United News of Bangladesh

Donald Trump hosted a rally featuring crude and racist insults at New York’s Madison Square Garden Sunday, turning what his campaign had dubbed as the event where he would deliver his closing message into an illustration of what turns off his critics. With just over a week before Election Day, speakers labeled Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage,” called Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris “the devil,” and said the woman vying to become the first woman and Black woman president had begun her career as a prostitute. “I don’t know if you guys know this, but there’s literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. I think it’s called Puerto Rico,” said Tony Hinchcliffe, a stand-up comic whose set also included lewd and racist comments about Latinos, Jews and Black people, all key constituencies in the election just nine days away. His joke was immediately criticized by Harris’ campaign as it competes with Trump to win over Puerto Rican communities in Pennsylvania and other swing states. Puerto Rican music superstar Bad Bunny endorsed Harris shortly after Hinchcliffe's appearance. The normally pugnacious Trump campaign took the rare step of distancing itself from Hinchcliffe. “This joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign," senior adviser Danielle Alvarez said in a statement. But other speakers also made incendiary comments. Trump’s childhood friend David Rem referred to Harris as “the Antichrist” and “the devil.” Businessman Grant Cardone told the crowd that Harris ”and her pimp handlers will destroy our country.” The marquee event reflected the former president's tone throughout his third White House campaign. Though he refrained from doing so Sunday, Trump often tears into Harris in offensive and personal terms himself, questioning in recent weeks her mental stability and her intelligence as well as calling her “lazy,” long a racist trope used against Black people. The event was a surreal spectacle that included former professional wrestler Hulk Hogan, TV psychologist Dr. Phil McGraw, former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, politicians including House Speaker Mike Johnson and Reps. Byron Donalds and Elise Stefanik, and an artist who painted a picture of Trump hugging the Empire State Building. And that was all before Trump was to take the stage, running more than two hours late. After being introduced by his wife, Melania Trump, in a rare public appearance, the former president began by asking the same questions he’s asked at the start of every recent rally: “Are you better off now than you were four years ago?” The crowd responded with a resounding “No!” “This election is a choice between whether we’ll have four more years of gross incompetence and failure, or whether we’ll begin the greatest years in the history of our country,” he said. Trump announced a new tax credit for caregivers Trump on Sunday added a new proposal to his list of tax cuts aimed at winning over older adults and blue-collar workers, which already includes vows to end taxes on Social Security benefits, tips and overtime pay: A tax credit for family caregivers. This comes after Harris has talked about the “sandwich generation” of adults caring for aging parents while raising their children at the same time. Harris has proposed federal funding to cover home care costs for older Americans. Trump otherwise repeated familiar lines about foreign policy and immigration, calling for the death penalty for any migrant who kills a U.S. citizen and saying that the day he takes office, “The migrant invasion of our country ends.” As Trump’s remarks came up on an hour, some of the crowd began trickling out. Tech mogul Elon Musk, who spoke earlier and introduced Melania Trump, was a prominent part of Trump’s closing campaign message. The former president called Musk “a genius” and “special.” Musk nodded to Trump's recent plan to allow him to lead a government efficiency commission to audit the entire federal government. Several of Musk's businesses, including Tesla and SpaceX, have major government contracts or have relied on U.S. subsidies, and Musk has faced criticism after reports that he has spoken privately with Russian President Vladimir Putin. “Your money is being wasted and the department of government efficiency is going to fix that," Musk said before taking a place offstage beside Melania Trump. Many of the speakers Sunday appeared on stage at the Republican National Convention. This time, the same speakers shouted and railed more against Democrats. Hogan, returning to the venue where he performed years ago as a professional wrestler, seemed to reprise his character, emerging wearing a giant red, orange and yellow boa and violently waving a large American flag as he posed and danced. He spat on the stage during his speech, flexed his muscles repeatedly and told the audience: “Trump is the only man that can fix this country today.” Trump allies went after Democrats for bringing up a pro-Nazi rally Some Democrats, calling Trump a fascist, have compared his Sunday event to a pro-Nazi rally at the Garden in February 1939. Several speakers on Sunday ripped Hillary Clinton, the Democrat defeated by Trump eight years ago, for saying recently that Trump would be “reenacting” the 1939 event. One of them, radio host Sid Rosenberg, directed a profanity at Clinton. “Hey guys, they’re now scrambling and trying to call us Nazis and fascists,” said Alina Habba, one of Trump’s attorneys, who draped a sparkly “MAGA” jacket over the lectern as she spoke. “And you know what they’re claiming, guys? It’s very scary. They’re claiming we’re going to go after them and try and put them in jail. Well, ain’t that rich?” Declared Hogan in his raspy growl: “I don't see no stinkin' Nazis in here.” Trump has denounced the four criminal indictments brought against him as politically motivated. He has ramped up his denunciations in recent weeks of “enemies from within,” naming domestic political rivals, and suggested he would use the military to go after them. Harris, in turn, has referred to Trump as a fascist. The arena was full hours before Trump was scheduled to speak. Outside the arena, the sidewalks were overflowing with Trump supporters in red “Make America Great Again” hats. There was a heavy security presence. Streets were blocked off and access to Penn Station was restricted. “It just goes to show ya that he has a bigger following of any man that has ever lived,” said Philip D’Agostino, a longtime Trump backer from Queens, the borough where Trump grew up. A New Yorker returns home Trump has a complicated history with the place where he built his business empire and that made him a tabloid and reality TV star. Its residents indicted him last year on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. He was found guilty in that case, and also found liable in civil court for business fraud and sexual abuse. But Trump has been talking about wanting to hold a rally at the venue dubbed “The World’s Most Famous Arena” since he launched his campaign. The rally was one of a number of detours Trump has made from battleground states, including a recent rally in Coachella, California, and rallies on the Jersey Shore and in the South Bronx. While some have dismissed the stops as nothing more than vanity events aimed at boosting Trump’s ego, the rallies guaranteed Trump national coverage that could help him reach the country’s few remaining undecided voters, many of whom don’t get their news from traditional outlets. New York has not voted for a Republican for president in 40 years. But that hasn't stopped Trump from continuing to insist he believes he can win. New York is also home to a handful of competitive congressional races that could determine which party controls the House next year. Trump routinely uses his hometown as a foil before audiences in other states, painting a dark vision of the city that bears little resemblance to reality. He’s cast it as crime-ridden and overrun by violent, immigrant gangs who have taken over Fifth and Madison avenues and occupied Times Square. On Sunday, however, Trump was much more complimentary of the city. He said “no city embodies the spirit” and energy of the American people more and talked about attending basketball and hockey games at the Garden. After Trump concluded his speech after over an hour, opera singer Christopher Macchio came on stage to perform the song “New York, New York.” The former president smiled and swayed slightly, his wife standing next to him on stage.

Many of Donald Trump’s supporters left a Michigan rally before he arrived after the former president kept them waiting for three hours to tape a popular podcast interview. Those who remained at the outdoor rally on an airport tarmac huddled in the cold Friday night as they waited for the former president to touch down in the battleground state. Trump apologized to the crowd for the delay, which he blamed on an interview with Joe Rogan, the nation’s most listened-to podcaster and an influential voice with younger male voters Trump is aggressively courting. The interview, taped in Austin, Texas, was released Friday night and ran a whopping three hours, with Trump telling many familiar stories from his rallies and other interviews but also engaging with Rogan on topics like the existence of UFOs. Democrat Kamala Harris was also in Texas Friday for an appearance with superstar Beyoncé in Houston at an event highlighting the conservative state's abortion ban, which was enacted after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Three of the justices who voted to overturn Roe were nominated by Trump. Minutes before Trump's Michigan rally was scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m. Eastern, his spokesman posted on the social media platform X that Trump was just leaving Texas, more than two hours away by air. Trump recorded a video from his plane urging his supporters to stay, noting it was Friday night and promising, “We’re going to have a good time tonight.” Trump eventually took the stage at the Traverse City airport, where temperatures dipped to about 50 degrees Fahrenheit (10 degrees Celsius). The crowd erupted into cheers as video screens showed Trump’s plane arriving and then him walking off his plane and down the steps. “I am so sorry,” he said. “We got so tied up, and I figured you wouldn’t mind too much because we’re trying to win.” Attendees who hadn't left bundled up, some covered by blankets, as they waited for him to land. The crowd sounded and looked disengaged as North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum and former Republican gubernatorial candidate Tudor Dixon tried to kill time onstage. Hats were thrown to attendees. Among those who stuck around at Trump’s rally were John and Cheryl Sowash, who live in Traverse City, and arrived at the airport at 4 p.m. “Things happen,” said John. “He spoke to a lot more people talking to Joe Rogan than he did here.” Indeed, Cheryl said she was worried about Trump, who had missed speaking to a larger crowd. “He’s gonna be disappointed, because there were twice as many people here. He missed it,” she said. Rogan interview underscores Trump’s focus on masculinityHis interview with Rogan created another opportunity for the Republican nominee to highlight the hypermasculine tone that has defined much of his 2024 White House bid. Trump has made masculinity a central theme of his campaign, appearing on podcasts targeting young male voters and tapping surrogates who sometimes use crude language. Throughout the lengthy conversation, Trump told familiar stories but occasionally dropped new color and nuance. Rogan pressed Trump on whether he’s “completely committed” to bringing Robert F. Kennedy Jr. into his administration. “Oh, I completely am,” Trump responded, but added he and Kennedy disagree on environmental policies. He said he’ll tell Kennedy to “focus on health, do whatever you want.” Kennedy has been instrumental in spreading skepticism about vaccines, rejecting the overwhelming consensus among scientists that the benefits of inoculation outweigh the rare risk of side effects. Trump again seemed to entertain the idea of eliminating federal income taxes, telling Rogan, “Yeah, sure why not?” when asked by the podcast host if he was serious about it. He also repeated at length his grievances about the 2020 election but said, "If I win, this will be my last election.” Trump said he’s “never been a believer” in theories about extraterrestrial life visiting Earth. He said he is asked constantly about what the U.S. government knows about “the people coming from space.” He said as president he was told “a lot” but he dodged Rogan’s entreaties to discuss alien life in detail. And he criticized federal subsidies aiming to significantly boost U.S. semiconductor manufacturing, one of President Joe Biden’s signature achievements. Chipmakers have credited the legislation for enabling billions of dollars in new factories, including in battleground state Arizona. He also ripped Taiwan, the self-governing island democracy that has long been aligned with the U.S. “You know, Taiwan, they stole our chip business,” Trump told Rogan. “OK. They want us to protect and they want protection. They don’t pay us money for the protection, you know? The mob makes you pay money, right?” Trump called Chinese President Xi Jinping, whose Beijing government considers Taiwan a breakaway province, a “brilliant guy, whether you like it or not.” The podcaster is known for his hours-long interviews on “The Joe Rogan Experience,” which is listed as No. 1 in the United States, according to Spotify’s charts. He calls women “chicks” and once laughed as a comedian friend described repeatedly coercing young female comics into sex. Rogan and Trump have a complicated relationship. Rogan had previously said that he declined to host Trump on his podcast before because he did not want to help him. Earlier this year, Trump criticized Rogan after the podcaster said that Kennedy, then a candidate, was the only person running for president who made sense to him. Kennedy has since suspended his bid, endorsed Trump and joined him on the campaign trail. Trump mocks Harris' rally with Beyoncé and drives immigration messageIn Michigan and at an earlier press conference in Texas, Trump repeatedly mocked his opponent’s rally in Houston. “Kamala is at a dance party with Beyoncé,” he told the Michigan crowd. He used his trip to Texas, his second stop in a border state in two days, to escalate his already dark and apocalyptic rhetoric against illegal immigration. “We’re like a garbage can for the rest of the world to dump the people that they don’t want,” Trump told supporters Friday in Austin. Trump has continued to push the unfounded idea that foreign governments actively send criminals to the U.S. Harris said the remark is “just another example of how he really belittles our country.” “The president of the United States should be someone who elevates discourse and talks about the best of who we are, and invests in the best of who we are, not someone like Donald Trump, who is constantly demeaning and belittling who the American people are,” Harris told reporters in Houston before her event. As the temperature in Michigan dropped Friday night and many in the crowd streamed out, Trump suggested that his campaign advisers have urged him not to repeat his past statements about being the “protector” of women. The former president mimicked advice he said he was getting: “‘Sir, please don’t say you’re going to protect women.’” But he said he planned to keep saying it. “I mean, that’s our job.” That too was a response of sorts to the Harris event, which was focused on protecting reproductive rights and included a string of women talking about having their health threatened by strict abortion restrictions. Trump’s rally was also interrupted twice by audience members needing medical attention. After the second incident, Trump asked organizers to play the song Ave Maria to fill the time. That was reminiscent of a recent Trump rally in Pennsylvania when medical attention being required in the audience caused Trump to sway to that and other songs for nearly 40 minutes. This time, though, he continued speaking after “Ave Maria” ended.

The United States has brought hundreds of thousands of children from abroad to be adopted by American families. But along the way it left thousands of them without citizenship, through a bureaucratic loophole that the government has been aware of for decades, and hasn’t fixed. Some of these adoptees live in hiding, fearing that tipping off the government could prompt their removal back to the country the U.S. claimed to have rescued them from. Some have already been deported. A bill to help them has been introduced in Congress for a decade, and is supported by a rare bipartisan coalition — from liberal immigration groups to the Southern Baptist Convention. But it hasn’t passed. Advocates blame the hyper-partisan frenzy over immigration that has stalled any effort to extend citizenship to anyone, even these adoptees who are legally the children of American parents. They say they are terrified about what could happen if former President Donald Trump is reelected because he has promised massive immigration raids and detention camps. Here are the findings of the AP report: How did this happen? The modern system of intercountry adoption emerged in the aftermath of the Korean War. American families were desperate for children because access to birth control and societal changes had caused the domestic supply of adoptable babies to plummet. Korea wanted to rid itself of mouths to feed. Adoption agencies rushed to meet intense demand for babies in the United States. But there were few protections to ensure that parents were able to take care of them, and that they acquired citizenship. The U.S. had wedged foreign adoptions into a system created for domestic ones. State courts give adopted children new birth certificates that list their adoptive parents’ names, purporting to give them all the privileges of biological children. But state courts have no control over immigration. After the expensive, long process of adoption, parents were supposed to naturalize their adopted children, but some never did. Has the U.S. tried to rectify this? In 2000, U.S. Congress recognized it had left adoptees in this legal limbo and passed the Child Citizenship Act, conferring automatic citizenship to adopted children. But it was designed to streamline the process for adoptive parents, not to help adoptees, and so applied only to those under 18 when it took effect. Everyone born before the arbitrary date of Feb. 27, 1983, was not included. Estimates for how many lack citizenship range from around 15,000 to 75,000. Efforts since to close that loophole have failed. “It’s the most classic example of wanting to bang your head against the wall, because how in the world have we not fixed this?” said Hannah Daniel, director of public policy for the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, the lobbying arm of the Southern Baptist Convention. Foreign adoption is particularly poignant for Evangelical churches, which preach it as a Biblical calling. “In this day and age in Congress, if not doing anything is an option,” Daniel said, “that is the bet I’m going to take.” How do adoptees find out they aren’t citizens? There is no government mechanism for alerting adoptees that their parents did not secure their citizenship. They usually find out by accident, when applying for passports or government benefits. One woman learned as a senior citizen, when she was denied the Social Security she’d paid into all her life. If they ask the government about their status, they risk tipping authorities off to them being here illegally. For some, their legal status is fixable through the arduous naturalization process — they have to join the line as though they’d just arrived. It takes years, thousands of dollars, wasted days, routine rejections from immigration offices on technicalities, the wrong form, an errant typo. But others are told there’s nothing that can be done. The difference is in visas: Some American parents brought babies in via the fastest route — like a tourist or medical visa — not imagining complications down the road. This was particularly prominent in military families, who adopted children where they were rather than going through an adoption agency that brought them to the U.S. Their status can mean they can’t get jobs or driver’s licenses, and some aren’t eligible for government benefits like financial aid and Social Security. Some who have criminal histories, even drug charges, have been deported back to the countries where their American parents adopted them from. How are the adoptees affected? — One was brought from Iran by her father, an Air Force veteran working there as a military contractor in 1972. She works in corporate health care, owns her own home and has never been in trouble. She is in her 50s, and she doesn’t know if she’ll be eligible for Social Security or other benefits. She lives in fear that the government will come for her. — Joy Alessi was adopted from Korea as a 7-month-old in 1967. She learned as an adult that her parents never naturalized her, and she lived in hiding for decades. She was finally naturalized in 2019 at 52 years old. She says she was deprived all those years of what American citizens take for granted, like educational loans. — Mike Davis was adopted to the United States from Ethiopia in the 1970s by his father, an American soldier. Davis, now 61, got into trouble with drugs as a young man, but then grew up, got married and had children. Years later, he was deported. Without him as breadwinner, the family lived in cars and motels, and are desperate to bring him home. He’s lived in Ethiopia for two decades now, in a room with a mud floor and no running water. — Leah Elmquist served for a decade in the U.S. Navy, but she wasn’t a citizen. She was adopted from South Korea as a baby in 1983, just 6 months too old to be grandfathered into citizenship by the 2000 legislation. When Trump won in 2016, she said she felt fear more intense than the night before she deployed to Iraq. She was eventually naturalized, after what she describes as a crushing process with immigration, including having to take a civics test. — Debbie and Paul, a couple in California, adopted two special needs children, a boy and a girl, from a Romanian orphanage in the 1990s. Debbie sometimes lays awake at night thinking that her children wouldn’t survive a detention camp. The girl is a Special Olympian who can’t compete in international competitions because she can’t get a passport.

Vice President Kamala Harris said that she believes that Donald Trump "is a fascist” after his longest-serving chief of staff said the former president praised Adolf Hitler while in office and put personal loyalty above the Constitution. Harris seized on comments by former chief of staff John Kelly, a retired Marine Corps general, about his former boss in interviews with The New York Times and The Atlantic published Tuesday warning that the Republican nominee meets the definition of a fascist and that Trump, while in office, suggested that the Nazi leader “did some good things.” Harris bets her policies can attract Latino voters while Trump touts his time as president to them Speaking at a CNN town hall Wednesday night, Harris said they offer a window into who the former president “really is” and the kind of commander in chief he would be. When asked if she believed that Trump is a fascist, Harris replied twice, “Yes, I do.” Later, she brought it up herself, saying Trump would, if elected again, be “a president who admires dictators and is a fascist.” The Democratic presidential nominee said Kelly's comments, less than two weeks before voters will decide whether to send Trump back to the Oval Office, were a “911 call to the American people” by the former chief of staff. They were quickly seized by Harris as part of her closing message to voters as she works to sharpen the choice at the ballot box for Americans. “I believe Donald Trump is a danger to the well-being and security of the United States of America," she said, saying the American people deserve a president who maintains “certain standards," which include “certainly not comparing oneself, in a clearly admiring way, to Hitler.” She added that if reelected, Trump would no longer be tempered by people who would “restrain him” from his worst impulses. Earlier Wednesday, Harris repeated her increasingly dire warnings about Trump’s mental fitness and his intentions for the presidency. “This is a window into who Donald Trump really is, from the people who know him best, from the people who have worked with him side by side in the Oval Office and in the Situation Room,” Harris told reporters outside the vice president's residence in Washington. The comments from Kelly, the retired Marine general who worked for Trump in the White House from 2017 to 2019, built on past warnings from former top Trump officials as the election enters its final two weeks. Kelly has long been critical of Trump and previously accused him of calling veterans killed in combat “suckers” and “losers.” His new warnings emerged as Trump seeks a second term vowing to dramatically expand his use of the military at home and suggesting he would use force to go after Americans he considers “enemies from within.” “He commented more than once that, ‘You know, Hitler did some good things, too,’” Kelly recalled to the Times. Kelly said he would usually quash the conversation by saying “nothing (Hitler) did, you could argue, was good,” but Trump would occasionally bring up the topic again. In his interview with The Atlantic, Kelly recalled that when Trump raised the idea of needing “German generals,” Kelly would ask if he meant “Bismarck’s generals,” referring to Otto von Bismarck, the chancellor who oversaw the unification of Germany. “Surely you can’t mean Hitler’s generals,” Kelly recalled asking Trump. To which the former president responded, “Yeah, yeah, Hitler’s generals.” Trump said on his Truth Social media platform that Kelly had “made up a story” and went on to heap insults on his former chief of staff, including that Kelly's “toughness morphed into weakness.” Trump’s campaign also denied the accounts. Campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said Kelly had “beclowned himself with these debunked stories he has fabricated" and, after Harris' statement, accused the Democratic candidate of sharing "outright lies and falsehoods.” Chris Sununu, New Hampshire's Republican governor and onetime Trump critic, said Kelly's comments did not change his plans to vote for the former president. “Look, we’ve heard a lot of extreme things about Donald Trump, from Donald Trump. It's really par for the course,” the governor told CNN. “Unfortunately, with a guy like that, it’s kind of baked into the vote at this point.” Some of the former president's supporters in swing states responded to Kelly's comments with a shrug. “Trump did his four years, and we were in great shape. Kelly didn’t have anything good to say about Trump. He ought to have his butt kicked," said Jim Lytner, a longtime advocate for veterans in Nevada who served in the Army in Vietnam and co-founded the nonprofit Veterans Transition Resource Center. Harris said Wednesday that Trump admired Hitler's generals because he “does not want a military that is loyal to the United States Constitution, he wants a military that is loyal to him. He wants a military who will be loyal to him personally.” Polls show the race is tight in swing states, and both Trump and Harris are crisscrossing the country making their final pitches to the sliver of undecided voters. Harris' campaign has spent considerable time reaching out to independent voters, using the support of longtime Republicans such as former Rep. Liz Cheney and comments like Kelly's to urge past Trump voters to reject his candidacy in November. Harris’ campaign held a call with reporters Tuesday to elevate the voices of retired military officials who highlighted how many of the officials who worked with Trump now oppose his campaign. “People that know him best are most opposed to him, his presidency,” said retired Army Brig. Gen. Steve Anderson. Anderson said he wished Kelly would fully back Harris over Trump, something he has yet to do. But retired Army Reserve Col. Kevin Carroll, a former senior counselor to Kelly, said Wednesday that the former top Trump official would “rather chew broken glass than vote for Donald Trump.” Before serving as Trump's chief of staff, Kelly worked as the former president's secretary of homeland security, where he oversaw Trump's attempts to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Kelly was also at the forefront of the administration's crackdown in immigration policy that led to the separation of thousands of immigrant parents and their children along the southern border. Those actions made him a villain to many on the left, including Harris. After Kelly left the Trump administration and joined the board of a company operating the nation's largest detention center for unaccompanied migrant children, Harris wrote during her 2019 run for president that he was “the architect” of the administration’s "cruel child separation policy. Now he will profit off the separation of families. It’s unethical. We are better than this.” When she was in Miami for a primary debate in June 2019, Harris was also one of a dozen Democratic presidential candidates who visited the detention center south of the city and protested against the administration’s harsh treatment of young migrants. In his interview with the Times, Kelly also said Trump met the definition of a fascist. After reading the definition aloud, including that fascism was “a far-right authoritarian, ultranationalist political ideology and movement characterized by a dictatorial leader,” Kelly concluded Trump “certainly falls into the general definition of fascist, for sure.” Kelly added that Trump often fumed at any attempt to constrain his power, and that “he would love to be” a dictator. “He certainly prefers the dictator approach to government,” Kelly told the Times, adding later, “I think he’d love to be just like he was in business — he could tell people to do things and they would do it, and not really bother too much about whether what the legalities were and whatnot.” Kelly is not the first former top Trump administration official to cast the former president as a threat. Retired Army Gen. Mark A. Milley, who served as Trump’s chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Bob Woodward in his recent book “War” that Trump was “fascist to the core” and “the most dangerous person to this country.” And retired Gen. Jim Mattis, who worked as secretary of defense under Trump, reportedly later told Woodward that he agreed with Milley’s assessment. Throughout Trump's political rise, the businessman-turned-politician benefited from the support of military veterans. AP VoteCast found that about 6 in 10 military veterans said they voted for Trump in 2020, as did just over half of those with a veteran in the household. Among voters in this year’s South Carolina Republican primary, AP VoteCast found that close to two-thirds of military veterans and people in veteran households voted for Trump over former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, Trump's toughest opponent in the 2024 Republican primary.

The editorials editor of the Los Angeles Times has resigned after the newspaper’s owner blocked the editorial board’s plans to endorse Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris for president, a journalism trade publication reported Wednesday. Mariel Garza told the Columbia Journalism Review in an interview that she resigned because the Times was remaining silent on the contest in “dangerous times.” “I am resigning because I want to make it clear that I am not OK with us being silent,” Garza said. “In dangerous times, honest people need to stand up. This is how I’m standing up.” In a post on the social media platform X that did not directly mention the resignation, LA Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong said the board was asked to do a factual analysis of the policies of Harris and Republican former President Donald Trump during their time at the White House. Additionally, "The board was asked to provide (its) understanding of the policies and plans enunciated by the candidates during this campaign and its potential effect on the nation in the next four years,” he wrote. “In this way, with this clear and non-partisan information side-by-side, our readers could decide who would be worthy of being president for the next four years.” Soon-Shiong, who bought the paper in 2018, said the board “chose to remain silent and I accepted their decision.” Garza told the Columbia Journalism Review that the board had intended to endorse Harris and she had drafted the outline of a proposed editorial. A LA Times spokesperson did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment. The LA Times Guild Unit Council & Bargaining Committee said it was “deeply concerned about our owner’s decision to block a planned endorsement in the presidential race." “We are even more concerned that he is now unfairly assigning blame to Editorial Board members for his decision not to endorse," the guild said in a statement. “We are still pressing for answers from newsroom management on behalf of our members.” Trump’s campaign jumped on Garza’s departure, saying the state’s largest newspaper had declined to endorse the Democratic ticket after backing Harris in her previous races for U.S. Senate and state attorney general. Her exit comes about 10 months after then-Executive Editor Kevin Merida left the paper in what was called a “mutually agreed” upon departure. At the time, the news organization said it had fallen well short of its digital subscriber goals and needed a revenue boost to sustain the newsroom and its digital operations.

Foreign adversaries have shown continued determination to influence the U.S. election –- and there are signs their activity will intensify as Election Day nears, Microsoft said in a report Wednesday. Russian operatives are doubling down on fake videos to smear Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign, while Chinese-linked social media campaigns are maligning down-ballot Republicans who are critical of China, the company’s threat intelligence arm said Wednesday. Meanwhile, Iranian actors who allegedly sent emails aimed at intimidating U.S. voters in 2020 have been surveying election-related websites and major media outlets, raising concerns they could be preparing for another scheme this year, the tech giant said. The report serves as a warning – building on others from U.S. intelligence officials – that as the nation enters this critical final stretch and begins counting ballots, the worst influence efforts may be yet to come. U.S. officials say they remain confident that election infrastructure is secure enough to withstand any attacks from American adversaries. Still, in a tight election, foreign efforts to influence voters are raising concern. Microsoft noted that some of the disinformation campaigns it tracks received little authentic engagement from U.S. audiences, but others have been amplified by unwitting Americans, exposing thousands to foreign propaganda in the final weeks of voting. Russia, China and Iran have all rejected claims that they are seeking to meddle with the U.S. election. “The presidential elections are the United States’ domestic affairs. China has no intention and will not interfere in the US election,” the Chinese Embassy said in a statement. “Having already unequivocally and repeatedly announced, Iran neither has any motive nor intent to interfere in the U.S. election; and, it therefore categorically repudiates such accusations,” read a statement from Iran's mission to the United Nations. A message left with the Russian Embassy was not immediately returned on Wednesday. The report reveals an expanding landscape of coordinated campaigns to advance adversaries’ priorities as global wars and economic concerns raise the stakes for the U.S. election around the world. It details a trend also seen in the 2016 and 2020 elections of foreign actors covertly fomenting discord among American voters, furthering a divide in the electorate that has left the nation almost evenly split just 13 days before voting concludes. “History has shown that the ability of foreign actors to rapidly distribute deceptive content can significantly impact public perception and electoral outcomes,” Clint Watts, general manager of the Microsoft Threat Analysis Center, said in a news release. “With a particular focus on the 48 hours before and after Election Day, voters, government institutions, candidates and parties must remain vigilant to deceptive and suspicious activity online.” The report adds to previous findings from Microsoft and U.S. intelligence that suggest the Kremlin is committed to lambasting Harris’ character online, a sign of its preference for another Donald Trump presidency. Russian actors have spent recent months churning out both AI-generated content and more rudimentary spoofs and staged videos spreading disinformation about Harris, Microsoft’s analysts found. Among the fake videos were a staged clip of a park ranger impersonator claiming Harris killed an endangered rhinoceros in Zambia, as well as a video sharing baseless allegations about her running mate Tim Walz, which U.S. intelligence officials also attributed to Russia this week. Morgan Finkelstein, national security spokeswoman for the Harris campaign, condemned Russia's efforts. Another Russian influence actor has been producing fake election-related videos spoofing American organizations from Fox News to the FBI and Wired magazine, according to the report. China over the last several months has focused on down-ballot races, and on general efforts to sow distrust and democratic dissatisfaction. A Chinese influence actor widely known as Spamouflage has been using fake social media users to attack down-ballot Republicans who have publicly denounced China, according to Microsoft’s analysts. Candidates targeted have included Rep. Barry Moore of Alabama, Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, and Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas, all of whom are running for reelection, the report said. The group also has attacked Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida. All four politicians sent emailed statements condemning China's aggression against American political candidates and its efforts to weaken democracy. In its statement, the Chinese embassy said U.S. officials, politicians and media “have accused China of using news websites and social media accounts to spread so-called disinformation in the US. Such allegations are full of malicious speculations against China, which China firmly opposes.” Iran, which has spent the 2024 campaign going after Trump with disinformation as well as hacking into the former president’s campaign, hasn’t been stymied by ongoing tension in the Middle East, according to the Microsoft report. Quite the opposite, groups linked to Iran have weaponized divided opinions on the Israel-Hamas War to influence American voters, the analysts found. For example, an Iranian operated persona took to Telegram and X to call on Americans to sit out the elections due to the candidates’ support for Israel. Microsoft's report also said it observed an Iranian group compromising an account of a notable Republican politician who had a different account targeted in June. The company would not name the individual but said it was the same person who it had referenced in August as a “former presidential candidate.” The report also warned that the same Iranian group that allegedly posed as members of the far-right Proud Boys in intimidating emails to voters in 2020 has been scouting swing-state election-related websites and media outlets in recent months. The behavior could “suggest preparations for more direct influence operations as Election Day nears,” Watts said. Iran's mission to the United Nations said in a statement that the allegations in the report “are fundamentally unfounded, and wholly inadmissible.” Even as Russia, China and Iran try to influence voters, intelligence officials said Tuesday there is still no indication they are plotting significant attacks on election infrastructure as a way to disrupt the outcome. If they tried, improvements to election security means there is no way they could alter the results, Jen Easterly, director of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, told The Associated Press earlier this month. Intelligence officials on Tuesday also warned that Russia and Iran may try to encourage violent protests in the U.S. after next month’s election, setting the stage for potential complications in the post-election period.

The U.S. said Wednesday that 3,000 North Korean troops have been deployed to Russia and are training at several locations, calling the move very serious and warning that those forces will be “fair game” if they go into combat in Ukraine. The deployment raises the potential for the North Koreans to join Russian forces in Ukraine and suggests expanded military ties between the two nations as Moscow seeks weapons and troops to gain ground in a grinding war that has stalemated after more than two years. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin called it a “next step” after the North has provided Russia with arms, and said Pyongyang could face consequences for aiding Russia directly. His comments were the first public U.S. confirmation of North Korea sending troops to Russia — a development South Korean officials disclosed but was denied by Pyongyang and Moscow. White House national security spokesman John Kirby said the U.S. believes that at least 3,000 North Korean soldiers traveled by ship to Vladivostok, Russia’s largest Pacific port, in early to mid-October. “These soldiers then traveled onward to multiple Russian military training sites in eastern Russia, where they are currently undergoing training,” Kirby said. “We do not yet know whether these soldiers will enter into combat alongside the Russian military, but this is certainly a highly concerning probability.” Kirby said they could go to western Russia and then engage in combat against Ukraine’s forces, but both he and Austin said the U.S. continues to assess the situation. Exactly what the North Korean troops are doing in Russia was “left to be seen," Austin told reporters in Rome. He added: “If they’re co-belligerents, their intention is to participate in this war on Russia’s behalf, that is a very, very serious issue, and it will have impacts not only in Europe, it will also impact things in the Indo-Pacific.” Kirby warned, however, that “I can tell you one thing, though, if they do deploy to fight against Ukraine, they’re fair game.” He said a key question is what North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un is getting out of this. Russia and North Korea have sharply boosted their cooperation in the past two years, and in June they signed a major defense deal requiring both countries to use all available means to provide immediate military assistance if either is attacked. South Korean officials worry that Russia may reward North Korea by giving it sophisticated weapons technologies that could boost its nuclear and missile programs that target South Korea. South Korea said Tuesday it would consider supplying weapons to Ukraine in response to the reported troop dispatch. South Korea’s spy chief had told lawmakers that 3,000 North Korean troops are now in Russia receiving training on drones and other equipment before being deployed to battlefields in Ukraine. South Korean intelligence first publicized reports that the Russian navy had taken 1,500 North Korean special warfare troops to Russia this month, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said his government had intelligence that 10,000 North Korea soldiers were being prepared to join the invading Russian forces. On Wednesday, South Korean National Intelligence Service Director Cho Tae-yong told lawmakers that another 1,500 North Korean troops have entered Russia, according to lawmaker Park Sunwon, who attended Cho's closed-door briefing. Cho told lawmakers his agency assessed that North Korea aims to deploy a total of 10,000 troops to Russia by December, Park told reporters. Park cited Cho as saying the 3,000 North Korean soldiers sent to Russia have been split among multiple military bases. Cho told lawmakers that NIS believes they have yet to be deployed in battle, Park said. Also speaking jointly about the briefing, lawmaker Lee Seong Kweun said the NIS found that the Russian military is teaching those North Korean soldiers how to use military equipment such as drones. Lee cited the NIS chief as saying Russian instructors have high opinions of the morale and physical strength of the North Korean soldiers but think they will eventually suffer heavy causalities because they lack an understanding of modern warfare. Lee, citing Cho, said Russia is recruiting a large number of interpreters. Lee said NIS has detected signs that North Korea is relocating family members of soldiers chosen to be sent to Russia to special sites to isolate them. The NIS chief told lawmakers that North Korea hasn't disclosed its troop dispatch to its own people. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte on Tuesday said North Korea sending troops to Ukraine would mark a “significant escalation,” and said he asked South Korea’s president to send experts to Brussels next week to brief the military alliance. Ukraine’s Military Intelligence Directorate head, Kyrylo Budanov, told the online military news outlet The War Zone on Tuesday that North Korean troops were to arrive to Russia's Kursk region on Wednesday to help Russian troops fighting off a Ukrainian incursion. Last week, South Korea's spy agency said North Korea had sent more than 13,000 containers of artillery, missiles and other conventional arms to Russia since August 2023 to replenish its dwindling weapons stockpiles. Reports that the North is sending troops to Russia stoked security jitters in South Korea. It has shipped humanitarian and financial support to Ukraine, but it has so far avoided directly supplying arms in line with its policy of not supplying weapons to countries actively engaged in conflicts. North Korea has 1.2 million troops, one of the largest standing armies in the world, but it hasn’t fought in large-scale conflicts since the 1950-53 Korean War. Experts question how much North Korean troops would help Russia, citing a shortage of battle experiences. Experts say North Korea wants Russia's economic support and its help to modernize the North's outdated conventional weapons systems as well as its high-tech weapons technology transfers.

Millions of Americans can’t afford to buy a home or rent a suitable apartment, making housing a central issue for voters in the upcoming presidential election. The biggest single reason homeownership is out of reach for many is there aren’t nearly enough homes for sale to balance out the market between buyers and sellers. The shortfall, which some economists say ranges from 1 million to around 4 million homes, has for the better part of the last decade fueled bidding wars that boosted the median sales price of a previously occupied U.S. home to an all-time high of $426,900 in June — even as home sales have been in a deep slump for more than two years. Higher mortgage rates have also kept many home shoppers on the sidelines. The average rate on a 30-year mortgage rose to a 23-year high of nearly 8% late last year, and now sits at 6.44%. Renters haven't had it any easier. While the median U.S. asking rent has been easing for more than a year following a wave of new apartment construction, it remains roughly 20% higher than it was before the pandemic. Against this backdrop, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump have put out proposals that they contend will make the American Dream accessible to more Americans. Harris’ campaign has laid out a detailed roadmap of policies aimed at expanding access to affordable housing both for homebuyers and renters that includes offering first-time homebuyers up to $25,000 in down payment assistance and tax incentives for builders and federal funds for cities to speed up construction. She claims her plan will add 3 million new housing units over the next four years. Trump says he will create tax incentives for homebuyers, cut “unnecessary” regulations on home construction and make some federal land available for residential construction, though the campaign's platform doesn't include any details. Trump also claims that he will lower housing costs by reducing inflation and stopping illegal immigration. Setting aside the fact that many of the candidates' policies would require support from a majority of lawmakers in Congress, which the next president may not have, economists say the campaigns’ platforms offer some good ideas, but no sure fixes to the housing market’s longstanding challenges. Here’s a look at some of the candidates' key ideas: Trump's immigration crackdown Trump and his campaign have repeatedly tied the nation’s housing woes to immigration, suggesting mass deportations will ease the demand for homes, thus making housing more available and affordable. The former president has long focused broadly on undocumented immigrants as a core political issue, but when it comes to housing policy, his campaign has also pointed fingers at immigrants who are legally in the country too. His running mate, the Ohio Senator JD Vance, has blamed Haitian immigrants living in his home state for causing a housing problem. Chris Herbert, managing director of Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies, said in a statement that rising interest rates and the pandemic-era spike in housing demand are to blame for rising costs —– not immigrants. “While immigrants do add to overall housing demand, they cannot be blamed for the recent surge in home prices and rents that took off in 2020 and 2021, as immigration reached its lowest levels in decades due to the pandemic,” Herbert said. Jim Tobin, CEO of the National Association of Home Builders, said mass deportations could make the supply problem worse because one-third of the homebuilding industry's labor force is foreign born. “Anything that potentially disrupts the inflow of foreign-born labor into our industry would be disruptive. No doubt about it,” Tobin said. Sarah Saadian, senior vice president of public policy at the National Low Income Housing Coalition, said undocumented people tend to live in overcrowded units, so the eviction of only immigrants in a home wouldn’t create an actual vacancy, nor does it address the affordability dilemma. “The most pressing part is wages and incomes aren’t high enough to cover rental costs and that doesn’t really have anything to do with undocumented people,” Saadian said. Harris’ $25,000 down-payment plan Harris aims to directly aid home shoppers by providing up to $25,000 in down-payment assistance to first-time buyers who have paid their rent on time for two years. The campaign, which claims the program would help more than 4 million first-time buyers and cost $100 billion, says that such down-payment assistance is not new, noting that as of 2019 nearly three-quarters of single-family mortgages included down payment aid provided by state housing finance agencies. Like Trump’s plan, Harris’ proposal could backfire in a way. Economists warn that introducing a buyer incentive when the supply of homes for sale remains tight in many markets could juice prices, making homeownership less affordable. The impact could depend on the particular market. The impact could depend on the particular market. “In Los Angeles, $25,000 down payment assistance is not enough, but it is enough in Detroit,” said Daryl Fairweather, chief economist at Redfin. Still, if the number of homes on the market grows, the financial assistance makes more sense, because it can reassure homebuilders that “there will be buyers willing to buy” the homes they build, Fairweather said. The federal government has offered tax incentives to homebuyers in the not too distant past. In 2008, the Obama Administration enacted a first-time homebuyer tax credit of up to $,7,500 as the housing market reeled from a housing crash and the Great Recession. It pulled forward sales as buyers seized on the incentive, but the housing market remained in a slump until 2012. The Trump campaign promises to make homeownership affordable for “families, young people, and everyone,” but doesn’t offer specifics. It mentions that the GOP will “support first-time buyers” and claims it will reduce mortgage rates by “slashing” inflation. However, experts say Trump’s overall economic agenda in a second term would worsen inflation, which fell last month to its lowest point in more than three years. Agreed: zoning and federal lands Among the few things the two candidates do agree on: easing up on zoning laws and using federal lands to build homes. Trump has pledged to tackle zoning and other construction regulations in order to accelerate housing production, though his platform doesn’t go into details. Harris is proposing a $40 billion fund to spur local governments, which control zoning laws, to streamline their regulations in order to cut down on the time it takes for builders to get projects cleared and completed. One caveat: state and local governments have to show that they’re building housing that is affordable. Harris bets her policies can attract Latino voters while Trump touts his time as president to them Both candidates have also said, however vaguely, that they’re in favor of making “limited portions” of or “certain” federal land available for home construction. Harris’ plan points to the Biden administration’s initiative in Las Vegas, where the Bureau of Land Management sold off 20 acres at a steep discount for Clark County to build single-family homes that will eventually be sold to those with an annual household income of up to $70,000. Don Simpson, the vice president of the Public Lands Foundation, said the laws were set more than 20 years ago to give Nevada authorities the ability to buy federal land at below market rate for affordable housing. Simpson said there are other small parcels near places like Barstow, California, and Boise, Idaho where this could be replicated on a limited basis. Nicholas Irwin, a University of Nevada Las Vegas professor, said the 210 homes will hardly make a dent in the estimated 75,000-unit shortage that Southern Nevada needs today. “We’re short by a lot. More federal land alone isn’t going to solve this,” Irwin said.

In-person early voting kicked off Tuesday across battleground Wisconsin, with former President Barack Obama and Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz hosting a rally in liberal Madison and Republicans holding events to encourage casting a ballot for Donald Trump before Election Day. Trump lost Wisconsin by just under 21,000 votes in 2020, an election that saw unprecedented early and absentee voting due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Republican Former President Trump and Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris are expecting another razor-thin margin in Wisconsin, and both sides are pushing voters to cast their ballots early. Dozens of voters waited in line outside Milwaukee's municipal building for the start of early voting at 9 a.m. Hours and locations for early voting varied across the state. Trump was highly critical of voting by mail in past elections, falsely claiming it was ripe with fraud. But this election, he and his backers are embracing all forms of voting, including by mail and early in-person. Trump himself encouraged early voting at a rally in Dodge County, Wisconsin, earlier this month. Wisconsin Republican Party Chairman Brian Schimming said Monday that the vote-early message from Trump and Republicans this year has been “very clear.” Schimming even put in a plug for using absentee ballot drop boxes, a method of returning ballots that Trump once opposed and that some Wisconsin Republicans still do. “We need to avail ourselves of every imaginable way to get votes in," Schimming said on a press call. “If it’s the difference between getting a vote in, or not getting a vote in, I say to Republicans, ‘Put it in the mailbox or put it in the drop box.’" Numerous Republican officeholders and candidates planned to cast their ballots Tuesday. “You never know when a snowstorm is going to come in November in Wisconsin,” said U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil, who represents southeastern Wisconsin and plans to vote Tuesday. “It's a great opportunity while the weather’s nice to get out to your local office and cast your vote and have that vote banked.” Obama and Walz, the governor of neighboring Minnesota, scheduled an early voting rally in the Democratic stronghold of Madison. Harris held a rally at the same venue last month, attracting more than 10,000 people. Obama was headed to neighboring Michigan later Tuesday, among the several stops the former president is making in battleground states to encourage early voting. Harris has been spending a lot of time in the “ blue wall ” states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania in the final weeks of the campaign, including stops in Michigan and Wisconsin on Monday. Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance was in the conservative Milwaukee suburbs on Sunday. The Wisconsin Democratic Party was also staging events across Wisconsin to encourage early voting, as were liberal advocacy groups including Souls to the Polls, a Milwaukee-based organization that targets Black voters. That is a key demographic for Democrats in Milwaukee, the state’s largest city and also the source of the highest number of Democratic votes. Early voting in Wisconsin began Tuesday and runs through Sunday, Nov. 3. However, locations and times of early voting vary across the state. Voters do not need to give a reason for voting absentee. Ballots started being sent by mail in late September, but beginning Tuesday voters can request one at designated voting locations and cast their ballot in person. As of Friday, more than 305,000 absentee ballots had already been returned in Wisconsin. Voters can continue to return them by mail, in person, or at absentee ballot drop boxes in communities where those are available. All absentee ballots must be received by the time polls close at 8 p.m. on Election Day.

Two weeks out from Election Day, the crisis in the Middle East is looming over the race for the White House, with one candidate struggling to find just the right words to navigate its difficult cross-currents and the other making bold pronouncements that the age-old conflict can quickly be set right. Vice President Kamala Harris has been painstakingly — and not always successfully — trying to balance talk of strong support for Israel with harsh condemnations of civilian casualties among Palestinians and others caught up in Israel's wars against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Harris seeks to win over Republicans uneasy about Trump with visits to Midwestern suburbs Former President Donald Trump, for his part, insists that none of this would have happened on his watch and that he can make it all go away if elected. Both of them are bidding for the votes of Arab and Muslim American voters and Jewish voters, particularly in extremely tight races in the battleground states of Michigan and Pennsylvania. Harris over the weekend alternately drew praise and criticism over her comments about a pro-Palestinian protester that were captured on a widely shared video. Some took Harris' remark that the protester's concerns were “real” to be an expression of agreement with his description of Israel’s conduct as “genocide.” That drew sharp condemnation from Israel’s former ambassador to the U.S., Michael Oren. But Harris' campaign said that while the vice president was agreeing more generally about the plight of civilians in Gaza, she was not and would not accuse Israel of genocide. A day earlier, the dynamics were reversed when Harris told reporters that the “first and most tragic story” of the conflict was the Oct. 7 Hamas attack last year that killed about 1,200 Israelis. That was triggering to those who feel she is not giving proper weight to the deaths of the more than 41,000 Palestinians who have been killed in Gaza. Trump, meanwhile, in recent days has participated in interviews with Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya and Lebanese outlet MTV, where he promised to bring about peace and said “things will turn out very well” in Lebanon. In a post on his social media platform Monday, he predicted a Harris presidency would only make matters in the Mideast worse. “If Kamala gets four more years, the Middle East will spend the next four decades going up in flames, and your kids will be going off to War, maybe even a Third World War, something that will never happen with President Donald J. Trump in charge,” Trump posted. “For our Country’s sake, and for your kids, Vote Trump for PEACE!” Harris' position is particularly awkward because as vice president she is tethered to President Joe Biden’s foreign policy decisions even as she’s tried to strike a more empathetic tone to all parties. But Harris aides and allies also are frustrated with what they see as Trump largely getting a pass on some of his unpredictable foreign policy statements. “It’s the very thoughtful, very careful school versus the showboat,” said James Zogby, founder and president of the Arab American Institute, who has endorsed Harris. “That does become a handicap in these late stages when he’s making all these overtures. When the bill comes due they’re going to walk away empty-handed, but by then it’ll be too late.” The political divisions on the campaign trail augur potentially significant implications after Election Day as powers in the region, particularly Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu, closely eye the outcome and the potential for any shifts to U.S. foreign policy. A new AP-NORC poll finds that neither Trump nor Harris has a clear political advantage on the situation in the Middle East. About 4 in 10 registered voters say Trump would do a better job, and a similar share say that about Harris. Roughly 2 in 10 say neither candidate would do a better job. There are some signs of weakness on the issue for Harris within her own party, however. Only about two-thirds of Democratic voters say Harris would be the better candidate to handle the situation in the Middle East. Among Republicans, about 8 in 10 say Trump would be better. In Michigan, which has the nation’s largest concentration of Arab Americans, the Israel-Hamas war has profound and personal impacts on the community. In addition to many community members having family in both Lebanon and Gaza, Kamel Ahmad Jawad, a metro Detroit resident, was killed while trying to deliver aid to his hometown in southern Lebanon. The war’s direct impact on the community has fueled outrage and calls for the U.S. to demand an unconditional cease-fire and impose a weapons embargo on Israel. Although both parties have largely supported Israel, much of the outrage and blame has been directed at Biden. When Harris entered the race, many Arab American leaders initially felt a renewed sense of optimism, citing her past comments and the early outreach efforts of her campaign. However, that optimism quickly faded as the community perceived that she had not sufficiently distanced her policies from those of Biden. “To say to Arab Americans, ‘Trump is going to be worse’ — what is worse than having members of your family killed?” said Rima Meroueh, director of the National Network for Arab American Communities. “That’s what people are saying when they’re asked the question, ‘Isn’t Trump going to be worse?’ It can’t be worse than what’s happening to us right now.” Future Coalition PAC, a super PAC backed by billionaire Elon Musk, is running ads in Arab American communities in Michigan focused on Harris’ support for Israel, complete with a photo of her and her husband, Doug Emhoff, who is Jewish. The same group is sending the opposite message to Jewish voters in Pennsylvania, attacking her support for the withholding of some weapons from Israel — a Biden administration move to pressure the longtime U.S. ally to limit civilian casualties. Harris spokesperson Morgan Finkelstein cast Trump's approach toward the Middle East as part of a broader sign that "an unchecked, unhinged Trump is simply too dangerous — he would bring us right back to the chaotic, go-it-alone approach that made the world less safe and he would weaken America.”