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With Donald Trump’s projected victory in the 2024 U.S. presidential election, VOA’s Tina Trinh explores how his past policies and current positions offer insight into the upcoming presidency. (Camera: Tina Trinh)
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AMMAN, JORDAN — Arab leaders quickly congratulated Donald Trump on his U.S. presidential election victory. Some are hopeful he could bring an end to conflicts raging in the Middle East while others are looking for a stronger stance against Iran.

Saudi Arabia’s King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, United Arab Emirates leaders, and Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad, all congratulated Donald Trump on his win, saying strengthening strategic partnerships is important.

Dania Koleilat Khatib, president of the Research Center for Cooperation and Peace Building in Beirut, told VOA that during the election, Trump emphasized personal ties with such leaders compared to what she called Biden’s more transactional approach.

Khatib said Arab leaders want Trump to end war in Gaza and Lebanon.

“One of his main campaign promises was to end the war in Gaza. But end it how? Would it end with a Palestinian state? We don’t know,” she said. “The thing that is worrying is [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu attacking Iran. This will be major. Handling Iran will not be easy for Trump.”

Bin Salman has reiterated that his country would not consider improving ties with Israel unless the Gaza war ended and a Palestinian state is established.

Wealthy Gulf states have bolstered ties with Iran and given the Islamic Republic assurances that they won’t allow Israel to use their airspace to facilitate attacks on Iran.

In its response to the elections, Iran played down the results, saying it was ready for confrontation with Israel.

Jordan’s King Abdullah, Egypt’s Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Makati, who are involved in trying to negotiate an end to the raging conflicts, also congratulated Trump.

Analyst Osama Al Sharif in Amman said he believes Trump will pressure Netanyahu to end the conflicts before the presidential inauguration next year.

“He will boldly tell Netanyahu … to wrap things up before the 20th of January because those two wars, especially Gaza, have become so toxic and they have become part of the [President Joe] Biden stigma, which was also eventually inflicted on [Vice President Kamala] Harris,” he said.

“Trump doesn’t need to start his first day at the office with more news of children getting killed and hospitals being blown up.”

Al Sharif told VOA that Iran will be a big challenge for Trump, who he says is an “isolationist who wants to extract America from any conflict.” He predicted Trump may tighten sanctions on Iran.

“More sanctions,” he said. “He may be able to communicate with Tehran through [Russian President Vladimir] Putin, who is now a very close ally of the Iranians. That remains to be seen.”

Al Sharif, however, expressed concern that Trump might recognize Israel’s annexation of most of the West Bank under Israel’s current hard right government, which he said “would complicate things dramatically” for the Palestinians and Jordan.
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Over 160,000 Ukrainians fled their home country and came to the Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia since the Russian invasion. Physicians were among the 50 thousand or so refugees who came to Latvia. Vladislavs Andrejevs spoke with some of them in Riga. Anna Rice narrates his story. (Camera: Vladislavs Andrejevs ; Produced by
Yuriy Zakrevskiy)
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The Republican party won back a majority in the Senate with at least 51 of 100 seats in Tuesday’s election. Control of the House of Representatives, which is currently held by Republicans, was not yet decided early Wednesday.

All 435 seats in the House of Representatives were at stake in elections throughout the United States for new two-year terms, while 34 of the 100 seats in the Senate were contested for new six-year terms.

Before election day, Democrats had narrow control of the Senate and Republicans of the House. Key Republican victories for Senate seats in West Virginia and Ohio put them in position to be back in the majority.

In the House, Republicans held a 220-212 edge, with three vacant seats going into the election. Control of that chamber has not been confirmed yet. Control of the House may not be known for several days, as California has often taken days to count ballots, and recounts and runoffs of close races can take weeks to resolve.

Political surveys throughout the election campaign have shown voters — much like in the Kamala Harris-Donald Trump race for the White House — evenly divided in their political preference for congressional control.

An October Reuters/Ipsos poll found that 43% of registered voters would back the Republican House candidate in their district, while 43% would back the Democratic candidate.
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In labs across the United States, scientists are working on innovative tests using animals and insects to detect cancer earlier. As VOA’s Dora Mekouar reports, recent research suggests bees and dogs can sniff out the disease sooner than machines can.
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The FBI said more than 50 election sites across five battleground states received hoax bomb emails on Election Day in the U.S., and the emails in four of these states came from a Russian domain.

None of the threats sent to polling sites in Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Arizona were deemed credible, and while causing a brief disruption, they did not affect the voting, the FBI said.

“We identified the source, and it was from Russia,” Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said in a news conference, adding that the Russians “don’t want us to have free, fair and accurate elections, and if they could make us fight among ourselves, they could count that as a victory.”

Russia denied involvement, claiming to “never” have interfered in elections in the U.S. or elsewhere. Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and the Russian Embassy in the U.S. used similar language, calling the FBI allegations “malicious slander.”

That belies a well-documented decades-long history of Russian attempts to meddle in the domestic affairs of numerous nations across continents, including systematic efforts against the United States, ranging from malicious cyberattacks to multimillion-dollar disinformation campaigns.

Just last week, German officials said Russia organized bomb threats targeting polling stations during the presidential elections in Moldova, where the Kremlin is accused of trying but failing to replace the pro-Western president, Maia Sandu, with a more amenable candidate.

As it became clear that former U.S. President Donald Trump was poised to return to power, Russian officials and state media signaled their satisfaction with the result.

Vice President Kalala Harris, the Democratic candidate, “is finished,” former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev posted on social media platform X. “The objectives of the Special Military Operation [Russia’s war in Ukraine] remain unchanged and will be achieved.”

The Kremlin-owned Sputnik News branch in India posted on X a short AI-generated video showing a laughing Harris against a background of exploding bombs and destroyed towns in Ukraine. Harris is leaving behind a “rich foreign policy legacy,” the post said.

Russia-linked accounts shared posts saying goodbye to nearly all officials in the current U.S. administration, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, whom they called a “butcher” for his support to Ukraine.

Russia’s state-controlled news network RT [formerly Russia Today] published an election night story featuring its U.S. correspondent Valentin Bogdanov’s experience among Trump’s “most loyal supporters” near his Mar-a-Largo residence in Florida.

Bogdanov described the affairs in the U.S. as “a deep people against a deep state,” and predicted a civil war in a “dysfunctional state.” He painted a picture of a chaotic, fraudulent election with officials at polling sites in Michigan, Arizona and Maryland among other states faking technical issues to cast Trump votes for Harris.

None of those claims proved credible. The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency described the elections as “free, fair and safe.”

Russia’s meddling efforts are not limited to its alleged role in the hoax bomb threats on Election Day. On November 1, the Office of the Direction of National Intelligence, the FBI, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency issued a joint statement from the U.S. Intelligence Community stating that “Russian influence actors” created a fake video falsely showing people claiming to be from Haiti voting illegally in various Georgia counties.
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Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks to his supporters at an election night watch party early Nov. 6, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Fla.  
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berlin — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s coalition faces a make-or-break moment on Wednesday as leaders of the three parties convene to forge compromises between their differing visions on rescuing the economy from decline.

Relations between Scholz’s center-left Social Democrats (SPD), the Greens and free-market Free Democrats (FDP) have sunk to new lows over the past week as they aired their respective strategies without consulting one another.

The FDP, long the odd-one-out in the ideologically mismatched and fractious coalition, has doubled down on its ultimatum: that some key deals must be reached in what the party has called an “autumn of decisions,” or the coalition is finished.

“We need a real change in direction,” FDP parliamentary chief Christian Duerr said on Tuesday.

Scholz, Finance Minister Christian Lindner of the FDP and Economy Minister Robert Habeck of the Greens are set to hold two crisis meetings on Wednesday, in addition to attending a cabinet meeting with a packed agenda.

Then they will join a broader gathering of parliamentary and party leaders from the three camps at 6 p.m. (1700 GMT) that could extend into the night.

The chancellor and his two top ministers hope to reach a preliminary agreement on how to plug a multi-billion-dollar hole in the budget and forge a compromise on economic policies that they can present to their respective parties.

“It’s clear it is possible,” Scholz told reporters on Tuesday.

A coalition collapse could leave Scholz heading a minority government and relying on ad hoc parliamentary majorities to govern, or trigger an early election – which surveys suggest would be disastrous for all three coalition parties.

The SPD and Greens are polling well below their scores in the 2021 election, while the FDP could be ejected from parliament altogether.

The three parties are at odds over how best to rescue Europe’s largest economy, which is now facing its second year of contraction and a crisis in its business model after the end of cheap Russian gas and amid increasing competition from China.

The FDP has proposed public spending cuts, lower taxes and less regulation as the answer to this malaise. It also wants to slow down Germany’s shift to a carbon-neutral economy.

The SPD and the Greens, meanwhile, while at odds on a host of other issues, agree that targeted government spending is needed.

Still, Habeck made a major concession towards the FDP on Monday, saying the funds earmarked as subsidies for a new Intel chip factory could now be used to plug the hole in the budget.
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Former U.S. President Donald Trump moved close to an election victory early Wednesday with wins in several key states, including Pennsylvania, leaving former Vice President Kamala Harris with a narrowing path to a White House term.

In the U.S. system, where the presidential election is tallied in a series of state-by-state contests, both Harris and Trump were quickly declared winners after polls closed Tuesday in states where their parties enjoy clear majority support. Meanwhile, seven so-called battleground states were expected to tip the balance and determine the winner.

Trump pushed ahead with important wins in those areas, combining his victory in Pennsylvania with wins in Georgia and North Carolina to give him at least 267 of the 270 electoral votes needed to clinch a majority. Harris would need to win all of the outstanding states, including Michigan, Wisconsin, Nevada and Arizona.

In addition, the Republicans took control in the 100-member Senate late Tuesday, but it was not yet known which party would control the U.S. House.

Trump claimed victory early Wednesday as he thanked his supporters at a rally in Florida.

“This was a movement like nobody’s ever seen before, and, frankly, this was, I believe, the greatest political movement of all time,” Trump said.

He pledged to “fix our borders” and “fix everything in our country.”

Trump also said he would work to deliver a “strong, safe and prosperous America.”

A Harris campaign official told a crowd of her supporters in Washington that she would not address the gathering overnight but would speak later Wednesday.

The state-by-state electoral system includes different rules for how and when votes are counted, adding to the complexity of how results are reported.

In some states, ballots that are cast in-person before Election Day, or by mail, were allowed to be counted as they came in, leading to faster results. But in other states, those counts did not begin until polls closed Tuesday night, while some states also allowed ballots to be put in the mail as late as Tuesday, meaning final results in those areas will not come for days.

Looming over the eventual result was the prospect of legal challenges. Both the Trump and Harris campaigns were ready with legal experts to contest any irregularities they saw.

A Harris win would make her the country’s first female president. A Trump victory would make him the first U.S. leader since Grover Cleveland in the 1890s to serve non-consecutive terms.

The next president is set to be inaugurated for their four-year term on January 20.

A key foreign policy focus in either a Trump or Harris administration will be relations between the United States and China, including subjects such as trade, Taiwan and China’s actions in the South China Sea.

Vincent Wang, dean of the college of arts and sciences at Adelphi University, told VOA Mandarin that China would approach the prospective presidents differently, including being potentially more aggressive toward the United States if Harris wins.

“China may create some events to give her (Harris) a show of force,” Wang said. “After all, the United States is tied up with wars in the Ukraine, and in Israel and Gaza. In the Taiwan Strait, China has already carried out so-called gray area strategy on a daily basis. I think China may expand its gray area strategy closer to Taiwan as a way to a test Harris.”

“If Trump is elected, I think China may not dare, because he doesn’t go through drafts, he has already said harsh words. If he wakes up today, he might say he’s going to raise tariffs by 200%. If he wakes up tomorrow, he might want to bomb Beijing. So I think this so-called this Trump-type deterrent, on the contrary, will make them a little bit more restrained.”
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In Turkey, listeners of Acik Radyo are protesting after regulators revoked the Istanbul-based station’s license. For nearly 30 years, Acik sought to bridge the country’s divides. Analysts say the action against it is part of a wider government media crackdown. Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul.
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Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump have spent the past few months battling for the White House, and experts say that votes for third party candidates could be a deciding factor for who will become the next president of the United States.  

With the latest polls showing Harris and Trump in a dead heat in battleground states around the country, ballots cast for third-party candidates Jill Stein of the Green Party, independent Cornel West and Libertarian Chase Oliver could be enough to tip the scales.  

VOA Persian spoke with all three of them. Their responses have been edited for length and clarity.  

Green Party candidate Jill Stein 

VOA: During one of his final campaign rallies in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, former President Donald Trump praised you, saying he loved the Green Party and that you might be one of his favorite politicians. What do you make of this?  

Jill Stein: I make of that about as much as I make of Donald Trump’s assessment of climate change, which is that he sort of believes the opposite of reality. I am in this race to provide an alternative to the two parties that are bought and paid for, that are serving Wall Street and the war contractors and definitely not the American people. So I don’t have a lot of high regard for Donald Trump’s political strategies or his values.  

VOA: How much support do you expect to receive in battleground states like Michigan? There were some polls that suggested you have support of over 40% of the Arab American population there.  

Stein: Exactly what the numbers will turn out to be, it depends how many people are turning out to vote. It depends how strong the vote of the, not only the Muslim population, but also many African Americans and Hispanics and young people who feel like they do not have a future under Kamala Harris, and they do not have a future under Donald Trump. At this point, it’s too soon to say. We ourselves do not strictly work based on polls. We’re really in this based on principle and for the long haul. We would be delighted if we make the 5% cut in the national poll in the national results, but it’s very hard to say at this point.  

VOA: What would be your position regarding the government of Iran?  

Stein: I think we need to open the door to negotiations with Iran. Iran has elected a new president who is said to be moderate and interested in improving relations with the West, and we need to explore that. I think the most critical thing in the Middle East right now is resolving this expanding war and the intention of Bibi [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu to create a wider war and drag the U.S. into it. I think that is the greatest threat to peace in the Middle East right now and has the potential to grow into a conflict that’s even bigger than the Middle East. 

Independent candidate Cornel West 

VOA: How many states allowed you to have your name on the ballot and why did others not?    

Cornel West: We’ve got 16 states where we have direct ballot access. We have 24 states where we have write-in access, and that did require petitions and signatures. So that required a lot of work on behalf of magnificent volunteers. But it was very difficult. There’s been a tremendous struggle, but we come up swinging.  

VOA: How different will your policy be compared to what we hear from Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump?  

West: Martin Luther King [Jr.] said, militarism, racism, poverty and materialism are the four forces that are sucking the democratic energy out of the American social experiment. I take very seriously his critique of militarism. I see that as a criticism of American foreign policies in which we are so eager to create these lethal armed forces rather than engage in wise diplomatic processes. And so there would be no genocide. I would have had an embargo on any kind of military or financial support of Israel as it was very clear that they were laying bare this kind of massive massacre on innocent people, especially innocent children and women and men.  

The same would be true in terms of being able to bring an end to the war in Ukraine. Same would be true in terms of trying to be more diplomatic with China. I see Kamala Harris as a militarist, Black woman. That is to say she’s willing to not just provoke, but to push [Russian President Vladimir] Putin. And I think Putin himself is still very much a gangster and a war criminal in his own way, but he has a right — Russia has a right to security. And the same is true with China. There’s too much provocation, and I think that moves us toward World War III in the same way that Trump moves us towards Civil War II at home. And that was one reason why I wanted to provide some kind of alternative to Trump and [U.S. President Joe] Biden.

And then when Biden had his LBJ moment [referring to Biden’s poor debate performance] something that we talked about many, many months ago, we just predicted that Harris now is following through on the same militarism in Gaza. And of course, genocide, the crime of genocide, is a litmus test of morality of any nation, any country, and if you deny it, if you enable it, it’s a sign that you don’t have a moral fiber in your military policy.  

VOA: Many people in the occupied West Bank are disturbed by Tehran’s support for militants in Gaza. How do you see this considering the moral aspects of your vision, your doctrine and your policy?    

West: Malcolm X used to say, I’m for truth, no matter who’s for it, and justice, no matter who supports it. People can actually support just movements for motivations that themselves are highly suspicious. When the French supported the American revolutionaries, when Lafayette came to the United States, it was partly because the French were over against the British in Europe, they didn’t have a whole lot of solidarity with these colonists responding against the British Empire. … The Soviet Union supported the freedom struggles in Africa. It wasn’t always because they just love Africans so much. It was anti-United States. They had a Cold War going on, and their policies were strategic and tactical in that way. The same would be true for Iran vis-a-vis Palestinians.

So I think we have to be very truthful about the ways in which the motives might not always be attractive, but when you’re a people like Palestinians this moment, whose backs are against the wall, they need help from anybody, and it’s very important that people highlight their plight so that their babies are not crushed. But that doesn’t mean that those who are supporting them always have the right motives, and therefore we can still be critical of what those motives are.  

Libertarian Party candidate Chase Oliver 

VOA: In your platform, you mentioned that Libertarians seek the United States at peace with the world. How different will your foreign policy be?

Chase Oliver: It would be a drastic difference than what the status quo has been, certainly since I’ve been an adult. Since I’ve been an adult, let’s just call it the post-9/11 War on Terror kind of foreign policy mindset that we’ve had, which I think is rooted in ideas that are very black and white. You’re either with us or you’re with the terrorists.

The best way to solve a problem is through a preemptive war or through increasing our military presence in the region, to flex our muscle. And what I think that has done is actually created further instability, particularly in the Middle East, which I don’t think has been a success despite the trillions of dollars we’ve spent in both Iraq and Afghanistan. I don’t think you can say either of those nations are particularly bastions of democracy, or that the region itself is now more stable than it was.

And so for me, I would say let’s remove our military footprint and start flexing our diplomatic muscle. Let’s start meeting with world leaders directly, one on one. Let’s start forming coalitions around peaceful ideas and free trade and voluntary exchange to tear down barriers between our nations so that we can have cultural exchanges with one another. I think these are the ideas that we really need to be pushing, and not a militarized foreign policy that’s ruined the idea that the United States must be the world’s enforcer.   

VOA: So you don’t see America as the leader of the free world with its responsibilities?    

Oliver: I absolutely see America as a leader in terms of the markets of the world, the economic engine of the world, the diplomatic arm of the world. But it doesn’t need to be coming, using the military might of the world. Teddy Roosevelt said, “Speak softly and carry a big stick.” We have a very powerful military that can defend ourselves, and ultimately, if there were a need and if Congress declared a war, fight a war anywhere in the world with absolute certainty that we could dominate our opponent. But you don’t flex your muscle like that around the world. That’s not a position of strength. When you use that military might to push your agenda, that’s actually a position of weakness, because good ideas should not require force, and you should be able to diplomatically work throughout the world.

And I recognize the world is not perfect. The world does not lack violence. The world is not lacking for bad people, particularly governments around the world who represent good people. And Iran is no different. The government of Iran is abhorrent. They’re abusive to their people. They curtail their rights. But the people of Iran are good, innocent people who don’t deserve to have things like airstrikes and missiles raining down upon them because of the evils of their government. And I hope that ultimately, we can liberalize the world more towards more liberalized things like free speech, freedom of movement and freedom of religion. But that’s not going to come just from us beating people down. 

VOA: How difficult is it to run as a third-party candidate?    

Oliver: Running as an alternative party candidate has a lot of challenges because the two mainstream parties have a lot of built-in incumbency power, both in the number of elected officials they have as well as things like taxpayer-funded primaries. So they basically take taxes out of my wallet to fund primaries that help promote the candidates that are Republicans and Democrats.

And as a Libertarian, we’re kind of left in the lurch there. So there’s a lot of challenges, especially around things like ballot access. There’s a lot of solutions. And actually a big part of my platform is a thing called the voter bill of rights that will open up this process, not just for Libertarians like myself, but all sorts of other alternative parties that really need to have their voices heard. 
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washington — A U.S. Army soldier who was injured in May while working on the American-built pier to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza has died. 

Sargeant Quandarius Stanley, 23, was a motor transport operator and was critically injured when high winds and heavy seas damaged the pier, causing four Army vessels to become beached. Two other service members also were injured but later returned to duty. 

U.S. military officials have not provided details on how exactly Stanley was injured but have noted it was not in combat. He died last Thursday and had been assigned to the 7th Transportation Brigade Expeditionary at Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Virginia. 

“Sergeant Quandarius Stanley was an instrumental and well respected first-line leader in the 7th Transportation Brigade Expeditionary (TBX), especially during the mission to provide humanitarian assistance to the people of Gaza. We will continue to provide support to his family during this difficult time,” said Colonel John “Eddie” Gray, brigade commander. “Our entire unit mourns alongside his family.” 

Captain Shkeila Milford-Glover, spokesperson for the 3rd Expeditionary Sustainment Command, said Stanley had recently retired and was receiving treatment in a long-term care medical center. 

The massive pier project was hampered by unexpected bad weather and security issues, as well as persistent safety issues involving Israeli forces that prompted aid agencies to halt distribution of the supplies out of fear of being injured and killed. 

The Defense Department formally pulled the pier from the Gaza shore on June 28 and declared an end in mid-July to the mission to bring aid into the territory besieged by the war between Israel and Hamas. 

The military moved nearly 20 million pounds of aid onto the Gaza shore in what officials said was the “largest volume of humanitarian assistance” ever delivered into the Middle East. 

But aid agencies had difficulty moving the food brought ashore to areas farther into Gaza where it was needed most because humanitarian convoys came under attack. 
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NOVI SAD, Serbia — Protesters threw flares and red paint Tuesday on the City Hall building in the Serbian city of Novi Sad in rage over last week’s collapse of a concrete canopy at the railway station that killed 14 people. Police responded by firing tear gas canisters. 

The protesters surrounded the building in central Novi Sad, breaking windows and throwing stones and other objects despite calls by organizers to remain calm. Special police troops were deployed inside the building. 

Some of the angry protesters wearing masks, believed to be soccer hooligans who are close to the populist government, tried to get inside the building and hand over their demands that those responsible for the canopy collapse face justice. 

Serbia’s autocratic President Aleksandar Vucic said the police are “showing restraint,” but also issued a warning saying “horrific, violent protests are underway.” 

“People of Serbia, please do not think violence is allowed,” he said on X, formerly Twitter. “All those taking part in the incidents will be punished.” 

Protest organizers said they wanted to enter the Hall and submit their demands. 

Miran Pogacar, an opposition activist, said “one glass window can be mended but we cannot bring back 14 lives. People are angry. Serbia won’t stand for this.” 

Bojan Pajtic, an opposition politician, said he believed the violent incidents were stoked deliberately by provocateurs, a tactic used before in Serbia to derail peaceful anti-government protests and paint the opposition protesters as enemies of the nation. 

Thousands first marched through the city streets demanding that top officials step down because of the fatal outer roof collapse last Friday, including President Vucic and Prime Minister Milos Vucevic. 

The protesters first gathered outside the railway station where they held a moment of silence for the victims as organizers read their names. The crowd responded by chanting: “arrest the gang” and “thieves.” 

The protest started peacefully but some demonstrators later hurled plastic bottles and bricks at the headquarters of Vucic’s ruling Serbian Progressive Party and smeared red paint on posters of the Serbian president and the prime minister — a message that they have blood on their hands. 

The protesters removed most of the Serbian national red, blue and white national flags that were apparently hung on the headquarters to prevent it from an attack. That triggered an angry reaction from the president. 

“Our Serbian tricolor has been destroyed, hidden and removed by all those who do not love Serbia,” Vucic wrote on X. “Tonight, in Novi Sad, this is being done by those who tell us that they love Serbia more than us, the decent citizens of this country.” 

Critics of Serbia’s populist government have attributed the disaster to rampant corruption in the Balkan country, a lack of transparency and sloppy work during renovation work on the station building which was part of a wider railway deal with Chinese state companies. 

The accident happened without warning. Surveillance camera footage showed the massive canopy on the outer wall of the station building crashing down on the people sitting below on benches or going in and out. 

Officials have promised full accountability and, faced with pressure, Serbia’s construction minister submitted his resignation Tuesday. 

Prosecutors have said that more than 40 people already have been questioned as part of a probe into what happened. Many in Serbia, however, doubt that justice will be served with the populists in firm control of the judicial system and the police. 

Opposition parties behind Tuesday’s protest said they are also demanding the resignation of Vucevic and that documentation be made public listing all the companies and individuals involved. 

The victims included a 6-year-old girl. Those injured in the roof collapse remained in serious condition Tuesday. 

The train station has been renovated twice in recent years. Officials have insisted that the canopy had not been part of the renovation work, suggesting this was the reason why it collapsed but giving no explanation for why it was not included. 

The Novi Sad railway station was originally built in 1964, while the renovated station was inaugurated by Vucic and his populist ally, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, over two years ago as a major stopover for a planned fast train line between Belgrade and Budapest. 
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A caravan of approximately 3,000 migrants set off on Tuesday from southern Mexico, headed toward the United States on the day when U.S. voters were deciding between U.S. presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.

Immigration has been a key issue in the U.S. election campaign.

Before heading northward, the migrants gathered in Tapachula, the capital of the southern Chiapas state, carrying banners with messages such as “NO MORE MIGRANT BLOOD” and images of the Virgin of Guadalupe, an important religious and cultural symbol in Mexico, according to Reuters witnesses.

“We want U.S. authorities to see us, to see that we are people who want to work, not to harm anyone,” said Honduran migrant Roy Murillo, who joined the caravan with his two children and his pregnant wife.

In recent years, several caravans with people hoping to enter the United States have attempted to reach the U.S.-Mexican border, traveling in mass groups for safety. Most have dispersed along the way.

“I’m afraid to travel alone with my family. Here, the cartels either kidnap you or kill you. … That’s why we’re coming in the caravan,” Murillo said.

Murillo recounted his unsuccessful attempts to secure an asylum appointment through a mobile app developed by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency.

Tapachula, a mandatory crossing point for tens of thousands of migrants, has become one of Mexico’s most violent cities in recent months, with migrants frequently targeted by organized crime, according to official data.

“I feel suffocated here. That’s why we decided to leave,” said 28-year-old Venezuelan migrant Thais, who spoke on condition that her surname not be used due to safety concerns.

She joined the caravan with her husband and 3-year-old daughter.

“I wish Mr. Trump and Ms. Kamala would see that we are human beings, that we want to live and support our families,” she added.

Voters cast ballots on Tuesday in the race between Vice President Harris, a Democrat seeking to become the first female U.S. president, and Trump, a Republican immigration hard-liner aiming to regain the presidency.
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London — Two new cases of the mpox variant clade 1b detected in the U.K. are the first locally transmitted cases in Europe and the first outside Africa, the World Health Organization said Tuesday.

The U.K. Health Security Agency (UKHSA) confirmed late Monday that the two new cases were household contacts of Britain’s first case identified last week, bringing the country’s total confirmed cases to three.

The WHO warned that European states should be prepared for “rapid action” to contain the latest mpox variant, which spreads through close physical contact including sexual relations and sharing closed spaces.

The two cases are also the first to be locally transmitted outside Africa since August 2024, when the WHO declared the outbreak of the new variant an international public health emergency — its highest level of alarm.

Those affected are under specialist care and the risk to the U.K. population “remains low,” UKHSA said.

The original case was detected after the person traveled to several African countries on holiday and returned to the U.K. on Oct. 21.

The patient developed flu-like symptoms more than 24 hours later and, on Oct. 24, started to develop a rash that worsened in the following days.

Mpox, a viral disease related to smallpox, has two types, clade 1 and clade 2. Symptoms include fever, a skin rash or pus-filled blisters, swollen lymph nodes and body aches.

The WHO first declared an international public health emergency in 2022 over the spread of clade 2. That outbreak mostly affected gay and bisexual men in Europe and the United States.

Vaccination and awareness drives in many countries helped stem the number of worldwide cases and the WHO lifted the emergency in May 2023 after reporting 140 deaths out of around 87,400 cases.

In 2024, a two-pronged epidemic of clade 1 and clade 1b, a new strain that affects children, has spread widely in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The new strain has also been recorded in neighboring Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda, with imported cases in Sweden, India, Thailand, Germany and the U.K.
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SEDAVI, Spain — Francisco Murgui went out to try to salvage his motorbike when the water started to rise. 

He never came back. 

One week after catastrophic flooding devastated eastern Spain, Maria Murgui still holds out hope that her father is alive and among the unknown number of the missing. 

“He was like many people in town who went out to get their car or motorbike to safety,” the 27-year-old told The Associated Press. “The flash flood caught him outside, and he had to cling to a tree in order to escape drowning. He called us to tell us that he was fine, that we shouldn’t worry.” 

But when Maria set out into the streets of Sedavi to try to rescue him from the water washing away everything in its path, he was nowhere to be found. 

“He held up until 1 in the morning,” she said. “By 2, I went outside with a neighbor and a rope to try to locate him. But we couldn’t find him. And since then, we haven’t heard anything about him.” 

At least 218 have been confirmed dead after a deluge caused by heavy rains late on October 29 and the next morning swamped entire communities, mostly in Spain’s Valencia region, catching most off guard. Regional authorities have been heavily criticized for having issued alerts to mobile phones some two hours after the disaster had started. 

Authorities have yet to any give an estimate of the missing seven days on. Spanish state broadcaster RTVE, however, shows a steady stream of appeals by people who are searching for family members who are not accounted for. 

Maria Murgui herself has posted a missing person’s message on social media with a photo of her father, a 57-year-old retiree. 

“This is like riding a roller coaster. Sometimes I feel very bad and sometimes I feel better. I try to stay positive,” she said. “This truly is madness. We don’t know what else to do. Neither does anybody else in town.” 

Relief package 

While many search for their loved ones, the gargantuan recovery efforts in Sedavi and dozens of other communities slowly moved forward. 

To aid those in need, the central government approved a 10.6-billion-euro relief package for 78 communities on Tuesday. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez compared it to the measures taken during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The package includes direct payments of 20,000 euros to 60,000 euros to owners of damaged homes, among other financial aid for businesses and municipal governments. 

“We have a lot of work left to do, and we know it,” Sanchez said.  

Sanchez said that he will ask the European Union to help pay for the relief, saying, “it is time for the European Union to help.” 

Many people are still without basic goods amid scenes of devastation. 

Street after street in town after town is still covered with thick brown mud and mounds of ruined belongings, clumps of rotting vegetation, and wrecked vehicles. A stench arises from the muck.

In many places, people still face shortages of basic goods, and lines form at impromptu emergency kitchens and stands handing out food. Water is running again but authorities say it is not fit for drinking. 

The ground floors of thousands of homes have been ruined. It is feared that inside some of the vehicles that the water washed away or trapped in underground garages there could be bodies waiting to be recovered. 

Thousands of soldiers are working with firefighters and police reinforcements in the immense emergency response. Officers and troops are searching in destroyed homes, the countless cars strewn across highways, streets, or lodged in the mud in canals and gorges. 

Authorities are worried about other health problems caused by the aftermath of the deadliest natural disaster in Spain’s recent history. They have urged people to get tetanus shots and to treat any wounds to prevent infections and to clean the mud from their skin. Many people wear face masks. 

Thousands of volunteers are helping out, filling the void left by authorities. But the frustration over the crisis management boiled over on Sunday when a crowd in hard-hit Paiporta hurled mud and other objects at Spain’s royals, Sanchez and regional officials when they made their first visit to the epicenter of the flood damage. 

Sanchez’s national government is set to announce a new package of relief on Tuesday. 
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Millions of U.S. voters are set to cast their ballots Tuesday as they decide whether Vice President Kamala Harris or former President Donald Trump will be the country’s next leader.
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DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES — An Iranian official claimed Tuesday that Iranian-German prisoner Jamshid Sharmahd died before Tehran could execute him — directly contradicting the country’s earlier announcement he had been put to death.

The comment by Asghar Jahangir came after Germany shut down all three Iranian consulates in the country over Sharmahd’s death, leaving only the embassy in Berlin open. Germany later disputed Jahangir’s remark.

Meanwhile, even Iran’s reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian has offered his own criticism of Germany’s response to Sharmahd’s death as tensions remain high between Tehran and the West over its rapidly advancing nuclear program and the ongoing Mideast wars.

The judiciary’s Mizan news agency quoted Jahangir as saying: “Jamshid Sharmahd was sentenced to death, his sentence was ready to be carried out, but he passed away before implementation of the sentence.”

He did not elaborate. Jahangir’s remarks were made to the state-affiliated Quds newspaper after a weekly news conference, when journalists typically buttonhole the spokesperson into answering questions he didn’t take from the podium.

Germany’s Foreign Ministry, reacting to the official’s comment, said, “His death was confirmed to us by the Iranian side.

“Jamshid Sharmahd was abducted by Iran and held for years without a fair trial, in inhumane conditions and without the necessary medical care,” the ministry said. “Iran is responsible for his death.”

Germany added it was “lobbying the Iranian government to hand over his body to his family.”

The State Department in the United States, where Sharmahd once lived, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Jason Poblete, a lawyer representing Sharmahd’s family, told The Associated Press that the conflicting comments from Iran were “deeply concerning.”

“This inconsistency raises serious questions about the circumstances of the death and the transparency of the Iranian system,” Poblete said. “The family has been urging the German and U.S. authorities to investigate this matter to ascertain the truth, ensure accountability thoroughly and reunite Jimmy with his family in California.”

Iran had said it executed Sharmahd on October 28. He was 69.

Iran accused Sharmahd, who lived in Glendora, California, of planning a 2008 attack on a mosque that killed 14 people — including five women and a child — and wounded over 200 others, as well as plotting other assaults through the little-known Kingdom Assembly of Iran and its Tondar militant wing.

Iran also accused Sharmahd of “disclosing classified information” on missile sites of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard during a television program in 2017.

His family disputed the allegations and worked for years to see him freed. Germany, the U.S. and international rights groups dismissed Sharmahd’s trial as a sham. Amnesty International said the proceedings against Sharmahd were a “grossly unfair trial” because he was denied access to an independent lawyer and “the right to defend himself.”

However, Amnesty also noted that Sharmahd ran a website for the Kingdom Assembly of Iran and its Tondar militant wing that included claims of “responsibility for explosions inside Iran,” although he repeatedly denied being involved in the attacks.

Sharmahd was apparently kidnapped while on a layover in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, in 2020. His family received their last message from him on July 28, 2020.

It’s unclear how the abduction happened, but tracking data showed that Sharmahd’s cellphone traveled south from Dubai to the city of Al Ain on July 29, crossing the border into Oman. On July 30, tracking data showed the phone traveled to the Omani port city of Sohar, where the signal stopped.

Two days later, Iran announced it had captured Sharmahd in a “complex operation.” The Intelligence Ministry published a photograph of him blindfolded.

In the time since his execution, Germany shut the consulates. It’s a diplomatic tool Germany seldom uses and signals a major downgrade in relations with Tehran.

However, Iran has responded by criticizing Germany and the West, including Pezeshkian, who campaigned on a promise of getting sanctions on the Islamic Republic lifted.

“When someone who has slaughtered dozens is executed, they say you do not observe human rights,” Pezeshkian said.
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London — Brazilian police official Valdecy Urquiza will be the next chief of Interpol, the global police organization announced Tuesday.

Urquiza was elected secretary-general by a vote of Interpol’s general assembly at its meeting in Glasgow, Scotland, and will take up the post when the gathering ends on Thursday.

Currently Interpol’s vice president for the Americas, Urquiza is the first chief of the Lyon, France-based organization not to come from Europe or the United States.

The Interpol secretary-general essentially runs the organization on a daily basis. Juergen Stock of Germany, who has held the post since 2014, is not allowed under its rules to seek a third term.

Urquiza pledged to promote diversity within the organization, saying “a strong Interpol is one that includes everyone.”

“When we respect and elevate diverse perspectives, we get a clearer, more comprehensive approach to global security,” he said.

Interpol, which has 196 member countries and celebrated its centennial last year, works to help national police forces communicate with each other and track suspects and criminals in fields such as counterterrorism, financial crime, child pornography, cybercrime and organized crime.

The world’s biggest police organization has been grappling with challenges including a growing caseload of cybercrime and child sex abuse, and increasing divisions among its member countries.

Interpol had a total budget of about $188 million last year, compared to more than $200 million at the European Union’s police agency, Europol, and some $11 billion at the FBI in the United States.
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washington — Pyongyang may have bet all its chips on its relationship with Moscow by committing the lives of its soldiers to fight for Russia’s war efforts against Ukraine, according to analysts.

North Korean soldiers are gearing up for an anticipated battle in the Russian border region of Kursk.

According to the Defense Intelligence of Ukraine on Saturday, more than 7,000 North Korean soldiers in the front line near the border were armed with various weapons by Russia. They included 60 mm mortars, AK-12 rifles and rocket-propelled grenade launchers.

Some North Korean soldiers in the region have already come under fire, according to a message that Andriy Kovalenko, the head of the Ukrainian Center for Countering Disinformation, posted on Telegram on Monday.

The U.S. estimates that 8,000 soldiers are in the Kursk Oblast to fight in front-line operations against Ukraine forces in the coming days.

“There is no more significant and long-term a commitment one country can make to another than sending troops at wartime,” Victor Cha, president of the Geopolitics and Foreign Policy Department and Korea Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), told VOA.

“I never believed this was short term, at least from the North Korean perspective,” said Cha, who formerly served as the deputy head of the U.S. delegation to the Six Party Talks with North Korea.

Cha added that Kim could face many risks by deploying troops  thousands of miles away from home and exposing them to fight alongside Russian soldiers.

“What if North Korean soldiers desert or are captured? What is the future of DPRK-Europe relations? What if South Korean weapons [supplied via the U.S to Ukraine thus far] kills North Korean soldiers? What if Ukraine makes a point of targeting North Korean soldiers for propaganda purposes?” he asked.

Long-term commitment

Cha, in an article CSIS published October 23, said that by sending troops, North Korea may have crossed the point of no return in its ties with Russia.

South Korean Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun said during a news conference in Washington, held last week after a security meeting, that Seoul is looking to send a team to Ukraine to monitor North Korean troops.

When Kim visited Russia last year and began sending munitions the same year, some analysts saw him as largely engaged in a short-term transactional relationship with Moscow.

But after North Korea deployed troops to Russia — a move in line with a mutual defense treaty the two signed this summer — and joined Moscow’s war efforts against Ukraine and, by default, against NATO and U.S. interests, Kim is viewed as engaged in an “all-in” relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin that comes with major risks.

Evans Revere, a former State Department official with extensive experience negotiating with North Korea, said, “Kim Jong Un’s willingness to take these risks suggests he is ‘all in’ on the relationship with Moscow and prepared to make important sacrifices to show support for his Russian patron, in the hope that doing so will yield the benefits he seeks.”

Revere added, “This tells us a lot about what Kim is prepared to do to receive key military and space technologies. It remains to be seen whether Moscow is prepared to provide all the technologies and support Kim wants. If it does not, it will leave the North Korean ruler in a very difficult position.”

South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul and EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell held talks Monday in Seoul and condemned North Korea’s troop deployment and possible military technology transfers Russia could make in return.

North Korea launched a Hwasong-19 intercontinental ballistic missile Thursday in demonstration of what it described as the “world’s most powerful strategic deterrent.”

In addition to technologies Kim might want to further advance Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programs, North Korea will receive about $200 million from Moscow for its troop deployment, according to an estimate from South Korea’s National Intelligence Service.

“North Korea is not necessarily wanting to back away from the relationship at the moment because it’s given a lifeline as well as a hedge partner against China,” said Samuel Ramani, an associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute in London.

Kim is “willing to commit almost anything that Putin is willing to ask him to do at this point,” Ramani said.

Transactional relationship

Whether long term or short term, Dan DePetris, a fellow at Defense Priorities, said, “Ties are still very much transactional in the sense that Kim expects Russian President Vladimir Putin to compensate him in some way, shape or form.”

However, DePetris said, “it’s unlikely North Korea will be comfortable putting all its chips in Russia’s basket,” as “betting on Russia over the long term would mean handcuffing North Korea to a single power, limiting the flexibility North Korean officials seek to maintain and giving Russia the ability to blackmail North Korea in the future.”

North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui said Friday, when she met in Moscow with her Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, that Pyongyang would fully back Russia’s war efforts against Ukraine until victory.

Choe also said Kim had already “instructed” North Korean officials to provide support for the Russian army “without regard to anyone” when Russia launched what she described as “the special military operation” against Ukraine in 2022.

In return, Lavrov reaffirmed Moscow’s “full support for North Korea’s measures aimed at countering the aggressive policies of the U.S. and its partners” and its commitment to implement the mutual defense treaty.

“We’ve long thought of North Korea as a rogue state, but the tight cooperation between Putin and Kim Jong Un now makes Russia look like a rogue state, too,” said Stephen Sestanovich, senior fellow for Russian and Eurasian studies at the Council on Foreign Relations who served as U.S. ambassador-at-large for the former Soviet Union from 1997 to 2001.
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SEATTLE — Unionized machinists at Boeing voted Monday to accept a contract offer and end their strike after more than seven weeks, clearing the way for the aerospace giant to resume production of its bestselling airliner and generate much-needed cash.

Leaders of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers district in Seattle said 59% of members who cast ballots agreed to approve the company’s fourth formal offer and the third put to a vote. The deal includes pay raises of 38% over four years, and ratification and productivity bonuses.

However, Boeing refused to meet strikers’ demand to restore a company pension plan that was frozen nearly a decade ago.

The contract’s ratification on the eve of Election Day clears the way for a major U.S. manufacturer and government contractor to restart Pacific Northwest assembly lines that the factory workers’ walkout have idled for 53 days.

Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg said in a message to employees Monday night that he was pleased to have reached an agreement.

“While the past few months have been difficult for all of us, we are all part of the same team,” Ortberg said. “We will only move forward by listening and working together. There is much work ahead to return to the excellence that made Boeing an iconic company.”

According to the union, the 33,000 workers it represents can return to work as soon as Wednesday or as late as Nov. 12. Boeing’s CEO has said it might take “a couple of weeks” to resume production in part because some could need retraining.

The contract decision is “most certainly not a victory,” said Eep Bolaño, a Boeing calibration specialist based in Seattle who voted in favor of ratification. Bolaño said she and her fellow workers made a wise but infuriating choice to accept the offer.

“We were threatened by a company that was crippled, dying, bleeding on the ground, and us as one of the biggest unions in the country couldn’t even extract two-thirds of our demands from them. This is humiliating,” Bolaño said.

Leaders of IAM District 751 had endorsed the latest proposal, saying they thought they had gotten all they could though negotiations and the strike.

“It is time for our members to lock in these gains and confidently declare victory,” the union district said before Monday’s vote. “We believe asking members to stay on strike longer wouldn’t be right as we have achieved so much success.”

The average annual pay of Boeing machinists is currently $75,608 and eventually will rise to $119,309 under the new contract, according to the company.

A continuing strike would have plunged Boeing into further financial peril and uncertainty.

CEO Kelly Ortberg, an outsider who started at Boeing only in August, has announced plans to lay off about 10% of the workforce, about 17,000 people, due to the strike and a series of other factors that diminished the company’s reputation and fortunes this year.
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Millions of U.S. voters are set to cast their ballots Tuesday as they decide whether Vice President Kamala Harris or former President Donald Trump will be the country’s next leader.

Polls heading into Election Day indicated a tight race, particularly in a group of battleground states that will be key to deciding the winner.

Both candidates made stops Monday in Pennsylvania, one of those closely watched states, holding a series of rallies including nearby each another in the Pittsburgh area as they projected confidence in their own campaigns.

“Tomorrow is Election Day, and the momentum is on our side,” Harris told her supporters gathered at a historic steel facility that nodded to Pittsburgh’s history as the heart of the country’s steel industry. “Our campaign has tapped into the ambitions, the aspirations and the dreams of the American people. And we know it is time for a new generation of leadership in America.”

“We must finish strong,” Harris added. “Make no mistake, we will win.”

Trump, addressing his supporters at a sports arena, said another Trump administration would “launch the most extraordinary economic boom the world has ever seen.”

“If you vote for Kamala, you will have four more years of misery, failure and disaster,” Trump said. “Our country may never recover. Vote for me and I will deliver rising wages, soaring income, and a colossal surge of jobs, wealth and opportunity for America of every race, religion, color and creed. Every one of them.”

Ahead of Tuesday’s Election Day, more than 81 million Americans cast early votes, either in person at polling stations or by mail.

The total is more than half the 158 million who voted in the 2020 election, when President Joe Biden defeated Trump. It was a Democratic victory that to this day Trump says he was cheated out of by fraudulent voting rules and vote counts.  

Dozens of court decisions, often rendered by Trump-appointed judges, went against him as he attempted to challenge the 2020 results. But Sunday, he told a Pennsylvania rally he “shouldn’t have left” the White House in 2021 when Biden assumed office.   

Trump has said he will only accept Tuesday’s outcome if he concludes that the election is conducted fairly, which Democratic critics have said they assume means only if he wins. Both Trump and Harris have assembled vast teams of lawyers to contest voting and vote-counting issues as they materialize Tuesday during the day, into the evening and the following days, until a clear winner emerges.  

A Trump victory would make him only the second president to serve two non-consecutive terms, after Grover Cleveland in the 1880s. He would also be the first felon to serve as president as he awaits sentencing later in November after being convicted of 34 charges linked to his hush money payment to a porn film star ahead of his successful 2016 run for the presidency.   

Trump has often punctuated his campaign with angry broadsides at his Democratic opponents, calling them the “enemy within” the country and a threat to the country’s future. He has belittled Harris as a person of limited intellect and said she would be the pawn of other world leaders in dealing with international relationships.   

Harris for weeks has claimed she is the underdog in the campaign but lately expressed more optimism and now says she expects to become the country’s 47th president. If elected, she would be the first woman to be the American leader, its first of South Asian descent and its second Black president after Barack Obama.  

She has described Trump as an “unserious man,” saying he would be a threat to American democracy and unhinged by any normal presidential constraints after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled earlier this year that presidents cannot be prosecuted for any wrongdoing linked to their official actions.   

Pollsters say the country’s voters are deeply divided between the two candidates. It is an assessment reflected in how major media outlets look at the possible outcome just ahead of the official Election Day.  

Last-minute polling shows the Harris-Trump race all but tied in the battleground states, within the margin of statistical error.  

ABC News polling shows Trump winning five of the seven battleground states, but The Washington Post says its aggregation of polls has Harris ahead in four. The New York Times says Trump is ahead in four, Harris two, and the race tied in Pennsylvania.   

The importance of battleground states cannot be overstated.  

U.S. presidential elections are not decided by the national popular vote but through the Electoral College, which turns the election into 50 state-by-state contests, with 48 of the states awarding all their electoral votes to the winner in those states. Nebraska and Maine allocate theirs by both statewide and congressional district vote counts.  

The number of electoral votes in each state is based on population, so the biggest states hold the most sway in determining the overall national outcome, with the winner needing 270 of the 538 electoral votes to claim the presidency. Pennsylvania alone has 19 electoral votes.  

Polls show either Harris or Trump with substantial or comfortable leads in 43 of the states, enough for each to get to 200 electoral votes or more. Barring an upset in one of those states, the winner will be decided in the seven remaining battleground states, where both Harris and Trump have staged frequent rallies, all but ignoring the rest of the country for campaign stops.

Some information for this story was provided by The Associated Press and Reuters
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Lawrenceville, Georgia — One of the most ethnically diverse counties in the Southeastern United States will be among those issuing early voting results Tuesday night, a reveal that could indicate which of the presidential candidates is in the lead in the crucial count of 538 electoral votes.

The victor must receive at least 270 of those electoral votes, and Georgia, seen as one of the seven states where the outcome is uncertain, has 16 of those precious votes. Only Pennsylvania has more — 19 — among the battleground states. North Carolina also has 16.

The other wild cards are Arizona (11), Michigan (15), Nevada (6) and Wisconsin (10).

It is possible for the declared victor in the electoral count to lose the national popular vote total. That last happened in 2016, when Republican Donald Trump won 304 electoral votes but lost the popular vote to Democrat Hillary Clinton by about 2%.

It could be days before the United States knows who its next president will be, but at the Gwinnett County Voter Registration and Elections headquarters in the swing state of Georgia, workers are already scanning several hundred thousand ballots submitted in advance by mail-in and early voters. The tabulations of those ballots will be released the moment the polls close at 7 p.m. on Tuesday.

Up to 70% of the vote total from those already-processed ballots will be known within that first hour, said Zach Manifold, the county’s elections supervisor.

“And then, kind of a long night begins,” Manifold told VOA on Monday. “Our first precinct usually arrives maybe about 8:30, just depending on how much line there is at seven o’clock. But 8:30 is the first precinct. We have 156 precincts that all have to come back. I don’t know why, but it always seems like that last one comes in sometime between 11:30 and midnight.

“After you get past midnight, you’ll probably have just about all the precincts in and have a pretty good feel for the final — at least the unofficial results — for Gwinnett,” Manifold said.

To demonstrate transparency, the media, which is expected to include dozens of TV news crews and other journalists from around the world, will be allowed in the large room where the ballots are opened. The reporters will be kept behind a cordon but not prevented from observing the entire process. Activities in the tabulation room, in another part of the same building, will be livestreamed online.

Gwinnett County, with a population of about 1 million, is the second-largest county in Georgia. It is remarkable for its exceptional diversity, with no single ethnic group making up more than about one-third of its residents. In 2023, non-Hispanic whites made up about one-third of the country’s population, as did African Americans, according to census data.

“We have a very large Hispanic population, Asian population, Black population,” said Manifold. “It is a very much a mixture of what is America. And, so, I think a lot of the reason that people are wanting to see what Gwinnett’s like [on election night] is, I think, Gwinnett is a lot like modern America.”

Democrat Joe Biden’s strong margin in this suburban county four years ago helped him narrowly win Georgia and thus the presidency, unseating Trump.

Gwinnett County voted Republican every year between 1980 and 2012, but in line with a trend of suburban political realignment, went narrowly for Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016. Trump, a political novice that year, won Georgia overall in 2016, which was key to his unexpected presidential victory.

Regardless of the outcome this week, Manifold knows he will be drinking a lot of coffee from Tuesday morning to stay alert.

“It’s about a 24-hour day a lot of the time in these presidential elections,” he said. “I’ll start at our warehouse at 4 a.m., and we’ll see what time we get out of here at the main office.”
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MINNEAPOLIS, MN — Somali Americans in Minnesota last month took part in a town hall involving Democratic and Republican party representatives encouraging them to participate in the 2024 election, arguing the stakes are high for them and their grandchildren.

During a VOA town hall event in Minneapolis, Somali Americans listened to remarks by panelists from both political parties, who answered questions about the economy, immigration, and foreign policy, explaining what their candidate would do to win the votes of Somali Americans.

Economic policy

While many Somali Americans are traditionally Democratic-leaning, there are rising numbers who support former President Donald Trump, crediting him for stronger economic conditions during his presidency, despite concerns over his immigration policies.

Faisal Deri, chair of the African Republicans of Minnesota, urged Somali Americans to vote for Trump, stating that Somali Americans, including truck drivers, experienced positive economic conditions during his presidency.

“Truck drivers’ business was thriving, with a high volume of work and plenty of income flowing in. That brought significant money into the community, and they were able to send substantial support to their relatives in Somalia. But, under [President Joe] Biden’s term, business was down, and many have been forced to park their trucks,” Deri said.

Nimo Ahmed, a Democrat and an activist, is the chair of the Somali American Coalition Action Fund. She said there’s no way the community will vote for Trump, claiming his policies primarily benefit millionaires.

“[Vice President Kamala] Harris will support small businesses, which are essential for many Somali families in Minnesota who run small stores. Trump had focused on supporting millionaires and would continue to do so, but we are middle-class people, and only the Democratic Party truly supports the middle class,” Ahmed said.

Habon Abdulle, director of Ayada Leads, an organization that empowers African diaspora women, stressed that it is crucial for everyone to vote.

“Vote for whoever you choose, but please vote, because your vote reflects your values and who you’re negotiating with. Please make your voice heard,” Abdulle said.

On the economy, the other questions posed to the panelists included: Why is the U.S. spending billions of dollars on foreign wars while homelessness persists in America? What actions can Harris take to address high interest rates, given the community’s desire for affordable homeownership?

In response, Deri asserted that the ongoing wars abroad have contributed to rising interest rates. He noted that when Trump was in office, interest rates were low, allowing many Somalis to purchase homes. However, that is no longer the case, as affordability has decreased.

“If Trump returns to the White House, his first action would be to end the wars and cut foreign aid to Ukraine, rearranging those funds for use within the United States,” Deri said.

Nimo Ahmed defended Harris on economic policies, asserting that her policies aim to support lower and middle-class Americans.

Immigration policy

Trump’s plans for “mass deportations” as well as tightening immigration policy are also concerns for Somali Americans, as well as a travel ban that affected many foreign visitors during his last term in office. Community members said they worry reinstating travel bans could halt family reunifications, and mass deportations could impact many Somali residents in the United States.

Ahmed, the Democrat party supporter, said Trump’s policies would not be good for Somali American communities.

“Trump doesn’t respect immigrants and has referred to them as ‘poisoning the blood.’ We must support Harris to prevent deportations so Somalis without legal status can live with dignity here. When Trump talks about ‘poisoning the blood,’ he’s including some Somalis in that group, so we need to protect them,” Ahmed said.

In contrast, Deri, the Republican panelist, argued that Trump’s immigration policies focus on preventing criminals from entering the United States, a benefit to all American communities, including Somalis.

“The deportation policy targets criminals who bring drugs into the country, which especially harms minorities like us. The focus isn’t on Somalis, and each country’s rules must be respected,” Deri said.

Foreign policy

Ahead of the election, opinion surveys have indicated that many American Muslims oppose the Biden administration’s handling of the war between Israel and Hamas. During the VOA town hall, some participants questioned why they should support Harris when there seems to have been no significant action in ending the conflict in Gaza.

“I don’t support Biden and Harris for failing to establish a cease-fire in Gaza. It’s disheartening, but Trump doesn’t have anything for Gazans; their lives would only be worse if he were to be elected. I prefer Harris’s party because they can be held accountable, while Trump’s administration lacks that accountability,” Democrat Nimo Ahmed said.

The war in Gaza began on October 7, 2023, following a terror attack in southern Israel by Hamas, a U.S.-designated terror group.

Deri, the pro-Republican activist argued that the Biden-Harris administration’s policies have been tested, and they missed their opportunity to deliver aid to Gaza.

“If we vote for Harris, we are rewarding someone who has failed. Trump is a strong leader, and he could potentially resolve the Gaza situation quickly,” Deri said.

Amin Harun, a lawyer in Minneapolis, said the division of opinion among American Muslims is a significant issue.

“Some are voting, some are rejecting, and others are supporting different candidates. Unifying the voices of Muslims is essential for expressing their collective thoughts,” Harun said.

Abdulle, the director of the Ayada Leads organization, underscored the importance of voting.

“Even if you don’t vote for the president, you need to participate in local elections, vote for local seats so that your votes make an impact,” Abdulle said.

Ifrah Farah, a town hall attendee, said there should not be a reason to equate the policies of Biden with those of Harris, who she said has her own political agenda.

Farah urged participants to vote, stating, “Elections are crucial. If you’re a citizen of this country, you should vote because it will benefit you and your children in the future.”

As the community gears up for these crucial elections, there are dozens of Somali American candidates vying for seats to represent a rapidly growing immigrant community that has exceeded 300,000.

This story originated in VOA’s Somali Service. The townhall was recorded on October 19, 2024, and was conducted in Somali. The discussion has been translated into English for this story.
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