Tag: US elections

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-Top News Environment USA

Harris Softens Stance On Drilling, No Fossil Promotion

Sensing the nation’s mood on getting more fossil fuels, Harris has said that she is dropping her demand for banning an economical method of drilling for natural gas known as fracking.

Trying to match former President Donald Trump’s popular call for US energy independence, Vice President Kamala Harris has said she is dropping her demand to ban drilling for gas, but a campaign adviser says she won’t promote fossil fuel.

Harris has appointed Camila Thorndike, who worked as climate engagement director for an activist organisation Rewiring America which campaigned for even banning gas stoves, as her campaign’s climate adviser.

Thorndike has been on its staff from 2022 to last month.

Sensing the nation’s mood on getting more fossil fuels, Harris has said that she is dropping her demand for banning an economical method of drilling for natural gas known as fracking.

But Thorndike threw doubts about her sincerity telling Politico in an interview that Harris “is not promoting expansion (of fossil fuel drilling). She’s just said that they wouldn’t ban fracking”.

The head of the American Energy Institute, Jason Isaac, accused Harris of harbouring hostility towards several energy sources.

He told Fox News Digital that Harris’ decision to bring on Thorndike “underscores her administration’s hostility towards American energy sources that power our economy and support millions of jobs”.

Thorndike admitted in the Politico interview that “everyone wants their energy bills to go down. Everyone wants the electric grid to keep the lights on”.

However, banning or restricting fossil fuel expansion will lead to higher prices, a point Trump has been making.

With the slogan of “Drill Baby, Drill”, he has said that he would expand drilling for gas and oil so that the abundant supply would bring down energy prices, which would have a cascading effect on the prices of all other products as they depend on energy for manufacturing or transportation.

Gas used for cooking is less polluting than many other fuels, including electricity produced with coal or oil.

However, groups like Rewiring America target gas as polluting, even though the US relies on coal — which is highly polluting — for 16 per cent of its electricity which in effect ends up more polluting than gas.

The group is called a “dark money” organisation because its financial structure limits disclosures of most sources of funding.

According to Fox Digital, it was founded by those with financial interests in wind and solar.

ALSO READ: 60% Indian-Americans lean Harris, 30% favour Trump

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-Top News Politics USA

Biden: No One More Qualified Than Me For President

Joe Biden has called Donald Trump a “congenital liar” and added that he lied over 20 times during the debate with him.

US President Joe Biden has said that he is more qualified to become US President or win the race than anyone else. He also called former US President Donald Trump a “pathological liar,” ABC News reported.

Speaking to ABC News, Biden called Trump a “congenital liar” and added that he lied over 20 times during the debate with him.

Asked about the close contest in the electoral college, Biden responded, “By 7 million votes.”

When asked about being behind in the popular vote now, the US President stated, “I don’t buy that.” He further said, “I don’t think anybody’s more qualified to be President or win this race than me.”

Dismissing any suggestion that he’s not the most qualified candidate to beat Trump, Biden said, “Oh, come on. Well, I don’t think those critics know what they’re talking about.”

On being asked whether the critics are wrong, the US President said, “They’re just wrong. Look, Trump is a pathological liar. Trump is, you ever seen anything Trump did that benefited somebody else and not him? You can’t answer, I know.”

He criticised Trump for his policies in the economy and healthcare sectors. Biden said that Trump asked the people of the US to put bleach in their arms to deal with COVID-19.

“Oh, I know you have. I’m not being critical. I’m not being critical, but look, I mean, the man is a congenital liar. As I said, they pointed out in that debate, he lied 27– 28 times– times, whatever number, over 20 times. Talk about how good his economy was, how he brought down inflation, how this is a guy who unlike only other President other than him is Hoover who lost more jobs than he created,” Biden told ABC News.

“This is a guy who told us to put bleach in our arms to deal with COVID, with a million– over a million people died. This is a guy who talks about wanting to get rid of the healthcare provision we put in place. This is a guy who wants to give the power back to big pharma to be able to charge exorbitant prices for drugs. This is a guy who wants to undo every single thing I’ve done, every single thing,” he added.

During the interview with ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos, Biden reiterated that he is the most qualified person to beat Trump. He said, “I convinced myself of two things. I’m the most qualified person to beat him, and I know how to get things done.”

Reflecting on how he will feel if he loses to Trump, Biden said, “I’ll feel as long as I gave it my all and I did the goodest job as I know I can do, that’s what this is about.”

Biden said that the US and the world are at an “inflection point” when the things that happen in the next several years will determine what the next 60-70 years will be like.

He further said, “And who’s gonna be able to hold NATO together like me? Who’s gonna be able to be in a position where I’m able to keep the Pacific Basin in a position where we’re– we’re at least checkmating China now? Who’s gonna, who’s gonna do that? Who has that reach? Who has– who knows all these pe? We’re gonna have, I guess a good way to judge me, is you’re gonna have now the NATO conference here in the United States next week. Come listen. See what they say.”

Joe Biden candidly addressed his performance during the debate with Trump, describing it as a “bad episode” and taking full responsibility for what transpired. It was Biden’s first television interview since the CNN debate with Donald Trump. (ANI)

ALSO READ: Biden heads into critical stretch of campaign

Categories
-Top News Social Media USA

Fake US election-related accounts proliferating on X, study says

Analysts from Israeli tech company Cyabra found that 15 percent of X accounts praising former President Donald Trump and criticizing President Joe Biden are fake.

Fake accounts posting about the US presidential election are proliferating on the social media platform X, according to a social media analysis company’s report shared with Reuters exclusively ahead of its release on Friday.

Analysts from Israeli tech company Cyabra, which uses a subset of artificial intelligence called machine learning to identify fake accounts, found that 15 percent of X accounts praising former President Donald Trump and criticizing President Joe Biden are fake. The report also found that 7 percent of accounts praising Biden, a Democrat, and criticizing Trump, a Republican, are fake.

Cyabra’s study is based on a review of posts on the X platform, formerly known as Twitter, over two months beginning March 1. The review included analyzing popular hashtags and determining sentiment in terms of whether posts are positive, negative or neutral.

The analysis shows that newly detected fake accounts had increased up to tenfold during March and April.

The report cites 12,391 inauthentic pro-Trump profiles out of 94,363 total and 803 inauthentic pro-Biden profiles out of 10,065 total.

A spokesperson for X did not respond to a request for comment about the fake accounts, nor did representatives from the White House and Trump campaign.

X and other social media platforms have been under greater scrutiny since 2016, when Russia interfered in the US presidential election in an attempt to boost Trump’s candidacy and harm his opponent, Democrat Hillary Clinton. Election officials and online misinformation experts are again watching for misleading narratives ahead of the Nov. 5 election.

The fake accounts praising Trump this cycle are part of a coordinated campaign to sway public opinion and influence online discussions, Cyabra said. The report did not identify the individuals or groups behind the campaign.

Cyabra said it made that determination based on evidence including the use of identical hashtags and the fact that fake accounts published posts and comments at the same time. The report found that the fake pro-Trump accounts pushed two main messages: “Vote for Trump” and “Biden is the worst president the US has ever had.”

“The level of coordination suggests that there is a nefarious objective and that there is a whole operation in order to change people’s opinion,” said Cyabra’s vice president, Rafi Mendelsohn.

The fake accounts backing Biden are not part of a coordinated campaign, the report said, as the hallmarks of a coordinated campaign — such as fake accounts posting at the same time — were not identified.

X, which was publicly held until its 2022 takeover by billionaire Elon Musk, has long downplayed the use of fake accounts on its platform. Twitter said in May 2022 that fewer than 5 percent of its daily active users were “false or spam” based on an internal review of accounts. At the time, Cyabra had estimated that 13.7 percent of Twitter profiles were inauthentic.

In an X post on April 4, Musk wrote that a “system purge of bots and trolls” was under way and that the company “will be tracing the people responsible and bringing the full force of the law to bear upon them.” In October the company tested its “Not a Bot” program in New Zealand and the Philippines to combat bots and spammers.

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