Afghans for Trump group looking to make foreign policy — and 2021 withdrawal — front and center in election
Three years have passed since the Taliban’s swift takeover upended Afghanistan. Women have largely taken up home confinement, and men live in fear of being suspected of aiding the resistance, a charge that could result in death. In the chaos, as the U.S. hastily withdrew, countless Afghan allies were abandoned to an uncertain fate. While the wall-to-wall press coverage of what’s been called President Biden’s “Saigon moment” has largely quieted down, the Afghan diaspora living in the U.S. has not forgotten relatives in the homeland. TALIBAN BANS WOMEN ‘HEARING OTHER WOMEN’S VOICES’ IN LATEST DECREE Zoubair Sangi helped found a movement for the Afghan diaspora to unite and bring a sense of betrayal by the Biden administration to the ballot box with the new advocacy group Afghans for Trump. “If you were to ask [Afghans in Afghanistan], would you want a continuation of the last three years, which has been the failed policy of the Biden-Harris administration? They would say no because their lives are miserable right now,” Sangi told Fox News Digital. “It’s been three years where women can’t go to school. Terrorism has been on the rise. We have the attacking of ethnic and religious minorities.” Sangi’s parents came to the U.S. in the 1980s as the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. Much of his family still lives in the nation. “What they say is that it feels like they’re living in a prison,” Sangi said. “Anyone who’s suspected of resistance, just being kidnapped, jailed, tortured, killed. For the last three years, this has been going on. But zero coverage. So, you know, those who are living here, they feel like they’ve lost everything.” Sangi says Afghans for Trump is reaching out to the diaspora, those who are Afghan by background but U.S. citizens, and has been in touch with recent refugees who left after the withdrawal, most of whom are not citizens and can’t vote in the election. NEW GOP-BACKED BILL WOULD BAN AID TO AFGHANISTAN TO AVOID GIVING US DOLLARS TO THE TALIBAN “It’s a U.S. national security concern as well,” Sangi said. The Taliban “have been in connection with al Qaeda and other terrorist groups. So, this resurgence is a threat to the West as they are coordinating and planning [attacks].” Biden often blames former President Trump for the withdrawal, arguing he was constrained to a deadline agreed to under Trump’s deal with the Taliban. Trump now says that deal was meaningless because the Taliban had not been holding up their end of the deal, and he wouldn’t have abided by it, though he has not voiced support for a continued presence in the region. If Trump wins the presidency, Sangi said he hopes Trump will stop the funneling of money to Afghanistan, dollars that are earmarked for humanitarian aid but often end up in Taliban hands. “There is also a resistance in Afghanistan whose values align with the American people who have been allies of the Americans for over 20 years,” he said. “The National Resistance Front in Afghanistan is a perfect alternative where we don’t have to get boots on the ground. … We just need to support this moderate resistance.” HOUSE GOP RELEASES SCATHING REPORT ON AFGHANISTAN Sangi called to mind the acts of past administrations, such as former President Reagan providing aid to Afghanistan’s Mujahideen to fight the Soviets and former President George W. Bush’s War on Terror. “They supported the people of Afghanistan. And, you know, we fought our own battle. And it proved successful. So, fighting the Taliban should be much less of a challenge than that time,” he said. “We believe it’s in our best interest to have support from a president who cares about the implications of what’s going on in Afghanistan … such as cutting off the funding to the Taliban at $40 million a week.” According to an August 2023 World Bank report, in only a year’s time, the U.N. flew in by helicopter bags of cash worth some $2.9 billion to Afghanistan since the Taliban seized control. The bulk of that was from funds allocated by the U.S., and at least some of which ended up in the Taliban-controlled central bank, according to a SIGAR report. The Taliban then “taxes” this cash at multiple points of distribution. “The Taliban are pocketing this money, and we see them using it for things such as military parades of suicide bombers,” said Sangi. “None of it is going to the people who are living there. You know, I have family there, and they’re not receiving any of this aid. The population is facing starvation, mass unemployment.” With a sense of optimism, Sangi predicted Middle East policy may decide next week’s election despite the long-running assumption that elections are decided by domestic issues. “This is the one time where I think every single person across almost every spectrum of society feels the repercussions of what’s going on, the turmoil in the Middle East,” he said. “This cannot continue because, if it does, we can go further into World War III, and nobody wants that.”
How to watch Election Day coverage on Fox News Digital
Election Day 2024 is nearly upon us, and Fox News Channel and Fox News Digital are your home for up to the second election news, race calls and breaking developments from swing states to reliably red precincts and blue bastions. Visit our Fox News Go stream and sign in with your paid cable, satellite or streaming provider for continuing coverage all day and night. On FoxNews.com, there will be several blogs with up-to-the-minute developments in Senate races, state presidential race calls and the close-fought House races attracting the most attention this cycle. FOX Nation will also feature some election coverage. Fox News Digital will also have running delegate counts, and results from the national races. FOX NEWS DEMOCRACY 24: KEYS TO THE COUNT IN EVERY BATTLEGROUND STATE Fox News Digital will feature the latest news surrounding the election, results and information. Up-to-the-minute data and developments will be provided for the digital audience as users can review Fox News Voter Analysis as polls close in each state. Users can also follow both the Democracy ‘24 and Balance of Power live blogs throughout the day as the latest races are called across the country. FOX News Digital’s election hub will feature real-time data for users to track the presidential race, congressional and gubernatorial races, complete with a fully interactive map of the country and probability dials displaying the likelihood of the outcome and the congressional balance of power. FOX NEWS MEDIA ANNOUNCES EXPANSIVE 2024 ELECTION COVERAGE Viewers can also customize and select races on the “My Races” page to follow along with their favorite contests. Foxnews.com will livestream the channel’s special coverage, including race results, election trends and in-depth political analysis. Fox News Channel will also have special programming throughout the day, and Fox News’ Decision Desk will be checking in with the network’s anchors throughout the night with their latest analysis and race calls. Make Fox News Channel and Fox News Digital your home on Election Night for all the developments you’re looking for during Democracy ’24. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
HM Amit Shah releases BJP’s ‘Sankalp Patra’ for Jharkhand assembly polls
Union Home Minister Amit Shah released Bharatiya Janata Party Sankalp Patra (Manifesto) for Jharkhand Assembly elections in Ranchi on Sunday.
‘If he doesn’t resign…’: Mumbai police receives threat call for UP CM Yogi Adityanath
The Mumbai police has received a call threatening Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
Harris, Trump hit North Carolina in final weekend push before US election
The fate of the election is expected to be determined by the seven battleground states, which are being heavily courted. United States presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are touring southern swing states as they try to attract voters with just three days left until Election Day. The Democratic and Republican leaders headed to the southern battleground state of North Carolina on Saturday. It marked the fourth day in a row that Vice President Harris and former president Trump visited the same state on the same day, further emphasising how votes will likely decide the election outcome in a few key states that polls have projected will be close. They were both in North Carolina on Wednesday, Nevada on Thursday and Wisconsin on Friday, at one point holding events just a few kilometres from each other as they fought over the swing states. The two candidates took big hits against each other, focusing on how the other party would be bad for the US while also touching on a string of issues like the economy and immigration. “We win this state, we’re gonna win the whole ball game,” Trump said in his Gastonia, North Carolina speech. “We won it twice before, and we’re gonna win it easily.” He also repeated the false claim that there had been “cheating” in the 2020 presidential election vote. Trump was planning a visit to Salem, Virginia, before heading back to North Carolina. Harris said there is an opportunity to “turn the page on a decade of Donald Trump” in a speech. “This is not someone speaking about how to make your life better,” she told the crowd in Georgia’s Atlanta, saying she plans to improve standards of living. The vice president also tried to strike a message of unity, saying her priorities would include a middle-class tax cut and bringing down the cost of living for Americans. After the Georgia speech, Harris will head to a rally in North Carolina where the rock star Jon Bon Jovi is expected to make an appearance. In one of the latest clashes among the two parties, which brought highly differing takes on major issues, Democrats hit out at US House Speaker Mike Johnson. The Republican suggested that the GOP would probably try to cut government subsidies for semiconductor manufacturing if it wins. Johnson later walked back his comments, claiming he meant that Republicans would “streamline” the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act that has injected billions of dollars into producing computer chips in the US. In the national polls, Harris is holding on to a slight lead. In polls of the seven key swing states, Trump is ahead in Arizona, Georgia and North Carolina, while Harris maintains single-point leads in Michigan and Wisconsin. Pennsylvania and Nevada are even. The election looms on November 5, but millions have already cast their ballots in recent weeks. As of Saturday, more than 72 million votes had already been cast, according to a tracker maintained by the University of Florida, which said that more than half of all voters are expected to cast their ballots before election day. Adblock test (Why?)
How significant is North Korea’s support for Russia?
Pyongyang says it will stand by Moscow in its war against Ukraine. The United States says thousands of North Korean soldiers are now on Russian soil, preparing to enter the war against Ukraine. Most are in Russia’s Kursk region – where Ukraine launched a counter-invasion almost three months ago. Fighting there has been intense, and some analysts say the addition of North Korean troops could change the dynamics of the conflict. As the Kremlin struggles to lure new recruits, Pyongyang has pledged unwavering support for Moscow. Does Vladimir Putin’s reach for North Korean troops reveal a military stretched to the breaking point? Or is this a sign of Russian strength, as it builds new alliances? Presenter: Laura Kyle Guests: Graham Ong-Webb – Adjunct fellow at S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies Pavel Felgenhauer – Military analyst and political commentator Craig Mark – Adjunct lecturer at Hosei University, Tokyo Adblock test (Why?)
Ukraine’s Zelenskyy urges allies to act before N Korean troops reach front
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has urged its allies to stop “watching” and take steps before North Korean troops deployed in Russia reach the battlefield, and the country’s army chief warned that his troops are facing “one of the most powerful offensives” by Moscow since the all-out war started more than two years ago. Zelenskyy raised the prospect of a preemptive Ukrainian strike on camps where the North Korean troops are being trained and said Kyiv knows their location. But he said Ukraine cannot do it without permission from allies to use Western-made long-range weapons to hit targets deep inside Russia. “But instead … America is watching, Britain is watching, Germany is watching. Everyone is just waiting for the North Korean military to start attacking Ukrainians as well,” Zelenskyy said in a post late Friday on the Telegram messaging app. The Biden administration said on Thursday that some 8,000 North Korean soldiers are now in Russia’s Kursk region near Ukraine’s border and are preparing to help the Kremlin fight against Ukrainian troops in the coming days. On Saturday, Ukraine’s military intelligence said that more than 7,000 North Koreans equipped with Russian gear and weapons had been transported to areas near Ukraine. The agency, known by its acronym GUR, said that North Korean troops were being trained at five locations in Russia’s Far East. It did not specify its source of information. Western leaders have described the North Korean troop deployment as a significant escalation that could also jolt relations in the Asia Pacific region, and open the door to technology transfers from Moscow to Pyongyang that could advance the threat posed by North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missile program. North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui met with her Russian counterpart in Moscow on Friday. Ukrainian leaders have repeatedly said they need permission to use Western weapons to strike arms depots, airfields and military bases far from the border to motivate Russia to seek peace. In response, US defence officials have argued that the missiles are limited in number, and that Ukraine is already using its own long-range drones to hit targets farther into Russia. Moscow has also consistently signalled that it would view any such strikes as a major escalation. President Vladimir Putin warned on September 12 that Russia would be “at war” with the US and NATO states if they approve them. Firefighters work at a site of an apartment building damaged by a Russian drone strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv [Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters] Ukraine facing ‘powerful’ Russian offensive Zelenskyy’s call came shortly before Ukraine’s top commander, General Oleksandr Syrskii, said on Saturday that his troops are struggling to stem “one of the most powerful offensives” by Russia since its all-out invasion of its southern neighbour in February 2022. Writing on Telegram following a call with a top Czech military official, Syrskii hinted that Ukrainian units are taking heavy losses in the fighting, which he said “require constant renewal of resources.” While Syrskii did not specify where the heavy fighting took place, Russia has for months been conducting a ferocious campaign along the eastern front in Ukraine, gradually compelling Kyiv to surrender ground. But Moscow has struggled to push Ukrainian forces out of its Kursk border region following an incursion almost three months ago. Dozens injured in Russian strikes on Ukraine Russian missiles hit Ukraine’s second-largest city of Kharkiv overnight into Saturday, killing a policeman and injuring dozens, local Governor Oleh Syniehubov reported. According to Syniehubov and Ukraine’s national police force, one missile slammed into a spot where a large group of police were gathered, killing a 40-year-old serviceman and injuring 36 more. In Ukraine’s southern Kherson province, Russian shelling on Saturday killed a 40-year-old woman and wounded three others, including two children, local Governor Oleksandr Prokudin reported. Another Kherson resident was wounded in a drone attack later that day, according to local Ukrainian authorities. Five more civilians, including two children, were injured after Russia struck Ukraine’s central Dnipropetrovsk region, Governor Serhiy Lysak said. In Kyiv, air raid sirens wailed for more than five hours early Saturday morning as Russian drones rained on the capital, sparking a fire in an office block downtown and injuring two people, according to the city’s military administration. Overall, Russian forces overnight attacked Ukraine with more than 70 Iranian-made Shahed drones, the Ukrainian air force reported Saturday. It said most were shot down or sent off-course using GPS jamming. Falling debris damaged power networks and residential buildings in multiple provinces and injured an elderly woman near Kyiv, officials said. Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry hinted that Russia’s drone campaign was slowing down, saying Moscow launched just more than half as many in October as the month before. Meanwhile, Russia’s defence ministry reported that its forces overnight shot down 24 Ukrainian drones over four Russian regions and occupied Crimea. There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage. Adblock test (Why?)
Abortion supporters at Women’s March in Boston turn out in droves to support Harris presidency
Hundreds turned out to participate in the Woman’s March in Massachusetts ahead of Election Day, in a strong show of support for Vice President Kamala Harris and abortion access. People marched on Boston Common, holding signs that read, “We won’t go back” and “Abortion is health care.” Some men joined with them. The woman’s march happened in Boston, as well as in Washington, D.C., and in Kansas City, Missouri. Speakers urged people to vote in the election — highlighting that abortion is on the ballot in nine states. “How many of you are going to vote on Tuesday? How many of you can’t wait to wake up to a woman president?” Rev. Dr. Deborah Haffner, of First Unitarian Universalist Society in Newton, Massachusetts, asked. TRUMP SAYS HE WANTS TO PROTECT WOMEN, HARRIS SAYS TRUMP WANTS TO DECIDE ‘WHAT YOU DO WITH YOUR BODY’ Tracy Murphy told NBC 10 Boston that she organized the women’s march because she wanted to give it her all no matter who wins. “Today’s message is that we want everybody to vote,” Murphy said. Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022, abortion access has returned to the state level. Abortion has remained a hot-button issue in the 2024 election – with abortion being a top issue for many female voters. DESANTIS CAMPAIGNS AGAINST HIGH-STAKES ABORTION MEASURE ON FLORIDA BALLOT: ‘BAIT AND SWITCH’ LEGISLATION Nine states will consider constitutional amendments that would enshrine abortion rights — Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada and South Dakota. A record number of voters think abortion should be legal, with two-thirds favoring a nationwide law guaranteeing access, according to a Fox News national survey conducted on March 22-25, 2024. FOX NEWS POLL: RECORD NUMBER SAY ABORTION SHOULD BE LEGAL Fifty-nine percent think abortion should be legal in all or most cases, up from the previous high of 57% in September 2022 and a record low of 44% in April 2022. Support for legalization has been up (mostly by double-digits) across the board since April 2022, two months before Roe was overturned. That includes increased support among voters ages 65 and older (+16 points should be legal), conservatives (+12), Republicans (+11), and White evangelical Christians (+10). Overall, just 7% think abortion should never be permitted, while five times as many say it always should be (35%). Another one-third (32%) say abortion should be illegal except in cases of rape, incest, or to save the life of the mother. Former President Trump has shifted his stance on abortion during the election cycle, with the Republican nominee hoping to attract independents and some disillusioned Democrats, but running the risk of alienating his pro-life base. Trump notably opposes a federal abortion ban, but has remained opposed to late-term abortions. In July, the Republican Party abandoned its long-standing position of advocating against abortion. Throughout Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign, she has argued that Trump — who nominated three conservative justices to the Supreme Court who later voted to overturn Roe v. Wade — is responsible for worsening medical care for women and that he would seek further restrictions. Harris has cast her position on the topic as creating legislation to restore the national abortion right that was eliminated following Roe v. Wade. She has also vowed to protect access to the abortion drug mifepristone, calling the drug “essential medication.” Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub. Fox News’ Victoria Balara and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
Delhi AQI touches 400: Many times over WHO limit, pollution in ‘severe’ category
In most areas of Delhi, the AQI has once again reached the category of very poor to hazardous.
Shock poll has Harris leading Trump in Iowa with 3-point shift toward vice president in red state
Vice President Kamala Harris leads former President Donald Trump by three points in the final Des Moines Register-sponsored poll of Iowa three days before the election. The shock poll showed a seven-point shift from Trump to Harris from September when he had a four-point lead over the vice president (47% to 43%) in the same poll. “It’s hard for anybody to say they saw this coming,” pollster J. Ann Selzer, president of Selzer & Co., who conducted the poll, told the newspaper on Saturday. “She has clearly leaped into a leading position.” The poll was conducted between Oct. 28-31, and Harris’ lead is within the 3.4% margin of error. Still, the poll appears to be an outlier. Another poll from Emerson College released Saturday showed Trump with a 10-point lead (53% to 43%) and he maintains a decent lead in other polls. TRUMP POISED TO HIT HARRIS OVER DISASTROUS JOBS REPORT: ‘HURRICANE KAMALA’ The Des Moines Register/Mediacom poll, which measures support in the Hawkeye State, is nationally recognized, and its final results mirrored the state’s results of the 2016 and 2020 elections, according to the Des Moines Register. The 2016 poll showed Trump with a seven-point lead over Hillary Clinton and the 2020 poll showed him with the same lead over President Biden. HARRIS TEARS INTO TRUMP, PRAISES GEN Z IN CLOSING ARGUMENT TO GEORGIA VOTERS Iowa, which is not considered a swing state, is geographically near the Rust Belt swing states of Pennsylvania and Michigan, and it shares a border with Wisconsin. The same poll taken in June showed Trump with a considerable 18-point lead over Biden before he dropped out of the race in July following a shaky debate performance. The Nov. 2 poll shows Harris increasing her support among women in a race with a historic gender gap as the vice president has made the issue of abortion front and center in her campaign, according to the newspaper. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP The remaining 9% of the people polled said they would vote for another candidate, weren’t sure who the would vote for or didn’t plan to vote. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who dropped out of the race as an independent candidate and endorsed Trump, got 3% in the poll.