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Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

NEW TAIPEI, Taiwan — Taiwan's Gold Apollo said on Wednesday the pagers that were used in the detonations in Lebanon on Tuesday were not made by it but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon on Tuesday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not ours. It was only that it had our brand on it,' Gold Apollo founder and president, Hsu Ching-Kuang, told reporters at the company's offices in the northern Taiwanese city of New Taipei on Wednesday. The company said in a statement that the AR-924 model was produced and sold by BAC. "We only provide brand trademark authorization and have no involvement in the design or manufacturing of this product," the statement said. Hsu earlier said that the firm with the license was based in Europe but later declined to comment on BAC's location. While Hsu was meeting with reporters, police officials arrived at the company. Hezbollah fighters began using pagers in the belief they would be able to evade Israeli tracking of their locations, two sources familiar with the group's operations told Reuters this year. Hsu said did not know how the pagers could have been rigged to explode. Iran-backed Hezbollah said it was carrying out a "security and scientific investigation" into the causes of the blasts. Israel's Mossad spy agency planted explosives inside 5,000 pagers imported by Lebanese group Hezbollah months before Tuesday's detonations, according to a senior Lebanese security source and another source. Hsu said Gold Apollo was also a victim of the incident. "We may not be a large company but we are a responsible one," he said. "This is very embarrassing."

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Pagers used by hundreds of members of the militant group Hezbollah exploded nearly simultaneously in Lebanon and Syria on Tuesday, killing at least nine people – including an 8-year-old girl -- and wounding several thousand, officials said. Hezbollah and the Lebanese government blamed Israel for what appeared to be a sophisticated, remote attack. We talk to Michael DiMino with Defense Priorities. Mali said on Tuesday that its capital, Bamako, was under control after insurgents attacked. And a mission to Jupiter's icy moon, Europa, in the hope of finding the right conditions to support life.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

PENTAGON — Russia's military is bigger and stronger than it was prior to invading Ukraine in February 2022, the commander of United States Air Forces in Europe and Africa cautioned Tuesday. "Russia is getting larger, and they're getting better than they were before. … They are actually larger than they were when [the invasion] kicked off," Air Force General James Hecker told reporters at the Air & Space Forces Association's annual Air, Space & Cyber Conference. The improvements come despite heavy casualties inflicted by Ukraine. U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has estimated that since 2022, more than 350,000 Russian troops have been killed or wounded. "The rates of casualties that they're experiencing are staggering," Pentagon press secretary Major General Pat Ryder told reporters Tuesday in response to a question from VOA. On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered that the Russian army grow by 180,000 active-duty troops for a total of 1.5 million soldiers, making Russia's military the second largest in the world, behind China's. "Russia is going to be something that we're going to have to deal with for a long time, no matter how this thing ends," Hecker said. However, William Pomeranz, a senior scholar at the Kennan Institute, told VOA that "this move suggests that Vladimir Putin is losing the war." "This is an open signal from Vladimir Putin that his army and his military is in trouble and doesn't have the resources to maintain troops in the field," Pomeranz said. Despite Russian improvements on the battlefield, Ukraine has continued to put chinks in Russia's armor, shooting down more than 100 Russian aircraft since Moscow began its full-scale invasion, which amounts to dozens more aircraft than Russia has been able to down on the Ukrainian side, according to General Hecker. "So what we see is the aircraft are kind of staying on their own side of the line, if you will, and when that happens, you have a war like we're seeing today, with massive attrition, cities just being demolished, a lot of civilian casualties," he said. To gain even the slightest advantages in a war where no clear side dominates the skies, Ukraine has turned to low-cost solutions that also appeal to the U.S. military. "We have to get on the right side of the cost curve with this. Taking down $10,000, $15,000, $20,000 one-way UAVs [drones] with $1 million missiles, we just can't afford to do that in the long-term," the general told reporters.  General Chance Saltzman, the chief of the U.S. Space Force, announced Tuesday that a Space Force pilot program that uses commercial satellite imagery and related analytics to create more situational awareness for military leaders has proven very cost-effective when compared with traditional intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance collection via U.S. MQ-9 drones, which are expensive and limited in number. AFRICOM was able to use the $40 million Tactical Surveillance, Reconnaissance and Tracking Program to maintain situational awareness during the full withdrawal of U.S. forces from two air bases in Niger in July and August. The drawback, however, was that instead of real-time situational awareness, the data took one to four hours to get to the security team. "Not as good as real time, right? With MQ-9 that you would have, but it's better than nothing, right?" Hecker said. Hecker also said the U.S. was looking into more cost-effective ways to sense incoming threats around bases, including methods like Ukraine's Sky Fortress system that uses thousands of inexpensive sensors to identify aerial threats. He says the technology has been demonstrated in Romania and other countries.

SEOUL/TOKYO — North Korea fired multiple short-range ballistic missiles Wednesday that landed in the sea off its east coast, South Korea and Japan said. The missiles lifted off from Kaechon, north of the capital, Pyongyang, around 6:50 a.m. local time and flew in a northeast direction, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said, without specifying how many were fired. "Our military is maintaining full readiness posture while strengthening surveillance and vigilance in preparation for additional launches and closely sharing information with the U.S. and Japan side," it said in a statement. About 30 minutes after the first missile notice, Japan's coast guard said North Korea fired another ballistic missile, noting the projectiles appeared to have fallen. The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said on X that it was aware of the launches and consulting closely with Seoul and Tokyo. The North fired several short-range ballistic missiles last Thursday, the first such launch in more than two months, which it later described as a test of a new 600 mm multiple-launch rocket system. South Korea's JCS has said the launch might have been to test the weapons for export to Russia, amid intensifying military cooperation between the two countries. The United States, South Korea and Ukraine, among other countries, have accused Pyongyang of supplying rockets and missiles to Moscow for use in the war in Ukraine, in return for economic and other military assistance. North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui, who is visiting Russia this week to attend conferences, met her counterpart Sergey Lavrov in Moscow on Tuesday and discussed ways to promote bilateral ties, the Russian foreign ministry said on its website. Wednesday's missile launches also came days after the isolated country for the first time showed images of centrifuges that produce fuel for its nuclear bombs, as leader Kim Jong Un visited a uranium enrichment facility and called for more weapons-grade material to boost the arsenal.

washington — At first glance, Noah R. Smith might seem like your typical social media user. His bio says he’s a father, a former “Track and Field representative,” and a current member of the PanAm Sports organization. On July 14, a day after the first assassination attempt on Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, Smith shared three posts from an account named “TRUMP WON.” One post declared, “AMERICA was attacked today … we must get it together. It’s literally a matter of life and death,” accompanied by an image depicting a divine hand halting a bullet aimed at Trump. Another post urged “all MAGA GOD Fearing Patriots” to connect, stating, “Grow These Accounts, UNITED We Are Strong.” While it might seem that Smith is a devoted Trump supporter, closer inspection suggests otherwise. His cover photo features Chinese watermarks, his profile picture is sourced from a company that provides photos, videos and music, and his bio is lifted from an authentic account named Laurel R. Smith. In reality, Noah R. Smith is impersonating a U.S. voter who supports Trump. A joint investigation by VOA Mandarin and Doublethink Lab (DTL), a Taiwanese social media analytics firm, uncovered 10 such accounts on X. These accounts are linked to China’s Spamouflage network — a state-sponsored operation aimed at supporting the Chinese government and undermining its critics. This network was first identified by social media analytics company Graphika in 2019 and was used to target Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters at that time. Following the assassination attempt on July 14, the accounts began promoting pro-Trump content. Previously, they shared material consistent with Spamouflage’s broader interests: defending China, criticizing U.S. foreign policy, and exploiting divisive domestic issues such as gun violence and racial tensions. DTL labeled this network of accounts posing as Americans “MAGAflage 1,” because they all seem to be promoting Trump’s slogan “Make America Great Again [MAGA].” “The MAGAflage accounts are different because they are not just criticizing stuff. They are amplifying positive content about Trump,” Jasper Hewitt, a digital intelligence analyst at Doublethink Lab, told VOA Mandarin. He added that it’s too early to draw conclusions about whom China is supporting, as researchers are still tracking accounts that criticize both Republican candidate Donald Trump and Democratic candidate Kamala Harris. “Engaging with the MAGA movement, or any part of the political spectrum, might merely be a new attempt to generate authentic traffic,” Hewitt told VOA. The first MAGAflage network was discovered by Elise Thomas, a senior analyst at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, in April 2024. This network focuses on promoting positive content of Trump. She told VOA earlier that by wrapping a topic in a U.S. partisan political frame, these accounts got “a reasonable amount of engagement from real American users.” Limited influence The VOA Mandarin investigation revealed that the accounts operate in coordination. Six out of the 10 accounts were created in 2015 but had their first visible posts on May 18 or May 19, 2022. The batch accounts — the 10 new accounts — are not very active. Each account has roughly 100 posts or reposts over the last two years. The batch accounts were inactive for one year but were awoken after the first Trump assassination attempt. Additionally, these accounts occasionally post or repost Chinese content. For example, an account named Super-Rabbit shared praise for China's political and economic model from state-linked influencers like Shanghai Panda and Xinhua News Agency’s reporter Li Zexin. One post from September 3 contrasted U.S. President Joe Biden’s inactivity with China’s President Xi Jinping’s engagement in Africa. “When Joe Biden is sitting on the beach wasted away, China’s President Xi is shaking hands with various African leaders and making a better impact in Africa,” the post said. VOA contacted the Trump and Harris campaigns for comment but did not receive a response as of publication time. Liu Pengyu, a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, told VOA in a statement that “China has no intention and will not interfere in the U.S. election, and we hope that the U.S. side will not make an issue of China in the election.” So far, the newly discovered MAGAflage 1 accounts have had limited influence, with only a handful of followers and minimal interactions. U.S. intelligence agencies issued their latest assessment earlier this month, warning that Russia, Iran, and China are intensifying efforts to influence the U.S. presidential election. While Russia remains the primary concern, officials noted that Chinese online influence actors have “continued small scale efforts on social media to engage U.S. audiences on divisive political issues, including protests about the Israel-Gaza conflict and promote negative stories about both political parties.”

WASHINGTON — Republicans have blocked for a second time this year legislation to establish a nationwide right to in vitro fertilization, arguing that the vote is an election-year stunt after Democrats forced a vote on the issue. The Senate vote was Democrats' latest attempt to force Republicans into a defensive stance on women's health issues and highlight policy differences between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump in the presidential race, especially as Trump has called himself a "leader on IVF." The 51-44 vote was short of the 60 votes needed to move forward on the bill, with only two Republicans voting in favor. Democrats say Republicans who insist they support IVF are being hypocritical because they won't support legislation guaranteeing a right to it. "They say they support IVF — here you go, vote on this," said Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth, the bill's lead sponsor and a military veteran who has used the fertility treatment to have her two children. The Democratic push started earlier this year after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos can be considered children under state law. Several clinics in the state suspended IVF treatments until the GOP-led legislature rushed to enact a law to provide legal protections for the clinics. Democrats quickly capitalized, holding a vote in June on Duckworth's bill and warning that the U.S. Supreme Court could go after the procedure after it overturned the right to an abortion in 2022. The bill would establish a nationwide right for patients to access IVF and other assisted reproductive technologies and a right for doctors and insurance companies to provide it, an effort to pre-empt state efforts to limit the services. It would also require more health insurers to cover it and expand coverage for military service members and veterans. In a statement after the vote, Harris said Republicans in Congress "have once again made clear that they will not protect access to the fertility treatments many couples need to fulfill their dream of having a child." Republican vice presidential candidate and Ohio Sen. JD Vance, who missed the vote because he was campaigning, said during a stop in Wisconsin that the measure was not a serious IVF bill, but a measure designed to make Republicans look bad. "The Senate blocked a ridiculous showboat bill that had no chance of passing," Vance said. Republicans argued that the federal government shouldn't tell states what to do and that the bill was an unserious effort. Only Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska voted with Democrats to move forward on the bill both times. South Dakota Sen. John Thune, the No. 2 Senate Republican, said that Democrats are trying to create a political issue "where there isn't one." "Let me remind everybody that Republicans support IVF, full stop," Thune said just before the vote.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Beerwah, Kulgam and Srinagar, Indian administered Kashmir — Several Kashmiri political figures, including former members of banned separatist groups, have abandoned long-held separatist leanings and joined mainstream Indian politics. This shift in the disputed Himalayan region’s political landscape comes as three weeks of voting begin on Wednesday in the first legislative assembly election since 2019 when India stripped Jammu and Kashmir, or J&K, of its limited autonomy. One such Kashmiri figure is Sarjan Ahmad Wagay, a prominent cleric whose anti-India anthems became popular during a 2016 uprising. Wagay is running simultaneously from prison in two central Kashmir constituencies known as Ganderbal and Beerwah. His family says that Wagay’s decision to run was inspired by the success of Sheikh Abdul Rashid, who while imprisoned in New Delhi’s Tihar Jail won a J&K seat in the Indian parliament during national elections earlier this year. “Rashid’s victory gave his family a hope that winning the election could help get him out of prison,” a family member, Rehbar Ahmad, told VOA. “People from Beerwah and Ganderbal visited our home and assured us of their support,” Ahmad said. “He was popular in these areas because he used to deliver religious sermons there. He is getting a lot of support from the like-minded people who want to see political prisoners out of jail.” In the heart of Kulgam district, Sayar Ahmad Reshi, a member of the banned Jamaat-e-Islami, is campaigning door-to-door. The socio-religious organization was banned by the Indian government in early 2019, accused of engaging in activities that “threatened India’s security, integrity and sovereignty.” More than three decades ago, Jamaat-e-Islami participated in the Indian elections of 1987, but the group attributed its defeat to vote-rigging and has boycotted subsequent elections. This year, Jamaat-e-Islami decided to again participate in the elections but could not field candidates as a party because of the ban. Instead, they encouraged at least 10 members of their organization to run as independent candidates across the Kashmir  Valley. “Jamaat-e-Islami has never had issues with India, yet the organization is accused of promoting anti-India activities,” Reshi told VOA. “If any individual was involved in such a movement, it was their own doing because there were no directives from our leadership,” he added. “If Jamaat-e-Islami hadn’t been banned, I would have contested under its banner with a clear manifesto for social reform and justice,” Reshi said. “I am hopeful that independent candidates of Jamaat-e-Islami will emerge victorious.” Political analyst Muzamil Maqbool told VOA that many people who long opposed the integration of Kashmir with central India have changed their minds since the region’s special autonomy was repealed in 2019. “Kashmiri people are a leader-driven population, and all those leaders have deceived people through and through,” he said. “Now the same people are exercising their power under democracy through voting and taking part in elections.” The candidacies of individuals previously associated with separatism have caused alarm among the region’s strongest traditional parties, the National Conference, or NC, and the Peoples Democratic Party, or PDP. Both parties suspect that the nationally ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has encouraged the trend in a bid to divide the vote and marginalize the regional parties. “New Delhi always wanted to create an alternative here through the newly registered political parties which failed to score ...  in the recently held parliamentary elections,” Maqbool said. “However, there has been an entire paradigm shift where the focus has been shifted to many individuals, young faces and religious leaders to create an independent alternative force against regional mainstream parties.” Earlier, veteran separatist leader Salim Geelani, switched to mainstream politics after spending 35 years in Hurriyat Conference, an amalgam of separatist political parties in the Valley. He said that his decision to join PDP was driven by common goals including promoting infrastructure development and resolving Kashmir’s status within India. “How can I deny the fact that I carry an Indian passport and use Indian currency? J&K remains a conflict zone and the people who lost their lives over the years, regardless of their identities, were our children,” he told VOA. “Had there been no Kashmir issue the situation would be different today. I favored dialogue between all stakeholders of the region to resolve the Kashmir issue and I shall be in its favor forever,” he added. BJP national spokesperson Shazia Ilmi welcomed the decision of those who have chosen to show faith in Indian democracy rather than pursue separatist goals. “Everyone has a right to contest elections in a democracy and our democracy allows that. Nobody has a right to make statements that are secessionist in nature that promote any kind of disintegration of the country,” Ilmi told VOA.

WASHINGTON — U.S. lawmakers welcomed Vladimir Kara-Murza to Capitol Hill Tuesday, celebrating the release of the Russian activist from a Kremlin prison last month.  Kara-Murza was part of the biggest prisoner exchange between the U.S. and Russia since the end of the Cold War.    Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Ben Cardin said Tuesday that Kara-Murza "was at the forefront of the human rights struggle and an inspiration for so many people around the world."    In a letter written upon Kara-Murza's release, Cardin said, "Your return home is both a personal victory and a testament to the unwavering strength of the human spirit."    Democratic Representative Bill Keating described Kara-Murza as one of the people Russian President Vladimir Putin most despises because of his ability to speak directly to the Russian people. Kara-Murza has twice survived suspected poisoning attempts.    Kara-Murza, a deputy leader of the People's Freedom Party, was arrested in Russia in April 2022 and later faced charges of treason and spreading disinformation about the Russian military. Russian prosecutors suggested he face the maximum 25-year sentence in a prison colony.    Kara-Murza was awarded the Václav Havel Human Rights Prize by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in October 2022 and the Pulitzer Prize for commentary in 2024.    "Surreal doesn't come close to describing what I feel — just a few weeks ago sitting in a maximum-security prison in Siberia and now seeing so many friends in the halls of the U.S. Congress," Kara-Murza told a gathering of lawmakers, journalists and activists on Capitol Hill.    Kara-Murza thanked the public for keeping their attention focused on his situation. "The only way we will be able to achieve long-term peace, stability, security and democracy on the European continent will be with a peaceful, free and democratic Russia," he said. The Biden administration secured the release of 16 detainees in return for the release of eight detainees and two minors on Aug. 1. James O'Brien, assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, thanked Kara-Murza for his work on the Global Magnitsky Act, bipartisan legislation that authorizes the U.S. government to sanction government officials throughout the world who are human rights offenders. "Vladimir, you gave us one of the main tools that we use to focus our advocacy for your freedom in the Global Magnitsky Act, and your work on that, I'm sure you didn't do it as a tool for yourself, but your work on that has helped us enormously as we work to free prisoners in the Western Hemisphere, in other countries across the world," O'Brien said. Democratic Senator Chris Coons said Putin is still holding untold numbers of political prisoners in Russia. "We must realize [Putin] does that, like all authoritarians, because he's afraid, afraid of his own people, afraid of accountability, afraid of the Ukrainians who just on the border of Russia are fighting with determination," Coons said.

WASHINGTON — As the U.S. presidential election approaches, North Korea will likely escalate tensions on the Korean Peninsula in an attempt to get attention and increase leverage for future negotiations with the United States, analysts said. On Friday, North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) and Rodong Sinmum newspaper released several photos showing leader Kim Jong Un visiting what the North’s media said is a uranium enrichment facility. It was the first time the North has disclosed a uranium enrichment facility publicly. In a recent speech marking the 76th anniversary of the founding of his government, Kim said North Korea will “redouble its measures and efforts to make all the armed forces of the state, including the nuclear force, fully ready for combat.” Kim said he was acting because of the “grave threat” posed by “the reckless expansion” of a U.S.-led regional military bloc, according to KCNA.  It remains unclear what the revelation means for the North’s nuclear capability, but it drew international attention. Nuclear escalation Despite the disclosure, the European Union said Monday that North Korea will never have the status of an acknowledged nuclear weapon state.  “The EU position is that the DPRK must immediately comply with UN Security Council resolutions by abandoning all its nuclear weapons, other weapons of mass destruction, ballistic missile programmes and existing nuclear programmes, in a complete, verifiable and irreversible manner and cease all related activities,” said a spokesperson for the EU in an email to VOA Korean. Evans Revere, who served as acting U.S. assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, said Kim probably believes that Trump, of the two presidential candidates, is more likely to help North Korea advance its agenda. “Pyongyang wants to be accepted as a nuclear state and it is trying to undermine and eventually end the U.S.-ROK [South Korea] alliance and get rid of U.S. forces who are stationed on and around the Korean Peninsula,” Revere told VOA Korean Friday on the phone. “Which of the two U.S. presidential candidates does North Korea see as more likely to help achieve its goals?” he asked. Revere, however, said he does not view North Korea’s recent actions as aimed at swaying the U.S. presidential election, stressing that what North Korea does and says is “not always about us.” Sydney Seiler, who was the national intelligence officer for North Korea on the U.S. National Intelligence Council from 2020-2023, told VOA Korean in a Zoom interview Thursday it may be “a step too far” to assume North Korea is trying to influence the upcoming election in the U.S. through its provocative behaviors. However, Seiler said, Pyongyang could be tweaking the timing of its actions “to remain on everybody’s radar screen.” Seiler predicted that North Korea will hold off on its next major provocations, such as a seventh nuclear test, until after the next U.S. president is elected. North Korea’s intention Park Won-gon, a professor in the Department of North Korean Studies of Ewha Womans University in Seoul, told VOA Korean Friday that the North Korean regime may have considered testing its nuclear weapons for a seventh time to show that President Joe Biden’s North Korea policy has not worked and to “turn it to Trump’s advantage.”  “The situation, however, has now changed,” Park said. “Trump has been touting his close relationship with Kim Jong Un, so Pyongyang may have concluded that another nuclear test will not help Trump.”    Hong Min, a senior research fellow at the Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul, agreed that North Korea is not likely to conduct the seventh nuclear test before the November election.  “None of the countries that possess nuclear weapons have disclosed their nuclear facilities, especially enriched uranium facilities, but making such an unprecedented disclosure was to replace the nuclear test card,” Hong told VOA Korean Friday.  Kim In-tae, senior research fellow at South Korea’s Institute for National Security Strategy, said a seventh nuclear test is still a possibility.    “North Korea’s foreign ministry declared it will prepare itself for a long-term nuclear confrontation with the United States,” Kim told VOA Korean Friday, referring to a Sept. 9 statement released by Pyongyang. “They are now saying that they will strengthen their nuclear offensive from a longer-term perspective, regardless of the U.S. presidential election,”  Kim said there is a possibility that North Korea will gradually ramp up its provocations, up to the test of a nuclear weapon.  North Korea conducted its sixth nuclear test in September 2017. VOA’s Kim Hyungjin contributed to this report. 

washington — American voters face a challenging duality as they count down the days until November's presidential election: a security landscape that officials say has become ever more dangerous even as the infrastructure to hold elections has become ever-more secure.  The run-up to the 2024 election has seen the "most complex threat landscape yet," according to Cait Conley, a senior adviser at the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the government body responsible for overseeing election security.  "We do see a growing and diverse array of foreign adversaries, foreign actors, trying to disrupt our elections," Conley said Tuesday, speaking at Politico's AI and Tech Summit in Washington.   But U.S. voters should feel confident, she added.  "We have been surging resources," Conley said. "We have seen tremendous investment and progress in ensuring the full spectrum of security and resilience of our election infrastructure."  Nevertheless, Conley and other U.S. officials acknowledge the dangers are widespread, often extending beyond the voting booth.  Physical threats  The FBI and U.S. Postal Service said Tuesday they are investigating suspicious packages sent to election workers in at least 12 states.  CISA officials have reported a growing number of swatting incidents — false reports to emergency services about violence or an emergency at a home or other location — targeting election workers.  And the number of direct threats is rising rapidly.  "We are seeing an unprecedented and extremely disturbing level of threats of violence, and violence, against public officials," said U.S. Deputy General Lisa Monaco, also speaking at the summit in Washington.   "For sure weekly and, sometimes, daily," Monaco said of the frequency of the threats.  Many of the threats target officials responsible for conducting elections.  "These are people who are simply volunteering their time to help all of us undertake the most fundamental right," she said. "These are people who are being threatened simply for doing their job."  Officials also warn that other public servants are getting a growing number of threats, including law enforcement officers, prosecutors and elected officials and candidates.  "It's serious," said Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, citing Sunday's apparent assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump as he played golf at his course in West Palm Beach, Florida.  He also pointed to the rash of threats in Springfield, Ohio, following the spread of unsubstantiated rumors about Haitian immigrants eating pets. "We are in a heightened threat environment … a threat environment that is of deep concern," Mayorkas said. "It requires vigilance at every level of government and frankly on every block of each community across this country."  Concerns about the heightened threat environment are not new.  Homeland Security officials have been warning of the dangers since at least January 2021, saying lone offenders or small groups could be motivated to carry out attacks motivated by a range of political and personal grievances. Only now, high emotions over the election combined with efforts by U.S. adversaries are fueling discontent and anger that could lead to more attacks.  Cyber operations  "When it comes to malign influence campaigns, we are seeing a very aggressive set of actors," Monaco said.  Many of the efforts to sow discord have originated in Russia and Iran, and to a lesser extent China.  But they are far from alone.  "We're seeing more actors in this space acting more aggressively in a more polarized environment and doing more with technologies, in particular AI," Monaco said.   Earlier this month, the U.S. Justice Department took action against what it said were two Russian plots to spread disinformation, taking down 32 fake news websites while bringing charges against two employees of Russia-backed media outlet RT, accusing them of funneling nearly $10 million to a U.S. company to promote material favorable to the Russian government.  And last week, the U.S. State Department accused a number of Russian media companies, including RT, of working directly for Russia's intelligence agencies – charges Russia and RT denied.  US preparations  The best defense, Monaco said, is for U.S. voters to be careful about where they get their information.  "We have to be very vigilant on what we are consuming," she said.  Experts like Margaret Talev, who directs the Syracuse University Institute for Democracy, Journalism and Citizenship in Washington, agree.  Voters should "take a pause. Take a minute," Talev told VOA. "It involves all of us teaching ourselves, taking our time and trying to verify information from multiple sources rather than just believing the first thing that we see."  The National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS), whose members play key roles in running elections, has also sought to make getting verified information easier, pushing a social media campaign it calls #TrustedInfo2024.  NASS says its goal is "to promote election officials as the trusted sources of election information during the 2024 election cycle and beyond."  And CISA, the cybersecurity and infrastructure security agency, has been working with election officials across the country to make sure they are ready for almost any contingency.  CISA officials have also tried to rein in the hype about the dangers of AI, or artificial intelligence, blamed for helping U.S. adversaries to spread disinformation more effectively.  "Generative AI is not going to fundamentally introduce new threats to this election cycle," the agency's Conley told VOA earlier this month. While AI is exacerbating existing threats, so far it has not produced anything elections officials have not already seen.  "This threat vector is not new to them," Conley said. "And they have taken the measures to ensure they're prepared to respond effectively."