WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has been spreading false claims that an image of thousands of people waiting at Detroit's airport as Democrat Kamala Harris arrived for a campaign rally was fabricated with the help of artificial intelligence.
Reporters, photographers and video journalists representing The Associated Press and other news organizations who either traveled with Vice President Harris or were on the airport tarmac documented the crowd size last Wednesday as she arrived on Air Force Two. Harris' campaign also denied the photo in question was manipulated and posted about it on social media.
Fifteen thousand people attended the Detroit airport rally, Harris' campaign said. Harris and Walz spoke from inside a hangar where people were packed in. The crowd also spilled out onto the tarmac. The Wayne County Airport Authority, which oversees the airport, referred questions about the size of the crowd to Harris' campaign.
Thousands of people have been showing up at her campaign rallies.
By the Harris campaign’s count, 12,000 people turned out for rallies in Philadelphia and Eau Claire, Wisconsin, last week, followed by 15,000 in Glendale, Arizona. In Las Vegas on Saturday, more than 12,000 people were inside a university arena when law enforcement halted admission because people were getting ill waiting outside in the extreme 109-degree heat. About 4,000 people were waiting in line when the doors were closed.
An Associated Press reporter who covered the Harris events in Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona and Nevada, witnessed the throngs of people in attendance.
Trump pushed his false claims in back-to-back posts on his social media site on Sunday.
“Has anyone noticed that Kamala CHEATED at the airport? There was nobody at the plane, and she ‘A.I.’d’ it, and showed a massive 'crowd' of so-called followers, BUT THEY DIDN’T EXIST!.” he wrote. He included a post from another individual who made similar allegations about photo manipulation.
A minute later Trump posted, “Look, we caught her with a fake ‘crowd.’ There was nobody there!" He included a photo of the crowd that was partly shaded and partly exposed to the sun.
Harris' campaign confirmed on Monday that the photo being questioned was taken by a staff member and was not in any way modified using AI.
Hany Farid, a University of California, Berkeley, professor who focuses on digital forensics and misinformation, analyzed the photo using two models trained to detect patterns of generative AI and found no evidence of manipulation. The models were developed by GetReal Labs, a company Farid co-founded.
Farid, responding Monday in an email, said he compared several versions of the photo and the only alteration he detected was some simple change to brightness or contrast, and perhaps sharpening. He said many other images and videos from the event last Wednesday show the same basic scene.
Trump started pushing false theories about the Harris campaign photo a few days after he held a news conference at his Florida estate on Thursday and was asked about the crowds at his Democratic rival's rallies. Trump said no one draws crowds as big as he does.
“I’ve spoken to the biggest crowds. Nobody’s spoken to crowds bigger than me," Trump claimed at the news conference, his first since Harris became the Democratic presidential nominee.
He went on to falsely compare the crowd at his speech in front of the White House on Jan. 6, 2021, to the crowd at Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech on Aug. 28, 1963, at the Lincoln Memorial.
But King drew far more people. Approximately 250,000 people attended the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, at which King gave his speech, according to the National Park Service. The Associated Press reported in 2021 that there were at least 10,000 people at Trump’s address.
Some of Trump’s top advisers and supporters have been urging the former president to focus his criticisms on Harris’ policies and talk more about the border and the economy.
“Stop questioning the size of her crowds,” was the advice former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., offered during a Fox News appearance on Monday.
The Harris campaign needled Trump on a variety of issues in an email Monday titled “9 Days Since Trump's Last Swing State Event.” The note included a bullet point that said, “he's very mad about crowd sizes, claiming it's all fake and AI-generated. (Maybe if he campaigned he'd get crowds too?)”
Air Force Two with Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz aboard arrive for a campaign rally Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2024, in Romulus, Mich. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)
Air Force Two with Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz aboard arrive for a campaign rally Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2024, in Romulus, Mich. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)
Hezbollah pounded northern Israel with 140 rockets Friday, a day after the militant group’s leader vowed to retaliate against Israel for a mass bombing attack, the Israeli military and the militant group said.
Israel’s military said the rockets came in three waves Friday afternoon targeting sites along the ravaged border with Lebanon.
In Gaza, Palestinian authorities said 15 people were killed overnight in multiple Israeli attacks.
An airstrike early Friday morning in Gaza City hit a family home, killing six people including an unknown number of children, Gaza’s Civil Defense said. Another person was killed in Gaza City when a strike hit a group of people on a street.
Israel maintains it only targets militants and accuses Hamas and other armed groups of endangering civilians by operating in residential areas. The military, which rarely comments on individual strikes, had no immediate comment.
Gaza’s Health Ministry says more than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed in the territory since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack. The ministry does not differentiate between fighters and civilians in its count but says a little over half of those killed were women and children.
Israel says it has killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.
Meanwhile, the leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah is promising to retaliate for deadly attacks on its communication devices after Israel’s defense minister announced a “new phase” of the war. Fears are increasing that 11 months of exchanges of fire between the two sides will escalate into all-out war.
Hezbollah began striking Israel almost immediately after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack that sparked the Israel-Hamas war. They have come close to a full-blown war on several occasions.
Here's the latest:
Palestinian authorities say 15 people were killed overnight in the Gaza Strip in multiple Israeli attacks.
An airstrike early Friday morning in Gaza City hit a family home, killing six people including an unknown number of children, Gaza’s Civil Defense said. Another person was killed in Gaza City when a strike hit a group of people on a street.
In Beit Hanoun, north of Gaza City, another person was killed and several others injured when a vehicle was hit by an Israeli strike, the Civil Defense said.
Late Thursday, six more people were killed in a strike that hit a home in the center of Gaza City, while another was killed in Beit Lahya, north of Gaza City.
Israel maintains it only targets militants and accuses Hamas and other armed groups of endangering civilians by operating in residential areas. The military, which rarely comments on individual strikes, had no immediate comment.
The war has caused vast destruction and displaced about 90% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million.
Israel's foreign ministry said Friday it submitted two legal briefs in response to the International Criminal Court prosecutor’s request for arrest warrants against the country's leaders.
The court’s prosecutor is seeking arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as top Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and other Hamas leaders. One of them was since assassinated in what was believed to be an Israeli strike.
The foreign ministry said it has submitted two legal briefs challenging the court’s jurisdiction to arrest Israeli leaders and claiming the court did not provide Israel the opportunity to investigate itself before requesting the warrants.
“No other democracy with an independent and respected legal system like that which exists in Israel has been treated in this prejudicial manner by the Prosecutor,” wrote Foreign Ministry spokesperson Oren Marmorstein on the social media platform X. He said Israel remained “steadfast in its commitment to the rule of law and justice” and would continue to protect its citizens against militancy.
Israel is not a party to the court. Rights groups say the country has struggled to investigate itself in the past. Netanyahu has brushed off calls for a state investigation into the failings that led to the Oct. 7 attack.
BAGHDAD — A leader of an Iranian-backed Iraqi militia was killed Friday in a strike in Syria, a war monitor and a militia official said.
Iraq’s Kataeb Hezbollah group — which is different from the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah — said in a statement that Abu Haidar al-Khafaji was killed “while performing his duties as a security advisor in Damascus.”
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights had earlier reported that a leader in Iraq’s Kataeb Hezbollah group was killed and another person injured in a drone strike on the car they were traveling in on the road to the Damascus airport.
An official with an Iraqi militia confirmed that a car carrying a group of militia members was struck in Damascus, killing one person and injuring three others. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
There was no comment from Israeli officials on the strike. Israel frequently strikes Iranian and Iran-linked groups in Syria but rarely acknowledges the strikes.
Tensions have heightened in the region following a wave of apparently remotely detonated explosions in Lebanon targeting pagers and walkie talkies belonging to the Lebanese Hezbollah. The attacks, widely blamed on Israel, which has not commented on them, killed at least 37 people - including two children - and wounded about 3,000.
— By Qassim Abdul-Zahra in Baghdad
BEIRUT — Israel’s military killed two Hezbollah members who were planting explosives along the border over the weekend, Israel’s military and an official with a Lebanese group said.
The official with a Lebanese group said the two members of the militant group were killed Sunday and their bodies were taken by Israeli troops because they were too close to the fence along the tense frontier. The official spoke Friday on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
On Thursday, Israel’s military released a video it said was taken by one of the fighters showing the militants coming under fire. The military said that the two fighters were killed by Israeli troops as they tried to plant an improvised explosive device near a military post.
In the days following the tense border interaction, thousands of devices exploded in different parts of Lebanon and Syria, killing 37 people and wounding around 3,000 others. The attack was blamed on Israel, and many of those killed or injured were members of Hezbollah.
Associated Press writer Bassem Mroue contributed to this report.
Hezbollah members carry the coffin of their comrade who was killed when a handheld device exploded, during a funeral procession in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
Right-wing Israelis with relatives held hostage by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, and their supporters, rally against a hostage deal, in Jerusalem, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024. The placard in Hebrew reads: " To bathe in his blood." (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)
Houses are engulfed in fire as the Israeli army raided the northern West Bank town of Qabatiya on Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)
Palestinians duck for cover as the Israeli army raided the northern West Bank town of Qabatiya on Thursday, Sept.19, 2024. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)
FILE - Hezbollah fighters carry one of the coffins of four fallen comrades who were killed Tuesday after their handheld pagers exploded, in the southern suburb of Beirut, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein, File)
