Політика

За даними Лубінця, Рустема Гугуріка утримують у бараку для «схильних до тероризму», і за останні пів року тричі поміщали до штрафного ізолятора
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BERLIN — The United States’ European allies are bracing for an America that’s less interested in them no matter who wins the presidential election — and for old traumas and new problems if Donald Trump returns to the White House.

The election comes more than 2 1/2 years into Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, in which Washington has made the single biggest contribution to Kyiv’s defense. There are question marks over whether that would continue under Trump, and how committed he would be to NATO allies in general.

A win by Vice President Kamala Harris could be expected to bring a continuation of current policy, though with Republican opposition and growing war fatigue among the U.S. public there are concerns in Europe that support would wane.

Trump’s appetite for imposing tariffs on U.S. partners also is causing worry in a Europe already struggling with sluggish economic growth. But it’s not just the possibility of a second Trump presidency that has the continent anxious about tougher times ahead.

European officials believe U.S. priorities lie elsewhere, no matter who wins. The Middle East is top of President Joe Biden’s list right now, but the long-term priority is China.

“The centrality of Europe to U.S. foreign policy is different than it was in Biden’s formative years,” said Rachel Tausendfreund, a senior research fellow at the German Council on Foreign Relations in Berlin. “And in that way, it is true that Biden is the last trans-Atlantic president.”

The U.S. will continue to pivot toward Asia, she said. “That means Europe has to step up. Europe has to become a more capable partner and also become more capable of managing its own security area.”

Germany’s defense minister, Boris Pistorius, remarked when he signed a new defense pact with NATO ally Britain that the U.S. will focus more on the Indo-Pacific region, “so it is only a question of, will they do much less in Europe because of that or only a little bit less.”

Ian Lesser, a distinguished fellow at the German Marshall Fund in Brussels, said that “above all, Europe is looking for predictability from Washington,” and that’s in short supply in a turbulent world in which any administration will face other demands on its attention. “But the potential for disruption is clearly greater in the case of a potential Trump administration.”

“There is an assumption of essential continuity” under Harris that’s probably well-founded, he said, with many people who have shaped policy under Biden likely to remain. “It’s very much the known world, even if the strategic environment produces uncertainties of its own.”

While both the U.S. and Europe have been increasingly focused on competition with Asia, the ongoing war in Europe means “the potential costs of a shift away from European security on the American side are very much higher today than they might have been a few years ago,” Lesser said. Europe’s ability to deal with that depends on how quickly it happens, he said.

Europe’s lagging defense spending irked U.S. administrations of both parties for years, though NATO members including Germany raised their game after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. NATO forecasts that 23 of the 32 allies will meet its target of spending 2% or more of gross domestic product on defense this year, compared to only three a decade ago.

During his 2017-21 term, Trump threatened to abandon ” delinquent ” countries if they weren’t paying their “bills.” In campaigning this time, he suggested that Russia could do what it wants with them.

His bluster has undermined trust and worried countries nearest to an increasingly unpredictable Russia, like Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland.

Europeans see the war in Ukraine as an existential challenge in a way the United States eventually may not, even with some signs of war fatigue emerging in Europe itself.

If Trump wins, “there’s every indication that he has no interest in continuing to support Ukraine in this war” and will push quickly for some kind of cease-fire or peace agreement deal that Kyiv may not like and Europe may not be ready for, Tausendfreund said. “And there is also just no way that Europe can fill the military gap left if the U.S. were to withdraw support.”

“Even with a Harris administration there is a growing, changing debate — frankly, on both sides of the Atlantic — about what comes next in the war in Ukraine, what is the end game,” Lesser said.

Biden emphasized the need to stay the course in Ukraine during a brief recent visit to Berlin when he conferred with German, French and British leaders.

“We cannot let up. We must sustain our support,” Biden said. “In my view, we must keep going until Ukraine wins a just and durable peace.”

The times he has lived through have taught him that “we should never underestimate the power of democracy, never underestimate the value of alliances,” the 81-year-old Biden added.

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who bestowed Germany’s highest honor on Biden for his service to trans-Atlantic relations, hopes Biden’s compatriots are listening.

“In the months to come, I hope that Europeans remember: America is indispensable for us,” he said. “And I also hope that Americans remember: Your allies are indispensable for you. We are more than just ‘other countries’ in the world —we are partners, we are friends.”

Whoever wins the White House, the coming years could be bumpy.

“Whatever the outcome next week, half of the country will go away angry,” Lesser said, noting there’s “every prospect” of divided government in Washington. “Europe is going to face a very chaotic and sometimes dysfunctional America.” 
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Вчора добовий максимум споживання був зафіксований увечері і був на 1,2% вищим ніж у вівторок, 29 жовтня
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Також є вбиті та поранені на Харківщині та Херсонщині
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The crowd-sourced fact-checking feature of Elon Musk’s X, Community Notes, is “failing to counter false” claims about the U.S. election, the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) said in a report Wednesday.

Out of the 283 misleading posts that CCDH has analyzed on the digital social media platform, 209 or 74% of the posts did not show accurate notes to all X users correcting false and misleading claims about the elections, the report said.

“The 209 misleading posts in our sample that did not display available Community Notes to all users have amassed 2.2 billion views,” CCDH said, urging the company to invest in safety and transparency.

X did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

X launched its “Community Notes” feature last year, which allows users to comment on posts to flag false or misleading content, in effect crowd-sourcing fact checking to users rather than a dedicated team of fact checkers.

The report comes after X lost a lawsuit brought by CCDH earlier this year that faulted it for allowing a rise in hate speech on the social media platform.

Social media platforms, including X, have been under scrutiny for years over the spread of misinformation and conspiracy theories, including false information about elections and vaccines.

Secretaries of state from five U.S. states urged billionaire Musk in August to fix X’s AI chatbot, saying it had spread misinformation related to the November 5 election.

Musk, who endorsed Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in July, himself has been accused of spreading misinformation. Polls show Trump is in a tight race with Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris.
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TEHRAN, Iran — America’s presidential election next week comes just after Iran marks the 45th anniversary of the 1979 U.S. Embassy hostage crisis — and for many, tensions between Tehran and Washington feel just as high as they did then.

Iran remains locked in the Mideast wars roiling the region, with its allies — militant groups and fighters of its self-described “Axis of Resistance” — battered as Israel presses its war in the Gaza Strip targeting Hamas and its invasion of Lebanon amid devastating attacks against Hezbollah. At the same time, Iran still appears to be assessing damage from Israel’s strikes on the Islamic Republic last Saturday in response to two Iranian ballistic missile attacks.

Iran’s currency, the rial, hovers near record lows against the dollar, battered by international sanctions over Tehran’s nuclear program of enriching uranium closer than ever to weapons-grade levels.

In public spaces, women still openly defy Iran’s mandatory law on the headscarf, or hijab, a result of the mass demonstrations over the 2022 death of Mahsa Amini that still haunts the country.

That has left a feel of fatalism among some on the streets of the capital, Tehran, as Americans cast ballots for either Vice President Kamala Harris or former President Donald Trump. Many are split on which candidate would be better for their country — if at all.

“All U.S presidents elected after the (1979) revolution had the same views about Iran and I think that’s unlikely to change,” said Sadegh Rabbani, 65.

Harris and Trump have offer hard-line views on Iran

Both candidates have either undertaken or expressed tough stances on Iran.

In 2018, Trump unilaterally pulled America out of Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers, setting off years of attacks across the Middle East even before Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attack on Israel. Trump has been briefed on Iranian plots to retaliate against him, as well over his decision to launch a 2020 drone strike that killed Iran’s top general, Qassem Soleimani, in Baghdad.

Harris, meanwhile, vowed at the September presidential debate that she would always “give Israel the ability to defend itself, in particular as it relates to Iran and any threat that Iran and its proxies pose to Israel.”

For its part, the Biden administration did try indirect negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program that produced no tangible results, though it did reach one prisoner swap deal that saw five Americans detained for years in Iran walk free in September 2023.

In an outdoor coffeeshop in downtown Tehran, popular among the youth, 22-year-old Zahra Rezaei said she preferred a Harris win.

“We saw Trump in the past and he just ran an anti-Iran policy,” Rezaei told The Associated Press. “It is time for a woman … I think she (Harris) will better since she is not after war.”

Ebrahim Shiri, a 28-year-old postgraduate political sciences student, agreed.

“I think Harris knows the world better,” he said. “She and (Joe) Biden convinced Israel not to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities. This mean moving toward peace.”

Others believe Trump, with his promises of dealmaking, might be a better fit.

“I do not know what the American people think, but Trump is able to get a quick deal with Iran,” said Mohammad Ali Raoufi, 43, who runs a double-glazed window workshop. “The Biden administration including Harris failed to reach any (deal) with Iran over the past years when they were in power.”

Reza Ghaemi, a 31-year-old taxi driver, also suggested Trump may lessen tensions in the region since he pushed to withdraw U.S. troops from the Mideast during his term in office.

Iran’s government wants sanctions gone

Many declined to speak to the AP on camera — Iran has only state-run television and radio stations, so people are suspicious of reporters with video cameras working openly on the street. A woman walking by immediately tightened her previously loose headscarf after seeing the camera.

Those who did speak to the AP mostly expressed worries about a direct United States-Iran war — especially if Trump wins.

While saying he wants Trump to win “for my own reasons,” 53-year-old Ahmad Moradi claimed that would make a U.S.-Iran war “100%” sure to happen.

A woman who only gave her name as Mahnaz, fearing repercussions for speaking openly, suggested that Harris, as a woman, couldn’t reach any deals with Iran because “men can talk to men.”

“I think if Trump is elected, it will be much harder for our kids. Of course it doesn’t matter which one is elected, it’s already tough for us,” said Fariba Oodi.

“We the Iranian people are trapped in some political game. And our kids are paying a price for that,” she added. “But I still think if it’s Trump, it will be more difficult, especially for my son who is a student and plans to apply” to study in America.

Iran’s reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian, elected after a helicopter crash killed hard-line President Ebrahim Raisi in May, came to power on a promise to reach a deal to ease Western sanctions.

Iranian officials maintain that separating nuclear negotiations from Mideast wars is possible, even as the U.S. has accused Iran of meddling in the November election, which Tehran denies.

Fatemeh Mohajerani, a spokesperson for Pezeshkian’s administration, said Tehran wants to see a change in U.S. policies and a respect for the “national sovereignty of other countries.” It also wants Washington to “avoid tension-making activities as we witnessed in recent years,” she said.

Analysts, however, see a difficult road ahead for any possible U.S.-Iran talks, no matter who wins next Tuesday.

“The talks will be a war of attrition,” Ali Soufi told the pro-reform Shargh newspaper. Saeed Nourmohammadi, another analyst, suggested such talks “are unlikely to be fruitful.”

But ultimately, any decision rests with Iran’s 85-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

“You know, Khamenei has seen eight U.S. presidents” come and go, said Abbas Ghasemi, a 67-year-old retired teacher “He knows how to deal with the next one.” 
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Naturalized immigrants will make up 1/10th of all Americans eligible to vote in 2024. What impact might they have on the election?
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washington — President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, who dressed as a giant panda, hosted trick-or-treaters on the White House South Lawn on Wednesday for the last time.

The first lady had participated in the National Zoo’s announcement earlier this year that pandas would be returning to Washington. They arrived in the nation’s capital in mid-October and Jill Biden donned the panda suit Wednesday as a “welcoming gesture,” the White House said.

Jill Biden added an educational theme to the event and named it “Hallo-Read” to help encourage reading. She has been a teacher for 40 years. Earlier Wednesday, she read a short story about spooky pumpkins to a group of costumed children gathered on the lawn.

She and the president later ventured outside at sunset and spent about an hour handing out treats. Biden, in a suit and tie, dropped boxes of White House Hershey’s Kisses chocolates in the kids’ tote bags while the first lady handed out copies of “10 Spooky Pumpkins.”

Up to 8,000 people, including students and children tied to the military, were expected to pass through the White House gates during the day.

A large orange moon and a sign that said “Hallow-Read at the White House” decorated the south face of the executive mansion. The decorations also included cardboard representations of Willow, the family cat who is rarely seen in public, and stacks of books. Giant pumpkin decorations flanked the door.

Biden dropped his bid for reelection in July. He leaves office in January.
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«За кожен «об’єкт» ворожі спецслужби РФ обіцяли грошову винагороду, яку юнак так і не отримав»
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CHICAGO, ILLINOIS — H5N1 bird flu had been confirmed in a pig in a backyard farm in Oregon, the first detection of the virus in swine in the country, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said on Wednesday.

Pigs represent a particular concern for the spread of bird flu because they can become co-infected with bird and human viruses, which could swap genes to form a new, more dangerous virus that can more easily infect humans.

The USDA said there is no risk to the nation’s pork supply from the Oregon case and that the risk to the public from bird flu remains low.

Pigs were the source of the H1N1 flu pandemic in 2009-2010, and have been implicated as the source of others, said Richard Webby, a St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital virologist who studies flu in animals and birds for the World Health Organization.

The finding of the virus in a small farm makes the pig infection less of a concern than if it had been detected in a commercial pig farm, he said.

“I think it probably doesn’t increase the risk much, but surely, if this virus starts transmitting in pigs, that absolutely increases the risk,” he said.

The Oregon farm has been quarantined, and other animals there, including sheep and goats, are under surveillance, the USDA said.

Pigs and poultry on the farm were culled to prevent the spread of the virus and enable additional testing of the swine, the USDA said. Tests are still pending for two of the pigs, the agency said.

The swine case originated with wild birds and not from a poultry or dairy farm, a USDA spokesperson said. Wild bird migration has carried bird flu to poultry flocks and cattle herds.

The case was one factor that prompted the USDA to broaden its bird flu surveillance to include nationwide bulk milk testing, which the agency announced on Wednesday, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told Reuters in an interview.

“While it’s a different variation of the virus and it is tied to wild birds, it is a factor to make sure that we understand and appreciate exactly where the virus is in dairy and in bovine,” he said.

The pigs on the Oregon farm were not intended for the commercial food supply, the USDA said.

The agency said that poultry and swine on the backyard farm shared water sources, housing and equipment, which have all served as pathways for transmitting the virus between animals in other states.

The detection is a warning for pig farmers to be on the lookout for further infections, said Marie Culhane, a professor of veterinary population medicine at the University of Minnesota who has researched flu viruses in swine.

“People need to start increasing their plans to deal with it if it should happen in another herd and another herd,” Culhane said. “Pigs are just really good at picking up influenza viruses.”

This year, 36 people have tested positive for bird flu as the virus has spread to nearly 400 dairy herds. All but one of the people were farm workers who had known contact with infected animals.

Since 2022, the virus has wiped out more than 100 million poultry birds in the nation’s worst-ever bird flu outbreak.
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У місті все залишається 11900 жителів
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Полухін зазначив, що людей на вулицях майже немає
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WASHINGTON — Reports that billionaire Elon Musk has been talking on a consistent basis with Russian President Vladimir Putin are still reverberating among current and former U.S. officials, almost a week after news of the conversations first surfaced.

Musk, who owns electric car maker Tesla and the X social media platform, also owns SpaceX, a commercial spaceflight company that has numerous contracts with the U.S. government, doing work for the Department of Defense and U.S. space agency NASA.

Some of that work is so sensitive that the United States has given Musk high-level security clearances due to his knowledge of the programs, raising concerns among some that top secret U.S. information and capabilities could be at risk.

According to current and former U.S., European and Russian officials who spoke to The Wall Street Journal, such concerns may be warranted.

During one conversation, those officials said, Putin allegedly asked Musk not to activate Starlink, a SpaceX subsidiary that provides satellite internet services, over Taiwan as a favor to China.

“I think it should be investigated,” NASA administrator Bill Nelson told the Semafor World Economy Summit on Friday, a day after The Journal published its report.

“I don’t know that that story is true,” Nelson said, adding, if it is, “I think that would be concerning, particularly for NASA, for the Department of Defense, for some of the intelligence agencies.”

Russia and Musk deny frequent calls

Musk has previously denied frequent calls with Putin. In 2022, Musk said he had spoken to the Russian leader just once, but The Journal said there have been repeated conversations since then.

Musk has not commented or responded to the Journal article on X. Russia has also denied there have been frequent conversations between Putin and Musk.

The Pentagon has so far declined to refute or confirm the allegations.

“We have seen the reporting from The Wall Street Journal but cannot corroborate the veracity of those reports,” Defense Department spokesperson Sue Gough told VOA in an email late Friday.

“[We] would refer you to Mr. Musk to speak to his private communications,” Gough said, adding that, by law, the department does not comment on the details or status of anyone’s security clearance.

“We expect everyone who has been granted a security clearance, including contractors, to follow the prescribed procedures for reporting foreign contacts,” she said.

Former U.S. intelligence officials who spoke to VOA said the reported conversations, since confirmed by other U.S. news organizations citing their own confidential sources, raise significant questions.

“There is no doubt that Russia is cultivating many possible channels of influence in the United States and other Western countries,” said Paul Pillar, a former senior CIA officer who now teaches at Georgetown University.

“Russia would regard a wealthy and influential business mogul such as Musk as potentially a highly useful channel and thus a relationship worth nurturing,” he said.

Larry Pfeiffer, a former CIA chief of staff and former senior director of the White House Situation Room, is also wary.

“It does get the spider-sense tingling,” he told VOA.

“If the reports of Musk’s repeated conversations with Vladimir Putin are true, I would definitely have some concerns,” Pfeiffer said. “Russia under Putin will cultivate support wherever it can be bought, cajoled or coerced.

“Putin has equal opportunity security services that will take advantage of any opportunity to get foreign business leaders to influence their governments to align with Russian interests,” he said.

Concerns don’t equal wrongdoing

Former officials like Pillar and Pfeiffer, though, caution there is a difference between concerns and actual wrongdoing.

Other former officials note that even if Musk engaged in conversations that could make some in government uncomfortable, just having those conversations is not necessarily illegal.

“Americans are allowed to talk to essentially whomever they want,” said a former national security prosecutor, who spoke to VOA on the condition of anonymity. “There’s no inherent limitation.”

And in the case of a high-profile individual who oversees companies with global reach, conversations with foreign officials could be unavoidable.

“For a businessman, there may be commercially legitimate reasons to have those communications,” the former prosecutor said. “It’s when a businessman is having those communications, perhaps for political reasons or even proto-diplomatic reasons, that it gets probably more concerning from a counterintelligence perspective.”

There also may not be any legal issues with a potential failure by someone like Musk to voluntarily disclose conversations with foreign leaders. Hiding such conversations when asked about them, however, could wade into criminal territory.

Still, given the value the U.S. gets from Musk’s companies, U.S. officials may feel like they have little recourse.

“It is one of those unfair things in life that if the government has a unique need for you, you can get away with more and still get a security clearance,” the former prosecutor said. “Someone who has unique value is going to get more accommodation.”
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In the U.S. presidential campaign, there is little to agree on between supporters of Kamala Harris and supporters of Donald Trump. From California, Genia Dulot brings us the story of two people selling rival campaign merchandise who are trying to lower the political temperature of their customers.
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У листі з погрозами щодо «мінувань» згадувалися журналістки Радіо Свобода Ірина Сисак та Валерія Єгошина, а також фрілансерка Юлія Химерик
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За даними служби, він передавав розробки генеральному директору одного із російських машинобудівних заводів
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Washington — The U.S. economy grew at a healthy 2.8% annual rate from July through September, with consumers helping drive growth despite the weight of still-high interest rates. 

Wednesday’s report from the Commerce Department said the gross domestic product — the economy’s total output of goods and services — did slow slightly from its 3% growth rate in the April-June quarter. But the latest figures still reflect surprising durability just as Americans assess the state of the economy in the final stretch of the presidential race. 

Consumer spending, which accounts for about 70% of U.S. economic activity, accelerated to a 3.7% annual pace last quarter, up from 2.8% in the April-June period. Exports also contributed to the third quarter’s growth, increasing at an 8.9% rate. 

On the other hand, growth in business investment slowed sharply on a drop in investment in housing and in nonresidential buildings such as offices and warehouses. But spending on equipment surged. 

The report is the first of three estimates the government will make of GDP growth for the third quarter of the year. The U.S. economy has continued to expand in the face of the much higher borrowing rates the Federal Reserve imposed in 2022 and 2023 in its drive to curb inflation. Despite widespread predictions that the economy would succumb to a recession, it has kept growing, with employers still hiring and consumers still spending. 

In a sign that the nation’s households, whose purchases drive most of the economy, will continue spending, the Conference Board said Tuesday that its consumer confidence index posted its biggest monthly gain since March 2021. The proportion of consumers who expect a recession in the next 12 months dropped to its lowest point since the board first posed that question in July 2022. 

At the same time, the nation’s once-sizzling job market has lost some momentum. On Tuesday, the government reported that the number of job openings in the United States fell in September to its lowest level since January 2021. And employers have added an average of 200,000 jobs a month so far this year — a healthy number but down from a record 604,000 in 2021 as the economy rebounded from the pandemic recession, 377,000 in 2022 and 251,000 in 2023. 

On Friday, the Labor Department is expected to report that the economy added 120,000 jobs in October. That gain, though, will probably have been significantly held down by the effects of Hurricanes Helene and Milton and by a strike at Boeing, the aviation giant, all of which temporarily knocked thousands of people off payrolls. 

Wednesday’s report contained some encouraging news on inflation. The Fed’s favored inflation gauge — called the personal consumption expenditures index, or PCE — rose at just a 1.5% annual pace last quarter, down from 2.5% in the second quarter and the lowest figure in more than four years. Excluding volatile food and energy prices, so-called core PCE inflation was 2.2%, down from 2.8% in the April-June quarter. 

Despite the continued progress on inflation, average prices still far exceed their pre-pandemic levels, which has exasperated many Americans and posed a challenge to Vice President Kamala Harris’ prospects in her race against former President Donald Trump. Most mainstream economists have suggested, though, that Trump’s policy proposals, unlike Harris’, would worsen inflation. 

At its most recent meeting last month, the Fed was satisfied enough with its progress against inflation — and concerned enough by the slowing job market — to slash its benchmark rate by a hefty half percentage point, its first and largest rate cut in more than four years. When it meets next week, the Fed is expected to announce another rate cut, this one by a more typical quarter-point. 

The central bank’s policymakers have also signaled that they expect to cut their key rate again at their final two meetings this year, in November and December. And they envision four more rate cuts in 2025 and two in 2026. The cumulative result of the Fed’s rate cuts, over time, will likely be lower borrowing rates for consumers and businesses. 
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