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Harris recalls stun over Biden’s botched debate response about fallen service members in Afghanistan

Harris recalls stun over Biden’s botched debate response about fallen service members in Afghanistan

Former Vice President Kamala Harris revealed in her new political memoir, “107 Days,” that she was stunned by then-President Joe Biden’s debate response about his administration’s botched withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, which left 13 service members dead.  Biden’s debate performance against Donald Trump in 2024 was viewed as an abject failure, with the Democratic president tripping over his words, losing his train of thought and displaying a raspy voice attributed to a cold during the event.  Harris argued that Biden whiffed an easy question on the military and omitted any acknowledgment of the 13 U.S. service members who died during the Afghanistan withdrawal. She also pointed to his claims that he was “the only president this century” and “this decade” who did not have any troops “dying anywhere in the world.”  KAMALA HARRIS REJECTS IDEA THAT BUNGLED ‘VIEW’ INTERVIEW WAS TIPPING POINT IN CAMPAIGN Harris in her book, however, identified those who were killed as “13 marines,” — except it was not all Marines who died during the withdrawal. Eleven Marines, one soldier and one Navy corpsman were killed in a suicide bombing at the Kabul Airport’s Abbey Gate.  Harris explained in her book that Biden first faced a question on the economy during his debate in June 2024, which she said was rushed, with Biden showing “no light in his eyes, no expression in his voice.” The next question was on the military, and included Biden omitting an acknowledgment of the horrific attack that plagued his administration as one of its greatest failures.  “He’s got so much material on this—Trump calling our fallen soldiers ‘suckers and losers,’” Harris wrote of what ran through her head when Biden was asked about his role as commander-in-chief.  KAMALA HARRIS BREAKS SILENCE ON BIDEN DROPOUT, ADMITS SHE HAS REGRETS ABOUT HER HANDLING OF SITUATION “He managed to get off that line but had stepped on it earlier by saying no one had died in wars overseas on his watch, seeming to forget the thirteen marines who died in the bomb blast at the airport during the evacuation of Afghanistan. I’d been on Air Force Two when it happened, and we had to change our flight plan to get back to DC in the face of that tragedy. How could he overlook that day?” she wrote, expressing her surprise over the response, but misidentifying those who were all killed as members of the Marines Corps.  “I know his deep feelings for those men and women. It’s personal to him,” she added.  KAMALA HARRIS REVEALS WHAT BIDEN TOLD HER JUST BEFORE CRUCIAL DEBATE WITH TRUMP THAT LEFT HER ‘ANGRY’ The Biden administration repeatedly came under fire for its handling of the Afghan withdrawal. It was viewed as paving the road for adversaries such as Russia to invade Ukraine, as the U.S. looked weak on the international stage, critics such as Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said at the time. The Taliban regained control of Afghanistan upon the U.S.’ withdrawal.  The families who lost loved ones during the botched withdrawal previously slammed Biden and Harris for their deaths, including launching a scathing defense attack against Harris when she was running for president. Parents and other loved ones claimed that the “administration killed my son” and that they “have not seen any support from you or your administration.” KAMALA HARRIS COMPLAINS ABOUT ‘IMPOSSIBLE’ LACK OF SUPPORT FROM BIDEN’S COMMS TEAM, INNER CIRCLE Biden added fuel to the fire of the botched withdrawal criticisms when he appeared on a tarmac during a dignified transfer ceremony of those killed in 2021 and was seen looking at his watch.  Fox News Digital reached out to Harris’ office for comment on the section of the book, including a response as to why Harris stated the 13 service members were all identified as “marines,” but did not immediately receive responses. Biden’s office declined to comment.  Harris’ book, “107 Days,” hit store shelves Tuesday and reflects on the former vice president’s truncated presidential campaign cycle after Biden dropped out of the race amid mounting concern over his mental acuity.  Harris is set to go on tour promoting her book in cities such as New York, San Francisco and London. 

‘Escape From New York’: Researcher predicts NYC business exodus if Zohran Mamdani wins

‘Escape From New York’: Researcher predicts NYC business exodus if Zohran Mamdani wins

Zohran Mamdani’s promises to freeze rents and raise taxes on corporations could trigger a New York City business exodus, Michael Toth, a research fellow at the University of Texas at Austin’s Civitas Institute, told Fox News Digital.  Businesses have railed against Mamdani’s progressive platform since his primary win shocked the political establishment, with leaders like Gristedes CEO John Catsimatidis sounding the alarm on Mamdani’s plans to open city-run grocery stores and raise taxes on the 1% if he wins in November.  “We have a far-left socialist mayor who’s trying to take control of the epicenter of global finance,” Toth said in an exclusive interview. “It’s like oil and water.” Toth, a legal commentator on economic and regulatory reform, explained why Mamdani becoming mayor would trigger a “stampede” of businesses out of New York City in his essay, “Escape From New York.“ SOCIALIST’S NYC MAYORAL WIN SPARKS FIERCE DEBATE OVER FEASIBILITY OF RADICAL POLICY AGENDA The Texas-based researcher argued that Mamdani’s policies “are obviously not what has built New York City into the city that it’s become,” through leading finance, media and communication industries.  NYC OFFICIAL WARNS BUSINESSES WILL FLEE ‘IN DROVES’ IF DEMOCRATIC SOCIALIST CANDIDATE WINS MAYORAL RACE “If I’m a New Yorker, and I’m looking for an affordable place to live, it’s not going to be in a city where Zohran Mamdani is running,” Toth said.  Affordability has been central to Mamdani’s campaign. His platform also includes promises like fast, free buses and free childcare, contrasting his “grassroots energy” to his general election opponents, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Mayor Eric Adams and Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa.  “Billionaires – and the politicians who do their bidding – have made New York City unaffordable for too many New Yorkers and now, this campaign is mobilizing tens of thousands of volunteers ready for a new kind of politics,” campaign spokesperson Dora Pekec said in a recent statement announcing more than 230,000 campaign doors.  But Toth said that Mamdani is lacking a key understanding of supply and demand.  “He completely shortchanges how hard it is for businesses to stay afloat and to consistently bring products to their customers,” Toth said. “More supply is better for consumers,” Toth said. “More government mandates is worse for consumers because it drives prices up.” Toth said New York City’s mayoral election is consequential, not just for its residents, but for Americans, arguing there could be a “continued reorientation of the American capital markets to places like Dallas and Florida.” If New Yorkers elect Mamdani, “these policies are going to set the city back decades,” Toth said.  Mamdani has maintained that he doesn’t like capitalism, telling CNN’s Erin Burnett in June that he has “many critiques of capitalism.” When asked about the criticism from business leaders, particularly grocery stores owners, Mamdani told Fox News Digital it will be possible for a “partnership” between the city and grocery store and bodega owners, despite his plan to open five city-run grocery stores if elected mayor this November. “I am interested in working with each and every New Yorker, and I’ve actually spoken with a number of grocery store owners and made clear to them that I both recognize, and I appreciate the work that they have done. The fact is that they are a critical part of our communities,” Mamdani said. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Despite Mamdani’s reassurances, real estate moguls have signaled support for Adams and Cuomo recently rallied support among local business leaders as pressure mounts to consolidate support against Mamdani.  The latest Suffolk University CityView poll revealed that 45% of New Yorkers are very or somewhat likely to vote for Mamdani in November’s general election for mayor, with a 20-point lead over Cuomo.  Fox News Digital reached out to Mamdani’s campaign for comment but did not immediately hear back. 

Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,312

Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,312

Here are the key events on day 1,312 of Russia’s war on Ukraine. Published On 28 Sep 202528 Sep 2025 Click here to share on social media share2 Share Here is how things stand on Sunday, September 28 : Fighting Ukrainian long-range drones hit an oil pumping station in Russia’s Chuvashia region, causing a fire and forcing the suspension of operations, an official from the Ukrainian security service, the SBU, told the Reuters news agency. Russian forces had taken over three more villages in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk and Dnipro regions, amid a grinding Russian advance in the area, Russia’s military said in a post on Telegram. Moscow and Kyiv have traded blame for attacks on the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which has forced the facility off the main power grid for the last four days. Regional security NATO has announced that it is upgrading its mission in the Baltic Sea with an air-defence frigate and other military assets deployed to the region, after several days of unidentified drone sightings at airports in Denmark and military bases. Earlier, Latvia and Lithuania called on NATO to increase its military protection of the Baltic States, citing alleged Russian violations of the military alliance’s airspace. Norway has launched an investigation into “possible sightings of drones” near its biggest military base, Orland, where its advanced F-35 fighter jets are stationed, a military spokesman said. Military aid Advertisement Politics and diplomacy Any aggression against Russia “will be met with a decisive response”, Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov warned NATO and the European Union in his address at the UN General Assembly (UNGA) in New York on Saturday. He warned that Moscow is prepared to act if provoked. In separate remarks to journalists, Lavrov also suggested that Germany is returning to its Nazi past, in what was seen as a personal attack on German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, as his government moves to ramp up defence spending amid growing threats from Moscow. Russia has fallen short of the 93 votes necessary to get elected to the UN aviation agency’s governing council, in the latest rebuke following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Russia received 87 votes during the agency’s assembly in Montreal. South Korean Minister of Foreign Affairs Cho Hyun met Lavrov in New York, where he expressed Seoul’s “grave concern” over military cooperation between Russia and North Korea. Thousands of North Korean troops have been sent to aid Russia in its war against Ukraine, and Pyongyang has bolstered Moscow with a huge transfer of weapons. Adblock test (Why?)

Malaysia’s Mahathir at 100: Israel’s genocide in Gaza will not be forgotten

Malaysia’s Mahathir at 100: Israel’s genocide in Gaza will not be forgotten

Putrajaya, Malaysia – When Malaysia’s former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad turned 100 earlier this year, he marked his birthday by following a lifelong routine of discipline: he ate little, worked a lot, and did not succumb to the lure of rest. “The main thing is that I work all the time. I don’t rest myself,” Mahathir told Al Jazeera. Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list “I am always using my mind and body. Keep your mind and body active, then you live longer,” he said. From a desk at his office in Putrajaya city, south of the capital, Kuala Lumpur, he spent his centenary like most days: penning his thoughts on the Malaysian economy, the country’s political situation and unfolding world events, particularly the situation in Gaza. Sitting down with Al Jazeera for an interview after recovering from a spell of exhaustion around the time of his birthday, Mahathir predicted that Israel’s ruthlessness against the Palestinian population of Gaza would be etched into world history. Israel’s killing of nearly 66,000 Palestinians in Gaza, the majority women and children, will be remembered for generations, possibly for “centuries”, Mahathir said. “Gaza is terrible. They killed pregnant mothers… babies just born, young people, boys and girls, men and women, the sick and the poor… How can this be forgotten?” he asked. “It will not be forgotten for maybe centuries,” Mahathir said. Describing the war in Gaza as a genocide that parallelled the killing of Muslims during the war in Bosnia in the early 1990s and the Jews by Nazi Germany during World War II, Mahathir said he was confounded that the people of Israel, who had experienced genocide, could, in turn, perpetrate a genocide. Advertisement “I thought people who suffered like that would not want to visit it on other people,” he said. Victims of a genocide should “not want to wish their fate to befall other people”. However, in the case of Israel, he was wrong, he said. Malaysia’s then-interim leader Mahathir Mohamad attends a committee on the exercise of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in February 2020 [Vincent Thian/AP] At the height of his power in the 1980s and 1990s, Mahathir earned a reputation on the world stage as an outspoken voice for the Global South, and a vocal critic of Western imperialism and its contemporary exploitation of developing countries through flows of financial capital. A staunch and lifelong supporter of the Palestinian cause, Mahathir was also roundly criticised for making “anti-Semitic” statements alongside his tirades against the West, particularly the United States. But, as he told Al Jazeera, he had sympathised deeply with the Jewish people when the horrors of the Nazis became known after World War II. Israelis, he now says, “did not learn anything from their experience”. “They want the same thing that happened to them, they want to do it to the Arabs,” he said. Now, the only “reasonable” way to address the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian people is to implement a two-state solution, he added. But Mahathir said that such a solution – which received a major boost when Palestinian statehood was recently recognised by Australia, Belgium, Canada, France and the United Kingdom, among other countries – is still a very long way off, and he would not live to see it. “In my lifetime, no. Too short a time,” he said. China: ‘Number one country in the world’ A survivor of three heart attacks who pulled off a stunning political comeback in Malaysian public life when he was over 90 years of age, Mahathir held power for a combined total of 24 years, and earned himself what is likely to be the unassailable title as Malaysia’s longest-serving leader. When he was born on July 10, 1925, in the northern Malaysian state of Kedah, the king of England was George V, the grandfather of the late Queen Elizabeth II, and Malaysia was a British colony known as Malaya. He entered politics in the 1960s and became prime minister from 1981 to 2003 before stepping down, for the first time. He then made an astonishing return to power in 2018, when he led a coalition of opposition parties to beat the long-governing Barisan Nasional party to be re-elected prime minister at the sprightly age of 92, becoming the world’s oldest leader as a result. Advertisement But he stepped down under a cloud for the last time in 2020 after losing support due to political machinations from inside his own political party, Bersatu. A medical doctor by training, even Mahathir’s critics acknowledged that he laid the economic foundations that transformed Malaysia’s agricultural economy of the 1960s into the modern industrialised state of today, with the iconic twin Petronas Towers crowning the skyline of its thriving modern capital city, Kuala Lumpur. Despite having lived past the age when most politicians would have retreated from the spotlight, Mahathir at 100 remains as vocal, sharp and acerbic as ever. He also had some surprising memories of a bygone China and predictions about the future of the United States to share. Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad works at his office in Putrajaya, Malaysia, in 2020 [File: Prime Minister Office via AP] Among his prized recollections are his impressions of visiting China in the 1970s, when it was “very poor” and there were few cars on the streets. Being Malaysia’s deputy prime minister at the time, authorities in Beijing rolled out the red carpet and their “Red Flag” model car to chauffeur him around, he said. “It was a very big Chinese car which China produced themselves. They called it The Red Flag,” Mahathir said, recounting how that vehicle was among the first to be independently produced by the Chinese. Fast forward to today, China’s economy has come a very long way, and so too has its thriving car industry, which is giving Western-produced cars a run for their money, particularly with electric vehicles. China’s surpassing of the US to become the

Thousands protest livestreamed murder of 2 women, young girl in Argentina

Thousands protest livestreamed murder of 2 women, young girl in Argentina

Drug gang suspected in torture and murder of two young women, and a 15-year-old girl, in crime that shocks Argentina. Clashes have erupted between demonstrators and police as thousands protested in Argentina’s capital, Buenos Aires, to demand justice over the torture and killing of two young women and a teenager, which was livestreamed on social media by a purported drug gang. Thousands of protesters took to the streets on Saturday to denounce the killings that shocked Argentinians after it was revealed that the murders were perpetrated live on the Instagram platform and watched by 45 members of a private account, officials said. Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list The bodies of Morena Verdi and Brenda del Castillo, cousins aged 20, and 15-year-old Lara Gutierrez were found buried on Wednesday in the yard of a house in a southern suburb of Buenos Aires, five days after they went missing. Investigators said the victims, thinking they were going to a party, were lured into a van on September 19, allegedly as part of a plan to “punish” them for violating gang code and to serve as a warning to others. Police discovered a video of the triple murder after a suspect in the disappearance of the three revealed it under questioning, according to Javier Alonso, the security minister for the Buenos Aires province. In the footage, a gang leader is heard saying: “This is what happens to those who steal drugs from me.” Argentinian media reported that the torturers cut off fingers, pulled out nails, and beat and suffocated the victims. While most of the protesters who took part in the demonstration on Saturday marched peacefully, some confronted police who responded by aggressively pushing them away using their batons and shields, according to video clips and images posted by the La Izquierda Diario online news site. Thousands of protesters took to the streets of Buenos Aires on Saturday to denounce the killings of Morena Verdi and Brenda del Castillo, cousins aged 20, and 15-year-old Lara Gutierrez, by a suspected drug gang [Luis Robayo/AFP] As they marched towards the Argentinian parliament with thousands of supporters, family members of the victims held a banner with their names, “Lara, Brenda, Morena”, and placards with the images of the three. Advertisement “Women must be protected more than ever,” Brenda’s father, Leonel del Castillo, was quoted by the AFP news agency as telling reporters at the protest. He had earlier said he had not been able to identify his daughter’s body due to the torture she had endured. “It was a narco-femicide!” read a sign at the protest. Another declared, “Our lives are not disposable!” The protesters also banged on drums as they marched and denounced the “inaction” of the administration of President Javier Milei against what they called the growing “narco” influence in the country. An image posted on social media showed protesters burning an image of Milei and other political allies of his administration. Antonio del Castillo, the grandfather of the slain 20-year-old cousins, was in tears, calling his granddaughters’ killers “bloodthirsty”. “You wouldn’t do what they did to them to an animal,” he said. On Friday, Minister of National Security Patricia Bullrich announced the arrest of a fifth suspect in the case, bringing the total to three men and two women. The fifth suspect, accused of offering logistical support in the killing by providing a vehicle involved in the crime, was arrested in the Bolivian border city of Villazon . Authorities have also released a photograph of the alleged mastermind, a 20-year-old Peruvian, who remains at large. Meta, the parent company of Instagram, has disputed that the livestream occurred on its platform, according to the AFP, citing a company spokesperson. Adblock test (Why?)