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Trump appeared on Joe Rogan’s podcast for nearly three hours: Here are the top moments

Trump appeared on Joe Rogan’s podcast for nearly three hours: Here are the top moments

Former President Trump taped “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast for nearly three hours on Friday.  The podcast, recorded in Austin, Texas, afforded the Republican presidential nominee exposure to Rogan’s 14.5 million followers on Spotify and 17.6 million followers on YouTube. Rogan, the nation’s most-listened-to podcast host, is extremely influential with young male voters, who Trump is aiming to reach.  Here are the top takeaways from the podcast that aired on Friday.  While explaining the process of choosing political nominations once he got into office, Trump discussed his initial appointment of John Bolton, who served as White House National Security adviser. In 2019, Trump fired Bolton, who remains a staunch critic. Trump described how Phil Ruffin, a fellow American businessman, warned him that Bolton was a “bad guy,” but by then, Trump had already hired him.  “And he was right. But he was good in a certain way. He’s a nut job. And every time I had to deal with a country when they saw this whack job standing behind me, they said, ‘Man, Trump’s going to go to war with us.’ He was with Bush when they went stupidly into the Middle East. They should have never done it. I used to say it as a civilian, so I always got more publicity than other people,” Trump said.  “It wasn’t like I was trying,” Trump said. “In fact, I don’t know exactly why. Maybe you can tell me.”  “I could definitely tell you,” Rogan offered. “You said a lot of wild s—. … And then CNN in all their brilliance by highlighting your wild s— made you much more popular. And they boost you in the polls because people were tired of someone talking in this bulls— pre-prepared politician lingo. And even if they didn’t agree with you, they at least knew whoever that guy is, that’s him. That’s really him.”  “The rebels are Republicans now, though, like you want to be invisible, you want to be punk rock, you want to like, buck the system? You’re a conservative now,” Rogan said. “That’s how crazy. And then the liberals are now pro-silencing criticism. They’re pro-censorship online. … [T]hey come in regulating free speech and now regulating the First Amendment. It’s bananas to watch.”  Elon Musk, who took over Twitter — now X — in 2022, responded to the clip, writing, “Exactly.”  “You know they come after their political opponent,” Trump told Rogan in response. “I’ve been investigated more than Alfonse Capone.”  In his meeting with former President Obama during the presidential transition period, Trump recalled, “Obama thought we were going to go to war with North Korea.” Rogan then referenced how Trump dubbed North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un “Little Rocket Man” early on in his first term.  “I said, ‘Little Rocket Man, you’re going to burn in hell.’ And it was rough,” Trump said. “I got to know him better than anybody, anybody. And I said, ‘Do you ever do anything else? Why don’t you go take it easy and relax? Go to the beach?’ You know, kiddingly, I said, ‘You’re always building nuclear. Just relax. You don’t have to do it. Let’s build some condos.’”  

Florida, Michigan, New Jersey, New York kick off early in-person voting

Florida, Michigan, New Jersey, New York kick off early in-person voting

Florida, Michigan, New York and New Jersey all kick off early in-person voting Saturday as the nation begins heading to the polls for the 2024 election. Here’s what you need to know. Michigan shocked the country in 2016 when it backed former President Trump by 0.23 points, or a mere 10,704 votes. Since then, the state has delivered for Democrats, with a nearly three-point win for President Biden, the election and re-election of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and, in the last midterms, a state government trifecta. CHECK OUT THE LATEST FOX NEWS POWER RANKINGS IN THE 2024 ELECTION Even so, this will be a competitive race. Recent high-quality polls have it within the margin of error. Democrats do well in the southeastern part of the state, and Biden was able to win in 2020 by bringing out Black voters and gaining in the Detroit metro area. Flipping Kent County, home to Grand Rapids and a representative mix of urban, suburban and rural voters, was also crucial to his victory. Trump will need to take it back for a statewide win in 2024. Michigan’s population grew by 2% over the last decade with growth concentrated in the Grand Rapids area. Since then, the state has experienced a decline, especially in Detroit. The Great Lake State will also vote for a new senator after Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow decided not to run for re-election this year. House Rep. Elissa Slotkin hopes to keep the seat in Democratic hands and has an edge in this competitive race. She faces GOP candidate and former Rep. Mike Rogers. Both the presidential and Senate races are ranked Lean D on the Fox News Power Rankings. CLICK HERE FOR THE LATEST FOX NEWS POLLING IN THE HARRIS-TRUMP PRESIDENTIAL RACE Voting also begins Saturday in several battleground House districts. For a full list of competitive races, see the latest Senate and House rankings. IN BID FOR DISGRUNTLED REPUBLICANS, HARRIS TEAMS UP WITH CHENEY IN GOP BIRTHPLACE This is a guide to registration and early voting. For comprehensive and up-to-date information on voter eligibility, processes and deadlines, please go to Vote.gov and the election website for Florida. Florida began absentee voting in late September. Applicants do not need to provide an excuse to receive a ballot. The state must receive a ballot application by Oct. 24, and that ballot must be delivered to state officials by Nov. 5. Start dates for early in-person voting vary by county in Florida, but the earliest counties began Saturday. Check the state’s website for more information. The deadline for Florida residents to register to vote was Oct. 7. This is a guide to registration and early voting. For comprehensive and up-to-date information on voter eligibility, processes and deadlines, please go to Vote.gov and the election website for Michigan. Michigan began absentee voting in late September. Applicants do not need to provide an excuse to receive a ballot. The state must receive a ballot application by Nov. 1, and that ballot must be delivered to state officials by Nov. 5. Start dates for early in-person voting vary by county in Michigan, but the earliest counties began on Saturday. Check the state’s website for more information. The deadline for Michigan residents to register to vote online or by mail was Oct. 21. They can register in person at any point during early voting or on election day. This is a guide to registration and early voting. For comprehensive and up-to-date information on voter eligibility, processes and deadlines, please go to Vote.gov and the election website for New York. New York began absentee voting in late September. Applicants do not need to provide an excuse to receive a ballot. The state must receive a ballot application by Oct. 26, and that ballot must be delivered to state officials by Nov. 5. New York kicked off early in-person voting on Saturday, and it will continue through Nov. 3. New York residents can register to vote online, in person or by mail through Oct. 26.  This is a guide to registration and early voting. For comprehensive and up-to-date information on voter eligibility, processes and deadlines, please go to Vote.gov and the election website for New Jersey. New Jersey began absentee voting in late September. Applicants do not need to provide an excuse to receive a ballot. The state must receive a ballot application by Oct. 29, and that ballot must be delivered to state officials by Nov. 5. New Jersey kicked off early in-person voting on Saturday, and it will continue through Nov. 3. New Jersey residents were required to register to vote by Oct. 15.

Once upon a time in Dahiyeh: Israel’s destruction of Lebanon’s communities

Once upon a time in Dahiyeh: Israel’s destruction of Lebanon’s communities

Mazen used to run a gift and perfume store called Mazen Kado (French for gift) in Mreijeh. He lived what he described as a calm life with his beloved cat Cici, the star of his TikTok account. When the bombing started, he sent his family to stay elsewhere while he and Cici remained. On one of the first days after the bombing began, he stepped out to buy a few things and while he was out, an air strike hit his building. “Cici was in the building,” he told Al Jazeera. “I tried to cover my face with all the fire and smoke but I wasn’t able to go inside and bring her out. The building was 10 storeys high and it collapsed.” In a video that went viral on his TikTok account, Mazen films the rubble of his building and sobs audibly, screaming out for Cici. The comments are mostly crying faces or heartbreak emojis. “Everything’s gone,” he told Al Jazeera. “My house is gone … no problem, I’ll get another house. And as the days have passed, everything I owned is now gone. No problem. “The thing that matters to me is if Cici is dead. God willing, she didn’t die.” Mazen hasn’t given up on finding Cici. On his TikTok account, he still posts videos of the rubble that was his home and calls out desperately for his missing cat, no matter how unlikely it is that Cici survived. “I’m out looking every day,” he said. “I stay in Dahiyeh because I take care of the cats so they don’t die,” he said. “I sleep in the street. One night I’ll sleep on the street, one night on a verandah, every night is different. “I still live a calm life. I don’t care about any party or sect, I’m a Lebanese man and I love life and cats and animals.” @cadeauxmazen24 ♬ لوصلك تاقت عيوني وقلبي أناشيد إسلامية – Hamza Boudir Dahiyeh’s once-bustling streets are now largely abandoned. Some people come back during the day, in the moments they feel air strikes are less likely, to grab clothes or check on their homes. “The situation is a disaster,” Younes said. “Dahiyeh is gone.” In 2006, war came to Dahiyeh once again. Hezbollah and Israel fought a 34-day war in which more than 1,220 people were killed, the vast majority of them people in Lebanon. Israel destroyed about 245 buildings and developed a tactic of disproportionate damage that came to be named The Dahiyeh Doctrine. Despite those prior wars, Younes’s family continued to grow in Dahiyeh. But now, some family members don’t see a future there. She said her maternal uncle’s family has decided they won’t return once the war is over. “They’re thinking that once this all ends, they’ll sell everything they own in Dahiyeh and buy something outside the area. Nobody wants that Dahiyeh any more.” Three-year-old Doua Nabou sleeps on a street corner while her family decides where to evacuate in anticipation of Israeli air strikes on August 10, 2006 [Spencer Platt/Getty Images] Harb, the AUB urbanist, also grew up in Dahiyeh but left about 30 years ago. Her father, however, went to Burj al-Barajneh for bread, meat, cheese and labneh until just a few weeks ago. “He’s not doing it because there’s no bread or cheese elsewhere. It’s because he wants to go through the streets of his childhood and needs to do this pilgrimage through the small alleyways to feel a connection to this place and see familiar faces around,” she said. “This is one example of something close to me that has been completely obliterated.” As for al-Dirani, she often dreamed of a life outside of Dahiyeh. “I wanted to go away, but not like that,” she said. “I feel like all of my dreams are collapsing.” “I’m still processing … I’m kind of traumatised,” she said, her voice solemn, soft and introspective. “I don’t want to think about what happened because I feel like I’m in a nightmare and I don’t want to wake up because it’s hard to think what I’m going to do when I do.” The good memories of home still exist in the corners of her mind. But at the moment they’re superseded by the horror of the last few weeks and the fear, or resignation, of what may await so many people living through the war in Lebanon. “I can’t even describe it but I’m trying to tell you what we experienced,” she said, reaching deep for the words. “We’re just sitting and waiting for our day to come. It’s bad for me to say this but we wait for the time we’re going to be killed like our relatives and our loved ones.” Adblock test (Why?)

Iran says Israeli strikes on military bases caused ‘limited damage’

Iran says Israeli strikes on military bases caused ‘limited damage’

Iran says Israeli air strikes that targeted military bases caused “limited damage” after Israel said it had “completed” its attack and warned against any retaliation. The Israeli army struck military sites in Iran after 2am on Saturday (22:30 GMT on Friday) in response to what it said were months of attacks by “Iran and its proxies” in the region. Hours later the Israeli military said it had “completed” the strikes and “achieved its objectives”. Iran’s air defence headquarters, in a statement, confirmed that bases in the provinces of Ilam, Khuzestan and Tehran were hit but the attacks were “successfully countered”. “Though minor damages were caused in some areas, and the extent of the incident is currently under investigation,” it said. Iran also indicated its readiness to respond to any Israeli “aggression”, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported, citing sources who said “there is no doubt that Israel will face a proportional reaction for any action it takes”. Reporting from Tehran, Al Jazeera’s Resul Serdar said that while Israel targeted multiple locations across Iran, including the north, east and south, the main focus of the strikes was the Iranian capital. (Al Jazeera) “The attacks primarily aimed at Iran’s air defence systems, missile bases and drone facilities,” he added. “Currently, Iranian officials are not reporting any casualties and assert that their integrated, multi-layered air defence system has functioned effectively, portraying the situation as a success.” Meanwhile, Iran’s Civil Aviation Organization (CAO) said flights had returned to normal across the country. Neither Imam Khomeini International Airport in Tehran nor other airports were attacked. Earlier Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said in a prerecorded video statement, “The regime in Iran and its proxies in the region have been relentlessly attacking Israel since October 7 … including direct attacks from Iranian soil.” He said Israel “has the right and the duty to respond”. Israel’s response was long expected after Iran launched a missile barrage earlier in October, in which about 200 missiles were fired at Israel and one person was killed in the occupied West Bank. Iran said that attack was in retaliation for assaults in recent months that killed leaders of Lebanese group Hezbollah, Palestinian group Hamas and the Iranian military. US calls Iran to break ‘cycle of fighting’ Following the Israeli attacks, the United States urged Iran to stop attacking Israel to break the cycle of violence. “We urge Iran to cease its attacks on Israel so that this cycle of fighting can end without further escalation,” US National Security Council spokesman Sean Savett told reporters. “Their response was an exercise in self-defence and specifically avoided populated areas and focused solely on military targets, contrary to Iran’s attack against Israel that targeted Israel’s most populous city,” he added. Stressing that the US did not participate in the operation, he said “it is our aim to accelerate diplomacy and de-escalate tensions in the Middle East region”. Tensions between archrivals Israel and Iran have escalated after a Hamas-led led attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023. Since then, at least 42,847 people have been killed and 100,544 wounded in Israel’s war on Gaza. Fears that Iran and the US would be drawn into a regional war have risen with Israel’s intensifying assault on Hezbollah since last month, including air strikes on the Lebanese capital, Beirut, and a ground operation. Adblock test (Why?)