation industry leader” whose ideas could benefit “our broken federal bureaucracy.”

“As for Putin, there’s only one candidate in the race that he did not invade another country under, and it’s President Trump,” Leavitt said in a statement. “President Trump has long said that he will re-establish his peace through strength foreign policy to deter Russia’s aggression and end the war in Ukraine.”

Russia confirms one conversation

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov on Friday rejected The Journal’s report as “absolutely false information.”

Peskov said Putin and Musk once held a “medium-length phone conversation” prior to 2022 that was “as more of an introductory nature” and that the two talked about “visionary technologies, technological solutions for the future.”

“After that, Musk had no contacts with Putin,” Peskov said, dismissing The Journal’s article as political.

“The election has entered its home stretch, and of course the opponents stop at nothing,” Peskov said. “Remember that a week ago they were saying that Putin allegedly talks to Trump all day long. Now he allegedly talks to Musk all the time. It’s all untrue.”

Ukraine’s military intelligence told the AP that they would “refrain from commenting” about communication between Putin and Musk.
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Vice President Kamala Harris says she believes the U.S. should lead by building alliances to manage conflict. Former President Donald Trump says his projection of strength, and unpredictability, can stop wars before they begin. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara spoke to experts on which foreign policy approach would be better at reducing conflict, amid wars in the Middle East and Europe.
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U.S. Republican Vice Presidential Nominee JD Vance grew up in Appalachia, attended an Ivy League school, and could become one of the youngest vice presidents in U.S. history. Carolyn Presutti takes us back to his roots. Camera: Henry Hernandez, Saqib Ul Islam. Contributor: Lynn Davis.
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Four astronauts returned to Earth on Friday after a nearly eight-month space station stay extended by Boeing’s capsule trouble and Hurricane Milton.

A SpaceX capsule carrying the crew parachuted before dawn into the Gulf of Mexico just off the Florida coast after undocking from the International Space Station mid-week.

The three Americans and one Russian should have been back two months ago. But their homecoming was stalled by problems with Boeing’s new Starliner astronaut capsule, which came back empty in September because of safety concerns. Then Hurricane Milton interfered, followed by another two weeks of high wind and rough seas.

SpaceX launched the four — NASA’s Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt and Jeanette Epps, and Russia’s Alexander Grebenkin — in March. Barratt, the only space veteran going into the mission, acknowledged the support teams back home that had “to replan, retool and kind of redo everything right along with us … and helped us to roll with all those punches.”

Their replacements are the two Starliner test pilots Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, whose own mission went from eight days to eight months, and two astronauts launched by SpaceX four weeks ago. Those four will remain up there until February.

The space station is now back to its normal crew size of seven — four Americans and three Russians — after months of overflow.
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NEW DELHI — This week’s movement toward rapprochement between the leaders of China and India is raising questions about New Delhi’s commitment to the Quad, the loose four-nation alliance widely seen as a U.S.-led bid to counter Chinese influence in the Indo-Pacific.

India’s participation in the grouping, which also includes Japan and Australia and is formally known as the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, has been at least partly driven by a vexing border dispute that has seen repeated clashes between Chinese and Indian troops along their Himalayan border.

Presidents Narendra Modi of India and Xi Jinping of China agreed Wednesday on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Russia to reduce their differences and jointly work out a plan for patrolling the border. The agreement is expected to result in closer political and economic ties.

“The thaw in India-China relations is a boon to both countries. This is particularly significant for China because India may now be less inclined to confront Beijing as part of Quad,” Zhiqun Zhu, professor of political science and international affairs at Bucknell University, told VOA. “In this sense, the effectiveness of Quad would be diluted with a less enthusiastic India.”

India and China share certain common interests as the two largest developing nations. China was India’s biggest trade partner last year, though there are signs that the U.S. might take its place this year.

“This suggests that the U.S. may wish to push forward its Indo-Pacific strategy without relying too heavily on support from India,” Zhu said.

The Quad has served as an important element in the American effort to establish a network of alliances and partnerships to counter China’s rising economic and military power, marked by its aggressive behavior in the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea.

“By remaining relatively informal, the Quad can quietly achieve many of the functions performed by NATO, up to and including military contingency planning,” wrote James Jay Carafano, a security affairs expert, on the website of the Liechtenstein-based think tank Geopolitical Intelligence Services AG.

China’s state-run newspaper Global Times described the improved China-India relationship as a response to U.S. and Western European efforts to reduce their economic reliance on China, a process sometimes described as “decoupling.”

“In the context of the US ‘decoupling’ strategy, the strengthened cooperation between China and India takes on even greater significance,” the paper said in an editorial published Thursday. “The pressures from the US ‘decoupling’ strategy and technological restrictions have heightened regional tensions and increased geopolitical risks for both nations.”

The editorial also said that the potential geopolitical shift has already generated market optimism. “It’s based on the recognition of their complementary strengths and the vast opportunities for collaboration across diverse sectors, including manufacturing, infrastructure and sustainable development.”

Nevertheless, it is uncertain whether the border agreement will be sustained in the face of decades-old differences between the world’s two most-populous countries.

They fought a war in 1962 and were engaged in a border clash in 2020 in which 20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers died. There is some concern in India about whether China will in fact pull back troops in the disputed border areas and implement the agreement on the ground.

India’s External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said Thursday that “agreements, once reached, must be scrupulously respected” and “disputes and differences must be settled by dialogue and diplomacy.”
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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with key negotiators Thursday to discuss a Mideast cease-fire during a stop in the negotiating hub of Qatar. The parties have spent months trying to broker an end to hostilities in Gaza and Lebanon and bring home about 100 hostages believed to still be held in Gaza. VOA White House correspondent Anita Powell has the story.
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The U.S. Interior Department on Thursday gave final approval to ioneer’s Rhyolite Ridge lithium mine in Nevada, the first domestic source of the battery metal to be permitted by President Joe Biden’s administration and one that will become a key supplier to Ford and other electric vehicle manufacturers. 

Shares of the Australia-based critical minerals miner jumped more than 20% in New York trading on Thursday afternoon before easing down. 

The approval ends a more-than six-year review process during which regulators, ioneer and conservationists tussled over the fate of a rare flower found at the mine site, a tension that exposed the sometimes competing priorities between climate change mitigation efforts and biodiversity protection. 

The permit, which had been expected by the end of the year, comes amid a flurry of recent moves by Biden officials to support critical minerals production and offset China’s market dominance.  

It also unlocks a $700 million loan from the U.S. Department of Energy, as well as a $490 million equity investment from Sibanye Stillwater to fund the project. 

“This is a science-based decision,” Laura Daniel-Davis, the Interior Department’s acting deputy secretary, told Reuters. “We’re trying to send a signal that there’s no topic with greater importance than addressing climate change.” 

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which is controlled by the Interior Department, on Thursday issued the Rhyolite Ridge project’s record of decision — essentially the mine’s permit — and said the project will “include significant protections for the local ecosystem” and help create hundreds of jobs in the rural region.  

The project, roughly 362 kilometers north of Las Vegas, Nevada, contains enough lithium to power roughly 370,000 electric vehicles each year. Construction is slated to begin next year, with production commencing by 2028, a timeline that would make Rhyolite Ridge one of the largest U.S. lithium producers alongside Albemarle and Lithium Americas. 

The U.S. Geological Survey has labeled lithium a critical mineral vital for the U.S. economy and national security.  

“We’re proud to be the first U.S. lithium mine permitted by the Biden administration,” James Calaway, ioneer’s chairman, told Reuters. 

The project will extract lithium as well as boron, a chemical used to make ceramics and soaps, from a clay-like deposit. The lithium will be processed on site into two main derivatives used to make batteries, and the company said it plans to recycle half of all the water used at the site, higher than the industry average. 

Ford and a joint venture between Toyota and Panasonic have agreed to buy lithium from the mine. 
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Polls show that Americans’ trust in news reporting is at an all-time low. And while the decline has many causes, it reflects both the changing media landscape and the values of media consumers.

Nearly 250 years since the principle was enshrined in the U.S. Constitution, a majority of Americans still agree that a free press is crucial to a democratic society, according to polling by the Pew Research Center. But how they feel about the existing press is a different matter.

The same polls show that only one-third of Americans believes the country’s media report the news objectively. And a September Gallup poll reveals that Americans’ overall trust in mass media has declined to an all-time low of 32%.

Much of the narrative around declining faith in media has been shaped by political partisanship. The last time that America saw such low levels of media confidence was in 2016, when Donald Trump amplified longstanding conservative complaints about liberal media bias by attacking critical coverage of his presidential campaign as “fake news.”

Accordingly, self-identified Republicans report less trust in media, reaching a low of 11% compared with 58% for Democrats.

However, partisan trends don’t capture the whole picture. While partisan divergence in media confidence significantly widened during the presidency of Republican George W. Bush, overall trust in media institutions has been declining for supporters of both parties as well as independents since Gallup first began tracking it in the 1970s.

The rise of partisan cable news networks in the 1990s and digital news, along with social media in the 2000s, has reflected and exacerbated this trend. And dissatisfaction with perceived bias in coverage of conflicts such as the Iraq War or Israel’s invasion of Gaza has also reduced trust in traditional news sources among left-leaning Americans, often driving them toward unreliable alternative sources.

As Americans lose trust in traditional media, they also engage less with it. While over half of adults in the U.S. now report getting their news from social media, audiences and advertising revenue have shrunk when it comes to newspapers and TV news.

In fact, part of the story behind declining trust in media is Americans across the political spectrum becoming less interested in news overall. Nearly two-thirds of Americans are experiencing news fatigue while 38% report that they follow the news closely, compared with 51% in 2016.

Do Americans want independent journalism?

The simultaneous loss of trust and interest in news media has raised questions beyond simple accusations of partisan bias. While criticism of the media often focuses on whether the core principles of independent journalism are being upheld, the principles themselves may not be popular.

A recent study by the Media Insight Project found that common journalistic values such as amplifying marginalized voices, holding power to account or increasing public transparency do not enjoy majority support.

In fact, such values may not be as integral to journalism as is commonly believed. As Columbia University journalism professor Michael Schudson writes, the modern idea of journalism as an independent investigative force and a check on government power has been a fairly recent development.

And amid today’s rapid social, political and technological changes, the role that people expect journalism to play in society may once again be shifting.
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washington — The Pentagon and U.S. intelligence agencies have new marching orders — to more quickly embrace and deploy artificial intelligence as a matter of national security.

U.S. President Joe Biden signed the directive, part of a new national security memorandum, on Thursday. The goal is to make sure the United States remains a leader in AI technology while also aiming to prevent the country from falling victim to AI tools wielded by adversaries like China.

The memo, which calls AI “an era-defining technology,” also lays out guidelines that the White House says are designed to prevent the use of AI to harm civil liberties or human rights.

The new rules will “ensure that our national security agencies are adopting these technologies in ways that align with our values,” a senior administration official told reporters, speaking about the memo on the condition of anonymity before its official release.

The official added that a failure to more quickly adopt AI “could put us at risk of a strategic surprise by our rivals.”

“Because countries like China recognize similar opportunities to modernize and revolutionize their own military and intelligence capabilities using artificial intelligence, it’s particularly imperative that we accelerate our national security community’s adoption and use of cutting-edge AI,” the official said.

But some civil liberties advocates are raising concerns that the new guidelines lack sufficient safeguards.

“Despite acknowledging the considerable risks of AI, this policy does not go nearly far enough to protect us from dangerous and unaccountable AI systems,” according to a statement from the American Civil Liberties Union’s Patrick Toomey.

“National security agencies must not be left to police themselves as they increasingly subject people in the United States to powerful new technologies,” said Toomey, who serves as deputy director of ACLU’s National Security Project.

The new guidelines build on an executive order issued last year that directed all U.S. government agencies to craft policies for how they intend to use AI.

They also seek to address issues that could hamper Washington’s ability to more quickly incorporate AI into national security systems.

Provisions outlined in the memo call for a range of actions to protect the supply chains that produce advanced computer chips critical for AI systems. It also calls for additional actions to combat economic espionage that would allow U.S. adversaries or non-U.S. companies from stealing critical innovations.

“We have to get this right, because there is probably no other technology that will be more critical to our national security in the years ahead,” said White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, addressing an audience at the National Defense University in Washington on Thursday.

“The stakes are high,” he said. “If we don’t act more intentionally to seize our advantages, if we don’t deploy AI more quickly and more comprehensively to strengthen our national security, we risk squandering our hard-earned lead.

“We could have the best team but lose because we didn’t put it on the field,” he added.

Although the memo prioritizes the implementation of AI technologies to safeguard U.S. interests, it also directs officials to work with allies and others to create a stable framework for use of AI technologies across the globe.

“A big part of the national security memorandum is actually setting out some basic principles,” Sullivan said, citing ongoing talks with the G-7 and AI-related resolutions at the United Nations.

“We need to ensure that people around the world are able to seize the benefits and mitigate the risks,” he said.
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SEATTLE — Boeing factory workers voted to reject a contract offer and continue a more than five-week strike on Wednesday, in a blow to new CEO Kelly Ortberg’s plan to shore up the finances of the struggling planemaker.

The vote was 64% in opposition to the deal, which offered a 35% rise in wages over four years, in a major setback for Ortberg who took the top job in August on a pledge to work more closely with factory workers than his predecessors.

The rejection of Boeing’s offer, which comes after 95% of workers voted against a first contract last month, reflects years of resentment from workers who felt cheated by the company in talks a decade ago and deepens a financial crisis.

After the vote, union leaders said they were ready to immediately resume negotiations with Boeing on the first major negotiation since 2014, when the company used the threat of moving production of the new version of the 777 out of the region to push through a deal that ended traditional pensions.

The union has been seeking a 40% pay rise and the return of the defined-benefit pension.

Boeing factory workers were also venting frustration after a decade when their wages have lagged inflation and critics have complained that the planemaker spent tens of billions of dollars on share buybacks and paid out record executive bonuses.

“This membership has gone through a lot … there are some deep wounds,” the union’s lead contract negotiator Jon Holden told reporters after the vote.

“I want to get back to the table. Boeing needs to come to the table as well. Hopefully, we can have some fruitful discussions with the company, and Mr. Ortberg, to try and resolve this.”

Boeing declined comment on the vote.

Some 33,000 machinists downed tools in Boeing’s West Coast factories on Sept. 13, halting production of the best-selling 737 MAX as well as 767 and 777 wide-body programs.

Time is running out for Boeing, historically the largest U.S. exporter, and its biggest union to reach a deal before the busy political period surrounding the presidential election on Nov. 5.

With Boeing and IAM at a stalemate earlier this month, acting U.S. Secretary of Labor Julie Su had helped get the latest offer presented for a vote after attending in-person talks with both parties in Seattle last week.

Holden said after the union vote that he would reach out to the White House to see if the union could get more assistance negotiating with Boeing.

“After the first contract offer was rejected, the honeymoon was over on the labor reset. This further validates that,” said Scott Hamilton, an aviation consultant.

“It’s bad news for everybody – Boeing, labor, suppliers, customers, even the national economy.”

Boeing is the largest customer for a U.S. aerospace supply chain already facing critical financial pressure.

Fuselage supplier Spirit AeroSystems warned that if the strike continued beyond the end of November, there would be layoffs and more drastic furloughs.

The company, which is in the process of being taken over by Boeing, has already announced a 21-day furlough for 700 workers.

‘Defining moment’

Boeing has announced plans to cut 17,000 jobs and is closing in on a plan to raise up to $15 billion from investors to help preserve its investment grade credit rating, while some airlines have had to trim schedules due to aircraft delivery delays.

Ortberg warned on Wednesday there was no quick fix for the ailing planemaker.

In a quarterly earnings call, Boeing forecast it would burn cash through 2025. Jefferies analyst Sheila Kahyaoglu said after the vote that the decision to prolong the strike could worsen the expected drain on cash.

The specter of a quality crisis from a January mid-air panel blowout hangs over Boeing.

Richard Aboulafia, managing director of AeroDynamic Advisory, said this was now the “defining moment” of Ortberg’s short tenure and he needed to get a deal across the line soon.

“There’s a feeling that he hasn’t handled this as well as he might have,” Aboulafia said. “They’ve (Boeing) got to get this done, and they’re in a position of weakness.”

The rejection from workers on Wednesday was the second in a formal vote after the offer of a 25% pay rise over four years was rejected last month, leading to the strike.

Many comments on social media and from workers outside voting stations had cast doubt on a deal.

“We’re ready to go back on strike until we get a better deal,” Irina Briones, 25, said after the vote.

“They took a bunch of numbers and moved them around to make them look like they’re giving us more than they were,” said Josh Hajek, 42, who has worked six years at Boeing on wing assembly.

Voting figures showed the two sides getting closer to a deal but still a solid majority in favor of prolonging the strike.

Before the vote, Terrin Spotwood, a 20-year-old machinist in 737 wing assembly, said he planned to approve the contract because the offer was “good, but not great.” He said several coworkers planned the same because they “can’t really afford to say no to this contract. They have to go back to work.”

Even so, many workers are still angry about the last deal signed a decade ago.

“We’re going to get what we want this time. We have better legs to stand on this time than Boeing,” said Donovan Evans, 30, who works in the 767 jet factory outside Seattle.
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WASHINGTON — There is new evidence China, Iran and Russia are aggressively expanding their efforts to influence American voters to potentially sway the result of the upcoming U.S. elections.

Two threat intelligence reports Wednesday, one from software giant Microsoft and the other from the cybersecurity firm Recorded Future, detail growing activity by cyber actors linked to each country — all aiming to impact U.S. public perceptions with less than two weeks before voters go to the polls.

The biggest change, according to Microsoft, comes from Chinese-linked actors known to researchers as Spamouflage or Taizi Flood.

“Chinese influence operations have recently taken a new turn, shifting focus to several down-ballot candidates and members of Congress,” Microsoft said, noting that starting in September, China has targeted at least four prominent Republican lawmakers, all of whom are known critics of the government in Beijing.

Most recently, the Chinese-linked accounts targeted Texas Republican Michael McCaul, accusing the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee of “abusing power for personal gain.” 

Late last month, other Spamouflage began going after Tennessee Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn, Microsoft said. And earlier this month, the same effort began promoting Blackburn’s opponent in the November 5 election.

Other targets include Alabama Republican Representative Barry Moore, who was subjected to content criticizing his support for Israel, and the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Republican Marco Rubio, who was accused of corruption.

The Chinese Embassy in Washington rejected the allegations in the Microsoft report.

“The presidential elections are the United States’ domestic affairs,” embassy spokesman Liu Pengyu told VOA Wednesday, echoing previous Chinese denials. 

“Such allegations are full of malicious speculations against China, which China firmly opposes,” he added.

U.S. lawmakers, however, said they were not surprised by the uptick in malign activity.

“The CCP [Chinese Communist Party] cannot stand anyone who supports and gives a voice to those they oppress; their response is to sanction and attack,” McCaul said in a statement to VOA. 

“I consider it a badge of honor when the CCP — a leading abuser of human rights, censor of free speech, and oppressor of its own people — takes issue with my work,” he said. 

Rubio, the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, called for the Chinese influence efforts to “be taken very seriously.”

“China is becoming increasingly more aggressive,” Rubio said in a statement to VOA. “China’s goal is to shape American opinion on critical issues and target specific candidates, especially those they view as anti-China.”

Growing threats

The reports from Microsoft and Recorded Future warn Beijing is not alone.

Specifically, the reports caution the Russian-linked cyber actors, known to researchers as Storm-1679 or Operation Overload, have increased their pace of operations over the past month and a half and are showing signs that more influence operations are on the way.

“Operation Overload is very likely to ramp up its activities,” said the Recorded Future report.

Recorded Future said many of the Russian efforts, of late, have sought to provoke anger toward the LGBTQ+ community “using disinformation to perpetuate discriminatory beliefs around transgender individuals, perceived behavioral issues, gender transition and reassignment surgeries, and pharmaceutical treatments.”

Other influence operations, the report said, are making use of AI-generated voiceovers to emulate the style of U.S. broadcast journalists.

Microsoft said the Russian cyber actors also have found ways to reach additional U.S. voters by shifting much of the content from the Telegram social media platform to X.

“Storm-1679 videos posted to X received higher levels of engagement,” Microsoft said.

Microsoft researchers also warned there are signs Iran is also ramping up its election interference efforts.

The Microsoft report says that in one instance, less than two weeks ago, “an online persona operated by Iran began falsely posing as an American and called on Americans to boycott the elections due to both candidates’ support for Israel’s military operations.”

Russia and Iran, like China, have repeatedly denied any involvement in efforts to meddle with the U.S. election.

But the new findings from Microsoft and Recorded Future align with assessments from U.S. intelligence officials.

“Foreign actors — particularly Russia, Iran and China — remain intent on fanning divisive narratives to divide Americans and undermine Americans’ confidence in the U.S. democratic system consistent with what they perceive to be in their interests,” according to a declassified assessment issued Tuesday by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

U.S. intelligence officials have previously said Russia has been working to boost the chances of former president and current Republican nominee Donald Trump, while Iran has been working to hurt Trump’s reelection bid and instead buoy the campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee.

And while there is little evidence to suggest China has sought to affect the U.S. presidential race, intelligence officials have said Beijing has been focusing its efforts on congressional and state and local candidates perceived to be promoting policies detrimental to Beijing’s interests.
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WASHINGTON — The U.S. Justice Department has sent a letter to Elon Musk’s super PAC warning that the billionaire Tesla CEO’s $1 million giveaways may violate federal law, several media organizations reported on Wednesday, citing people briefed on the matter.

A letter from the department’s public integrity section, which investigates potential election-related law violations, went to the PAC.

The Justice Department and Musk’s America PAC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

South African-born Musk, who has thrown his support behind Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump ahead of the November 5 election, announced on Saturday while speaking before a crowd in Pennsylvania that he was giving away $1 million each day until Election Day to someone who signs his online petition supporting the U.S. Constitution.

He handed $1 million checks to two separate people over the weekend — one to a man in Harrisburg on Saturday and another to a woman in Pittsburgh on Sunday.

Musk, ranked by Forbes as the world’s richest person, so far has supplied at least $75 million to America PAC, according to federal disclosures, making the group a crucial part of Trump’s bid to regain the White House.
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islamabad — The latest U.S.-imposed restrictions on entities supporting Pakistan’s defense programs may hinder Islamabad’s future efforts to acquire sensitive defense technologies and its collaboration with China but are unlikely to affect Pakistan’s weapons development for now, experts say.

Sixteen Pakistani firms were among 26 international companies added this week to a U.S, “entities list,” making them ineligible to acquire U.S. items and technology without government authorization.

Companies or individuals can be placed on the list if they are “involved or pose a significant risk of being or becoming involved in activities contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States,” according to a U.S. Commerce Department statement.

Nine of the 16 Pakistani companies added to the blacklist this week were accused of being front companies for a previously sanctioned company, Advanced Engineering Research Organization, deemed responsible for the country’s cruise missile and strategic drone programs.

The remaining seven entities were added for contributions to Pakistan’s ballistic missile program, the Commerce Department statement said. Other companies added to the list this week were accused of procuring U.S.-made items with military applications for China, Iran, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates.

Defense analysts told VOA that addition to the list is unlikely to slow Pakistan’s missile program, which has continued despite multiple rounds of U.S. curbs on entities supporting it.

“It will not make a difference to Pakistan,” said Pakistani defense analyst Salman Javed, who acknowledged that the country relies on the United States for other defense technology needs. “I believe Pakistan’s missile program is in an advanced stage, and U.S. restrictions will have no impact on it.”

Former Pakistani army General Talat Masood said Pakistan has looked more to China than the United States for “the expertise and technology” needed to advance its drone program. But he said the new curbs might affect Pakistan’s future collaboration with China in the field of drones and their sale to other countries.

Pakistan has not officially responded to the latest restrictions but objected last month when Washington blacklisted four companies, three Chinese and one Pakistani, for “knowingly” transferring prohibited equipment to Pakistan. Islamabad said the sanctions were imposed “without any evidence whatsoever.”

Syed Irfan Ashraf, an assistant professor at the University of Peshawar in Pakistan, said the United States has long prevented arms technology sales in black markets to protect its interests. “However, the timing and scrutiny of entities supporting Pakistan right now is crucial” because of the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East.

In September, the U.S. State Department acted against five entities and one individual — all but one Chinese — that were involved in the proliferation of ballistic missiles and controlled missile equipment and technology to Pakistan.

Salman Ali, a Pakistani scholar at the School of Politics at the Quaid-e-Azam University Islamabad, said the recent wave of U.S. sanctions represents a distinct shift from the usual regulatory measures observed since Pakistan’s de facto nuclearization and are aimed more at pressuring China.

“Over the past six rounds of U.S. curbs, it’s clear that the focus has been on the technical exchanges between China and Pakistan. These sanctions are not only intended to curb the rapid advancement of missile and drone programs but are also seen as a strategy to pressure China,” Ali told VOA.

Pakistan and Iran are both members of the China-led regional alliance Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), which opposed the unilateral sanctions in its recently concluded summit October 16 in Islamabad.

This story originated in VOA’s Deewa Service. Iftikhar Hussain reported from Washington.
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Washington — Donald Trump’s longest-serving chief of staff is warning that the Republican presidential nominee meets the definition of a fascist and that while in office, Trump suggested that Nazi leader Adolf Hitler “did some good things.” 

The comments from John Kelly, the retired Marine general who worked for Trump in the White House from 2017 to 2019, came in interviews published Tuesday in The New York Times and The Atlantic. They build on past warnings from former top Trump officials as the election enters its final two weeks. 

Kelly has long been critical of Trump and previously accused him of calling veterans killed in combat “suckers” and “losers.” His new warnings emerged as Trump seeks a second term vowing to dramatically expand his use of the military at home and suggesting he would use force to go after Americans he considers “enemies from within.” 

“He commented more than once that, ‘You know, Hitler did some good things, too,'” Kelly recalled to the Times. Kelly said he would usually quash the conversation by saying “nothing (Hitler) did, you could argue, was good,” but that Trump would occasionally bring up the topic again. 

In his interview with the Atlantic, Kelly recalled that when Trump raised the idea of needing “German generals,” Kelly would ask if he meant “Bismarck’s generals,” referring to Otto von Bismarck, the chancellor who oversaw the unification of Germany. “Surely you can’t mean Hitler’s generals,” Kelly recalled asking Trump. To which the former president responded, “Yeah, yeah, Hitler’s generals.” 

Trump’s campaign denied the accounts Tuesday, with campaign spokesman Steven Cheung saying that Kelly had “beclowned himself with these debunked stories he has fabricated.” 

Polls show the race is tight in swing states, and both Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are crisscrossing the country making their final pitches to the sliver of undecided voters. Harris’ campaign has spent considerable time reaching out to independent voters, using the support of longtime Republicans such as former Rep. Liz Cheney and comments like Kelly’s to urge past Trump voters to reject his candidacy in November. 

Harris’ campaign held a call with reporters Tuesday to elevate the voices of retired military officials who highlighted how many of the officials who worked with Trump now oppose his campaign. 

“People that know him best are most opposed to him, his presidency,” said retired Army Brig. Gen. Steve Anderson. 

Anderson said he wished Kelly would fully back Harris over Trump, something he has yet to do. But retired Army reserve Col. Kevin Carroll, a former senior counselor to Kelly, said Wednesday that the former top Trump official would “rather chew broken glass than vote for Donald Trump.” 

Before serving as Trump’s chief of staff, Kelly worked as the former president’s secretary of homeland security, where he oversaw Trump’s attempts to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Kelly was also at the forefront of the Trump administration’s crackdown in immigration policy that led to the separation of thousands of immigrant parents and their children along the southern border. Those actions made him a villain to many on the left, including Harris. 

Kelly is not the first former top Trump administration official to cast the former president as a threat. 

Retired Army Gen. Mark A. Milley, who served as Trump’s chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Bob Woodward in his recent book “War” that Trump was “fascist to the core” and “the most dangerous person to this country.” And retired Gen. Jim Mattis, who worked as secretary of defense under Trump, reportedly later told Woodward that he agreed with Milley’s assessment. 

Throughout Trump’s political rise, the businessman-turned-politician benefited from the support of military veterans. 

AP VoteCast found that about 6 in 10 military veterans said they voted for Trump in 2020, as did just over half of those with a veteran in the household. Among voters in this year’s South Carolina Republican primary, AP VoteCast found that close to two-thirds of military veterans and people in veteran households voted for Trump over former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, Trump’s toughest opponent in the 2024 Republican primary.
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San Diego — Arrests for illegally crossing the border from Mexico fell 7% in September to a more than four-year low, authorities said Tuesday. It was likely the last monthly gauge during a presidential campaign in which Republican nominee Donald Trump has made immigration a signature issue. 

The Border Patrol made 53,858 arrests, down from 58,009 in August and the lowest tally since August 2020, when arrests totaled 47,283, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. 

Mexicans accounted for nearly half of the arrests, becoming a greater part of the mix. In December, when arrests reached an all-time high of 250,000, Mexicans made up fewer than 1 in 4. Arrests for other major nationalities seen at the border, including Guatemalans, Hondurans, Colombians and Ecuadoreans, have plunged this year. 

San Diego was again the busiest corridor for illegal crossings in September, followed by El Paso, Texas, and Tucson, Arizona. 

For the government’s fiscal year that ended on September 30, the Border Patrol made 1.53 million arrests after topping 2 million in each of the previous two years for the first time. 

The White House touted the numbers as proof that severe asylum restrictions introduced in June were having the intended effect, and blamed congressional Republicans for opposing a border security bill that failed in February. Vice President Kamala Harris has used that line of attack against Trump to try to blunt criticism that the Biden administration has been weak on immigration enforcement. 

“The Biden Harris administration has taken effective action, and Republican officials continue to do nothing,” said White House spokesman Angelo Fernández Hernández. 

The Federation for American Immigration Reform, a frequent administration critic and advocate for immigration restrictions, attributed recent declines to more enforcement by Mexican officials within their own borders, saying the White House “essentially outsourced U.S. border security to Mexico in advance of the 2024 election — policies that can be reversed at any time that the government of Mexico chooses.” 

Arrests fell sharply after Mexico increased enforcement in December, and took a steeper dive after the U.S. asylum restrictions took effect in June. U.S. officials have not been shy about highlighting Mexico’s role. 

Mexican authorities are encountering more migrants this year while deportations remain relatively low, creating a bottleneck. Panamanian authorities reported an increase in migrants walking through the notorious Darien Gap during September, though numbers are still well below last year. 

Troy Miller, acting CBP commissioner, said last week that the administration is working with Mexico and other countries to jointly address migration. 

“We continue to be concerned about any bottlenecks, we continue to look at those, we continue to address them with our partners,” Miller said at a news conference in San Diego. 

The Biden administration has promoted new and expanded legal pathways to enter the country in an effort to discourage illegal crossings. In September, CBP allowed more than 44,600 people to enter with appointments on an online system called CBP One, bringing the total to 852,000 since it was introduced in January 2023. 

Another Biden policy allows up to 30,000 people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela with financial sponsors to enter monthly through airports. More than 531,000 people from those four countries have entered that way up through September. 
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Los Angeles — LeBron and Bronny James made NBA history on Tuesday, becoming the first father-and-son duo to play alongside each other in a regular season fixture as the Los Angeles Lakers opened their campaign against the Minnesota Timberwolves.

The duo, who played together briefly in a pre-season game earlier this month, took to the court together late in the second quarter at the Crypto.com Arena with the Lakers leading 51-35.

An enormous roar went up from the home crowd as the James duo were brought onto the court by coach J.J. Redick after the Lakers had surged into a double-digit lead.

In a perfectly scripted moment that was pure Hollywood, the James’ double-act was watched at courtside by Ken Griffey Sr. and Ken Griffey Jr, who made baseball history playing for the Seattle Mariners as father and son in 1990-1991.

“We made history; now we get to watch history,” said Griffey Jr., who joined his father to pose for photos with LeBron and Bronny James shortly before Tuesday’s tip-off.

Lakers officials had been coy before Tuesday’s season-opener about where and when LeBron James and Bronny would play their first regular season fixture together.

However, NBA superstar LeBron James, who turns 40 in December, admitted in pre-game remarks that he could scarcely contain his excitement at the prospect of realizing his long-cherished dream of sharing a court with his son.

“Just to run out the tunnel knowing that he’ll be in uniform, run out the tunnel with him, see him warm up, and be out there with the rest of my teammates,” James told reporters during a morning shoot-around on Tuesday.

“This is my 22nd time running out on opening night so I don’t know how many times I’ll have an opportunity, how many times I’ve got left to run out. I won’t take it for granted.”

Anticipation about the James double-act has dominated the Lakers’ preparations for the new season since Bronny James was selected by the franchise with the 55th pick in the draft in June.

‘It’s been a treat’

Bronny James, 20, is expected to spend most of his rookie season in the developmental G-League rather than the Lakers senior squad.

LeBron James however said Tuesday that he had relished being able to accompany his son on his first steps into professional basketball.

“It’s been a treat and just in preseason, the practices, just every day,” James said. “The plane rides, the bus rides of being with him and showing him the ropes, along with his teammates and coaches. Just what this professional life is all about and how to prepare every day … super-duper cool.”

Bronny James’ ascent to the ranks of the NBA has been made all the more remarkable given that just over a year ago he suffered a cardiac arrest during a workout with his University of Southern California college team-mates.

James Sr. said his son’s swift recovery from that life-threatening episode had convinced him that he would one day play in the NBA.

“To see him play in a college Division I game the same year he had heart surgery … I knew that at that moment that there really was going to be nothing to stop him from anything that he wants to do,” James said.

Bronny said at the Lakers recent media day he was fueled by the words of critics who have suggested he owes his place on the Lakers roster entirely to his superstar father.

“I’m just taking all that stuff, that criticism and backlash that people have given me and turning it into something that can fuel me,” he said.
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