Milton’s gone, but the political storm keeps raging over federal government’s hurricane efforts
One day after Hurricane Milton tore a path of destruction across Florida, the death toll is rising and millions remain without power or running water. As recovery efforts in Florida reach a fever pitch, there’s no letup in the war of words between President Biden and former President Trump over the federal government’s response to Milton and Hurricane Helene, which smashed into the southeast two weeks ago. With Trump continuing to charge that Biden and Vice President Harris have been slow and ineffective in steering the government’s storm efforts, the president once again fired back. “Vice President Harris and I have been in constant contact with the state and local officials. We’re offering everything they need,” Biden emphasized on Thursday. HEAD HERE FOR FOX NEWS UPDATES ON HURRICANE MILTON’S AFTERMATH With less than four weeks to go until Election Day, Harris and Trump are locked in a narrow margin-of-error showdown in the race to succeed Biden in the White House, and with two of the hardest-hit states from Helene — North Carolina and Georgia — among the seven key battlegrounds that will likely determine the outcome of the 2024 election, the politics of federal disaster relief are again front and center on the campaign trail. CHECK OUT FOX WEATHER FOR THE LATEST NEWS AND FORECASTS For nearly two weeks, Trump has been turning up the volume. “THE WORST RESPONSE TO A STORM OR HURRICANE DISASTER IN U.S. HISTORY,” Trump claimed in a social media post on Tuesday. “The worst hurricane response since Katrina,” the former president charged on Wednesday as he pointed to the much-maligned initial federal response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, which was heavily criticized for being slow and ineffective. On Thursday at a campaign event in Michigan, Trump kept up the attacks. He praised southern Republican governors for doing a “fantastic job” reacting to the storms and argued that “the federal government, on the other hand, has not done what you’re supposed to be doing, in particular, with respect to North Carolina. They’ve let those people suffer unjustly, unjustly.” The former president has also repeatedly made false claims that FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) diverted money intended for disaster relief and spent it on undocumented migrants in the U.S. as he turned up the volume on his inflammatory rhetoric over the combustible issue of illegal immigration. “You know where they gave the money to: illegal immigrants coming,” Trump said at Wednesday’s rally as the crowd of MAGA supporters loudly booed. DESANTIS AND HARRIS TRADE FIRE OVER HURRICANE CALL Hours later, Biden pushed back, accusing the Republican presidential nominee of leading an “onslaught of lies.” Biden charged that the rhetoric from Trump and other Republicans was “beyond ridiculous” and that “it’s got to stop.” On Thursday, as he updated federal hurricane response efforts, Biden told reporters that Trump needed to “get a life, man, help these people.” And he argued that “the public will hold him [Trump] accountable” for making false claims regarding the capabilities of FEMA to assist storm victims. Trump campaign national press secretary Karoline Leavitt, responding to the criticism, said in a statement to Fox News on Thursday that Trump has been “working hard every day to save this country from the mess Biden and Kamala got us into.” And Trump’s son, Eric, in a social media post, highlighted that the family has opened up one of its Florida hotels to house over 200 linemen who are helping in the storm’s aftermath. Trump last week also launched a GoFundMe campaign for victims of Hurricane Helene in Georgia, which has raised more than $7 million so far. But his criticism of the federal response has also been chided by Harris. “This is not a time for us to just point fingers at each other as Americans,” the vice president said in a Wednesday interview on the Weather Channel. “Anybody who considers themselves to be a leader should really be in the business right now of giving people a sense of confidence that we’re all working together and that we have the resources and the ability to work together on their behalf.” Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, who spoke with Biden on Thursday morning after the storm hit, seemed to compliment the administration’s storm efforts. “I spoke with the president this morning,” DeSantis said during one of his round-the-clock briefings. “He said he wants to be helpful. And so if we have a request, he said, send them his way, and he wants to help us get the job done. So I appreciate being able to collaborate across the federal, state and local governments and work together to put the people first.” Fox News’ Kirill Clark and Matteo Cina contributed to this report. Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.
Dems launched onslaught of schemes slammed as tactics to undermine democracy ahead of high-stakes election
The 2024 presidential election has been touted as the “most important” election in U.S. history by both campaigns, as former President Trump works to reclaim the Oval Office and Vice President Harris pitches herself to voters as the next leader of the U.S. As the high-stakes election comes down to its final weeks, Fox News Digital compiled the top political and legal tactics that critics, most notably on the right, have slammed as efforts by the Democratic Party to undermine democracy in the run-up to the big day on Nov. 5. Before the Republican Party officially nominated Trump as its presidential nominee, Democrats in states such as Colorado, California, Illinois and others attempted to remove Trump’s name from primary ballots. Last year, a group of Colorado voters brought a lawsuit arguing Trump should be deemed ineligible from holding political office under a Civil War-era insurrection clause and that his name should thus be barred from appearing on the 2024 ballot. The group said Trump’s actions on Jan. 6, 2021, when some of his supporters breached the U.S. Capitol, violated a clause in the 14th Amendment that prevents officers of the United States, members of Congress or state legislatures who “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against the Constitution from holding political office. The Colorado case ultimately made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which unanimously sided with Trump that he should remain on the state’s ballot. The ruling affected all states across the nation that worked to remove Trump’s name, requiring them to include him on primary ballots as well. SUPREME COURT RULES UNANIMOUSLY FOR TRUMP IN COLORADO BALLOT DISQUALIFICATION DISPUTE The tactic was slammed by Republicans and conservatives as a “constitutional violation,” while even former Obama adviser David Axelrod warned on CNN that removing Trump’s name would be seen as “a subversion” of democracy. Fox News Digital spoke to Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray when the SCOTUS decision was released, who called the Democrat tactic “lunacy.” Gray had been battling Democrats’ argument that Trump was ineligible to appear on the primary ballots over Jan. 6 for months ahead of the Supreme Court decision. “I think one of the lessons of this is … the way the radical left despises the American people and our process, and what happens then is lunacy. And that’s what their whole argumentation and what they were trying to do was. It was pure lunacy,” Gray told Fox Digital in March. “We’re going to continue to monitor the processes across our nation and be vigilant. Any time the people are able to choose for themselves, that’s a win for our republic, and that’s what our elections are about. And I’m going to continue to unapologetically fight for the people of Wyoming and the people across our country to choose who to elect for themselves,” Gray added at the time. FAILED EFFORT TO BOOT TRUMP FROM BALLOT EXPOSES ‘RADICAL’ LEFT’S ‘PURE LUNACY’: STATE ELECTION CHIEF The Biden-Harris administration in July rolled out a slate of policies to overhaul the Supreme Court. The proposal includes calls for term limits for Supreme Court justices, an enforceable ethics code for justices and an amendment to the Constitution to overturn the high court’s ruling that former presidents have substantial immunity from prosecution for official acts while in office. Critics slammed the proposal as an attempt to pack the court, including attorney Mark Paoletta, who worked for the Trump administration. He argued that, including the term limit proposal, Biden and Harris’ plan outlined a system in which the president appoints a new Supreme Court justice “every two years to spend 18 years in active service on the Supreme Court.” “Even though Joe Biden caved to radicals and recently endorsed court packing, Harris is even further to the left of him on this thoroughly discredited idea,” Paoletta said in a statement to Fox News Digital in August. Conservative activist Leonard Leo also argued to Fox Digital that the proposal would likely serve as a prelude to court packing if Harris is elected next month. LEONARD LEO WARNS BIDEN-HARRIS EFFORTS TO RADICALLY OVERHAUL SUPREME COURT COULD ‘BACKFIRE’ “If Kamala Harris is elected president, and if the Senate is in Democrat hands, I think that there is some risk of court packing. I think that there is some risk of continued, scurrilous attacks on the integrity of the court, all based on a disagreement over the outcomes of various decisions that Democrats don’t like,” he said. “And that would really be most unfortunate.” Democrats have pushed to broaden the court in an effort to switch it from a conservative majority. Biden, however, had previously called court packing a “bonehead idea” in 1983 while serving as a U.S. senator from Delaware, and Secretary of State Antony Blinken called it “anti-democratic” in 2021. MSNBC PANEL BLASTS BIDEN FROM THE LEFT FOR NOT PACKING THE SUPREME COURT: ‘HISTORIC POLITICAL MISCALCULATION’ Harris called for the end of the filibuster last month in an effort to pass a law restoring abortion access nationwide, which was slammed by lawmakers and conservatives as an attack on democracy. “Shame on her,” independent Sen. Joe Manchin said at the Capitol last month. “She knows the filibuster is the Holy Grail of democracy. It’s the only thing that keeps us talking and working together. If she gets rid of that, then this would be the house on steroids.” HARRIS CALLS FOR ELIMINATING FILIBUSTER TO PASS ‘ROE’ ABORTION BILL INTO FEDERAL LAW The filibuster is a Senate rule that allows a minority to block legislation pending a supermajority vote, so ending it would make it easier to pass laws related to abortion rights. Harris said late last month she would like to end the filibuster to pass a law protecting access to abortion. “I think we should eliminate the filibuster for Roe,” Harris said during a WPR interview. “And get us to the point where 51 votes would be what we need to actually put back in law the protections for reproductive freedom and for the ability of every person
As Hurricane Milton hits Florida, so do more illegal immigrants
Authorities in Florida encountered a boat full of illegal immigrants arriving in the Sunshine State on Wednesday night, just as the state was preparing for Hurricane Milton to make landfall. Border Patrol announced that agents and law enforcement partners responded to a migrant landing in Boynton Beach on Wednesday night. The boat was carrying 11 migrants. Six from Haiti, two from Guyana, one from the Dominican Republic and two from the Bahamas. FEDS STOP MASSIVE NUMBER OF HAITIAN ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS LANDING BY BOAT IN THIS RED STATE Interim Miami Chief Patrol Agent Andrew Scharnweber noted in an X post the dangers of such voyages, particularly as a historic hurricane was looming. “Illegal maritime migration voyages are extremely dangerous, especially in severe weather,” he said. Florida regularly deals with boats full of migrants, particularly from Haiti, attempting to reach the United States. In June, 305 migrants were stopped by the Coast Guard as part of an operation that intercepted nearly 12,000 migrants in fiscal 2023. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced in March the deployment of soldiers and officers as well as aircraft and boats to “protect” the state from vessels carrying illegal immigrants. “Given the circumstances in Haiti, I have directed the Division of Emergency Management, the Florida State Guard and state law enforcement agencies to deploy over 250 additional officers and soldiers and over a dozen air and seacraft to the southern coast of Florida to protect our state,” he said. LIVE BLOG: HURRICANE MILTON CARVES DEADLY PATH THROUGH FLORIDA, MILLIONS WITHOUT POWER The Department of Homeland Security warned this year that those entering illegally would be returned. “U.S. policy is to return non-citizens who do not have a fear of persecution or torture or a legal basis to enter the United States. Those interdicted at sea are subject to immediate repatriation pursuant to our longstanding policy and procedures,” a spokesperson told Fox News Digital in March. “The United States returns or repatriates migrants interdicted at sea to The Bahamas, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Haiti.” CLICK HERE FOR MORE COVERAGE OF THE BORDER SECURITY CRISIS Migration from Haiti has been a fiery political issue, with former President Trump pointing to the alleged negative effects of mass numbers of migrants on small towns across the U.S. Hurricane Milton made landfall near Siesta Key, Florida, late Wednesday evening as a Category 3 storm with winds of 120 mph. It had left more than 3 million people without power by Thursday morning as the storm devastated Florida’s coast. More than 10 inches of rain has fallen so far in some parts of Florida and an additional eight to 12 inches of rain is possible in many areas.
Vishal Tinani awarded for Legal Excellence by Sachin Pilot
Widely known for his expertise in white-collar crime, mergers and acquisitions, and arbitration, Tinani has steadily built a reputation as one of the most accomplished lawyers in the UAE.
Kyiv says Ukrainian reporter Victoria Roshchyna died in Russian detention
The award-winning freelance journalist was known for her reporting on life in Russian-occupied Ukraine. An award-winning Ukrainian journalist who wrote firsthand accounts of life in Russian-occupied Ukraine has died in detention in Russia. Victoria Roshchyna, who was 27, worked freelance for Ukrainian media outlets Ukrainska Pravda and Hromadske Radio, as well as for US-funded Radio Liberty. She went missing in August last year after she travelled to Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine on a reporting trip. Russia’s Ministry of Defence acknowledged in a letter to her father in May that she was in Russian custody. “Unfortunately, information about Victoria’s death has been confirmed,” Petro Yatsenko, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s prisoners of war coordination headquarters, told Ukrainian television. He said investigations were continuing into how she died. Media rights group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said in a statement that Russia informed Roshchyna’s family on Thursday that she had died on September 19. “The Russian authorities have never provided any information about her detention, despite repeated requests from her family, the Ukrainian authorities, and RSF,” Jeanne Cavalier, head of RSF’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia desk, said in a statement. “They must shed light on all the circumstances surrounding her detention and death.” A terrible tragic news: Ukrainian journalist Viktoria Roshchyna, who was kidnapped in the occupied territories of Ukraine, has died in a Russian prison. It has happened on September 19th, but her father received the news only today. She was on hunger strike for many days, many… pic.twitter.com/FHXc5rii2m — Anastasia Magazova 🌻 (@a_magazova) October 10, 2024 Roshchyna wrote vivid accounts of life in Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, as well as in areas of eastern Ukraine seized by Russian-funded separatists. She also documented the nearly three-month defence of the port of Mariupol after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022. She was initially detained by the Russians for 10 days, shortly after the country embarked on its war. A spokesperson for Ukraine’s HUR Intelligence Directorate, Andriy Yusov, told public broadcaster Suspilne that Roshchyna had been on a proposed prisoner exchange and was due to be transferred to Moscow from detention in Taganrog near the Ukrainian border. Ukraine said in May more than two dozen Ukrainian media workers were being held in Russian captivity and that negotiations for their return were under way. RSF said Roshchyna was the 13th journalist to die as a result of their work since the Russian invasion. Adblock test (Why?)
Armed attackers kill 20 coal miners in southwest Pakistan
The attack is the latest in Balochistan province and security concerns are growing in advance of a key international summit in Islamabad. Armed assailants have killed 20 miners and injured another seven at a small private coal mine in southwest Pakistan, police said, raising security concerns just days before a major international summit is set to be held in the country. The attackers broke into the miners’ quarters in Dukki district in Pakistan’s restive Balochistan province on Thursday night, gathered the workers together and opened fire, local police official Hamayun Khan Nasir said on Friday. “A group of armed men attacked the Junaid Coal company mines in the [Dukki] area in the [early] hours using heavy weapons,” he said, adding the attackers fired rockets and grenades at the mines as well. Most of the victims were from Pashtun-speaking regions within Balochistan, according to Nasir. Three of the deceased and four of the injured were Afghan nationals. No group has immediately taken responsibility for the assault. Balochistan is a hotbed of armed movements, with the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) most prominent among them. They accuse the central government in Islamabad of exploiting the province’s rich oil and mineral resources to the detriment of the local population in the country’s largest and least-populated province, which borders Iran and Afghanistan. On Monday, the BLA – designated a terrorist group by Pakistan, the United Kingdom and the United States – claimed responsibility for an attack targeting Chinese nationals near Pakistan’s largest airport. The Chinese embassy in Pakistan said at least two of its citizens were killed and a third injured after their convoy was targeted with an improvised explosive device believed to have been detonated by a suicide bomber. Local media reports suggest at least 10 people were injured in total, with four cars destroyed in the explosion and 10 more vehicles damaged in the resulting fire. Thousands of Chinese nationals work in Pakistan, many of them involved in Beijing’s multibillion-dollar infrastructure project the Belt and Road Initiative. Despite China’s repeated requests for Pakistan to bolster security, there has been a surge in attacks and unrest surrounding key Belt and Road infrastructure projects in the country. The attack has raised concern about the ability of Pakistani security forces to safeguard high-profile events and foreign nationals in advance of next week’s Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Heads of Government summit, which is set to meet in Islamabad on October 15 and 16. Adblock test (Why?)
Taiwan says four employees of Apple supplier Foxconn arrested in China
Workers reportedly arrested in Zhengzhou for equivalent of breach of trust. Taipei, Taiwan – Four Taiwanese employees of Apple supplier Foxconn have been detained in China since January, Taiwan’s national news agency has reported. The workers were detained in Zhengzhou, the home of Foxconn’s largest iPhone factory, by the local public security bureau for the equivalent of “breach of trust”, Central News Agency (CNA) reported Thursday, citing the Taiwanese government. Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) cited Foxconn as stating that its employees had done nothing to harm the company’s interests and that it could not rule out corruption and abuse of power by a small number of police officers, CNA said. The MAC told the Reuters and AFP news agencies that the case was “quite strange” and had “severely damaged business confidence”. Foxconn and the MAC did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The case is the latest incident to draw attention to the risks facing Taiwanese living and working in China. Last month, a court in Wenzhou sentenced Taiwanese independence activist Yang Chih-yuan to nine years in prison for secession in the first such prosecution of its kind. Also last month, an executive of Taiwan’s Formosa Plastics was detained as he tried to leave China, CNA reported. In June, the MAC raised the travel alert for China, Hong Kong, and Macau from “yellow” to “orange” and advised citizens against “unnecessary travel”, citing China’s strict national security and anti-espionage laws. Taiwan’s National Security Bureau in July told the island’s legislature that, during the previous 12 months, 15 citizens had been detained or put on trial on Chinese soil, while 51 had been interrogated at the border. Beijing’s Communist Party claims self-ruled Taiwan, whose formal name is the Republic of China, as one of its provinces, while Taipei insists it is a sovereign democracy. Beijing also does not recognise dual citizenship and considers Taiwanese to be Chinese citizens. Hundreds of thousands of Taiwanese lived and worked in China during the 1990s and 2000s, but their numbers have fallen sharply since the Beijing-sceptical Democratic Progressive Party took power in 2016, marking a deterioration in Chinese-Taiwanese relations. Adblock test (Why?)
Another hit-and-run in Pune: Food delivery man killed after Audi rams his bike, senior executive of private firm held
Ayush Tayal (34), who was driving the car, fled from the spot after the accident near Tadigutta in the city’s Mundhwa area. Later, he was detained after police tracked him down with the help of CCTV footage, he said.
‘Congress could have…’: Here’s what ‘angry’ Rahul Gandhi told party workers at review meet after Haryana poll debacle
After the Haryana poll debacle, Congress MP and LoP Rahul Gandhi attended the review meeting called by party president Mallikarjun Kharge at his residence in Delhi.
Harris calls Trump debate decision a ‘pretty weak move,’ praises Native community at Arizona rally
Vice President Kamala Harris criticized former President Trump’s announcement he would not accept any further presidential debate offers, and praised local Native American communities during a campaign rally in Chandler, Ariz. Harris returned to the Grand Canyon State on Thursday, about two months after she and running mate Minnesota Gov. Timothy Walz held their first joint rally on the other side of the Phoenix metro area in Glendale. Harris told the raucous crowd that Trump had announced on Wednesday he would not debate her again, after their first meeting in front of ABC News’ David Muir and Linsey Davis in September. “Now, I think it’s a disservice to the voters. I also think it’s a pretty weak move,” Harris said. OBAMA CALLS OUT ‘BROTHERS’ APPREHENSIVE TO VOTE FOR HARRIS “But even if he will not debate, the contrast in this election is already clear. This election is about two very different visions, two very different visions for our nation. One is focused on the past, the other hours focused on the future, including being focused on the issues that matter most to working families across America, like bringing down the cost of living and investing in small businesses and entrepreneurs.” In an all-caps message on Truth Social, Trump said he won the prior two debates – versus Harris and Biden – and added he accepted a Fox News Channel offer to debate Harris in September, but it was the vice president that time who declined to appear. “JD Vance easily won his debate with Tampon Tim Walz, who called himself a knucklehead [in the debate]. I am also leading in the polls…” “There will be no rematch,” Trump went on. “Besides, Kamala stated clearly [Tuesday] that she would not do anything different than Joe Biden, so there is nothing to debate.” Harris also offered a public response to the wrath of Hurricane Milton, which made landfall on the gulf side near Tampa Bay and wreaked havoc across the state to the Atlantic Coast, where several fatalities were reported near Port St. Lucie. “I know as you do that our heart goes out to everyone who has been impacted by these storms. Our administration has mobilized thousands of federal personnel across the region to work hand in hand with local and state officials to give folks the help they need,” she said. “I have spoken with state local officials, both Republican and Democrat, to let them know we will be with you every step of the way as you recover and rebuild.” PROJECT 2025 REMAINS NONPARTISAN, TRUE TO 1980S GOOD GOVT INCEPTION DESPITE WIDE OUTCRY, KEY FIGURES SAY Harris was, however, rebuffed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who reportedly declined to take her phone calls amid the crisis. DeSantis told CNBC he and President Biden had been in regular contact but that the vice president has “no role” in disaster recovery, and that up until this particular cyclone she had not reached out. “She’s trying to inject herself into this because of her political campaign,” DeSantis said. At the rally, Harris also said she was the first vice president to visit the nearby Gila River Indian Community and offered her support for former Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez in his congressional contest against incumbent Republican Rep. Elijah Crane. “I strongly believe that the relationship between tribal nations and the United States is sacred. And, that we must and that we must honor tribal sovereignty, embrace our trust and treaty obligations and ensure tribal self-determination. And it is my promise as president of the United States – I will defend those principles always.” CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Harris also co-identified Trump’s campaign plan with the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, a connection the former president has long disputed. “I continue to say I can’t believe they put that in writing. You know, they published it, they found it, and they handed it out. They’re out of their mind. And it is a detailed, dangerous blueprint for what he will do if he is elected president again,” Harris claimed. Responding earlier this year to Harris’ claims about Project 2025, Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts said the characterizations were “fact-checked” by third-parties, including some “so blatant that even corporate media outlets like CNN are calling out her lies.” “She has no policy record to run on, except her shambolic tenure as border czar,” Roberts told Fox News Digital at the time. In Arizona, Harris continued her focus on Trump, calling him an “unserious man” and saying his return to the White House would result in “brutally serious” consequences.