Global Edition

Blinken condemns China's 'increasingly dangerous' sea moves

BY SHAUN TANDON

  • "We remain concerned about China's increasingly dangerous and unlawful actions on the South and East China Seas, which have injured people, harmed vessels from ASEAN nations and contradict commitments to peaceful resolution of disputes," Blinken told Southeast Asian leaders gathered in that Laos capital Vientiane.
  • US Secretary of State Antony Blinken condemned Beijing's "increasingly dangerous" actions in the South China Sea as he met leaders of the ASEAN bloc in Laos on Friday.
  • "We remain concerned about China's increasingly dangerous and unlawful actions on the South and East China Seas, which have injured people, harmed vessels from ASEAN nations and contradict commitments to peaceful resolution of disputes," Blinken told Southeast Asian leaders gathered in that Laos capital Vientiane.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken condemned Beijing's "increasingly dangerous" actions in the South China Sea as he met leaders of the ASEAN bloc in Laos on Friday.
China has deployed military and coast guard vessels in recent months in a bid to eject the Philippines from a trio of strategically important reefs and islands in the South China Sea.
It has also been ratcheting up pressure over a disputed island group controlled by Japan in the East China Sea, rattling Tokyo and its allies.
"We remain concerned about China's increasingly dangerous and unlawful actions on the South and East China Seas, which have injured people, harmed vessels from ASEAN nations and contradict commitments to peaceful resolution of disputes," Blinken told Southeast Asian leaders gathered in that Laos capital Vientiane.
"The United States will continue to support freedom of navigation and freedom of overflight in the Indo-Pacific," he said. 
The top diplomat said the United States also hoped to work with ASEAN leaders to "protect stability across the Taiwan Strait", a source of constant tension with China.
Beijing this week denounced remarks by Taiwan's President Lai Ching-te who vowed to "resist annexation" by China, which claims the self-governing democracy.

China disputes

In an interview with AFP on Friday, EU chief Charles Michel called for disputes to be resolved though peaceful means in the South China Sea.
"International law has to be respected, including the freedom of navigation and including the importance to resolve disputes through peaceful means," he said.
The summit marked the diplomatic debut of Japan's security-minded new Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who in the past has called for a NATO-style Asian pact with an unstated goal of deterring China.
Japan's foreign ministry said Friday that Ishiba reiterated "serious concerns" about the "intensification of Chinese military activities in areas surrounding Japan" in a meeting with Premier Li Qiang.
Li made a veiled swipe at Ishiba during an ASEAN-related meeting on Thursday, warning of the danger of "attempts to introduce bloc confrontation and geopolitical conflicts into Asia".
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos likewise challenged Li on Thursday over recent clashes in the South China Sea.

Myanmar crisis

Leaders at the summit also discussed the situation in Myanmar, whose military junta sent a representative to the ASEAN meeting for the first time in more than three years.
Blinken said he wanted to discuss the "deepening crisis in Myanmar" -- a rare US usage of the country's official name and not the former Burma.
Blinken has urged no let-up in pressure until the junta, which seized power in 2021, moves on key concerns such as freeing political prisoners.
The Myanmar delegation attended the leaders' meeting with Blinken but it was unclear if there was direct interaction between them. 
Thailand separately has led efforts at the summit to seek a diplomatic resolution on violence in Myanmar. 
Blinken also urged firmness against Russia's "war of aggression" in Ukraine, ahead of a full East Asia Summit in which Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov participated.
The summit marked a rare occasion when the top diplomats of United States and Russia found themselves in the same room. 
Blinken and Lavrov did not appear to make any contact at the start of the talks, with India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol sitting between them.
The summit is a change for Blinken from frenetic diplomacy on the Middle East, where Israel has been pounding Hezbollah in Lebanon a year into its Gaza war, triggered by the unprecedented Hamas attack.
The United States has faced criticism over its support for Israel by Russia and China but also by usually US-friendly countries with Muslim majorities -- notably Malaysia and Indonesia.
sct/srg/hmn

undecided

Undecided voters have a dilemma in US election: focus group

BY ROMAIN FONSEGRIVES

  • Thau has been running focus groups in the seven battleground states that are likely to decide this November's presidential election -- Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona and Nevada.
  • Less than a month out from the knife-edge US presidential election, no group of voters is attracting more attention from the campaigns than the tiny sliver of the electorate that is still undecided.
  • Thau has been running focus groups in the seven battleground states that are likely to decide this November's presidential election -- Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona and Nevada.
Less than a month out from the knife-edge US presidential election, no group of voters is attracting more attention from the campaigns than the tiny sliver of the electorate that is still undecided.
While many people long ago made up their mind between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, a small percentage of the population is still grappling with their choice.
These voters "have a hard time deciding. They don't like to be rushed, and they have equal disdain for both major presidential candidates," said Rich Thau, who heads a consultancy called Engagious.
Thau has been running focus groups in the seven battleground states that are likely to decide this November's presidential election -- Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona and Nevada.
Everyone they recruit to take part is a swing voter -- someone who voted for Republican Trump in 2016 and for Democrat Joe Biden in 2020.
Engagious gathers a demographic cross-section of citizens from a particular state each month, who meet on Zoom for a guided discussion about the issues at play.
These conversations have given Thau and his colleagues valuable insights into the minds of people who haven't yet decided how to cast their ballots.
That includes how they felt about the July earthquake of Biden's withdrawal and his replacement at the top of the Democratic ticket by Harris.
"They're forced to choose between someone they don't like and someone they don't know very well," he said.
That perfectly describes how 55-year-old Lisa feels.
"I am watching the news constantly and I'm getting burnout for it," said the insurance broker, who, like all participants in the focus groups can only be identified by her given name.

Temperament

She trusts Trump more on the economy, which she feels was better when he was in power, but worries about his character and temperament.
"I'm afraid he would go back and retaliate against people who he perceived slighted him in any way -- go after Stormy Daniels, go after all these people that he threw under a bus and just spawn hatred again and negativity against different populations, racism, certain religious groups," she said.
On the other hand, as someone with strong religious beliefs, she finds Harris's support for abortion rights to be problematic.
"I have a very difficult time with that topic," she told the Pennsylvania focus group this week.
Bob, a 45-year-old from the state, said he felt he had no idea who Harris actually is.
"I don't know where she stands on anything truly deep down. I don't know," he said.
"She was a good prosecutor and she did a couple of things as attorney general (of California), but it doesn't really help me get a sense of what she can do for the whole country in general."

Abortion

Glenda, a 41-year-old woman, said she was inclined to support Harris at this stage, but remained skeptical.
"I'm leaning, but I'm not there yet," she said, adding: "Is she going to keep her promises?... That's my biggest worry; is she going to stand firm?"
As a woman, she says she likes Harris's stance on abortion rights, but it's not the only thing that she'll base her decision on.
As far as Trump is concerned, she has real worries over his policies on the environment.
"Climate change is a big one for me. And I remember him very specifically saying when he was president that it was a myth."
Swing voter Greg says he fears Trump doesn't have any real convictions.
He "can be very irrational at times with his speech, with his positions, with his actions, and also he's easily influenced and can be swayed," the 47-year-old said.
On the other hand, he thinks Harris has been thrust into the race without any kind of popular support.
"She was not voted by her constituents to be the president of the United States for the Democratic Party. She was put in that position and that's very undemocratic," he said.
And, despite her having served as deputy to a sitting president for more than three years, he's not sure Harris is qualified.
"What scares me about her is her lack of experience at a position like the presidency," he said.
For the insurance agent, Lisa, this election is a missed opportunity for more capable candidates.
"I have to vote, but I feel like I wish we could do better," she said.
rfo-hg/dw/sco

hurricane

At least 11 dead in Florida but Hurricane Milton not as bad as feared

BY DANIEL STUBLEN

  • The southeastern US state was able to avoid the level of catastrophic devastation that officials had feared.
  • At least 11 people died as Hurricane Milton sent tornadoes spinning across Florida, officials said Thursday as the state grappled with flooding, power outages and other woes from a milder than expected storm that many had feared would be catastrophic.
  • The southeastern US state was able to avoid the level of catastrophic devastation that officials had feared.
At least 11 people died as Hurricane Milton sent tornadoes spinning across Florida, officials said Thursday as the state grappled with flooding, power outages and other woes from a milder than expected storm that many had feared would be catastrophic.
The hurricane blasted across the state late Wednesday before roaring into the Atlantic, leaving behind roads blocked by downed trees and power lines. It shredded the roof of a baseball stadium. Some three million homes and businesses were without power.
So far, though, it appeared that tornadoes, rather than floodwaters, have been responsible for the storm's deaths.
"It was pretty scary," said Susan Stepp, a 70-year-old resident of Fort Pierce, a city on Florida's east coast where four people in a senior living community died after a tornado spawned by Milton struck Wednesday.
"They did find some people just outside dead, in a tree," she told AFP. "I wish they would have evacuated."
The deaths are five in St. Lucie County, three in Volusia County two in the city of St. Petersburg and one in the city of Tampa, local authorities said. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told reporters the deaths were caused by the tornadoes.
In Tampa, police found a woman in her early 70s trapped under a large tree branch and pronounced her deceased, saying her death "is believed to be related to restoration efforts post Hurricane Milton."
In Polk County, a member of a road crew was struck and killed by a colleague's vehicle as he removed a downed tree.
Stepp's husband Bill said a tornado "picked up my 22-ton motor home and threw it across the yard." 
"Scary and heartbreaking at the same time, to see much damage and all things you really love just gone, but it's only things and we're still here," the 72-year-old said.
The southeastern US state was able to avoid the level of catastrophic devastation that officials had feared.
"The storm was significant, but thankfully this was not the worst-case scenario," Florida Governor Ron DeSantis told a news conference.
Milton made landfall on the Florida Gulf Coast as a major Category 3 storm, with powerful winds smashing communities still reeling from Hurricane Helene which hit only two weeks ago, killing 237 people in Florida and other southeast states.
The National Weather Service issued 126 tornado warnings across the state Wednesday, the most ever issued for a single calendar day for the state in records dating back to 1986, wrote hurricane expert Michael Lowry.
In Sarasota Bay, Kristin Joyce, a 72-year-old interior designer who did not evacuate either, took photos of tree branches snapped by the wind.
"There is no question it needs to be a serious wake-up call for everyone in terms of climate change," she told AFP, surveying the damage. 
Scientists say extreme rainfall and destructive storms are occurring with greater severity and frequency as temperatures rise due to climate change. As warmer ocean surfaces release more water vapor, they provide more energy for storms as they form.

Biden fury at Trump

President Joe Biden, who said he spoke with DeSantis Thursday, urged people to stay inside in the aftermath of the storm, with downed power lines and debris creating dangerous conditions.
In a video posted on social media, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said he and his wife Melania were praying for Florida residents affected by the storm and urged them to vote for him.
"Hopefully, on January 20th you're going to have somebody that's really going to help you and help you like never before," the former president said, referring to the presidential inauguration date.
Hurricane Helene struck Florida late last month, and the back-to-back storms have become election fodder as Trump spreads conspiracy theories claiming Biden and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris are abandoning victims.
That prompted a furious response from Biden who on Wednesday called Trump "reckless, irresponsible."

'Lucky'

In Cocoa Beach, on Florida's east coast, one tornado swept in from the ocean, blowing out almost all the windows of a hair salon and tearing a chunk of roof off a bank.
Katherine and Larry Hingle said they were on their porch, watching water from a nearby river rise, when the tornado came through Wednesday evening.
"I said 'it sounds like a train's coming,'" Katherine, 53, told AFP while out to walk their dog and survey the damage.
In Sarasota, resident Carrie Elizabeth expressed the feelings of many -- that despite the violent night, Milton was not quite as bad as had been feared.
"I feel that we're very lucky," she said. "It'll take a long time to clean up, but it could have been much worse."
bur/jgc/dw

Global Edition

Obama blasts 'crazy' Trump in first rally for Harris

BY MAGGY DONALDSON, WITH DANNY KEMP IN WASHINGTON

  • - 'Got a problem' - Vice president Harris's campaign said Obama's appearance, the first in a series in battleground states before the November 5 election, was designed to get people out to vote in crucial Pennsylvania.
  • Former US President Barack Obama lashed out at "crazy" Donald Trump Thursday and urged voters to back Kamala Harris as he brought his star power to the 2024 election campaign trail for the first time.
  • - 'Got a problem' - Vice president Harris's campaign said Obama's appearance, the first in a series in battleground states before the November 5 election, was designed to get people out to vote in crucial Pennsylvania.
Former US President Barack Obama lashed out at "crazy" Donald Trump Thursday and urged voters to back Kamala Harris as he brought his star power to the 2024 election campaign trail for the first time.
As he hit the stump in the must-win state of Pennsylvania, Obama also chided Black male voters for what he called hesitancy in supporting Democrat Harris because they "just aren't feeling the idea of having a woman as president."
Obama trained his fire on Trump during a pumped-up rally in Pittsburgh, comparing the Republican's long speeches to late Cuban communist leader Fidel Castro's and calling the billionaire out of touch with ordinary people.
America's first Black president admitted that "this election's going to be tight" as many voters were still struggling with high prices. 
But he told the crowd that "what I cannot understand is why anybody would think that Donald Trump will shake things up", adding: "You think Donald Trump ever changed a diaper?'
The popular Democrat called Trump's schemes to sell bibles as "crazy" and used the same word to describe the 78-year-old former president's embrace of conspiracy theories. 
As the crowd booed Trump, his successor in the White House, Obama added: "Don't boo -- vote." 
"Kamala is as prepared for the job as any nominee for president has ever been," he added. 

'Got a problem'

Vice president Harris's campaign said Obama's appearance, the first in a series in battleground states before the November 5 election, was designed to get people out to vote in crucial Pennsylvania.
Obama took aim at male voters who might be attracted by the Republican's appeals towards machismo.
"I'm sorry gentlemen, I've noticed this, especially with some men who seem to think Trump's behavior, the bullying and the putting people down, is a sign of strength," he said.
"And I am here to tell you that is not what real strength is."
Earlier, in a surprise stop before the rally at a campaign field office in Pittsburgh, Obama made an unusually direct appeal to Black men, whose support polls show Harris has struggled to mobilize. 
Saying he had some "truths" that he wanted the Black community to hear, Obama said that "you're coming up with all kinds of reasons and excuses, I've got a problem with that."
"Because part of it makes me think -- and I'm speaking to men directly -- part of it makes me think that, well, you just aren't feeling the idea of having a woman as president.”
Harris was in battleground Nevada for a town hall hosted by the Spanish language network Univision Thursday and later spoke at a rally in Arizona aimed at reaching out to Latino voters.
When a woman asked Harris at the town hall to name three of Trump's virtues, she replied: "I think Donald Trump loves his family, and I think that's very important.... But I don't really know him, to be honest with you. I don't have much more to offer you." 
In Arizona, Harris addressed the devastation caused by Hurricane Milton in Florida, saying the federal government "has mobilized thousands of personnel" to recover and rebuild the region.
The White House said Harris had also taken part in a virtual briefing on Milton, which has sparked a political storm between Republicans and Democrats. 

'Dumber than hell'

Trump was in the hotly contested state of Michigan on Thursday, unveiling new details of his protectionist plans for the US auto industry, including sweeping tariffs on vehicles not made in America.
Trump also ramped up his personal attacks on Harris, branding her "dumber than hell," and assailed the auto industry capital Detroit itself as run down as he was speaking to the city's economic club.
"Our whole country will end up being like Detroit if she's your president," he said.
Harris meanwhile said she had accepted an offer for a CNN town hall on October 23 in Pennsylvania, after Trump turned down a final televised debate with her.
"I think it's a disservice to the voters," Harris said in Arizona about Trump rejecting a second debate. "I also think it's a pretty weak move."
Democrats are hoping Obama could give Harris a boost in a race that has been locked with Trump for weeks, after her initial boost in the polls after she took over from President Joe Biden as the party's nominee in July.
Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama delivered rapturously received speeches backing Harris at the Democratic National Convention in August.
dk/jgc/dw

internet

In Trump 'Truths,' conspiracies, attacks -- and doubts about the election

BY BILL MCCARTHY

  • Far fewer people use Truth Social than X, formerly Twitter, where Trump boasted a far louder voice before his supporters stormed the US Capitol and he was temporarily banned.
  • Donald Trump has been lashing out against Kamala Harris incessantly on Truth Social as next month's US presidential election nears -- mirroring his rally broadsides but in increasingly vulgar and vindictive terms that cater to his most uncompromising supporters online.
  • Far fewer people use Truth Social than X, formerly Twitter, where Trump boasted a far louder voice before his supporters stormed the US Capitol and he was temporarily banned.
Donald Trump has been lashing out against Kamala Harris incessantly on Truth Social as next month's US presidential election nears -- mirroring his rally broadsides but in increasingly vulgar and vindictive terms that cater to his most uncompromising supporters online.
Last month, the Republican candidate attacked Democratic rival Harris in more than one in every three posts or reposts, according to an AFP analysis of Trump's roughly 1,000 messages.
The escalation comes as Trump seeks to harden up his base while also laying the groundwork to challenge the election results yet again, with repeated calls for a vote that is "too big to rig."
Far fewer people use Truth Social than X, formerly Twitter, where Trump boasted a far louder voice before his supporters stormed the US Capitol and he was temporarily banned.
But the former president has posted relentlessly on his Truth site -- over 30 times per day in September, on average -- with sprees stretching late into the night.
The attacks on Harris included claims the vice president is "guilty of CRIMES" and "should be IMPEACHED, PROSECUTED, or BOTH."
Trump has also promised to punish other lawmakers and said if he wins in November, then voters, lawyers, donors and election officials who "CHEATED" in the 2020 or 2024 elections will be "prosecuted at levels, unfortunately, never seen before in our Country."
"Trump's base loves this nonsense," Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics, told AFP. "Yet there are millions of others, perhaps on the edge of voting for him again, who might recoil."
"People should wake up every day and be forced to see and listen to his posts."
The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

Pre-emptive fraud claims

In between self-glorifying opinion polls, links to conservative media and posts hawking $100,000 watches and other merchandise, the former president's feed is full of erratic, often all-uppercase screeds that push the website's 1,000-character limit.
"WOMEN ARE POORER THAN THEY WERE FOUR YEARS AGO, ARE LESS HEALTHY THAN THEY WERE FOUR YEARS AGO, ARE LESS SAFE ON THE STREETS THAN THEY WERE FOUR YEARS AGO," Trump began one post that made false claims about abortion.
"I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT," he said in another, after the singer endorsed Harris.
With election day less than a month away, Trump has ramped up warnings of fraud and homed in aggressively on Harris -- notably blaming her for border crossings in misleading posts that AFP fact-checkers found were distorting data, some of which is decades old, about migrants with criminal convictions.
He has baselessly accused his opponent of illegally registering immigrants to vote and shared a manipulated video that falsely portrayed her asking them if they had done so.
Other insults have been personal, branding Harris as "crazy," "lyin'" and "cognitively challenged" and accusing her of staging photos and paying fake supporters. 
"Did they give Comrade Kamala the questions?" he said after their debate. "It was 3-on-1, but they were mentally challenged people, against one person of extraordinary genius."
John Jost, a New York University professor of psychology and politics, said Trump's activity could signal "dread, immense anxiety and hatred" over the possibility of losing.
"Trump is a desperate man. He is willing to say or do anything, regardless of truth value." 

'Twisted commentary'

Facing backlash for amplifying an August post implying Harris exchanged sexual favors for political gain, Trump said on a podcast that "the ones you get in trouble with are the reposts."
Yet multiple times since, he has boosted conspiratorial and sometimes nakedly racist posts.
One from "@1776WeThePeople1776," an account promoting QAnon conspiracies, featured a picture of a knife-wielding man with a head covering. It said: "We're your new neighbors."
After Sean "Diddy" Combs was indicted, Trump shared an image -- which AFP fact-checkers determined was doctored -- of Harris with the rapper, from an account called "@akaPR0B0SS." 
"Even to someone like me who has followed Trump for nine years, this is shocking," said Sabato. "For most of my life a candidate who had written this sort of twisted commentary would have been driven out of his nomination."
As Republicans including Trump baselessly accused Haitians in Ohio of eating pets, the former president promoted a misrepresented video and other dubious evidence online. 
The community was then flooded with bomb threats.
Jared Holt, senior researcher of US extremist movements at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, warned of Trump emboldening "the ugliest parts of the modern conservative movement."
"His social media posts encourage, normalize and spread extremist ideologies."
bmc/adm/nro

entertainment

How Sebastian Stan found a 'relatable' Trump for 'The Apprentice' biopic

BY ANDREW MARSZAL

  • - 'Hardest scene' - Stan prepared for the role by devouring magazine interviews, watching videos and obsessively listening to audio of Trump from the late 1970s and early 1980s.
  • Sebastian Stan immersed himself 24/7 in Donald Trump's early life to research the new biopic "The Apprentice" -- and came to an unexpected realization.
  • - 'Hardest scene' - Stan prepared for the role by devouring magazine interviews, watching videos and obsessively listening to audio of Trump from the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Sebastian Stan immersed himself 24/7 in Donald Trump's early life to research the new biopic "The Apprentice" -- and came to an unexpected realization.
"A lot of the behavior and the personality is much more relatable than we want to admit," said the Hollywood star, who has won critical acclaim for his uncanny performance.
The film, which opens in US theaters on Friday, first screened at the Cannes Film Festival in May, where it drew huge controversy and legal threats from the ex-president, particularly for a scene in which Trump is shown raping his first wife.
But much of the film portrays a younger Trump as a nervous, naive outsider from New York's outer boroughs, trying to find his way in a cutthroat and elite Manhattan world he knows little about.
It is an approach sure to surprise, or even anger, anyone expecting or wanting a left-wing political hatchet job.
For Stan, who was born in communist Romania and did not move to the United States until he was 12, that sense of Trump striving to belong resonated.
"My mother told me that I had to become somebody," he told AFP in an interview at the Cannes festival in May.
"There was a lot of shame, when I grew up, coming from Romania... 'don't tell people' and 'blend in.'"
The 42-year-old Stan has rocketed to fame in recent years, in large part due to his role as the Winter Soldier in a number of blockbuster Marvel superhero films. 
But Stan drew parallels between his mother's message, and the intense pressure put on Trump and his brothers by their brutally tough father Fred.
As the film starts, Donald Trump is failing to convince his father that he can pull off a daring hotel deal.
Instead it is Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong), a formidable lawyer with powerful political connections, who believes in the young property developer, taking him under his wing.
While Trump is initially queasy about Cohn's willingness to "violate a few technicalities," he quickly adopts and even surpasses his mentor's embrace of the dark arts in pursuit of fame.
The movie shows how "anyone that grows up in America" can be corrupted by a capitalist society that rewards greed, ruthlessness and ambition, said Stan.
"Nothing is ever good enough. You look at people achieving things, but there's always more, you've got to have more," he said.

'Hardest scene'

Stan prepared for the role by devouring magazine interviews, watching videos and obsessively listening to audio of Trump from the late 1970s and early 1980s.
He would listen "non-stop," whether driving, walking, shopping or even "on headphones in the bathroom."  
Stan tried to avoid the many "Saturday Night Live"-style parodies of later-era Trump, noting that he "just had to put the noise away."
The role called on Stan to gain weight as the years progress and he "tried to eat as much as I could" before certain shoots. Because not everything was shot in sequence, other scenes required prosthetics.
And then there is the much talked-about rape scene.
It occurs after an argument, in which Trump's first wife Ivana belittles him for growing fat and bald.
In real life, Ivana accused Trump of raping her during divorce proceedings but later rescinded the allegation.
Stan said preparing for that scene did not particularly trouble him.
Instead, "the hardest scene, that I was always afraid of," was another in which Trump mourns the loss of his older brother Freddy, an alcoholic who died at age 42.
Trump is shown genuinely caring for Freddy as well as Ivana, before his humanity is eroded by the power and wealth that devours him.
"It's interesting how much we don't want to remember about him," said Stan.
amz/hg/sst

Trump

Trump raises eyebrows with Democratic state blitz

BY FRANKIE TAGGART

  • So why put in time that takes you away from the Americans who do the hiring and firing less than four weeks before November 5?
  • Spend any time in a swing state in the closing weeks of a US election and it's hard to avoid the barrage of rallies, TV interviews and attack ads as candidates grasp for those final few undecided voters.
  • So why put in time that takes you away from the Americans who do the hiring and firing less than four weeks before November 5?
Spend any time in a swing state in the closing weeks of a US election and it's hard to avoid the barrage of rallies, TV interviews and attack ads as candidates grasp for those final few undecided voters.
So when Republican nominee Donald Trump announced an expansion of his campaign map into "deep blue" Democratic real estate that he has virtually no chance of taking, political analysts wondered what he was up to.
Trump, 78, is in Aurora, Colorado on Friday and California's Coachella Valley on Saturday. Next week he heads to Chicago, Illinois and on October 27 he will appear at New York's iconic Madison Square Garden, home of the NBA's New York Knicks.  
Colorado is the only one of those states to have voted Republican in a presidential election this century. It was the most competitive of the four in 2020, and it was still a cakewalk for Biden, who won by 13 points.
Meanwhile Trump and his Democratic opponent Kamala Harris are neck-and-neck in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona and Nevada -- where a few thousand wavering voters could determine who gets the White House.
So why put in time that takes you away from the Americans who do the hiring and firing less than four weeks before November 5?
The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment but aides have pointed to a strategy of wooing voters in areas they say are hurt by failed Democratic policies.

Optics and ego

For Adrienne Uthe, the founder of Utah-based PR firm Kronus Communications, the sorties into Democratic territory are about nationwide optics and messaging, rather than a simple grab for local votes.
"He's not there to flip these states, he's there to fuel the narrative of a 'national movement' and energize his base where they feel like underdogs," she told AFP.
"Rallying in traditionally Democratic areas gives his supporters the thrill of 'enemy territory,' while allowing Trump to frame his campaign as transcending party lines."
Andrew Koneschusky, a political communications expert and former press secretary to Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer, agreed that Trump's strategists were thinking about "optics, symbolism and ego" rather than electoral math. 
Trump has pushed exaggerated stories of migrant gangs running rampant in Aurora, and his aim in visiting is to transform the city into a "national battleground" on immigration, says the consultant.
Coachella, a three-hour drive from Mexico, offers the same opportunity and has the added advantage of looking like a bold, aggressive throw of the gauntlet in Harris's home state. 
"New York is a real head-scratcher," Koneschusky told AFP. "But this choice may be a product of Trump's ego. He likely wants to orchestrate a spectacle at Madison Square Garden and demonstrate he can fill a 20,000-seat arena in a Democratic bastion."
Trump's obsession with his crowd sizes, in fact, is being offered by some Washington-watchers as the whole explanation for his idiosyncratic campaign strategy. 

Tired of Trump?

The ex-president has reacted badly to Harris's packed rallies, inventing multiple conspiracy theories to dismiss them as fake, and his sensitivity has been mocked on the late night talk show circuit -- and by his predecessor, Barack Obama.
In a moment that defined September's presidential debate, the mercurial tycoon allowed himself to get riled by Harris claiming his rally speeches were so boring that his supporters were getting up and leaving before the end.
Images of empty seating even at the start of his rallies have been shared widely on social media, including footage of an event in Pennsylvania on Wednesday that showed large sections of the arena unfilled as Trump took the stage.
Tim Miller, who was communications director for Jeb Bush when he ran against Trump for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, believes people in swing states are tired of the Trump "shtick."
"And so he needs to go to these red areas of blue states -- or deep red states where people haven't seen him -- so that he can get the crowd size that he needs," said Miller on center-right outlet The Bulwark's podcast, which he hosts. 
But Koneschusky, Schumer's former aide, says the nationwide focus is unlikely to sway voters in battleground states.
"He'd probably be better served to take up residence in Pennsylvania," he told AFP. "In the end, it's electoral math, not spectacle and theatrics, that usually determines the outcome of the election."
ft/acb

entertainment

It's still 'the economy, stupid,' says US political guru Carville

BY ANDREW MARSZAL

  • "We don't have to be as good as Bill Clinton" in delivering that message, said Carville, referring to his silver-tongued former boss as "the greatest who ever lived."
  • Veteran US political strategist James Carville steered Bill Clinton to the White House in 1992 with a campaign best remembered for his pithy motto: it's "the economy, stupid."
  • "We don't have to be as good as Bill Clinton" in delivering that message, said Carville, referring to his silver-tongued former boss as "the greatest who ever lived."
Veteran US political strategist James Carville steered Bill Clinton to the White House in 1992 with a campaign best remembered for his pithy motto: it's "the economy, stupid."
Now 79, the "Ragin' Cajun" -- nicknamed for his forthright opinions and humble Louisiana roots -- is no longer inside the Democratic war room, but his influence remains outsized.
Carville infuriated Democrats by loudly insisting for months that President Joe Biden was too old to run again -- until the party suddenly agreed with him, and Biden stepped aside.
Speaking to AFP, he said he believes Democratic candidate Kamala Harris can win the US presidency by again following his famous motto, and becoming "more aggressive" with attacks on Donald Trump's economic record.
"As usual, Trump is offering people snake oil and stuff that's never worked -- like tariffs, which is a really historically dumb idea," Carville said of the Republican presidential nominee.
"We don't have to be as good as Bill Clinton" in delivering that message, said Carville, referring to his silver-tongued former boss as "the greatest who ever lived."
But "you can't separate human life from economic life. We find that out more and more every day," said Carville.
Less than a month before the election, polls show the candidates essentially tied, but with voters trusting Trump slightly more on economic policies.
The current Democratic administration has been hamstrung by soaring inflation.
But price rises have recently cooled, and other economic indicators like stock markets are near all-time highs.
And experts, including the head of the International Monetary Fund, have warned that Trump's plans for fresh import tariffs risk pushing consumer prices up, hitting lower-income families hardest.
"Some people may think the economy could be better for them. They always do," said Carville.
But while "Trump says you have nothing to lose... I think we're certainly at a place where you have something to lose," he told AFP.
"Record numbers of Americans are working. Record numbers of Americans have some money in the stock market... we've got to talk about it in ways that are relevant to people."

No fan of 'wokeness'

Carville spoke to AFP ahead of the launch of documentary film "Carville: Winning Is Everything, Stupid," out in New York theaters Friday, with a wider release later this year. 
The movie follows Carville's relentless, if eccentric, routine as a political operator.
Cameras follow as he dissects the latest polls on daily calls with close friends like George Stephanopoulos, takes in exercise by speed-walking the corridors of business hotels, and packs miniature shampoo bottles filled with bourbon for his frequent flights to speaking engagements.
It reflects on everything from his childhood in a backwater Louisiana town, and his unlikely marriage to Republican strategist Mary Matalin, to his attacks on the more recent turn toward social justice "wokeness" by the Democratic Party.
Carville was heavily criticized for an interview in March in which he said the party had become "too feminine," and dominated by values like "don't drink beer. Don't watch football. Don't eat hamburgers... Everything you're doing is destroying the planet."
But Carville believes there has been a quiet but necessary scaling-back of "identity politics" in his party.
"No one talks like that anymore... it didn't work," he said.
Indeed, Harris this week drank a beer on late-night TV with Stephen Colbert, and has spoken repeatedly of being a gun owner.
Race- and gender-centered identity politics "was nice people that had an idea that sounded good at the wine and cheese faculty party, and then when you took it on the road, it flopped," says Carville.
"It needs to be discarded and kind of forgotten about for the time being."

'Insurgent'

If the Democrats do win next month, Carville's stubborn, "insurgent" campaign against Biden's candidacy will have played an enormous part in it, said the film's director.
Carville is "capable of seeing around corners, which is a skill he's been credited with for many years," said Matt Tyrnauer.
"I don't think he ever put it into better use than he did in this campaign."
But despite his legendary status among political strategists, Carville insists he is "not very good at predicting elections."
"I don't ever think about who's going to win," he said. "Because every minute of thinking about who's going to win, I'm not thinking about how we can win."
amz/hg/nro

film

Trump biopic 'The Apprentice' hits US theaters weeks before election

BY ANDREW MARSZAL

  • "I really don't think we've done like a hit job on Donald Trump," Abbasi told AFP at the Cannes film festival in May, where he used a press conference to invite Trump to watch the movie before judging it.
  • Explosive Donald Trump biopic "The Apprentice" hits US theaters Friday, with filmmakers gambling that it will draw audiences in a fiercely polarized nation just weeks before its subject's election showdown with rival Kamala Harris.
  • "I really don't think we've done like a hit job on Donald Trump," Abbasi told AFP at the Cannes film festival in May, where he used a press conference to invite Trump to watch the movie before judging it.
Explosive Donald Trump biopic "The Apprentice" hits US theaters Friday, with filmmakers gambling that it will draw audiences in a fiercely polarized nation just weeks before its subject's election showdown with rival Kamala Harris.
The hot-topic film about the Republican candidate's younger years has drawn legal threats from Trump's attorneys, not least for deeply unflattering scenes including a depiction of the former president raping his wife.
None of the major Hollywood studios was willing to risk distributing the polarizing movie, which is instead being released in some 1,700 North American movie theaters this weekend by indie studio Briarcliff Entertainment.
"I think it's interesting that people think this movie is controversial," said director Ali Abbasi at the film's New York premiere this week, which was attended by stars Sebastian Stan and Jeremy Strong.
"Think about it. We're talking about a person who is actually convicted in civil court of sexual assault."
The most talked-about scene in "The Apprentice" shows Trump raping his first wife, Ivana, after she belittles him for growing overweight and bald.
In real life, Ivana accused Trump of raping her during divorce proceedings, but later rescinded the allegation. She died in 2022.
Controversy tends to raise awareness, said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for Comscore, "but whether that translates to people wanting to see it is a whole different thing."
"The Apprentice" is "not going to be the number one movie at the box office this weekend," he predicted.
But it can still only benefit from the timing, much like the recent successful release of another biopic, "Reagan."
"You've got to strike while the iron is hot, and right now political movies are pretty hot."
Despite the headlines, "The Apprentice" offers a nuanced view of the young Trump as an ambitious but naive social climber, desperately trying to navigate the cutthroat world of Manhattan property deals and politics. 
"I really don't think we've done like a hit job on Donald Trump," Abbasi told AFP at the Cannes film festival in May, where he used a press conference to invite Trump to watch the movie before judging it.
On Wednesday, marketers hired a plane to fly a banner over a Trump rally in Pennsylvania which read "TRUMP GO SEE THE APPRENTICE FRIDAY."
Nonetheless, Trump's lawyers have vowed to sue the producers, calling the film "garbage" and "pure malicious defamation." 
Its title reflects the name of NBC television show "The Apprentice," which brought Trump fame and fortune over 15 seasons beginning in 2004.
Executive producer James Shani told the New York premiere audience the film had been "especially difficult" to release, and praised Briarcliff for being the only distributor with "the balls to get us here."
"I think that says a lot about the time that we're in," he said.
arb-amz/hg/mlm

hurricane

'Get a life': Hurricane whips up US election storm

BY DANNY KEMP

  • when a reporter asked after a hurricane briefing on Thursday if he had spoken to Trump, the man he beat in the 2020 election, to tell him to stop the misinformation.
  • Hurricane Milton crashed into the US presidential election Thursday as President Joe Biden told Donald Trump to "get a life" and Kamala Harris rebuked her election rival for spreading misinformation.
  • when a reporter asked after a hurricane briefing on Thursday if he had spoken to Trump, the man he beat in the 2020 election, to tell him to stop the misinformation.
Hurricane Milton crashed into the US presidential election Thursday as President Joe Biden told Donald Trump to "get a life" and Kamala Harris rebuked her election rival for spreading misinformation.
As Florida reeled from Milton and the recent Hurricane Helene, a political tempest was brewing as Trump and his Republicans unleashed a flood of falsehoods about the White House response to the two storms.
Biden and Harris have launched a feisty fightback as they seek to show they are in control of the situation, and accuse the former president of putting survivors in danger.
The 81-year-old president testily said, "Are you kidding me?" when a reporter asked after a hurricane briefing on Thursday if he had spoken to Trump, the man he beat in the 2020 election, to tell him to stop the misinformation.
Biden then stopped, looked directly into the television camera and said in mock commander-in-chief style: "Mr president Trump, former president Trump -- get a life, man, help these people."
He took another potshot on his way out, saying that "the public will hold him accountable" at the ballot box in November.
Biden dropped out of the 2024 race and handed the baton to his vice president after a disastrous debate against Trump, but is keenly aware the way his administration handles the hurricane response could weigh on her election chances.

 'Lies'

Harris also attacked the former president, after he spoke about wind turbines in a campaign speech where he mocked its proponents for thinking it "sounds so wonderful."
"Yesterday, I met with members of the federal team that is working around the clock to deliver relief to Americans affected by Helene and Milton," Harris said on X while on the campaign trail in Nevada.
"Meanwhile, Donald Trump spread lies and educated us about the sound of the wind."
Far from fostering national unity in the face of catastrophe, the double whammy of hurricanes has fueled US political divisions less than four weeks before an agonizingly close and bitterly fought election.
"Hopefully on January 20, you're going to have somebody who's really going to help you," Trump said in a video message on Thursday to the people of Florida, where he lives, in a reference to the date the next president will be sworn into office.
Trump has repeatedly taken aim at Harris and Biden, slamming them for being out of Washington when Helene hit two weeks ago and then falsely claiming the White House had not been in contact with the governors of affected states.
Biden accused Trump of an "onslaught of lies" including that money for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was being diverted to migrants; that flood-hit property is confiscated; and that storm victims are only getting $750 in total compensation.
US Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said hurricane recovery workers were now receiving threats online.
"We are seeing horrific hate speech," Mayorkas told a White House briefing, adding that it was a "motivating force for people to do harm, and it has got to stop."

 'So stupid'

As Milton left a trail of devastation across Florida and at least 10 people dead, the conservative Republican governor and former presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis further stirred things up over claims that he'd refused to take calls from Harris.
"What she's doing is she's trying to inject herself into this because of her political campaign," said DeSantis, adding that he "didn't even know she was trying to reach me."
DeSantis added: "I don't have time for those games. I don't care about her campaign. Obviously I'm not a supporter of hers."
In a brief moment of bipartisanship, Biden said Wednesday as Hurricane Milton drew near that the Florida governor had been "very gracious" when they spoke.
But he also launched into another condemnation of right-wing hurricane misinformation -- especially conspiracy theories spread by pro-Trump Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene that the hurricanes were geo-engineered.
"It's so stupid," he said. "It's got to stop."
dk/sst

inflation

US consumer inflation eases to 2.4% in September

BY DANIEL AVIS

  • - 'Benign' inflation outlook - While inflation has eased toward the Fed's long-term target of two percent, the labor market has shown some signs of cooling in recent months, causing policymakers to refocus their attention on the employment side of the bank's dual mandate. 
  • US consumer inflation cooled last month -- though slightly less than expected -- according to government data published Thursday, providing further evidence that price pressures are easing ahead of November's presidential election. 
  • - 'Benign' inflation outlook - While inflation has eased toward the Fed's long-term target of two percent, the labor market has shown some signs of cooling in recent months, causing policymakers to refocus their attention on the employment side of the bank's dual mandate. 
US consumer inflation cooled last month -- though slightly less than expected -- according to government data published Thursday, providing further evidence that price pressures are easing ahead of November's presidential election. 
The consumer price index (CPI) slowed to 2.4 percent in September from a year ago, down from 2.5 percent in August, the Labor Department said in a statement.
This was slightly above the median forecast of economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal. 
There was also some cause for concern for the Federal Reserve as it looks to cut interest rates: a measure of inflation that strips out volatile food and energy costs rose slightly to 3.3 percent, up from 3.2 percent in August, buoyed by a jump in the transportation services index last month.
Monthly headline inflation rose by 0.2 percent, while core inflation also exceeded forecasts to increase by 0.3 percent.
Despite the "slight upward surprise relative to what we're expecting," the inflation picture isn't all bad, Oxford Economics' deputy chief US economist Michael Pearce told AFP. 
Given "the broader trend in services inflation, I think I'm still confident in the view that that's going to continue to trend lower over the next 12 months," he said.
- Top concern for voters - 
The economy has remained a top concern for voters going into the upcoming presidential election, in which Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris is running against former president Donald Trump, a Republican. 
Both candidates have talked up their record in government in recent months, while criticizing their opponent's economic plans.
"We keep making progress, with inflation returning to pre-pandemic levels, 16 million jobs created, lower interest rates and low unemployment," Lael Brainard, the White House national economic advisor, said in a statement. 
In a speech in Detroit on Thursday, Trump blamed the Fed -- the independent US central bank -- for the "hotter" September inflation data. 
"It was too big a cut, and everyone knows that was a political maneuver that they tried to do before the election," Trump said. The former US president has previously indicated he believes the commander-in-chief should have a "say" over interest rates. 
"But they did the wrong thing," Trump continued, adding -- without evidence -- that "inflation has started to rise," as a result of last month's rate cut. 
Peace from Oxford Economics painted a more nuanced picture.
"If you focus on just the last few months, the economy's I think doing quite well, and would be supportive of the incumbent party," he told AFP.
"But if you focus on the past three and a half, four years, you know, what we have seen is a big drag on real incomes, sluggish growth in terms of real disposable incomes," he added. "And that's obviously a political liability for the Democrats."

'Benign' inflation outlook

While inflation has eased toward the Fed's long-term target of two percent, the labor market has shown some signs of cooling in recent months, causing policymakers to refocus their attention on the employment side of the bank's dual mandate. 
Against this backdrop, the Fed voted last month to cut interest rates by half a percentage point and penciled in an additional half point of cuts this year. 
The fundamental inflation outlook "remains benign," economists at Pantheon Macroeconomics wrote in a note to clients on Thursday. 
"The September CPI report came in slightly hotter than expected, but not enough to meaningfully change the outlook for US inflation," economists at Wells Fargo wrote in an investor note. 
The data support "a more measured pace of rate cuts," said Pearce.
"I think they're still confident that inflation is heading down, but obviously that, you know, we will see noisy reports like today's," he added. "It's going to be a bumpy process. It's not a glide path down to two percent." 
Futures traders currently assign a probability of roughly 80 percent that the Fed will cut interest rates by an additional quarter percentage point in November, and place a similar likelihood on a further cut of the same size at December's meeting, according to data from CME Group. 
da/acb

rights

Human rights activist, family matriarch Ethel Kennedy dead at 96

  • Ethel Kennedy, who died of complications from a stroke, was a matriarch of a family that counted former president John F. Kennedy -- also assassinated -- and senator Ted Kennedy among its ranks.
  • Ethel Kennedy, a tireless advocate for human rights and widow of assassinated US politician Robert F. Kennedy, died Thursday at the age of 96, her family said.
  • Ethel Kennedy, who died of complications from a stroke, was a matriarch of a family that counted former president John F. Kennedy -- also assassinated -- and senator Ted Kennedy among its ranks.
Ethel Kennedy, a tireless advocate for human rights and widow of assassinated US politician Robert F. Kennedy, died Thursday at the age of 96, her family said.
"It is with our hearts full of love that we announce the passing of our amazing grandmother," former congressman Joe Kennedy III said on social media.
Ethel Kennedy, who died of complications from a stroke, was a matriarch of a family that counted former president John F. Kennedy -- also assassinated -- and senator Ted Kennedy among its ranks.
She was also the mother of Robert F. Kennedy Jr, a vaccine conspiracy theorist whose failed third-party presidential bid and endorsement of Republican Donald Trump cast a shadow over the family's status in American politics and the Democratic Party.
Born Ethel Skakel in Chicago in 1928, she met her future husband at the age of 17.
Robert Kennedy -- known as Bobby or RFK -- would go on to serve as US attorney general in his brother John's administration and later as a senator representing New York.
Five years after JFK's assassination, Robert Kennedy was himself shot dead while running for president in 1968.
Six months after his death, Ethel Kennedy gave birth to the couple's 11th child.
She went on to found Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, an advocacy organization notable for its work on freedom of expression around the world.
In 2014, then-president Barack Obama honored her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian distinction in the United States.
US President Joe Biden led tributes that swiftly poured in for Kennedy Thursday calling her "a hero in her own right."
"Kennedy was an American icon -- a matriarch of optimism and moral courage, an emblem of resilience and service," Biden said in a statement, adding that she had "stood up for human rights around the world with her signature iron will and grace."
Former president Obama hailed her as an "extraordinary" woman, "a dear friend with a passion for justice (and) an irrepressible spirit."
Kennedy's niece, journalist Maria Shriver, posted on X that her aunt was "fearless, funny, smart, incredible athlete, patriot, madly in love with my Uncle Bobby, and devoted to making our country better in every way."
Praising her "lifetime's work in social justice and human rights," Joe Kennedy III said, "we are comforted in knowing she is reunited with the love of her life, our father, Robert F. Kennedy."
She is survived by nine children, 34 grandchildren and 24 great-grandchildren, the former congressman said.
rle/mlm/bfm

rights

Ethel Kennedy, wife of RFK, dead at 96

  • Ethel Kennedy, who died of complications from a stroke, was a key figure in a family that counted former president John F. Kennedy -- also assassinated -- and senator Ted Kennedy among its ranks.
  • Ethel Kennedy, the widow of assassinated US politician Robert F. Kennedy, died Thursday at the age of 96, her family said.
  • Ethel Kennedy, who died of complications from a stroke, was a key figure in a family that counted former president John F. Kennedy -- also assassinated -- and senator Ted Kennedy among its ranks.
Ethel Kennedy, the widow of assassinated US politician Robert F. Kennedy, died Thursday at the age of 96, her family said.
"It is with our hearts full of love that we announce the passing of our amazing grandmother," former congressman Joe Kennedy III said on social media.
Ethel Kennedy, who died of complications from a stroke, was a key figure in a family that counted former president John F. Kennedy -- also assassinated -- and senator Ted Kennedy among its ranks.
She was also the mother of Robert F. Kennedy Jr, a vaccine conspiracy theorist whose failed third-party presidential bid and endorsement of Donald Trump cast a shadow over the family's dynastic status in American politics and the Democratic Party.
Born Ethel Skakel in Chicago in 1928, she met her future husband at the age of 17.
Robert Kennedy -- known as Bobby or RFK -- would go on to serve as US attorney general in his brother John's administration, serving from 1961 to 1964. He was later a senator representing New York.
Five years after JFK's assassination, Robert Kennedy was himself shot dead while running for president in 1968.
Six months after his death, Ethel Kennedy gave birth to the couple's 11th child.
She went on to found Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, an advocacy organization notable for its work on freedom of expression around the world.
In 2014, then-president Barack Obama honored her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian distinction in the United States.
Praising her "lifetime's work in social justice and human rights," Joe Kennedy III said, "we are comforted in knowing she is reunited with the love of her life, our father, Robert F. Kennedy."
She is survived by nine children, 34 grandchildren and 24 great-grandchildren, the former congressman said.
rle/nro/mlm

politics

'Sleeper agent' bots on X fuel US election misinformation, study says

BY ANUJ CHOPRA

  • "We were not surprised to find another pro-Russian bot network, but we were shocked to learn that some of the accounts in the sleeper agent network have been active for more than a decade," Nina Jankowicz, the group's co-founder and chief executive, told AFP. Jankowicz, the former Department of Homeland Security disinformation chief, called on X to take down the network, which has seen an uptick in "abusive and false content" targeting Harris.
  • Hundreds of apparent pro-Russian bot accounts on X are pushing US election misinformation and amplifying false narratives about Democratic contender Kamala Harris, a research group said Thursday, calling them "sleeper agents" for having evaded detection for years.
  • "We were not surprised to find another pro-Russian bot network, but we were shocked to learn that some of the accounts in the sleeper agent network have been active for more than a decade," Nina Jankowicz, the group's co-founder and chief executive, told AFP. Jankowicz, the former Department of Homeland Security disinformation chief, called on X to take down the network, which has seen an uptick in "abusive and false content" targeting Harris.
Hundreds of apparent pro-Russian bot accounts on X are pushing US election misinformation and amplifying false narratives about Democratic contender Kamala Harris, a research group said Thursday, calling them "sleeper agents" for having evaded detection for years.
The findings by the Washington-based American Sunlight Project (ASP) demonstrate how bot-like activity plagues X, previously called Twitter, despite pledges by billionaire owner Elon Musk to crack down on the digital manipulation.
ASP analyzed nearly 1,200 accounts, a long-standing network that generated more than 100 million posts as of July, including pro-Kremlin propaganda, content favoring Republican nominee Donald Trump, and misinformation about Harris's campaign.
The accounts, some of which have escaped detection and moderation on the site for as long as 15 years, retweeted such content within seconds of its posting, indicating bot activity, the group said in a report shared with AFP ahead of its public release.
"We were not surprised to find another pro-Russian bot network, but we were shocked to learn that some of the accounts in the sleeper agent network have been active for more than a decade," Nina Jankowicz, the group's co-founder and chief executive, told AFP.
Jankowicz, the former Department of Homeland Security disinformation chief, called on X to take down the network, which has seen an uptick in "abusive and false content" targeting Harris.
One account created in 2020 promoted the falsehood that Harris had admitted that she will be a "puppet" of Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky if elected president.
It also touted the unfounded claim that the White House was pushing for regime change in Lebanon, taking advantage of Israel's recent attacks on the militant group Hezbollah.

Data restrictions

Another account created in 2011 shared a post by Musk -- who has endorsed Trump and courted criticism for amplifying political falsehoods through his influential personal account -- that pushed the debunked narrative that migrants were being imported into the United States to manipulate the November 5 election.
Hundreds of accounts in the network are not attributable to real social media users, with some creating fake personas using images from stock photo websites such as Shutterstock, ASP said. 
To disguise their objectives and more easily "inject themselves into larger X/Twitter conversations," some accounts regularly shared content about subjects such as sports and cryptocurrency, the report said.
It was not possible to determine the precise entity behind the pro-Russian accounts.
With data restrictions imposed by X since Musk purchased the company in 2022 for $44 billion, it was also difficult to assess their exact reach.
Researchers are now required to pay a hefty fee for access to its API, which allows third-party developers to gather the social platform's data.
"If researchers had data access restored, more of such activity would likely be visible," the ASP report said.

'Platform manipulation'

Bots and other automated accounts, researchers say, are a cornerstone of the Kremlin's efforts to spread misinformation, in some cases supplanting state media accounts which have been restricted across several countries since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
X did not reply to AFP's request for comment. 
Ahead of his purchase of the platform, Musk pledged to "defeat the spam bots or die trying."
But bot activity remains entrenched on the platform, a report from Australia's Queensland University of Technology said last year, after an analysis of about one million posts.
The platform has gutted trust and safety teams and scaled back content moderation efforts, making it what researchers call a hotbed for misinformation.
"Despite the fact that Musk has an avowed goal of ridding his platform of bots, we've found that they persist on X, even coming from networks that are likely state-affiliated," said Jankowicz.
"This is behavior that is fairly easy to identify, and yet this multi-billion dollar corporation has not cracked down on these accounts that violate its platform manipulation and spam policies."
ac/bjt

hurricane

Florida seaside haven a ghost town as hurricane nears

BY GERARD MARTINEZ WITH DANIEL STUBLEN IN ORLANDO

  • Sarasota is one of many cities and towns along the west coast of Florida that are girding for Milton, which is expected to make landfall overnight Wednesday into Thursday.
  • The normally pleasant seaside town of Sarasota looked deserted Wednesday, with most of its residents gone or seeking shelter as dangerous Hurricane Milton rumbled toward Florida.
  • Sarasota is one of many cities and towns along the west coast of Florida that are girding for Milton, which is expected to make landfall overnight Wednesday into Thursday.
The normally pleasant seaside town of Sarasota looked deserted Wednesday, with most of its residents gone or seeking shelter as dangerous Hurricane Milton rumbled toward Florida.
The town of 57,000 people sits on a bay connected to the Gulf of Mexico and in normal times its prime location is a lure for visitors.
But these are anything but normal times: Hurricane Helene hit Florida two weeks ago, doing major damage, and next comes Milton -- a monstrous storm packing 130 mph winds and potential for a coastal surge of 15 feet (4.5 meters).
Sarasota is one of many cities and towns along the west coast of Florida that are girding for Milton, which is expected to make landfall overnight Wednesday into Thursday.
Brad Reeves, a 55-year-old building inspector, took a walk along the bay in the morning to have one last look before hunkering down in his apartment, in a modern building several miles from the coast.
"This situation really rattles your nerves," Reeves told AFP.
"You have moments where you're excited, moments where you're scared, moments where you just can't sleep. Everything is just topsy-turvy."
Out in the bay, a boat that crashed into the pier of a seaside restaurant less than two weeks ago during Hurricane Helene is still stuck there.
- 'Adds insult to injury' –
Also taking a walk along the water as steady rain falls were 60-year-old Marilyn Borisk and her chihuahua Nemo.
Borisk lives in an apartment in an area that is under an evacuation order but she has decided to stay put, saying she trusts her building, constructed to withstand hurricane force winds, will be sturdy enough.
"It's extremely upsetting for this community. It's a very beautiful, special place, and it's been destroyed with Helene," she said
"Everyone knows someone that's lost a house in the last storm, so it definitely adds insult to injury."
Others in Sarasota are rushing to try to protect their property the best they can from the catastrophic damage that Milton is expected to inflict.
Phil Davies, a 36-year-old real estate agent, shovels sand into bags and dumps them in the trunk of his car. He will stack them outside his house.
"I am just going to hunker down and get ready for this," said Davies. "It will be a rough night. We'll make it through and rebuild what needs to be rebuilt, and we'll be okay."
- Hotel as shelter - 
In the city center one of the few hotels that remain open has been turned into a shelter for people who do not want to leave town but do not feel safe in their homes.
Dozens of people  -- young, elderly, families with kids -- walked up and down the corridors of the hotel with their belongings stacked on carts.
Many of them brought their dogs and took them out of the hotel for walks.
"We could not leave our pet alone. It must always be with us," Samuel Urzua, a 53-year-old chef, said of his dog, Bombon.
"You feel safer here. There are trees that could fall onto the roof of my house so I came here with some friends and relatives," said Urzua. 

 'It's scary, man'

Milton is threatening much of the west coast of Florida and many people have sought refuge far from the Gulf of Mexico.
In Orlando, in central Florida, people are afraid of flooding, just two years after Hurricane Ian deluged them with water.
"Ian was a really big eye-opener for us," said Brandon Allen, a water rescue official preparing to deploy to areas at risk of flooding.
"As Ian showed, all things can go out the window," in huge storms like this, Allen said.
On the outskirts of Orlando, home to Disney World, dozens of people have taken refuge at a high school as they await the arrival of Milton.
"It's scary, man," said Nour Jeboki, 34, who brought his wife and kids to the shelter.
He lived in Texas 20 years ago and lost everything in a hurricane. This time he was determined to find some place safe to weather Milton.
Jeboki said he is praying for the best. "This one here, I'm nervous," he said.
gma/dw/bjt

ballots

In swing state Georgia, last-minute election rules stir controversy

BY BECCA MILFELD

  • With the US presidential vote only weeks away, the Georgia State Election Board, led by a pro-Trump majority, passed a controversial requirement in September that counties manually hand count their ballots, a move that has caused alarm in the closely watched swing state.
  • In the town of Leesburg in rural southwest Georgia, just over a dozen election workers sit at card tables, each thumbing through stacks of 50 blank pieces of paper, practicing counting ballots by hand. 
  • With the US presidential vote only weeks away, the Georgia State Election Board, led by a pro-Trump majority, passed a controversial requirement in September that counties manually hand count their ballots, a move that has caused alarm in the closely watched swing state.
In the town of Leesburg in rural southwest Georgia, just over a dozen election workers sit at card tables, each thumbing through stacks of 50 blank pieces of paper, practicing counting ballots by hand. 
With the US presidential vote only weeks away, the Georgia State Election Board, led by a pro-Trump majority, passed a controversial requirement in September that counties manually hand count their ballots, a move that has caused alarm in the closely watched swing state.
Veronica Johnson, who is leading the training session as the Lee County director of elections and registration, says hand counting the ballots is unlikely to pose major operational problems in her small county. 
But logistics are far from election officials' only concern. 
Georgia officials from both sides of the political aisle say the count is not only superfluous -- machines already count the ballots -- but also a potential tool to sow doubt by slowing the process and creating space for disinformation should discrepancies arise via error-prone human counting.
"I don't feel it's necessary. I have no problem saying that. I think that at our precincts here in Lee County we're already balancing our numbers," Johnson told AFP.
The change is all the more notable given Republican candidate Donald Trump's alleged election tampering in the state in 2020, pushing for Georgia officials to "find" enough votes to overturn President Joe Biden's victory.

'Misguided'

Lee is among Georgia's 159 counties, which encompass major metropolitan areas such as Atlanta and rural regions like the area surrounding Leesburg, with populations ranging from majority white to majority Black.
Like many of its rural counterparts, Lee County voted heavily in 2020 for Trump, who received 72 percent of its votes.
Poll workers such as those at the training will be stationed across the county's 10 voting precincts on November 5, when the United States chooses between Trump and his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, in addition to candidates in hundreds of down-ballot races.
Because of lawsuits, Johnson is unsure if hand counting will actually happen.
"Honestly every election director I know really just wants to serve the people and not get bogged down by the political ramifications," she said, emphasizing that ballots are already counted by machine three times.
Calling the rule change "misguided," Georgia's Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said that "activists seeking to impose last-minute changes in election procedures" only "undermine voter confidence and burden election workers," while Georgia's Republican attorney general has stated the new rule is likely illegal.
The Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Party of Georgia sued to block the rule last week with the Harris campaign's backing.

'Untrusting'

The state election board passed the rule by a three-to-two vote -- those in favor being staunch Trump backers praised by the ex-president as "pit bulls" fighting for "victory."
Along the same three-to-two lines, the board passed another rule in August allowing county election boards to conduct a "reasonable inquiry" before certifying results.
Like the hand count requirement, the measure is being challenged in court, with critics particularly worried about the vagueness of the word "reasonable."
Mitchell Brown, director of the election administration program at Auburn University in Alabama, told AFP such a rule is unnecessary given that election officials "have meetings regularly where they go through the documentation and the information with the certifying body."
"The bigger, more interesting question to me is, what happens if a body chooses not to certify?"
Back in Lee County, Donna Mathis, who has served as a poll worker since 2018, noted that the "country is divided so much."
Asked about the hand count and reasonable inquiry rule, she said, "the hand count doesn't bother me" given how quickly they were able to tabulate the votes.
But "I think you can inquire too much, it ties things up," she added. "People are just so untrusting anymore that they question everything."
bfm/mlm

Harris

Call her savvy? Harris unleashes unconventional media blitz

BY DANNY KEMP

  • Former bad-boy Howard Stern hailed Harris on his SiriusXM show on Tuesday as "great" and "compassionate" and urged her to "end this nightmare" by beating Trump -- while Harris spoke about her fondness for raisin bran cereal and exercises while watching a left-leaning morning political show, and how she is a fan of Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton.
  • She loves raisin bran and exercise, and is as comfortable talking about abortion as she is about beer.
  • Former bad-boy Howard Stern hailed Harris on his SiriusXM show on Tuesday as "great" and "compassionate" and urged her to "end this nightmare" by beating Trump -- while Harris spoke about her fondness for raisin bran cereal and exercises while watching a left-leaning morning political show, and how she is a fan of Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton.
She loves raisin bran and exercise, and is as comfortable talking about abortion as she is about beer. Meet Kamala Harris -- or at least a rather different side that emerged in an unconventional US media blitz this week.
After weeks of largely avoiding interviews since becoming the Democratic presidential nominee, Harris has taken a leaf out of rival Donald Trump's playbook and started speaking to a host of podcasters and friendly outlets.
From the popular "Call Her Daddy" podcast aimed at Gen-Z women to former radio "shock jock" Howard Stern, the 59-year-old vice president has barely been off the airwaves.
It's true that Harris did also sit down for a full-on interview on topics with one of the biggest US news institutions of all, the "60 Minutes" show on CBS — one that Trump himself backed out of.
But it was in less formal settings, which also included Hollywood star Whoopi Goldberg's daytime show "The View" and with the late-night comic Stephen Colbert, where Harris appeared to relish a more relaxed atmosphere.
Her campaign has heavily played up what it says is a way of targeting specific groups of voters, including young people and women, especially as Americans increasingly abandon "legacy" media.
"This plan makes a ton of sense to me," former White House spokesperson Jen Psaki told the left-leaning MSNBC network -- rejecting as sour grapes the complaints by some traditional media that Harris would face softball questions.

'Daddy gang'

Psaki highlighted Harris's appearance on podcaster Alexandra Cooper's "Call Her Daddy" show, which features frank discussions on sex and mental health, saying it was "far more valuable than any interview with a more traditional outlet."
The podcast was ranked as Spotify's second-biggest of 2023, behind "The Joe Rogan Experience," and the top podcast for women listeners.
Harris's interview with the podcast was a prime example of a more at-ease side of America's first Black, female and South Asian vice president, who has often appeared tense in major interviews.
Asked by Cooper to "tell the daddy gang" about her views, Harris spoke at length on protecting abortion rights and slammed Republican Trump for his sexist comments, saying it was "really important not to let other people define you."
Predictably in a deeply polarized America, there was some backlash against the host, including from listeners who criticized her for bringing politics into the show.
Trump has had similar success with unconventional media, reaching out to a core constituency of disaffected young men with macho messaging on influential right-wing podcasts -- and through an interview and campaign appearances with tech titan Elon Musk.
But Harris has been keen to show she has her own mediasphere on the left.
Former bad-boy Howard Stern hailed Harris on his SiriusXM show on Tuesday as "great" and "compassionate" and urged her to "end this nightmare" by beating Trump -- while Harris spoke about her fondness for raisin bran cereal and exercises while watching a left-leaning morning political show, and how she is a fan of Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton.

'Softball questions'

Trump hit back the next day. "BETA MALE Howard Stern made a fool of himself on his low rated radio show when he "interviewed" Lyin' Kamala Harris, and hit her with so many SOFTBALL questions that even she was embarrassed," he said on his Truth Social network.
But Harris faced multiple probing questions on her blitz. Colbert, with whom she shared a Miller High Life beer, pushed her repeatedly on Israel's war in Gaza, while Republicans pounced on Harris for saying on ABC's "The View" that there was "not a thing that comes to mind" that she'd change about President Joe Biden's policies. 
Kenneth Miller, a political science expert of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, said non-traditional media were increasingly a better way to get policy across to voters.
"Frankly, traditional outlets ask bad questions," he told AFP.
He said Trump and Harris were doing similar things for different reasons.
"Trump is about seeking out friendly outlets," he said, whereas "Harris is about seeking outlets that give her access to the voters that she needs" including under-50s and independents.
"It's a style of media that candidates enjoy," he added.
Two strangely similar remarks by Trump and Harris on Tuesday seemed to bear that out in the middle of a punishing campaign.
"This is my form of therapy, right now," Harris told Stern, just hours before Trump said on a Los Angeles radio station: "You know what this is for me? Therapy."
dk/mlm

India

Trump lauds India's Modi as 'total killer'

  • Total killer."
  • Republican White House candidate Donald Trump praised Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a "total killer" Wednesday as he discussed foreign leaders during a media blitz for the final stretch of the election campaign.
  • Total killer."
Republican White House candidate Donald Trump praised Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a "total killer" Wednesday as he discussed foreign leaders during a media blitz for the final stretch of the election campaign.
"He's great. He's a friend of mine," Trump told a podcast with millions of subscribers hosted by stand-up comedian Andrew Schultz. "On the outside he looks like he's your father. He's the nicest. Total killer."
Trump and Hindu-nationalist Modi enjoy warm relations and the former US president has a sizable following among right-wing groups in India, who see him as a kindred spirit aligned with their hostility towards Muslims. 
The pair heaped praise on each other in a joint appearance at a stadium in Houston in 2019, touting a close, personal alliance in front of tens of thousands of Indian-Americans.
Some 50,000 people attended the event -- dubbed, with a Texan twang, "Howdy, Modi!" -- and it was billed as the largest gathering ever by a foreign leader other than the pope in the United States.
Modi hosted Trump at an even bigger US-style rally in his home state of Gujarat during Trump's last year in office, before an estimated 100,000 supporters.
Trump -- who, like Modi, has been accused of discriminating against Muslims -- has stood by the Indian leader through multiple controversies, including the revocation of autonomy for Muslim-majority Kashmir.
"We had a couple of occasions where somebody was threatening India," Trump told Schultz. "I said, 'Let me help. I'm very good with those people. Let me help.'" 
Apparently mimicking Modi's reply, Trump then said: "I will do it, I will do it, and I will do anything necessary. We've defeated them for hundreds of years."
"He was talking about a certain country. You can probably guess," said Trump.
He did not name the nation, although India and Pakistan have fought three major wars and countless border conflicts since they were partitioned out of the Indian subcontinent in 1947. 
Polling for the US election shows the Republican billionaire neck and neck with Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris, who is of Indian heritage, with just four weeks left before Americans pick their next leader.
ft/bgs

vote

The US economy is solid: Why are voters gloomy?

BY BEIYI SEOW AND JULIE CHABANAS

  • While Harris has narrowed Trump's lead, polls have suggested voters favor the former president on economic issues.
  • Cooling inflation, low unemployment, robust economic growth and... downbeat voters.
  • While Harris has narrowed Trump's lead, polls have suggested voters favor the former president on economic issues.
Cooling inflation, low unemployment, robust economic growth and... downbeat voters.
Despite indicators showing the US economy is moving in a healthy direction, many Americans remain pessimistic about business and job prospects -- a mood that poses a frustrating problem for Vice President Kamala Harris in her neck-and-neck race with Donald Trump for the White House.
Less than a month before November's presidential election, the US economy added around 100,000 more jobs than expected in September, saw wages grow further and inflation approach striking distance of policymakers' two percent target.
Yet, almost half the respondents of a New York Times/Siena College poll released Tuesday rated current economic conditions "poor."
Poll after poll has also found the economy -- particularly inflation -- to be a top voter concern by far.
While Harris has narrowed Trump's lead, polls have suggested voters favor the former president on economic issues.
Economists point to a cumulative rise in costs since the pandemic, still-high home prices and uneven job gains in explaining a seeming disconnect between data and voter sentiment.
"At the same time that they're aware that inflation has slowed, (consumers) remain frustrated by high prices," said Joanne Hsu of the University of Michigan.
For politicians, "the low-hanging fruit is trying to take aim at prices that people see on a day-to-day basis," economist Ryan Sweet of Oxford Economics said, referring to food and gas.
"This election cycle just highlights inflation is extremely unpopular," he added.

Price shock

"Over the last few years, consumers have gone through a period of very large price increases," Sweet told AFP.
"You'd have to go back to the 1970s and 1980s to see the last time that the US economy had inflation that high."
Inflation climbed to over 14 percent in 1980.
Consumers again saw price increases soar to a painful 9.1 percent in mid-2022.
"For many voters, that's the first time they experienced (such) inflation," Sweet said.
While the Consumer Price Index (CPI) fell to 2.5 percent in August, Sweet said "it's the price level that matters to the consumer" and not inflation numbers.
The CPI for food has risen 26 percent since February 2020 during the pandemic, he noted.
The cost of gas also increased, while that of new and used vehicles are around 20 percent above 2020 levels.

Less savings

Trump appears to be tapping into such sentiment.
"Inflation has devastated our economy," he told reporters last week.
Trump also linked last week's dockworkers strike to inflation, saying it badly hit workers.
On Sunday, he charged that "inflation will soar" if Harris took office and promised to "make America affordable again."
"Just seeing prices increase steadily over time weighs on the collective psyche, particularly for low-, mid-income households," said Sweet.
Voters' gloominess come despite the Congressional Budget Office finding in May that purchasing power grew across groups as incomes rose quicker than prices between 2019 and 2023.
It may be true that wages are rising faster than inflation in general, Hsu said, "but that's not necessarily true for an individual person."
And it's hard to shake off memories of the pandemic, said Nationwide chief economist Kathy Bostjancic.
"Those years where income fell short, household income, consumers relied more on credit cards or dipped more into their savings," added Bostjancic.
This means higher credit card bills and more delinquencies, especially among lower-income or younger people, adding to pressures like student loans, she added.
The pre-pandemic savings rate was over seven percent but currently stands at around five percent.

Uneven hiring

Overall hiring numbers also mask large variations across industries, said ZipRecruiter chief economist Julia Pollak.
Job growth has been concentrated in a few industries, with basically all jobs added recently going towards sectors that "only account for 48 percent of employment," she added.
The other half of US workers have seen "unusually slow growth in their industries," Pollak said, with hiring sluggish outside sectors like government, health care, and leisure and hospitality.
Although workers had 17 months of positive real wage growth, they experienced a longer period of negative growth previously.
"There are many workers who still feel like their wages need to catch up," she said.
bys/bgs

execution

US Supreme Court to hear Oklahoma man's death row appeal

BY CHRIS LEFKOW

  • The Supreme Court stayed his execution, however, following an appeal by Drummond and Glossip's lawyers and agreed in January to hear the case.
  • The US Supreme Court hears the high-profile case on Wednesday of an Oklahoma man whose conviction and death sentence has sparked appeals for clemency from Pope Francis and Hollywood stars.
  • The Supreme Court stayed his execution, however, following an appeal by Drummond and Glossip's lawyers and agreed in January to hear the case.
The US Supreme Court hears the high-profile case on Wednesday of an Oklahoma man whose conviction and death sentence has sparked appeals for clemency from Pope Francis and Hollywood stars.
Richard Glossip, 61, was convicted -- twice -- of the 1997 murder of Barry Van Treese, an Oklahoma City motel owner, and sentenced to death.
Execution dates have been scheduled nine times and he has eaten three "last meals."
Glossip's first conviction, in 1998, was overturned because of ineffective counsel, but he was tried once more in 2004 and again found guilty.
Since then, his case has been subject to an extraordinary series of twists and turns.
The Republican attorney general of Oklahoma -- generally an ardent supporter of the death penalty -- is among those seeking a new trial for Glossip.
Citing "grave prosecutorial misconduct" and a star witness who lied on the stand, Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond asked the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals last year to vacate Glossip's conviction.
The Oklahoma court refused and Glossip was scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on May 18, 2023.
The Supreme Court stayed his execution, however, following an appeal by Drummond and Glossip's lawyers and agreed in January to hear the case.
An independent attorney has been appointed by the Supreme Court to defend the Oklahoma court's refusal to vacate Glossip's conviction.
David Cole, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union, noted the unusual nature of the proceedings.
"It's a remarkable case in which both the defense and the prosecution believe this man should not be executed and yet they have to come to the Supreme Court to seek that relief," Cole said.
"And the Supreme Court has had to appoint counsel to argue that he should be executed -- notwithstanding the desires of the person who prosecuted him and the individual who stands to lose his life."

Maintains innocence

Glossip has steadfastly maintained his innocence in the murder of Van Treese, owner of the Best Budget Inn.
Glossip, who managed the motel, was found guilty of hiring another motel employee, maintenance man Justin Sneed, to carry out the actual murder.
Sneed, who was 19 at the time, confessed to bludgeoning Van Treese to death with a baseball bat but escaped a death sentence with his testimony that Glossip had masterminded the plot and paid him to carry out the murder.
Glossip was convicted solely on the testimony of Sneed.
An independent investigation commissioned by the attorney general found that Sneed lied on the stand and that prosecutors had "knowingly elicited his false testimony" while covering up evidence of his mental illness.
Actors Mark Ruffalo and Susan Sarandon and British billionaire Richard Branson have been among the celebrities advocating in the past for Glossip's life to be spared.
In 2015, when Glossip's execution appeared imminent, the representative of Pope Francis in the United States sent a letter on behalf of the pontiff to the then governor of Oklahoma asking that the execution be called off.
His case has also been the subject of a four-episode documentary titled "Killing Richard Glossip."
There have been three executions in Oklahoma this year and a total of 19 in the United States.
cl/md