The Headlines - Foreign Election Interference, and Volkswagen May Close Factories

Episode Date: October 29, 2024

Plus, why you should never cross a crow.   Tune in every weekday morning. To get our full audio journalism and storytelling experience, download the New York Times Audio app — available to Times news subscribers on iOS — and sign up for our weekly newsletter.Tell us what you think at: [e-mail]. On Today’s Episode:How Russia, China and Iran Are Interfering in the Presidential Election, by Sheera Frenkel, Tiffany Hsu and Steven Lee MyersInvestigators Identify ‘Suspect Vehicle’ in Ballot Drop Box Fires in the Pacific Northwest, by Mike BakerHarris Aides Quietly Grow More Bullish on Defeating Trump, by Reid J. Epstein, Lisa Lerer and Maggie HabermanAn Ethical Minefield Awaits a Possible Second Trump Presidency, by Ben Protess, Maggie Haberman and Eric LiptonFor the First Time in 87-Year History, Volkswagen May Close Factories, by Melissa EddyIf You Think You Can Hold a Grudge, Consider the Crow, by Thomas Fuller

From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today's Tuesday, October 29th. Here's what we're covering. U.S. intelligence officials, as well as tech companies and researchers, tell the Times that efforts by Russia, Iran, and China to interfere in the election are more sophisticated and harder to track in the election are more sophisticated and harder to track than ever before.

The big concern isn't that foreign powers will be able to affect voting machines or vote counts. Instead, they're trying to potentially spark chaos by spreading disinformation. Back in 2016, that mostly looked like Russia posting on Facebook. Now there have been Russian operatives pushing pro-Trump messaging on Reddit. There are hundreds of Chinese accounts on Telegram trying to rile up college students over the war in Gaza. And Iran has created sites like one called Not Our War

that's aimed at American veterans and filled with conspiracy theories and anti-American content. Experts say the efforts this election year show a much more nuanced understanding of American politics, and they've been supercharged by the rise of AI, using tools like chat-GPT to churn out huge amounts of subtle, targeted propaganda. At the same time, tech giants like Meta and Google have scaled back their efforts to label or take down disinformation.

While each country trying to interfere in the election has its own specific aims, like Russia rooting for Trump or Iran pushing for Harris, experts say they all share a common goal, undermining American democracy. At approximately 3 a.m. officers responded to reports of a fire at a ballot box right outside the building that we're in right now. Meanwhile, authorities say they're investigating two fires in ballot drop boxes just miles apart in Portland, Oregon and Vancouver, Washington. The fire at the Portland box was put out by a built-in extinguisher. But at the other box in Vancouver, hundreds of ballots may have been destroyed, and officials urged anyone who submitted their ballot there

to contact the elections department to get a replacement. Please do not let today's incidents or anything that happens between now and election day to keep you from expressing yourself with your vote. Authorities say the incidents are connected and that they have identified a suspect vehicle from surveillance footage, though it's not clear what motivated the apparent arson. Earlier this year, the Department of Homeland Security specifically warned about potential arson attacks on ballot boxes. Oh, it's great to be back in Michigan. How's everybody doing? On the campaign trail, Kamala Harris made three stops in Michigan yesterday, racing across the battleground state to a factory in Saginaw, a union training facility near

Detroit, and to Ann Arbor where she and her running mate Tim Walz spoke to a crowd of supporters. Let me tell you something, as I travel our country there is an overwhelming call for a fresh start. At times Harris had to talk over protesters who were shouting about the war in Gaza. Hey guys, I hear you. On the subject of Gaza, we all want this war to end as soon as possible and get the hostages out and I will do everything in my power to make it so.

Michigan has one of the largest Arab and Muslim populations in the country, and voters there have been signaling for a year that they're angry over U.S. support for Israel's military operations. Despite that, Harris' campaign officials tell The Times they think she's in a solid position in Michigan and in the rest of the so-called Blue Wall, which includes Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Ahead of the election, the Times has been looking at how Donald Trump's business dealings could create an ethical minefield

if he's re-elected. When he became president in 2017, the Trump Organization remained open for business. Lobbyists, lawmakers, and foreign officials spent big money President in 2017, the Trump Organization remained open for business. Lobbyists, lawmakers, and foreign officials spent big money at his private clubs, and at the Trump Hotel he owned just blocks from the White House. Trump did agree to some ethical constraints on his business while in office, the key one being that it would not do any new foreign deals.

But this time around, Trump's not committing to that. We've asked his campaign whether or not they were willing to adopt something, should he win, and they've not really answered the question. And we've asked his family business whether they would be willing to adopt something. And once again, they were non-committal as well. Times reporter Ben Protest has been looking

at Trump's potential conflicts of interest. He says this year alone, the Trump organization has struck real estate deals in Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. These are countries that are central to American foreign policy. You know, the country relies on many of these as crucial allies. And so you have this awkward tension potentially, where they're not just foreign policy allies, but they're also allies of the president's family business. Another potential conflict, Trump recently unveiled a cryptocurrency

venture, which could face oversight from federal regulators that Trump would be in charge of appointing. Combined with the foreign deals, Ben says that would likely make Trump the most conflicted president in US history. Without the voluntary ethics guardrails, there's not a lot that can be done to curb his potential conflicts of interest. If he breaks the law theoretically

and commits an act of bribery, then prosecutors could try to bring a case against him. But in the Supreme Court's immunity ruling this summer, they basically decided that presidents have broad immunity for official acts they took as presidents. So you do have a potential situation where there's not a whole lot of remedies to reining in this president. Volkswagen, the iconic German car company, could be on the verge of laying off tens of thousands of workers in Germany and shutting as many as three factories. The closures would be the first ever in the 87-year history of the company.

The potential layoffs were announced by Volkswagen's top employee representative. The company itself declined to comment on its plans. But VW has been struggling. Car sales in Europe have plummeted since the pandemic. And in China, one of its other big markets, consumers have been increasingly buying Chinese-made electric vehicles instead of imports. If the factories closed, it would be a major hit to Germany's economy. Car manufacturing is the country's biggest industry, and VW is the country's biggest

employer. And finally, Alfred Hitchcock tried to warn us. The crows, it turns out, are planning something. The highly intelligent birds can mimic human speech, use tools, remember faces, and hold a grudge. To quote one expert, they're excellent grudge holders. They can even pass them on. When a group of crows, technically called a murder, singles out a person they deem dangerous,

they seem to be able to pass that on for generations. Basically, you shake a rake at some crows in your yard one day, and their children could one day seek revenge in Nego Montoya style. They're known to dive bomb and screech at their targets. There's even a website, Crow Tracks, where people have started reporting in an ego-Montoya style. They're known to dive bomb and screech at their targets. There's even a website, Crow Tracks, where people have started reporting wrath-seeking crows.

But crow justice may not always be carried out correctly. One researcher tells the Times that crows are susceptible to mistaken identity. So not everyone getting the caca-caca treatment necessarily deserves it. Those are the headlines. Today on The Daily, how the U.S. ended up with an immigration system that most Americans think is broken.

That's next in the New York Times audio app, or you can listen wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Tracy Mumford. We'll be back tomorrow.