Election Will Test Cybersecurity Measures Put In Place After 2016
*By Conor White*
While Americans nationwide wait for midterm voting results on Tuesday, the F.B.I. and the department of Homeland Security will be watching for something less easily tallied ー signs of potential hacking or meddling.
Rob Marvin, associate features editor at PCMag, told Cheddar that the level of election interference in 2016 from "outside malicious actors" [was at a scale never seen before](https://www.pcmag.com/feature/364358/under-attack-how-election-hacking-threatens-the-midterms).
Marvin is skeptical that authorities in the U.S., and around the world, can successfully thwart more interference.
"Facebook ($FB) and the social media platforms have admitted they're kind of in an arms race with troll armies and nation states to find and delete fake accounts that are influencing elections," Marvin pointed out.
"And they can't do it fast enough," he added.
Marvin cautioned voters to be wary of any last-minute revelations about a candidate that surface on social media.
"You should be voting your mindset," he said.
While many see the 2018 midterm elections as a referendum on President Trump's first two years in office, it is also a litmus test on the country's ability to thwart hackers.
"We're going to see what we've learned," Marvin said.
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/hacking-the-midterms).
Sabrina Siddiqui, National Politics Reporter at The Wall Street Journal, joins to break down the SNAP funding delays and the human cost of the ongoing shutdown.
Arguments at the Supreme Court have concluded for the day as the justices consider President Donald Trump's sweeping unilateral tariffs in a trillion-dollar test of executive power.
President Donald Trump said he has decided to lower his combined tariff rates on imports of Chinese goods to 47% after talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on curbing fentanyl trafficking.
The Federal Reserve cut its key interest rate Wednesday for a second time this year as it seeks to shore up economic growth and hiring even as inflation stays elevated. The move comes amid a fraught time for the central bank, with hiring sluggish and yet inflation stuck above the Fed’s 2% target. Compounding its challenges, the central bank is navigating without much of the economic data it typically relies on from the government. The Fed has signaled it may reduce its key rate again in December but the data drought raises the uncertainty around its next moves. Fed Chair Jerome Powell told reporters that there were “strongly differing views” at the central bank's policy meeting about to proceed going forward.
U.S. and Chinese officials say a trade deal between the world’s two largest economies is drawing closer. The sides have reached an initial consensus for President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping to aim to finalize during their high-stakes meeting Thursday in South Korea. Any agreement would be a relief to international markets. Trump's treasury secretary says discussions with China yielded preliminary agreements to stop the precursor chemicals for fentanyl from coming into the United States. Scott Bessent also says Beijing would make “substantial” purchases of soybean and other agricultural products while putting off export controls on rare earth elements needed for advanced technologies.
