Reuters World News - Harris and Trump on women and healthcare, plus Native Americans and China EVs

Episode Date: November 1, 2024

Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris has warned voters that Republican Donald Trump and his allies would scale back healthcare programs if he wins the White House. In response, Trump said he never wanted to get rid of the program.  As the countdown to polling day continues, we look at why turnout is so low amongst the estimated 8 million voting-age Native Americans. And China has told its automakers to halt big investment in European countries that support extra tariffs on Chinese-built electric vehicles, a move likely to further divide Europe. Find our recommended read here. Listen to the Reuters Econ World podcast here. Sign up for the Reuters Econ World newsletter here. Visit the Thomson Reuters Privacy Statement for information on our privacy and data protection practices. You may also visit megaphone.fm/adchoices to opt out of targeted advertising. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, healthcare and women in the spotlight as Harris and Trump make late-stage campaign stops. Native American voters face high barriers in casting a ballot. And China's carrot and stick approach to European countries on electric vehicles. It's Friday, November 1st. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes every weekday. I'm Tara Oaksin Liverpool. And I'm Jonah Green in New York. First, to the U.S. election.

And with just days to go, opinion polls point to a historically close contest between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. With the outcome of Tuesday's U.S. presidential election, likely to be decided in seven battleground states. Reuters Ipsos polling back in October found the race to be sharply divided along gender lines, with Harris leading among women by 12 percentage points and Trump leading among men by seven percentage points. In these final days of the vote, Harris has been honing in on comments made by Trump at a Wisconsin rally. Well, I'm going to do it whether the women like it or not. I'm going to protect them. I'm going to protect them from migrants coming in. He simply does not respect the freedom of women or the intelligence of women to know what's in

their own best interests and make decisions accordingly. But we, trust women. Harris also warned voters on Thursday that Trump and his allies would scale back healthcare programs if he wins to White House. In response, Trump said he never wanted to get rid of the program. Both candidates are crisscrossing battleground states in a final blitz as election day nears, highlighting policy differences on abortion, the economy and immigration. And if you want to learn more about how immigration is factoring into this race, check out our weekend podcast, which comes out tomorrow. There are about 8 million voting age Native Americans

in the U.S. That's according to a 22 report by the Biden administration. But that report also found that they had the lowest voter turnout of any ethnic group surveyed by the Census Bureau. Tom Halls recently visited the

Tana Autumn Nation Reservation in Arizona to learn about the barriers Native Americans face when voting. Yeah, the people I spoke to describe the main barrier as isolation, lack of transport, poverty is a big one, history of discrimination. But I think the main thing that was striking to me was the lack of physical addresses, and this is true of people who live on many reservations around the United States. They don't have street names,

they don't have house numbers, and as a result of, especially as a result of new voting rules in many states that are meant to cut down on non-citizen voting, they've kind of been caught up in that. They often don't have a way of... showing what their physical address is. So a lot of times they just write a description. In Arizona, you can draw a map on the voter registration form. Oh, wow. But the problem is that makes it very difficult to match that when you go to physically in-person cast the ballot. Are there other reasons why voter turnout is so low? When I went to this ballot presentation by this woman, April Ignacio, there wasn't a lot of interaction. And afterwards, I was asking her about that. The point she made was

reservation is pretty much an information desert. There's no local paper. I went to the supermarket. There's no newsstand with newspapers. So what kind of political force might this group have if voting access were improved, if they decided to vote? There's a group called the Native American Rights Fund. They target what they say is a million potential Native American voters out there. And they're really quick to point out that Joe Biden won Arizona by 10,000 votes. His strongest precincts were on native land. Native Americans, like the reservation I went to, who voted 89% for Joe Biden. And there's been a couple Democrats elected to the House and Senate

from places you wouldn't expect. Mary Patola in Alaska in particular, she is very closely tied to Native Americans up there, and she attributes her election to the native turnout. U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken says the U.S. expects North Korean troops to enter the fight against Ukraine in the coming days. The top U.S. diplomat said there were 10,000 North Korean troops in Russia, including as many as 8,000 in the Kursk region.

It's desperate. Putin has been throwing more and more Russians into a meat grinder of his own making in Ukraine. Now he's turning to North Korean troops. Meanwhile, Ukraine's president Volodymy Zelensky has criticized what he called a zero response from allies over the deployment of North Korean troops. He says a weak reaction will encourage Russia's Vladimir Putin

to beef up the contingent. Elon Musk can keep giving away $1 million checks to registered voters in battleground states. A Pennsylvania judge has put on hold a lawsuit filed by Philadelphia's district attorney, while a federal court decides if it'll take up the case. A decision is not likely ahead of Tuesday's election. Over 150 people are now known to have died in devastating flash floods in eastern Spain. Common Molina is in the town of Godileta, where buildings and bridges were washed away by the floods. She tells us she feels lucky to be alive, with rescuers still searching for many of her missing neighbours.

And in southern Africa, Botswana's president has conceded defeat in the country's election, in a landmark result which ends nearly six decades of power for the Botswana Democratic Party. Mogwisi Mokwisa's concession came with the opposition, coalition umbrella for democratic change, led by human rights lawyer Dumo Boko, set for an empathic victory. Striking Boeing workers will vote on Monday on an improved contract offer that includes a 38% pay rise over four years, a larger signing bonus, and carries the endorsement of their union, which told members it had extracted all it could from the planemaker. The latest offer, presented on Thursday, comes at a critical moment for Boeing, which this week

announced it would raise up to $24 billion to shore up its battered finances. The White House says President Joe Biden congratulated the Union and Boeing's leadership on negotiating the new contract proposal. China is telling its carmakers to hold off on big investments in European countries that voted to impose new tariffs on Chinese-built TVs, sources tell Reuters. The steep import taxes kicked in this week, after negotiations between the EU and China broke down. Block countries are split on the tariffs, which can be as high as 45%. Ten countries approve of them, including France and Italy, but Germany, which is Europe's largest automaker, opposes them.

A Greater China Bureau Chief, Kevin Krollicke, has more. Chinese officials have been working to and working unsuccessfully to try to head off the implementation of EV tariffs. Now what you're seeing is the consequence. We know and have reported that three of the major Chinese EV makers, BYD and SAIC, which is state run and Gili, we're told specifically in a meeting with the Ministry of Commerce in China to pause investment plans and countries that had backed the tariffs and to direct future investment to economies and to countries that oppose the tariffs as a reward. So it's carrot and stick is something that's going to take weeks and months for us to fully understand. SAIC, which is the number two exporter, had been shopping for a site to build EVs in Europe.

So that's one to particularly watch. You mentioned this being a motivational strategy. Does that signal that Beijing wants to avoid this going any further with Europe? The U.S. presidential election is next week. The U.S. market, as people realize, is effectively that that door is closed to Chinese EV makers. There is level of concern that if we have a Trump administration taking office, the additional tariffs on other goods will create pressure on China's exports. And keeping some path open to trade with the EU, even with these higher tariffs, is really important. And I think that's what has informed China's response here.

they really have not taken a hard line. This doesn't look like in any way like a tit-for-tat trade war. They're trying to negotiate their way to some settlement, some way of working that leaves the door open and leaves that market open to a key industry. I've recommended read today is about the use of deep fake robocalls in the final days of the U.S. election. Officials and states from Arizona to Vermont are on alert for these fake audio messages sent directly to home and mobile phones,

with experts warning they are harder to spot than ever because of advancing generative AI tech. There's a link to the piece in today's pod description. For more on any of the stories from today, head to roiders.com or the Reuters app. To never miss an episode, follow us on your favorite podcast player. We'll be back on Monday with our daily headline show and make sure to tune in tomorrow to our weekend podcast

on the national debate over immigration.