ЦЕНЗОРА.NET

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 way to avoid those charges would be for an automaker to build the cars in the U.S.

His ideas, if enacted, could cause a huge upheaval in the American auto industry. Many automakers now build smaller, lower-priced vehicles in Mexico — facilitated by a trade agreement Trump negotiated while president — or in other countries because their profit margins are slim. The lower labor costs help the companies make money on those vehicles.

German and other foreign automakers already have extensive manufacturing operations in the U.S., and many now build more vehicles here than they send. BMW, for instance, has an 8 million-square-foot campus in South Carolina that employs 11,000 people building more than 1,500 SUVs per day for the U.S. and 120 export markets. Mercedes and Volkswagen also have large factories here.

If German automakers were to increase production here, they likely would have to take it from factories in Germany, which then would run below their capacity and be less efficient, said Sam Abuelsamid, principal research analyst for Guidehouse Insights.

“It makes no sense,” he said.

Trump proposes ‘new American industrialism’ — without specifics

Trump has proposed using tariffs on imports and other measures to boost American industry — even as economists have cautioned that U.S. consumers would bear the costs of tariffs and other Trump proposals like staging the largest deportation operation in U.S. history.

The former president laid out a broad array of economic proposals during a speech in the key swing state of Georgia, promising to create a special ambassador to help lure foreign manufacturers to the U.S. and further entice them by offering access to federal land.

Additionally, he called for lowering the U.S. corporate tax rate from 21% to 15%, but only for companies that produce in the U.S. Harris, the Democratic nominee, wants to raise the corporate tax rate to 28%. It had been 35% when Trump became president in 2017, and he later signed legislation lowering it.

“We’re putting America first,” Trump said. “This new American industrialism will create millions and millions of jobs.”

Trump also suggested wiping away some environmental regulations to boost energy production, saying America has “got the oil, it’s got the gas. We have everything. The only thing we don’t have is smart people leading our country.”

Tuesday’s series of economic proposals raised a lot of questions, but the former president hasn’t given specific answers on his ideas, which could substantially affect their impact and how much they cost. He has not specified, for example, whether his U.S.-focused corporate tax cuts would apply to companies that assemble their products domestically out of imports.

Trump also suggested he would use a newly created envoy, and his own personal efforts, to recruit foreign companies. But he had a spotty record in the White House of attracting foreign investment. In one infamous case, Trump promised a $10 billion investment by Taiwan-based electronics giant Foxconn in Wisconsin, creating potentially 13,000 new jobs, that the company never delivered.

His calls to offer federal land, meanwhile, might clash with Bureau of Land Management restrictions on foreign entities looking to lease lands. It also wasn’t clear whether companies from China would be excluded, given Trump’s longtime accusations that China is hurting American business.
…

washington — A man who authorities say staked out Donald Trump for 12 hours on his golf course in Florida and wrote of his desire to kill him was indicted Tuesday on an attempted assassination charge. 

Ryan Wesley Routh had been initially charged with two federal firearms offenses. The upgraded charges contained in a five-count indictment reflect the Justice Department’s assessment that he methodically plotted to kill the Republican nominee, aiming a rifle through the shrubbery surrounding Trump’s West Palm Beach golf course on an afternoon Trump was playing on it. Routh left behind a note in which he described his intention, prosecutors said. 

Court records show the case has been assigned to Aileen Cannon, a Trump-appointed federal judge who generated intense scrutiny for her handling of a criminal case charging Trump with illegally hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. She dismissed that case in July, a decision now being appealed by special counsel Jack Smith’s team. 

The attempted assassination indictment had been foreshadowed during a court hearing Monday in which prosecutors successfully argued for the 58-year-old Routh to remain behind bars as a flight risk and a threat to public safety. 

They alleged that he had written of his plans to kill Trump in a handwritten note months before his September 15 arrest in which he referred to his actions as a failed “assassination attempt on Donald Trump” and offered $150,000 for anyone who could “finish the job.” That note was in a box that Routh had apparently dropped off at the home of an unidentified witness months before his arrest. 

The person opened the letter, took a photograph of the front page of the letter, addressed “Dear World,” and contacted law enforcement after the attempted assassination. 

Prosecutors also said Routh kept in his car a handwritten list of venues in August, September and October at which Trump had appeared or was expected to be present. 

The charge of attempted assassination of a major presidential candidate carries a potential life sentence in the event of a conviction.  

The potential shooting was thwarted when a member of Trump’s Secret Service protective detail spotted a partially obscured man’s face and a rifle barrel protruding through the golf course fence line, ahead of where Trump was playing.  

The arrest came two months after Trump was shot and wounded in the ear in an assassination attempt during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania. The Secret Service has acknowledged failings leading up to that shooting but has said that security worked as it should have to thwart the potential attack in Florida. 

The initial charges Routh faced in a criminal complaint accused him of illegally possessing his gun in spite of multiple felony convictions and with possessing a firearm with an obliterated serial number. It is common for prosecutors to bring preliminary and easily provable charges upon an arrest and then add more serious offenses later as the investigation develops. 
…

Правозахисники заявили, що документи підтверджують «участь білоруських агентів у викоріненні української етнічної у дітей»
…

new york — The Gulf nation of Qatar on Tuesday became just the second Muslim-majority country to be admitted into a program that allows its citizens to travel to the United States without first obtaining a U.S. visa.

The departments of State and Homeland Security jointly announced that Qatar had met stringent eligibility requirements to join the visa waiver program. Those requirements include a low visa refusal rate, a low rate of visa overstays and a demand of reciprocal treatment of American travelers, who are already allowed to visit Qatar without a visa for up to 30 days.

“Qatar has been an exceptional partner for the United States, and our strategic relationship has only grown stronger over the past few years,” the departments said in a statement. “This is further evidence of our strategic partnership and our shared commitment to security and stability.”

Qatar, which has played a key role in trying to negotiate a cease-fire deal in Gaza and was an instrumental U.S. partner before and during the American withdrawal from Afghanistan, is the 42nd country to be admitted to the program.

Most countries whose citizens can visit the U.S. without a visa are longstanding allies in Europe and Asia. The only other Muslim-majority country in the program is the tiny Southeast Asian nation of Brunei.

Although Qatar’s population is just over 3 million people, only a small percentage of those — about 320,000 — are actually Qataris who would be eligible for the program if they hold valid passports. The vast majority of people who live in Qatar are foreign workers and other expatriates who do not hold Qatari passports.

The program allows citizens of qualifying nations to enter the U.S. for business or tourism without a visa for up to 90 days, although they must still obtain approval through the Electronic System for Travel Authorization, or ESTA, which is done online and doesn’t require an in-person interview as visa applications do.

After Oct. 1, U.S. citizens will be allowed to stay in Qatar without a visa for 90 days.

Israel was the last country admitted to the program in 2023, and it was allowed in despite significant concerns that it does not treat Palestinian Americans, Arab Americans or Muslim Americans the same as other U.S. passport holders.
…

Joe Biden used his final presidential address before the U.N. General Assembly to urge unity in the face of challenges that include conflicts in Ukraine, Gaza and Sudan. VOA White House correspondent Anita Powell reports from New York.
…

Сам Гнезділов наголосив, що «СЗЧ – кримінальний злочин» і закликав вирішувати проблеми, а не мовчати про них
…

NEW YORK — The U.S. Justice Department filed an antitrust lawsuit against Visa on Tuesday, alleging that the financial services behemoth uses its size and dominance to stifle competition in the debit card market, costing consumers and businesses billions of dollars.

The complaint says Visa penalizes merchants and banks who don’t use Visa’s own payment processing technology to process debit transactions, even though alternatives exist. Visa earns an incremental fee from every transaction processed on its network.

According to the DOJ’s complaint, 60% of debit transactions in the United States run on Visa’s debit network, allowing it to charge over $7 billion in fees each year for processing those transactions.

“We allege that Visa has unlawfully amassed the power to extract fees that far exceed what it could charge in a competitive market,” said Attorney General Merrick Garland in a statement. “Merchants and banks pass along those costs to consumers, either by raising prices or reducing quality or service. As a result, Visa’s unlawful conduct affects not just the price of one thing — but the price of nearly everything.”

The Biden administration has aggressively gone after U.S. companies that it says act like middlemen, such as Ticketmaster parent Live Nation and the real estate software company RealPage, accusing them of burdening Americans with nonsensical fees and anticompetitive behavior. The administration has also brought charges of monopolistic behavior against technology giants such as Apple and Google.

According to the DOJ complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Visa leverages the vast number of transactions on its network to impose volume commitments on merchants and their banks, as well as on financial institutions that issue debit cards. That makes it difficult for merchants to use alternatives, such as lower-cost or smaller payment processors, instead of Visa’s payment processing technology, without incurring what DOJ described as “disloyalty penalties” from Visa.

The DOJ said Visa also stifled competition by paying to enter into partnership agreements with potential competitors.

In 2020, the DOJ sued to block the company’s $5.3 billion purchase of financial technology startup Plaid, calling it a monopolistic takeover of a potential competitor to Visa’s ubiquitous payments network. That acquisition was later called off.

Visa previously disclosed the Justice Department was investigating the company in 2021, saying in a regulatory filing it was cooperating with a DOJ investigation into its debit practices.

Since the pandemic, more consumers globally have been shopping online for goods and services, which has translated into more revenue for Visa in the form of fees. Even traditionally cash-heavy businesses such as bars, barbers and coffee shops have started accepting credit or debit cards as a form of payment, often via smartphones.

Visa processed $3.325 trillion in transactions on its network during the quarter ended June 30, up 7.4% from a year earlier. U.S. payments grew by 5.1%, which is faster than U.S. economic growth.

Visa, based in San Francisco, did not immediately have a comment.
…

Водночас, результати вимірювань проб води у річці Десна свідчать, що якість води покращилась у всіх пунктах
…

…

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — A U.S. Navy replenishment ship operating in the Middle East sustained damage in an incident which is under investigation, officials said Tuesday.

The damage to the USNS Big Horn comes after the oiler had supplied the USS Abraham Lincoln strike group and remained in the region amid heightened tensions over the Israel-Hamas war and Israel’s ongoing strikes targeting Hezbollah in Lebanon.

A U.S. Navy official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss matters yet to be made public, said the damage happened in the Mideast, but declined to elaborate on its location.

“All crew members are safe, and we’re assessing the situation, and we’ll provide additional information at a later time,” the official said. There was no sign of an oil leak from the vessel.

Another U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity for the same reason, said the vessel was being supported by private tugboats and an assessment was still ongoing for the vessel.
…

Tokyo — U.S. naval dominance, unchallenged for decades, is now coming under strain as China’s state-backed shipbuilding industry rapidly expands, while the U.S. Navy faces severe maintenance delays.

The impact is being felt across the Navy. While some ships and submarines are stuck waiting for repairs at overcrowded U.S. shipyards, others are forced into extended deployments, pushing crews and vessels to their limits.

Analysts say the delays undermine the U.S. ability to project strength and deter conflict, especially in key areas like the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, where China is upsetting the status quo.

To help fix the problem, the U.S. is turning to its allies — particularly Japan, one of the world’s largest shipbuilders. Earlier this year, U.S. and Japanese officials began negotiating a plan to expand Japan’s role in performing major repairs on U.S. Navy vessels at its shipyards.

Rahm Emanuel, U.S. ambassador to Japan, sees the proposal as crucial for keeping U.S. ships in the region. “The Indo-Pacific is an away game for us…but with allies, it’s closer to a home game,” Emanuel told VOA.

The discussions underscore Japan’s broader shift toward a more active regional security role, as it steps away from decades of pacifism. It’s also part of a strategy by the U.S. to encourage its Asian allies to take on greater security responsibilities in the face of China’s rising influence.

However, the proposal faces major hurdles. In the U.S., legal changes would be needed to allow foreign shipyards to overhaul Navy vessels. In Japan, there are concerns about becoming a bigger target for China.

Severe backlog

But for the U.S. Navy, the challenge is severe.

According to the Congressional Research Service (CRS), about a third of the U.S. attack submarine fleet is currently out of service, either undergoing maintenance or awaiting repairs.

Fewer than 40% of the Navy’s scheduled ship repairs are completed on time, according to recent congressional testimony. By some estimates, the Navy is 20 years behind in maintenance work.

A wide range of key shipbuilding projects are also running years behind schedule — an “extraordinary situation” in the post-World War II history of the Navy, according to CRS.

Emanuel argues this reflects a broader decline in the U.S. defense industrial base, which has been hollowed out since the 1990s and is “not ready” to meet U.S. security needs.

“Every weapon that we’ve agreed to here, I’ve had to renegotiate the contract once it’s signed because we can’t meet the budget at the timeline,” Emanuel said. “It’s really bad planning [and] really bad preparation.”

According to a recent CRS report, the Navy’s repair backlog is caused by a shortage of skilled workers and limited capacity at the four U.S. government-run naval shipyards.

China challenge

Meanwhile, China boasts 20 large shipyards, which it is using to quickly build up what is already the world’s largest navy in terms of overall vessels.

According to a recent unclassified slide released by U.S. naval intelligence, China’s shipbuilding capacity is over 200 times that of the United States, fueled by generous government subsidies.

Even though the U.S. still maintains significant naval advantages — such as 11 aircraft carriers compared to China’s three and an unrivaled network of global alliances — some observers believe that China’s ability to dwarf U.S. shipbuilding represents a fundamental shift in the regional balance of power.

“We’ve let that underlying capacity atrophy to the point where we’re behind the eight ball at the moment, and that’s a big, thorny problem,” said Sam Byers, the senior national security advisor at the Washington D.C.-based Center for Maritime Strategy.

Benefits and drawbacks

In Emanuel’s estimation, the U.S.-Japan ship repair proposal could alleviate the U.S. Navy’s maintenance backlog, freeing U.S. shipyards to focus on meeting their construction goals. It would also allow U.S. ships to stay for longer in Asia, he said.

But not everyone agrees.

Bryan Clark, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, argues that the problem isn’t a lack of shipyard capacity but rather their inconsistent use, due to fluctuating demand from the Navy. He suggests that repairing more ships overseas could help manage these fluctuations and minimize disruptions for Japan-based crews.

“And repair yards in Japan could gain experience working on U.S. ships, which could be beneficial in a conflict,” he added.

However, he cautioned that shifting work overseas wouldn’t solve the underlying issues of funding and planning that contribute to the Navy’s repair delays.

“Of course, the Japanese ship repair yards may do a better job or be more efficient than their American counterparts. If that is the argument, then U.S. officials should make that clear,” Clark said.

Others in the shipbuilding industry have argued against what they see as outsourcing U.S. Navy shipbuilding and repairs, a step they characterize as “kicking American shipyard workers to the curb.”

Japan risks

There are also barriers in Japan, where public opinion doesn’t always align with the government’s more assertive security stance.

While certain segments of the Japanese public appear more supportive of increased military involvement after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, it’s unclear how deep or lasting this shift is, warned Misato Matsuoka, an associate professor at Teikyo University.

“There is this gap of understanding when it comes to what is going on in the security area,” Matsuoka said. “I don’t see a lot of Japanese who are even aware of these changes.”

Matsuoka also warned that the U.S.-Japan ship repair proposal could eventually be seen as one of many factors escalating U.S.-China tensions, potentially impacting Japan negatively.

“All the things Japan is doing makes it more important within the U.S. alliance but that also increases the risk of something happening to Japanese territory,” said Robert Ward, Japan Chair at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

While Japan deepens ties with the U.S., it is careful not to provoke China, Ward noted. Nonetheless, Japan, like many countries, remains wary of what it sees as China’s destabilizing behavior in the region.

“This isn’t happening in a vacuum,” Ward said, referring to Japan’s changing security posture. “There are very good reasons why all this is happening.”

When it comes to the U.S.-Japan ship repair deal, the choices are also complex for the United States, Emanuel acknowledged. However, he argued, sometimes “you’ve got to choose between what’s bad and what’s worse.”
…

NEW YORK — Attention, Kmart shoppers, the end is near!

The erstwhile retail giant renowned for its Blue Light Specials — featuring a flashing blue orb affixed to a pole enticing shoppers to a flash sale — is shuttering its last full-scale store in mainland United States.

The store, located in swank Bridgehampton, New York, on Long Island, is slated to close Oct. 20, according to Denise Rivera, an employee who answered the phone at the store late Monday. The manager wasn’t available, she said.

That will leave only a small Kmart store in Miami. It has a handful of stores in Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Transformco, the company that bought the assets of Sears and Kmart out of the bankruptcy of Sears Holdings in 2019, did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment.

In its heyday, there were more than 2,000 Kmarts in the U.S.

Struggling to compete with Walmart’s low prices and Target’s trendier offerings, Kmart filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in early 2002 — becoming the largest U.S. retailer to take that step — and announced it would close more than 250 stores.

A few years later, hedge fund executive Edward Lampert combined Sears and Kmart and pledged to return them to their former greatness. But the 2008 recession and the rising dominance of Amazon contributed in derailing that mission. Sears filed for Chapter 11 in 2018 and now has just a handful of stores left in the U.S., where it once had thousands.
…

LONDON — A goal to triple global renewable energy capacity by 2030 and cut fossil fuel use is within reach, the International Energy Agency said in a report on Tuesday, but will require a huge push to unlock bottlenecks such as permitting and grid connections.

The report comes as leaders from government and business come together at New York Climate week to try to drive forward action against climate change.

Almost 200 countries at the COP 28 climate summit in Dubai last year agreed to reach net zero emissions from the energy sector by 2050 and pledged to triple renewable energy capacity like wind and solar.

The IEA said the renewable energy goal “is within reach thanks to favorable economics, ample manufacturing potential and strong policies,” but said more renewable capacity by itself would not slash fossil fuel use and reduce costs for consumers.

“To unlock the full benefits of the tripling goal, countries need to make a concerted push to build and modernize 25 million kilometers of electricity grids by 2030… The world would also need 1,500 gigawatts (GW) of energy storage capacity by 2030,” the IEA said.

Countries at COP 28 also pledged to double energy efficiency measures to help curb power use, but this target will require governments to make efficiency much more of a policy priority.

Countries must embed the renewable and energy efficiency goals in their national plans to meet goals set under the Paris climate agreement, the IEA said.

Emissions from the global energy sector hit a record high last year.

Tripling renewable energy capacity and doubling energy efficiency measures to reduce power use could reduce global greenhouse gas emissions by 10 billion metric tons by the end of the decade compared with what is otherwise expected, the report said.
…

state department — The United States has pledged to continue providing Taiwan with equipment and services essential for maintaining a self-defense capability in line with the threats it faces. This statement came as an annual U.S.-Taiwan defense industry conference kicked off Sunday in Philadelphia.

In the lead-up to the event, the conference organizer — the U.S.-Taiwan Business Council (USTBC) — was targeted by a phishing cyberattack involving a forged registration form embedded with information-stealing malware.

Despite the hackers’ attempt, the council — a nonprofit trade association founded in 1976 to promote commerce between the U.S. and Taiwan — thwarted the attack. The identity of the attackers remains unknown.

“As the council has been targeted by similar attacks for more than 20 years, we realized quickly that the document was suspicious,” USTBC said in a statement. The statement added that the council submitted the document to an online virus scanner, confirmed it was malicious and deleted it.

This year’s U.S.-Taiwan Defense Industry Conference, which ends Tuesday, is the 23rd annual event in a series of conferences addressing U.S. defense cooperation with Taiwan.

“There will be considerable focus on how Taiwan’s efforts to deter a Chinese attack are progressing … and how U.S. industry should support the U.S. and Taiwan government policy,” said Rupert Hammond-Chambers, president of the U.S.-Taiwan Business Council.

“This is the most important annual gathering of U.S. industry and policymakers on U.S.-Taiwan defense relations,” he added.

Taiwan Relations Act

The State Department said that American officials’ participation in the annual conference aligns with long-standing U.S. policy.

Swift provision of equipment and services “is essential for Taiwan’s self-defense, and we will continue to work with industry to support that goal,” a State Department spokesperson told VOA.

“We continue to have an abiding interest in maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. Our ‘One China’ policy has not changed and remains guided by the Taiwan Relations Act, three joint communiques and six assurances,” the spokesperson added.

The 1979 U.S.-China Joint Communique shifted diplomatic recognition from the Republic of China (ROC), Taiwan’s formal name, to the People’s Republic of China (PRC).

Relations between the U.S. and Taiwan have since been governed by the Taiwan Relations Act, passed by Congress in April 1979, under which the U.S. provides defense equipment to Taiwan.

The act states that “any effort to determine the future of Taiwan by other than peaceful means, including by boycotts or embargoes,” is a threat to the peace and security of the Western Pacific area and of “grave concern to the United States.”

For decades, the U.S. has been clear that its decision to establish diplomatic relations with China in 1979 rested on the expectation that “the future of Taiwan will be determined by peaceful means,” as stipulated in the Taiwan Relations Act.

China has objected to the Taiwan Relations Act — a U.S. public law — and deemed it invalid.

In 2022, the U.S. Congress authorized the president to direct the drawdown of up to $1 billion per fiscal year in Defense Department equipment and services for Taiwan. Since 2010, the State Department has authorized more than $38 billion in foreign military sales to Taiwan.

PRC sanctioned nine US firms

Since its establishment in 1949, the People’s Republic of China has never ruled Taiwan, but it views the democratically governed island as its own territory and has vowed to bring Taiwan under its control, even by force.

In recent years, the PRC has frequently sent military vessels near Taiwan and warplanes into its air defense identification zone to pressure the island to accept Chinese sovereignty.

Last week, China announced sanctions against nine American companies in response to U.S. defense equipment sales to Taiwan. Beijing’s latest action aims to exert additional pressure on Washington to halt its arms sales to the Taipei government.

The sanctions followed the U.S. approval of an estimated $228 million package of spare parts and other hardware for Taiwan’s aging air force.

In Beijing, officials asserted that U.S. weapons sales to Taiwan undermine China’s sovereignty and security interests.

“China urges the U.S. to earnestly abide by the one China principle and the three China-U.S. joint communiques and immediately stop the dangerous trend of arming Taiwan,” said Lin Jian, a spokesperson for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, during a recent briefing.

“We will take strong and resolute measures to firmly defend our national sovereignty, security and territorial integrity,” Lin added.

The United States does not subscribe to the PRC’s “one China principle,” the U.S. State Department said. “The PRC continues to publicly misrepresent U.S. policy.”

 
…

…