The United States’ policy on China has been mostly consistent from the administration of Donald Trump to the White House of Joe Biden — with both presidents viewing China as America’s biggest competitor. But in the race for the next president, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump have slightly different approaches toward the global superpower. VOA’s Elizabeth Lee explains.
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У Харківській області аварійні вимкнення електроенергії запровадили через складну ситуацію в Обʼєднаній енергосистемі України
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NEW DELHI — In the small South Indian village of Thulasendrapuram, where U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris’s maternal grandfather once lived, locals and priests have prayed to the local deity at a Hindu temple for her victory as she runs for the U.S. presidency.
In the capital, New Delhi, many express pride that one of the candidates for the world’s most powerful office has Indian roots – she is the daughter of an Indian mother and Jamaican father.
But Harris has failed to enthuse others who feel she never built on her Indian connection during her vice presidency.
“It’s quite exciting for someone like me who is a common girl around town,” said New Delhi resident, Simran Singh.
Another city resident, Nandita Soni, and her husband watched Harris debate her opponent, former U.S. President Donald Trump, last month.
“I think she won hands down. Of course, there is a sense of pride for us. That she is, firstly, a woman and then of Indian heritage, feels really good,” Soni said.
Harris is not the only Indian connection to the American presidential race. Usha Vance, the wife of Republican vice-presidential nominee J.D. Vance, is also the daughter of Indian immigrants.
Not many in India have heard of Usha Vance. Those who have, see it as a tribute to a country where immigrants can make a mark.
“I think both of them having a role in the elections is a very good thing for our Indian heritage and diaspora, but I think it is much more important for the American system,” said Shyam Bajpai, a retired professional. He praises Harris for “reviving the Democrat Party’s energy after a very difficult moment with Mr. Biden.”
However, the euphoria witnessed in India four years ago when Harris became vice president is missing. She hosted a luncheon for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi last year during his state visit to Washington, where she spoke of her deep personal connection to India. In interviews she has said that her introduction to the concepts of equality, freedom and democracy came from her Indian grandfather during her visits to her maternal family’s hometown, Chennai, when she was young.
But some point out that she neither visited India during her tenure as vice president nor emphasized her Indian identity much while in office.
“To be honest we did not hear much of her in India, because as vice president, her connections with India were not all that great,” said Pradeep Bhargava, a New Delhi resident. “We were not getting much news about her.”
That may be why many young Indians ask: Who is Kamala Harris?
“I think she is not on social media,” said Simar Kaur, an undergraduate student in Delhi University. “I get most of the news from social media only.”
But IT professionals who have long eyed the United States for career opportunities are excited about the possibility of an American president with roots in India. “I am sure this will help in more job opportunities for Indians in the future,” said software engineer Vishal Chabra. “It will be good for India as well.”
Those who are tracking the U.S. race see Harris’s bid as another huge milestone for its diaspora in Western countries — Rishi Sunak, who became British Prime Minister in 2022 but lost in July, was also of Indian origin. They also point to the success of Indian Americans who have risen to the top of the corporate ladder in the U.S., heading companies like Google.
“With UK also and now America, Indians are all the way, and it is the way to go from them,” said Soni.
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday visited areas hit hard by Hurricane Helene, where more than a million people remain without power and the death toll is climbing. Biden offered as many as 1,000 active-duty soldiers to support the response effort. VOA’s Anita Powell reports from Washington.
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washington — U.S. engagement with a string of Pacific Island nations must continue, regardless of which party wins the White House, the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation said in a newly published report.
The islands, situated between Hawaii and Australia, are the latest front of competition between Washington and Beijing.
In the 45-page report, Andrew Harding, a research assistant in the Heritage Foundation’s Asian Studies Center, argues that it’s time to make the case to taxpayers and Washington policymakers that investing in the Pacific Islands is money well-spent because it “counters Chinese ambitions” and denies Beijing a foothold “that can threaten U.S. national security interests and complicate possible future military operations in Asia.”
That argument appears convincing to some China hawks in the Republican Party.
Alexander Velez-Green, former national security adviser to Republican Senator Josh Hawley, called the report “a compelling vision,” telling VOA in a statement, “The Pacific Islands are key terrain in America’s efforts to balance power against China.”
Likewise, former Asia adviser in the Trump administration Alexander Gray said the Heritage report would benefit “whoever is president in January 2025.”
“I expect a Trump 2.0 would only expand on this important work,” Gray wrote in response to VOA’s emailed questions.
The Heritage Foundation now employs many former Trump administration officials. Last year it released Project 2025, a controversial series of proposals to staff and shape policy for a second Trump White House. Former President Donald Trump has sought to distance himself from the effort, even as his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, claims it defines his policies.
John Hennessey-Niland, who served as U.S. ambassador to Palau from 2020 to 2022, argues that Harding’s message may convince policymakers in Washington but addresses only one of the region’s problems.
“The Pacific Islands are concerned about PRC interference and coercion, but it is not the only threat they face. Other concerns include climate and their own capacity to provide for their people,” Hennessey-Niland told VOA via a statement, using the abbreviation for the People’s Republic of China.
Kathryn Paik agrees. She served as director for the Pacific and Southeast Asia at the National Security Council under President Joe Biden and now works as a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
“Making U.S. Pacific engagement ‘all about China’ neglects precisely what can enable the U.S.-Pacific relationship to grow deeper than anything China could ever hope to have — our history, our culture and our shared values,” she told VOA in response to emailed questions.
Harding said he is just saying the quiet part out loud.
“America’s primary driver is U.S.-China competition and the threats that it poses to America’s national interests and the security of its people,” he told VOA Tuesday in an interview.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has traveled to the Pacific Islands to meet one on one with the leaders of Fiji and Papua New Guinea. He also has hosted numerous other Pacific Islands heads of state in Beijing.
In contrast, the White House has only held joint meetings with Pacific Islands leaders, and Biden has not traveled to the nations.
The Chinese Embassy in Washington did not respond to VOA’s request for comment.
While analysts differ over the report’s rationale for deeper engagement in the Pacific, they say many of the 31 policy recommendations have bipartisan appeal, including appointing a special envoy for the Pacific Islands, creating more positions at key departments to oversee outreach and planning a presidential visit to a Pacific Islands state.
Greg Brown, a senior analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said the appointment of a special envoy is vital to sustained U.S. engagement.
He said the real challenge is convincing the 535 members of the U.S. Congress to increase foreign assistance to the Pacific Islands when few American voters even know where they are, much less why they’re important to U.S. national security.
“Anything requiring funding from Congress will be a chore — not because the demands are large or fiscal-burden heavy, but because members and staffs need constant reminders why securing U.S. interests in this region are imperative,” Brown told VOA in an interview.
He added that the special envoy should be a “heavyweight appointment … with the ear of the president” and the “diplomatic skill to navigate and drive changes” across Washington.
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«Видимі пошкодження будівлі та пожежа відсутні. Інформація про постраждалих не надходила»
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Кількість поранених зросла до дев’яти серед них – трирічна дитина
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WASHINGTON — U.S. prosecutors said Donald Trump was acting outside the scope of his duties as president when he pressured state officials and then-Vice President Mike Pence to try to overturn his 2020 election defeat, in a court filing made public on Wednesday.
The 165-page filing is likely the last opportunity for prosecutors to detail their case against Trump before the Nov. 5 election given there will not be a trial before Trump faces Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris.
The filing is meant to keep the federal criminal election subversion case against the Republican presidential candidate moving forward following a July U.S. Supreme Court ruling that former presidents have broad immunity from prosecution for their official actions in office.
Prosecutors working with Special Counsel Jack Smith laid out a sweeping account of Trump’s conduct following the 2020 election, much of which has already been made public through news reports, findings from the House committee that investigated the Capitol riot or the indictment obtained by Smith in the case.
It includes an allegation that a White House staffer heard Trump tell family members that “it doesn’t matter if you won or lost the election. You still have to fight like hell.”
Trump has pleaded not guilty to four criminal charges accusing him of a conspiracy to obstruct the congressional certification of the election, defraud the U.S. out of accurate results and interfere with Americans’ voting rights.
Much of the filing focuses on Trump’s dealings with then-vice president and running mate Mike Pence, who Trump tried to pressure into using his official role overseeing Congress’s Jan. 6, 2021, certification of the election results to overturn his defeat.
Trump gave a fiery speech that day before his supporters stormed the Capitol, battling police, sending lawmakers running for their lives and chanting “hang Mike Pence.”
Prosecutors allege that when a White House aide told Trump, who was watching news coverage of the riot on TV, that Pence had been taken to a secure location, Trump responded, “So what?”
Prosecutors said they did not plan to use that interaction at trial given the Supreme Court’s immunity ruling.
A warning to Pence
It also alleges that on Jan. 1, 2021, Trump warned Pence that people “are gonna hate your guts” and “think you’re stupid” if he didn’t block certification of Democratic President Joe Biden’s win.
Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung blasted the disclosures, saying, “This entire case is a partisan, unconstitutional witch hunt that should be dismissed entirely, together with all of the remaining Democrat hoaxes.”
Trump has rejected this case and multiple other criminal prosecutions he faced this year as politically motivated attempts to prevent him from returning to power.
The filing presents a detailed narrative of the evidence prosecutors intend to use if the case goes to trial, accusing Trump of plotting even before the election to declare victory prematurely, replacing his campaign legal team when they allegedly would not support allegations of voter fraud and attempting to “manipulate” Pence into aiding his effort to hold onto power.
The filing provides details of conversations with senior officials in Trump’s administration including Pence and White House chief-of-staff Mark Meadows, who appeared before the grand jury during the investigation.
Prosecutors submitted the court filing on Thursday, but U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan had to approve proposed redactions before it was made public.
Pence was identified by name throughout. The names of many other members of Trump’s administration and state officials he targeted are blacked out in the filing, though details of their locations and actions make their likely identities clear.
Trump’s lawyers opposed allowing Smith to issue a sweeping court filing laying out their evidence, arguing it would be inappropriate to do so weeks before the election. They have argued the entire case should be tossed out based on the Supreme Court’s ruling.
If Trump wins the election, he is likely to direct the Justice Department to drop the charges.
Prosecutors also highlighted a Twitter post that Trump sent during the Capitol riot saying Pence “didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done” during the congressional certification of the election.
Prosecutors said that post “was not a message sent to address a matter of public concern and ease unrest; it was the message of an angry candidate upon the realization that he would lose power.”
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washington — The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) wants to make it easier — and safer — for people in Iran, China and North Korea to share information with America’s premier spy agency.
The agency on Wednesday posted online instructions in Korean, Mandarin and Farsi detailing steps that potential informants can take to contact U.S. intelligence officials without putting themselves in danger.
The instructions include ways to reach the CIA on its public website or on the darknet, a part of the internet that can only be accessed using special tools designed to hide the user’s identity. The CIA posted similar instructions in Russian two years ago following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“People are trying to reach out to us from around the world and we are offering them instructions for how to do that safely,” the agency said in a statement. “Our efforts on this front have been successful in Russia, and we want to make sure individuals in other authoritarian regimes know that we’re open for business.”
The tips, presented in text-only videos and infographics, include using a virtual private network, or VPN, to circumvent internet restrictions and surveillance, and the use of a device that can’t easily be traced back to the user. The CIA also urged any potential informants to use private web browsers and to delete their internet history to cover their tracks.
The messages in the three languages were posted on Telegram, YouTube, X, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. Several of those platforms are blocked in China, Iran and Russia but can still be accessed using a VPN.
Authoritarian leaders around the world have used the internet as a tool of mass surveillance and as a way to deliver propaganda and disinformation while blocking sites and views deemed unfavorable to the government.
China, Russia, North Korea and Iran all block access to American platforms like Facebook, for example, and use web access to control which sources of information users can access.
VPNs and other tools offer ways around this censorship and surveillance, but that ability has made them a target. In its instructions to potential sources, the CIA warned its audience to be selective, as their well-being could depend on choosing the right program.
“Use a VPN provider not headquartered in Russia, Iran, or China, or any other country that is considered unfriendly to the United States,” the agency wrote in its instructions for Mandarin users.
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«Ситуація контрольована. Суттєвих порушень не фіксуємо. Служби працюють у посиленому режимі»
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Madrid — In their coverage of the U.S. presidential election, countries with repressive media such as Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela have taken aim at the American system of government and, to some degree, the candidates themselves.
Following the two assassination attempts targeting Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, Cuban state-run newspaper Granma ran a headline, “The guns speak again in the U.S. elections,” an apparent reference to gun violence in the United States.
But the newspaper made no mention on its front pages Wednesday of the previous night’s vice presidential debate between Republican JD Vance and Democrat Tim Walz in which the two candidates clashed on issues that included gun control. The paper did cover the face-to-face debate last month between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, saying they traded “low blows.”
Overall, Cuban press coverage of the U.S. has not favored either candidate during this election cycle, said William LeoGrande, professor of government at American University in Washington.
“The Cuban press has been very even-handed in coverage of the U.S. elections, mostly offering simple factual accounts of the campaign — no doubt because they will have to deal with whoever wins,” said LeoGrande.
“To the extent that they have offered any critical commentary, it can be summed up as a ‘plague on both your houses,’” he said.
LeoGrande noted that one Granma report said, “There is only one certainty: Whoever wins will be the face invested with the arrogance of the empire with a desire for power.” Cuba has long referred to the U.S. as the “empire.”
To understand how Granma views the U.S. election, VOA emailed its editor, Yailin Orta Rivera, for comment but did not receive a reply before publication.
In Nicaragua, ‘hate and criticism’
In Nicaragua, state-controlled media have used reports about the U.S. election as a chance to repeat traditional criticisms of Washington, independent media monitoring groups say.
Abigail Hernandez, director of Galeria News and a member of the Independent Journalists and Communications of Nicaragua, said state media such as La Nueva Radio Ya have run reports critical of the American political system.
“These analysis reports concentrate on the judicial and electoral system of the U.S. and criticize the candidacy of Trump,” she told VOA. “I say ‘analysis’ because in reality, these articles are the traditional line of hate and criticism toward the U.S. empire.”
Hernandez added, “They try to say that the U.S. is a sham democracy and that the elections are a reflection of this.”
The government of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega did not respond to an emailed request for comment before publication.
In Nicaragua, state media are controlled by Ortega or members of his family, independent media monitoring groups said.
In 2010, Canal 8, which had been an independent television network, had a new chief executive — Juan Carlos Ortega Murillo — the president’s son.
Until then, the channel had been known for scrutinizing governments of the left or right, the Reuters news agency reported. Its new owner is the wife of Rafael Ortega Murillo, another of the president’s sons.
Media analysts say that in Nicaragua and Venezuela, reports on the U.S. election criticized the U.S. political system in relation to key issues of interest to their core audiences, especially migration.
Tens of thousands of Nicaraguans desperate to escape the Ortega government have headed north, seeking to cross into the United States.
Earlier this year, the U.S. imposed sanctions on Nicaragua over issues related to migrant smuggling and human rights.
Venezuela, US in tense relationship
Venezuela’s government has also had a tense relationship with the United States over human rights and the conduct of elections.
Driven by political turmoil, 7.7 million people have left Venezuela since 2014, according to a United Nations report published earlier this year.
Most have headed for other Latin American countries or Spain. Others have ended up in the United States illegally, although there have been efforts to allow some Venezuelans into the U.S. lawfully, the U.N. report said.
Marivi Marin Vazquez, founder and director of ProboxVE, a nongovernmental organization that studies disinformation in Latin America, said state media in Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela all used reports about the U.S. elections to criticize the American political system.
“They all look at problems in the political system so they can justify their own systems,” she said in an interview with VOA from Washington, where she has lived in exile since leaving Venezuela four years ago.
“They pick holes in things like contradictions, inequality and the power of corporate interests.”
The Venezuelan government did not respond to emailed requests for comment on coverage of the U.S. election.
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За словами мера Львова, Богдан Кріль провів 29 днів у реанімації, але врятувати його не вдалося
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Про це очільниця Агентства США з міжнародного розвитку (USAID) оголосила під час візиту до Києва
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U.S. vice presidential nominees Tim Walz and JD Vance met for the first and only vice presidential debate of this election season. Tina Trinh reports from New York.
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У повітрі підвищена концентрація пилу, повідомили у КМДА
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