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President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met Thursday with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris to discuss U.S. support for the war in Ukraine. Republicans, meanwhile, denounced Zelenskyy's visit to a Pennsylvania factory, calling it partisan. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara reports.

We bring you the story of President Biden’s final address in NY at the 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly. Plus, we report on the potential shifts in foreign policy and what they might look like after Americans vote in their presidential election this coming November. This week on The Inside Story: USA VOTES 2024.

WILMINGTON, Delaware — Newsmax Media reached a confidential settlement of a lawsuit by Smartmatic, the voting machine maker that had alleged it was defamed by the news outlet's false claims that its machines were rigged to help steal the 2020 U.S. presidential election from Donald Trump, the companies said Thursday.  The agreement came on the eve of a four-week jury trial, with opening arguments scheduled to begin in Wilmington on September 30.   "Newsmax is pleased to announce it has resolved the litigation brought by Smartmatic through a confidential settlement," the company said in a statement.  Smartmatic also said in a statement it was pleased to have reached a deal.  "Lying to the American people has consequences. Smartmatic will not stop until the perpetrators are held accountable," it said.   Smartmatic sued Newsmax in 2021, alleging it broadcast damaging misinformation falsely claiming the company switched votes in the 2020 election, that its machines had been hacked and that it was funded by corrupt dictators.   Smartmatic alleged that Newsmax profited from its false reporting. Trump amplified Newsmax's reporting on social media, and the broadcaster's audience jumped tenfold after the election, vaulting it over cable news rivals such as CNBC and Fox Business, according to Nielsen Ratings.  Smartmatic's machines were used only in Los Angeles County in the 2020 election, and it has said there has never been a security breach with its equipment, which has recorded billions of votes, largely in non-U.S. elections.   Both Newsmax and Smartmatic's U.S. affiliate are based in Boca Raton, Florida.  Newsmax said it had a First Amendment right to report claims by Trump and his supporters, which were often made in court filings challenging the election.  The company also clarified its reporting about Smartmatic in December 2020 and invited Smartmatic representatives to come on the air to explain their side of the story to Newsmax viewers. Smartmatic did not accept that invitation.  Newsmax has described its coverage of Smartmatic as "minor."  Smartmatic has not publicly estimated the damages at stake, but Newsmax told the court on September 16 that the voting machine company was seeking $400 million to $600 million and described the case as "bet your company" litigation.   Newsmax had $67 million in assets at the end of 2022, according to a securities filing, and said in a June investor presentation that it hoped to file for a public offering of its stock this year or early 2025.  "We are now looking forward to our day in court against Fox Corp. and Fox News for their disinformation campaign," Smartmatic said.   The company is suing Fox in New York for $2.7 billion.  False claims about the 2020 election have led to several defamation settlements or verdicts.   Fox agreed to settle defamation claims by Dominion Voting Systems last year for $787.5 million, which was the biggest defamation settlement by a U.S. media company, according to legal experts. Dominion is also seeking up to $1.6 billion in damages against Newsmax, which is in litigation in the Delaware court.  A jury decided last year that former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani had to pay more than $148 million in damages to two former Georgia election workers he defamed through false accusations that they helped rig the 2020 election against Trump. Giuliani appealed.

Washington — The U.S. State Department announced a $20 million reward on Thursday for information leading to the arrest of the alleged Iranian mastermind behind a plot to assassinate former White House official John Bolton. U.S. officials said in August 2022 that they had uncovered a plot by Shahram Poursafi, a member of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), to kill Bolton, who served as national security adviser to former President Donald Trump. The State Department's Rewards for Justice program "is offering a reward of up to $20 million for information leading to the arrest or conviction" of Poursafi, a notice said Thursday. The move came as Trump, 78, who is running for a new White House term, claimed there were "big threats" on his life by Iran. Bolton, considered a foreign policy hawk, is a fierce critic of Iran and advocated that Trump unilaterally withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal in 2018. Poursafi allegedly offered an unidentified person inside the United States $300,000 to kill Bolton in the capital area. The plan was likely set in motion after the U.S. killing of top IRGC commander Qassem Soleimani in Iraq in January 2020, the Justice Department said at the time. But it never made headway because the ostensible assassin became an informant of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Iranian authorities have dismissed the allegations as "fiction." The United States designated the entire IRGC a "foreign terrorist organization" in 2019, after previously designating its external operation, the Quds Force.

With violent gangs controlling most of Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, calls for a formal U.N. peacekeeping mission are growing. The country’s prime minister says the current international effort lacks resources, manpower and the capability to face the gangs. Celia Mendoza reports.

LOS ANGELES / WASHINGTON — Employers negotiating a labor contract at U.S. East Coast and Gulf Coast ports on Thursday filed an unfair labor practice complaint against the longshoremen's union, saying its leaders refuse to resume talks ahead of a threatened Tuesday strike. The United States Maritime Alliance said it filed the complaint with the National Labor Relations Board because of the repeated refusal of the International Longshoremen's Association to return to the bargaining table. The six-year master contract between USMX and the ILA expires Monday, and the two sides appear to be deadlocked on wage issues. The employer group said it requested immediate injunctive relief requiring the union to resume bargaining so a deal could be finalized. It is uncommon, but not unheard of, for employers to make such complaints to the NLRB, an independent agency of the federal government that enforces U.S. labor law, particularly with regard to collective bargaining and unfair labor practices. In rare cases, the NLRB will go to court and ask for an injunction pending the outcome of a board case, but that can take weeks to play out. The ILA on Thursday responded, calling the USMX a poor negotiating partner. Earlier this week, ILA leader and chief negotiator Harold Daggett said he had rebuffed USMX approaches. "They call me several times each week trying to get the ILA to accept a lowball wage package," Daggett said. Sources close to the talks said the ILA asked for a wage increase of 77%, a percentage the union called exaggerated. Industry experts predict that the increase will be higher than the 32% raise won by the West Coast longshoremen's union last year. Companies that rely on ocean shipping are increasingly worried that the ILA's 45,000 members will strike and close 36 ports that handle more than half of U.S. ocean trade of products such as bananas, meat, prescription drugs, auto parts, construction materials and apparel. If that happens, delays and costs could quickly cascade, threatening the U.S. economy in the weeks ahead of the U.S. presidential election, burdening already taxed global ocean shipping networks and over time foisting higher prices on consumers. Economists at Oxford Economics estimated that the impending strike would reduce U.S. gross domestic product by $4.5 billion to $7.5 billion, or 0.1% annualized, for every week it continues. A strike has the potential to weigh on the October employment report at a time when the Federal Reserve is highly attuned to signs of weakness in the labor market, they said. The timing is politically sensitive because Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris is facing former Republican President Donald Trump in the U.S. presidential election on November 5. A White House official on Thursday reiterated that President Joe Biden does not intend to invoke a federal law known as the Taft-Hartley Act to prevent a strike. "We encourage all parties to come to the bargaining table and negotiate in good faith," the official said. "Senior officials from the White House, Labor Department and Department of Transportation are in touch with the parties and delivering the message to them directly."

paris — Paris-based press watchdog Reporters Without Borders has teamed up with more than 500 community radio stations across the Sahel in calling for the protection and support of local radio broadcasters, which in some places are under increasing attack. The organization wants governments to protect radio stations' right to inform freely across the region and is also calling for shedding light on the fate of journalists who have been attacked in recent months. “Our fear is if we don’t organize ourselves, if we don’t appeal and call on local political authorities, there will be no ... community radio stations in the Sahel,” said Sadibou Marong, RSF’s sub-Saharan Africa bureau director. He spoke from Bamako, Mali, where this appeal was launched. Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso and Chad are countries where community radios are especially vulnerable. The stations "have always played ... a crucial role to inform and sensitize populations. They have also been using local languages, and local languages are extremely important," Marong said. Many of the Sahel’s local radio stations were launched in the 1990s. They cover issues like farming, health and the environment that are key for local populations. But in several Sahel countries where terrorists and other armed groups are active, RSF says the stations and their journalists are increasingly under attack. Over the past year, for example, two journalists were killed in Chad and Mali. Two others were kidnapped. Assailants also have destroyed radio stations or pressured them to broadcast their propaganda. Anne Bocambe, RSF’s editorial head in Paris, says the Sahel’s community radio stations are critical for other reasons. Many international media have been forced to leave the Sahel. Disinformation is spreading, including by foreign groups like Russian mercenaries. There’s a danger that parts of the Sahel may become a black hole in terms of information.

Joe Biden is said to be entering the lame-duck period of his presidency, but what does that mean?

SAO PAULO — In the high-stakes showdown between the world's richest man and a Brazilian Supreme Court justice, Elon Musk blinked. Musk's social media site X has complied with Alexandre de Moraes' orders and requested its service be reestablished in the country, a source said Thursday. X complied with orders to block certain accounts from the platform, name an official legal representative in the country and pay fines imposed for not complying with earlier court orders, his lawyers said in a petition filed Thursday, according to the source, who is familiar with the document. The source spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the matter. On Saturday, de Moraes ordered the platform to submit additional documentation about its legal representative for court review, which the source said has been done. X was blocked in the highly online country of 213 million people on August 30. De Moraes ordered the shutdown after sparring with Musk for months over free speech, far-right accounts and misinformation. The company said at the time that de Moraes' efforts to block certain accounts were illegal moves to censor "political opponents" and that it would not comply. Musk called the judge an enemy of free speech and a criminal. In a twist, X's new representative is the same person who held the position before X shuttered its office in Brazil. That happened after de Moraes threatened to arrest the person, Rachel de Oliveira Villa Nova Conceicao, if X did not comply with orders to block accounts. Brazil is not the first country to ban X, but such a drastic step has generally been limited to authoritarian regimes. The platform and its former incarnation, Twitter, have been banned in Russia, China, Iran, Myanmar, North Korea, Venezuela and Turkmenistan. Other countries, including Pakistan, Turkey and Egypt, have previously temporarily suspended X, usually to quell dissent and unrest. In an unusual move for a democratic country, de Moraes also set exorbitant daily fines for anyone using virtual private networks, or VPNs, to access the platform. The fines have been questioned by legal experts and challenged by the nation's bar association, although it does not appear that any Brazilian has yet been punished. Local media have reported that the Federal Police are evaluating how to enforce violations. X named Villa Nova as its representative on Friday and registered her with Sao Paulo's commercial registry. To avoid her getting blamed for potential violations of Brazilian law — and risk arrest — a clause has been written into the representation agreement that any action on the part of X that will result in obligations for her requires prior instruction in writing from the company, according to the company's public filing with the registry. X's dustup with Brazil has some parallels to the company's dealings with the Indian government three years ago, back when it was still called Twitter and before Musk purchased it for $44 billion. In 2021, India threatened to arrest employees of Twitter (as well as Meta's Facebook and WhatsApp) for not complying with the government's requests to take down posts related to farmers' protests that rocked the country. Unlike in the United States, where free speech is baked into the constitution, in Brazil speech is more limited, with restrictions on homophobia and racism, for example, and judges can order sites to remove content. Many of de Moraes' decisions are sealed from the public and neither he nor X has disclosed the full list of accounts he has ordered blocked. Prominent supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro and far-right activists were among those that X earlier removed from the platform. Musk accused de Moraes of suppressing free speech and violating Brazil's constitution, and he noted on X that users could seek to bypass any shutdown of the social media platform by using VPNs.

nairobi, kenya — As the global race to acquire economically vital minerals unfolds, those working in Africa’s mining sector are calling for the protection of women and children laborers who keep it running.  Women in Mining Africa, an advocacy group that aims to mitigate harsh working conditions in rural communities, organized a virtual meeting this week with organizations and experts. They are working to promote gender equity and social justice in the mining sector as demand for African resources continues.  "We seek to empower women in mining by advocating for equal access to resources, opportunities, and leadership roles across the continent," said Comfort Asokoro Ogaji founded Women in Mining Africa, which works in 36 African countries.  "We also work to promote responsible mining and advocate for sustainable, ethical, and socially inclusive mining practices," Ogaji said. "Child protection in mining communities is at the core of our mission and also capacity building and collaboration across the continent."  Challenges women face in industry The World Bank says women represent 30% of the industry known as Artisanal and Small-scale Mining, or ASM. However, women are often barred from entering the mines and relegated to lower-paying jobs.  According to the International Institute for Sustainable Development, women's contributions are overshadowed by the historically dominant role of men, hindering women's meaningful participation and resulting in unequal pay.  Women, unlike their male counterparts, also face gender inequality, violence and harassment.  Jose Diemel works as a senior adviser at Levin Sources, a consulting firm that drives the transition to just and sustainable minerals value chains. Diemal has worked with artisanal and small-scale miners in the Democratic Republic of Congo. She said the management of mining fields has improved over the years.  "I've seen the mentality change towards artisanal mining, and we slowly started to talk about artisanal management plans around the possibility of peaceful coexistence," said Diemel. "And now we're working at 11 sources, we very regularly receive a request from large-scale mining companies, industrial mining companies, to help them set up ASM management plans that range from peaceful coexistence to collaboration."  Mining experts say miners are being empowered, receiving different ways to sustain their livelihood and undergoing safety training.  The small-scale miners also have been able to obtain loans to purchase equipment that ease their work, increase their product, and their income.  Call to get more women into sector Thokozile Budaza advocates for women's rights in South Africa, the largest platinum and manganese producer in the world. She said the voices of the resource owners and those working on them must be included in decision-making.  "African leaders can better anticipate the ripple effects of their policies and decisions and the lack of decisions ensuring that the benefits of mining are equitably distributed and the voices of the stakeholders, especially those marginalized, are heard and respected while dealing with investors coming into Africa to source critical materials for development," said Budaza. A World Bank report released at the 2024 Mining Indaba Conference urges implementation of gender-focused legislation to improve mining rules and regulations and promote greater participation of women in the sector.    The report also calls for changing property laws and land tenure agreements that restrict women's ability to own land and access mineral resources. 

Washington — Buried in the hundreds of pages of the continuing resolution passed Wednesday by U.S. lawmakers to prevent a government shutdown are Washington’s final steps to implement a 20-year security pact with Pacific Island allies, cementing a U.S. commitment to the region in the face of an increasingly assertive China. The Compacts of Free Association, or COFA, provide economic support for Palau, the Marshall Islands and the Federated States of Micronesia. In exchange, the nations will allow the U.S. military exclusive access to their land, water and airspace and the right to deny Beijing access to their ports and expansive territorial waters. But six months after the compacts were passed, extending $7 billion in economic aid over 20 years to the three Pacific Island nations, key provisions still languished. Palau’s access to postal service, aviation security, national weather service and federal banking insurance was set to run out on September 30. The temporary spending package finalized Wednesday contained an extension of those services, Representative Ed Case, a Democrat, said in a statement to VOA. In doing so, said Case, “The U.S. restates its commitment to the people of Palau as a full partner in a shared future and to assisting Palau in resisting the dependence upon and coercion by the PRC that has marked the PRC’s efforts to dominate the countries of the Pacific.” PRC is an abbreviation for the People’s Republic of China. “Reassuring the people of Palau that they [the services] will continue is an important message from the people of the United States to the people of Palau,” Palauan President Surangel Whipps Jr. said in an interview with VOA on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly. Cleo Paskal, a nonresident senior fellow for the Indo-Pacific at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, argues that the extension of these services also sends a message to Beijing. Palau is just one of three remaining Pacific Island nations who still recognize Taiwan diplomatically over Beijing. Paskal said that a gap in these basic services could have left Whipps — who is running for reelection in November — vulnerable to “those wanting to undermine the relationship with the U.S., possibly feeding into the narrative that the U.S. isn’t helping” its Pacific partners. But U.S. lawmakers of both parties coalesced around closing the loophole for Palau, said Whipps. The agreement for Palau “represents a significant milestone in the process of affirming our countries’ partnership for another 20 years,” U.S. Senator Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, a Democrat, said in a statement to VOA. “This relationship is vital to the security and stability” of the U.S. “as we work to promote democracy and our shared values throughout the Pacific.” U.S. Representative Aumua Amata Coleman Radewagen, a Republican who represents the U.S. territory of American Samoa, led a hearing earlier this month that exposed gaps in COFA implementation, including the Palau federal services expiration. “It’s extremely important to the entirety of the Pacific region for our allies, and any nation at all, to see the U.S. following through with its commitments to our closest friends in the region,” Coleman Radewagen said in a statement to VOA.

Washington — The semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region of Iraq on Wednesday officially began a campaign phase for its parliamentary elections scheduled for October 20.  The vote, which was rescheduled five times due to political disagreements over the election system, comes at a time when the region is still suffering from a financial crisis related to disagreements with the Iraqi government.  “Everyone is free to propagate their policies and programs, to criticize, but no one must allow themselves to spread hatred,” said Kurdish President Nechirvan Barzani.  The region was supposed to hold the election by the end of 2022, but the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) were not able to reach an agreement about amending the region’s electoral system, particularly minority quota seats. Consequently, the Kurdish parliament was suspended in May 2023.  Relations with Baghdad  At the center of the election is the debate over the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) prolonged financial crisis due to the lack of cash flow from Baghdad.  The region’s public sector employees continue to suffer from unpaid and delayed salaries, as Irbil and Baghdad continue their painstaking talks on the KRG internal revenues, employee list and oil contracts.  The crisis goes back to February 2014, when Iraq’s then-Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki cut the Kurdish share of the Iraqi budget to protest the KRG’s independent oil exports via Turkey. It was worsened by an Islamic State attack in August 2014, the Iraqi and Iranian pushback against the October 2017 Kurdish referendum for independence, and Turkey’s decision to halt oil exports from KRG in March 2023.  While the KDP officials accuse the Iraqi central government of keeping the KRG budget “hostage” to weaken Kurdish autonomy, the opposition parties blame, at least in part, the lack of transparency of KRG internal revenues and oil contracts with foreign companies.  During his first campaign appearance, which was held in the Kurdistan Region capital, Irbil, on Wednesday, KDP head Masoud Barzani began his speech to zealous supporters acknowledging the Kurdish independence referendum anniversary, congratulating people “on this sacred day, when the nation of Kurdistan did not allow its will to be broken and did not bow itself.”  Barzani noted restored relations with the current Iraqi government led by Mohammed Shia’ Al Sudani but warned his supporters against “a chauvinistic mindset” targeting the Kurdish people in Iraq.  Barzani also recognized shortcomings in governance but asked voters to “put criticism aside for now” and vowed reform “from the top” after the elections.  Governance and corruption  While the KDP appeals to the nationalist sentiment of voters in the region, its main competitor, PUK, is focused on countering the KDP’s “self-imposition” and offering itself as a better alternative to rule the region.  “Only the PUK can readjust this crippled governance,” PUK leader Bafel Talabani said in a televised address on Wednesday.  Talabani accused the KDP of abusing the region’s revenues for its own benefit and failing to defend Kurdish rights in Baghdad.  He presented “a new PUK,” which he said will act upon its promises of fighting corruption and mismanagement.  Talabani counted the appointment of a Kurdish governor for Kirkuk from his party and his pressure to change the KRG electoral system as proof for a stronger comeback of the PUK, which has been riddled with separation and internal divisions, particularly after the death of his father and the PUK’s founding leader and former Iraqi president Jalal Talabani.  In 2013 the Change Movement, one of the key offshoots of the PUK, won 24 seats out of the region’s then 111 parliament seats, leading the PUK by six seats.  Divided opposition  But the Change Movement over the years has suffered a significant setback among voters who are seeking an alternative to the KDP-PUK ruling system. Additionally, the appearance of more opposition groups, such as the New Generation, is expected to further divide the opposition votes to the benefit of the KDP and PUK, experts say.  Renowned Kurdish politician Mahmoud Osman told VOA from Irbil, “Whether the elections are held or not, there will be no change in Kurdistan's governance, because the KDP rules one zone and the PUK rules another.”  He added, “The newly established parties are minor to the KDP and the PUK, which control the armed forces.”  The outbreak of civil war in 1994 split the Kurdistan Region into two zones, with the KDP controlling the yellow zone in Irbil and Duhok provinces, and the PUK in charge of the green zone in Sulaimaniyah and Halabja provinces.  In 2006, both parties signed an agreement to create a joint administration, but division, especially in the Peshmerga forces, continues to hold back the region from its aspirations for stronger government institutions.  “The will for change is present among the people of Kurdistan but not in the political parties,” Luqman Ali, a political observer from Sulaimaniyah, told VOA.  He charged that political parties in the region used parliament members as “employees” to implement their agendas.  “So long as the government is not institutionalized to prioritize people over parties and political individuals, these elections will not bring about any considerable change,” he said.  About 2.9 million people from the region’s four provinces are eligible to vote in the October 20 election, which is organized by Iraq’s Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC).  IHEC spokeswoman Jumana al-Ghalai on Tuesday told VOA Kurdish Service that her commission is taking various steps to ensure a transparent process.  “The vote-counting process will be conducted both manually and electronically. If the difference between them is 5%, manual counting will be used,” she said.  According to Aram Jamal, head of the Kurdish Institute for Elections, despite challenges in the system, the vote is an important step for the region’s democratic process. The participation of more than 1,190 candidates in the election will ensure an intense campaign, he said.  “What is important is to have a calm and civilized competition away from violence,” Jamal told VOA. “The chances for fraud have been eliminated to a great extent and therefore, a new voting phase has started.”  This story originated in VOA's Kurdish Service with contributions from Snur Karim, Zhiyar Mohammed and Dilshad Anwar. 

Israel rejects proposals for a ceasefire with Hezbollah, defying allies including the United States which called for an immediate end to the fighting. President Biden and Vice President Harris will meet with Ukraine’s president as the White House announces billions more in military aid for Kyiv’s fight against Russia’s continued invasion. And Florida braces for a potentially catastrophic hurricane.

According to the International Energy Agency, the world now invests almost twice as much in clean energy as it does in fossil fuels. But with that shift comes environmental risks related to the mining of critical minerals. VOA’s Jessica Stone looks at how nations are navigating the environmental challenges of creating a renewable future.