Note: This episode has been updated to improve sound quality.
Vice President Kamala Harris put former president Donald Trump on the defensive in a combative presidential debate. Some undecided voters remain unconvinced that Harris is the better candidate. The vice president snaps up pop megastar Taylor Swift’s endorsement. And Russia has received ballistic missiles from Iran for its war in Ukraine, leading to a round of fresh sanctions on chips and companies the U.S. says were involved in supplying Moscow with the weapons.
Sign up for the Reuters Econ World newsletter here.
Listen to the Reuters Econ World podcast here.
Find the Recommended Read here.
Visit the Thomson Reuters Privacy Statement for information on our privacy and data protection practices.
You may also visit megaphone.fm/adchoices to opt out of targeted advertising.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Today, Harris goes on the offensive in a combative debate. An undecided voters weigh in, but one voter who's not undecided is Taylor Swift. Plus Iranian missiles in Russia and how the West is responding. It's Wednesday, September 11th. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in ten minutes every weekday. I'm Tara Oakes in London. And I'm Jonah Green in New York. Ryan Reynolds here for, I guess, my hundredth mint commercial. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Honestly, when I started this, I thought I'd only have to do like four of these. I mean, it's unlimited to premium wireless for $15 a month. How are there still people paying two or three times that much? I'm sorry, I shouldn't be victim blaming here. Give it a try at midmobile.com/save, whenever you're ready. $45 up from payment equivalent to $15 per month, new customers on first three month plan only. Taxes and fees extra. Speed slower above 40 gigabytes of city details. It started off with a handshake, but then the gloves were off. I have talked with military leaders, some of whom worked with you. And they say you're a disgrace. During last night's ABC News presidential debate, Vice President Kamala Harris put former President Donald Trump on the defensive with a stream of attacks on his fitness for office, his criminal trials and abortion. The government and Donald Trump certainly should not be telling a woman what to do with her body. James Oliphant is our national political correspondent. So Jim, a few days ago, we spoke about what Harris needed to do at this debate, given this was her first debate as the party nominee. So how did she do? Kamala Harris had a couple of goals in mind coming to this debate. One was simply to reassure voters that she can handle herself and she can handle the job as president. And she showed up extremely prepared, pretty much had an answer for everything. And then, you know, her second goal was really to take it to Trump. But we cannot afford to have a president of the United States who attempts, as he did in the past, to upend the will of the voters in a free and fair election. She really did use her prosecutorial background to nail him on his conduct after the 2020 election, on his abortion record. I mean, Trump pretty much was on his heels for much to the debate. I mean, going all the way to the beginning, when Harris walked across the stage and stuck her hand out and introduced herself, I mean, she was clearly intent on taking control of the room and taking control of the debate. It did seem like she had a strategy of trying to bait Trump into veering off message. And he often took the bait. Yes, we saw several times Trump sort of lose his discipline and not stay on message. And he did blurt out this accusation that immigrants in Ohio are eating neighborhood dogs and cats. They're eating the dogs, the people that came in. They're eating the cats. They're eating the pets of the people that live there, which is going to be a sound bite that will be played over and over again in the coming weeks. But you could see him at different points of debate getting riled. You know, Harris teased him about his rallies. People start leaving his rallies early out of exhaustion and boredom. And I will tell you, the one thing you will not hear him talk about is you. You will not hear him talk about your needs, your dreams. Which clearly kind of there is in people don't leave my rallies. We have the biggest rallies, the most incredible rallies in the history of politics. And these were all subtle ways that Harris was basically just trying to go Trump in an emotional reaction and try to knock them off balance. Everything that she believed three years ago and four years ago is out the window. Now Harris was able pretty much to skate by not offering a lot of policy prescriptions. Clearly, I am not Joe Biden and I am certainly not Donald Trump. And what I do offer is a new generation of leadership for our country. We're Trump. At one point he accused her of trying to run away from Biden and said that basically she is Biden. She is Biden's policies. She's a Marxist. Everybody knows she's a Marxist. He's the best he could to tie her to inflation, the economy and the situation at the border. While Harris is widely seen as dominating the debate, perhaps the most important opinions are those of crucial undecided voters who will determine the outcome of November's election. We rang up retired real estate developer Eric Anderson in Minnesota before and then again after he watched the debate. Anderson voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Joe Biden in 2020. He said Harris failed to win him over and said he didn't like her smiling and smirking, which didn't come across as presidential to him. But some of the undecideds we spoke to, like 70 year old Carol McElrath of South Carolina, did shift their views after watching the face to face showdown. She's voted for Trump before and said she went into the debate thinking he could be her candidate again. One voter who's now fully on board with team Harris is Taylor Swift. The pop star posting on Instagram shortly after the debate that she would be voting for the Democrat and urged Swifties to register to vote. She signed her endorsement, "Childless Cat Lady," an apparent dig at Trump's running mate, J.D. Vance, who previously called some leading Democrats, quote, "a bunch of childless cat ladies." Russian forces have begun a significant counter-offensive against Ukrainian troops who smashed their way into Kursk in Western Russia last month. And according to pro-Moscow war bloggers, they've already taken some territory back. The U.S. House of Representatives will vote today on a bill to fund the government for six months. The bill faces stiff opposition by Democrats. The deadline to avoid a government shutdown is September 30. Demonstrations outside the Senate in Mexico City on Tuesday night. Mexico's ruling bloc appeared to have the necessary votes to pass the controversial judicial reform bill after an opposition senator broke rank to say he'd favor the overhaul. It had been one seat short of a two-thirds majority needed to pass the reform, which would see judges elected by popular vote. China's top lawmakers are reviewing a plan to raise the retirement age. General Kremans is here to tell us more. So the ruling Communist Party said in July that China would gradually raise the retirement age, which is now 60 for men and 55 for women if they're in an office job and 50 if they work in factories. So now we're hearing that China's top legislative body is taking this up, and that's generated a lot of interest on Chinese social media. People are worried it'll mean more competition for jobs. So why are they considering this move? China's population and its workforce is shrinking. At birth rate hit a record low last year. At the same time, the proportion of older people is growing, and that's putting pressure on government finances. So getting people to work longer would alleviate some of that financial pressure. And that's a topic you've been looking into, right? That's right. This week's episode of Reuters Econ World looks at falling fertility rates and what they might mean for the global economy. It'll be out later today, and you can catch it on Reuters.com, the Reuters app, or wherever you listen to your podcasts. The growing cooperation between Russia and Iran threatens European security. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken addressing Russia's acquisition of ballistic missiles from Iran. Blinken travels to Ukraine later today in a show of support. Simon Lewis covers the State Department out of Washington, D.C., and has been looking into how these weapons change the dynamics of the conflict. So what Secretary Blinken said was that this gives the Russians additional capacity. So these missiles have a range of 75 miles. That means that Russians can use them for shorter range strikes on the front line, but that could free up other missiles that the Russians have in their arsenal that they can use for longer range strikes. But this isn't the first example of Iran sending weapons to Russia, right? I think this has seen as another level of support. In the past, there have been UAVs or drones supplied by the Iranians to the Russians that were used in Ukraine, but ballistic missiles is seen as another step up from that. How does Iran's deepening ties with Russia affect its role in the conflict in the Middle East? Iran has accused the West of using this as a distraction from its support for Israel. So the two conflicts are in a way tied together, and I guess we can say Iran is increasingly isolated, it's unclear how this will develop, but it seems that any reproachmon with the West is getting further and further away. Today's recommended read is about the four private astronauts who have blasted into space in a modified SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule to kick off the company's five-day Polaris Dawn mission. They'll be trying out the SpaceX spacesuits as they conduct the first private spacewalk. A link to the story is in the pod description. And for more on any of the stories from today, check out Reuters.com or the Reuters App. To never miss an episode, subscribe on your favourite podcast player. We'll be back tomorrow with our daily headline show. [Music] (upbeat music) [BLANK_AUDIO]
