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Biden’s Shaky Debate Has Overseas Allies Bracing for Trump Return

Democratic candidate US President Joe Biden speaks during a presidential debate with Republican candidate former US President Donald Trump, in Atlanta, Georgia, US, June 27, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Brian Snyder

Joe Biden’s shaky performance in the US presidential debate drew stunned global reactions on Friday, prompting public calls for him to step aside and likely leaving some of America’s closest allies steeling for Donald Trump’s return.

Biden’s supporters had hoped Thursday’s debate would erase worries that he was too old to serve but footage of the president sounding hoarse and stumbling over his words boosted Trump, said politicians, analysts, and investors.

Global newspapers were also damning. France’s Le Monde compared Biden to a shipwreck. Britain’s left-leaning Daily Mirror called his performance a “gaffe-strewn nightmare.” Germany’s Bild newspaper ran with “Good night, Joe!” and the Sydney Morning Herald said “Trump monstered Biden. The Democrats can’t win with Joe.”

“Joe Biden can’t do it,” said Matteo Renzi, a centrist who was close to the Democrats while serving as Italy’s prime minister.

Renzi said on X/Twitter that Biden had served the United States with honor, adding: “He doesn’t deserve an inglorious ending, he doesn’t deserve one. Changing horses is a duty for everyone.”

For Japan and South Korea, among the closest US allies in Asia, relations with Trump’s administration were at times strained by his demands for more payments towards military assistance and by trade tensions.

Countries including Japan and Germany have started laying the groundwork for a possible Trump return as his campaign gathered steam.

“Mr. Trump didn’t win but Mr Biden might have imploded,” said Kunihiko Miyake, a Japanese former diplomat and now research director at the Canon Institute for Global Studies, a think tank.

“Unlike eight years ago, we are much more prepared, as are other European and Asian allies. Still, Mr. Trump is unpredictable.”

Peter Lee, research fellow at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul, said he expected Trump to be “very tough” second time around in pressuring allies to increase defense spending.

As president, Trump started a tariff war with China, and has floated tariffs of 60 percent or higher on all Chinese goods if he wins the Nov. 5 election.

Overseas firms dependent on US markets, such as automakers, would be wary of the heightened possibility of Trump’s return given the “myriad” of tariff-related policies he imposed during his previous term, said Lee Jae-il, analyst at Eugene Investment & Securities.

Stephen Lee, chief economist at Meritz Securities in Seoul, said Trump “might not just target China but impose tariffs against other countries as well under the concept of American exceptionalism.”

WAR IN UKRAINE

In Europe, Trump’s criticisms of NATO and demands that other members pay more dominated his previous administration. His skepticism towards NATO is causing further anxiety as Russia’s war in Ukraine continues.

“American democracy killed before our eyes by gerontocracy!” said Guy Verhofstadt, a member of the European parliament and a former prime minister of Belgium who posted pictures of Biden and Trump on X.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz previously cheered on Biden’s prospects for re-election, but a senior defense figure in the ruling coalition lamented Biden’s performance and urged Democrats to find another candidate.

“The fact that a man like Trump could become president again because the Democrats are unable to put up a strong candidate against him would be a historic tragedy that the whole world would feel,” Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, of the liberal FDP party, told the Rheinische Post paper.

A spokesperson for Scholz did not comment on the specifics of the debate, but said the chancellor valued Biden highly and had never spoken to Trump as their terms did not overlap.

During the debate, Trump accused Biden of not standing up to China on trade. He also said China’s Xi Jinping, North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, and Russia’s Vladimir Putin “don’t respect” Biden and that he was driving the country “into World War Three.”

Biden retorted by saying Trump’s tariff proposals would result in higher costs for American consumers, and that he “cuddles up” to the likes of Kim and Putin.

Putin has said it made little difference to Russia who was in the White House. On Friday, the Kremlin declined comment on what it said was an internal US matter.

Keir Starmer, leader of the British Labour party that leads polls before a July 4 election, said Britain’s relationship with the US was strong and “above the individuals.”

In Sydney, several Australian officials and experts had attended a workshop titled “Trump 2.0” as the debate was aired.

“The overwhelming feeling from today is that it was a disaster for Biden,” said Peter Dean, a professor at the United States Studies Center in Sydney who was at the workshop.

“The mood has changed considerably after the debate and the general view is that if you weren’t preparing for a Trump 2.0 then that is the smart play and the smart move now.”

The post Biden’s Shaky Debate Has Overseas Allies Bracing for Trump Return first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Australia’s Spy Chief Warns Surge in Antisemitism Across Country Has ‘Not Yet Plateaued’

Southern Sydney Synagogue in the suburb of Allawah, Australia, was vandalized with antisemitic graffiti on Jan. 10, 2024. Photo: Screenshot

The head of Australia’s domestic intelligence agency has revealed that five major terrorist plots were prevented over the past year, amid a wave of antisemitic incidents in recent months that has alarmed the country’s Jewish community.

Mike Burgess, director-general of the Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO), delivered his annual threat assessment on Wednesday, warning that Australia has never faced so many serious national security threats at once. The agency declassified its security outlook for the next five years, raising concerns about the increasing threat of state-sanctioned murder.

Burgess disclosed that his organization had identified “at least three” countries plotting to “physically harm people” living in Australia over the past 12 months.

“It goes without saying that plots like these are repugnant,” he said. “They not only involve plans to hurt people — obviously bad enough — they are shocking assaults on Australian sovereignty and the freedoms we hold dear.”

Based on the agency’s predictions, the coming years will be more volatile and dangerous as countries like Russia and Iran become increasingly aggressive, the spy chief asserted.

“Over the next five years, a complex, challenging, and changing security environment will become more dynamic, more diverse, and more degraded,” Burgess said during his speech at ASIO headquarters in Canberra on Wednesday night.

“If the spy game has a rule book, it is being rewritten. If there are red lines, they are being blurred — or deliberately rubbed out.”

When speaking about the shocking surge in antisemitic attacks that have been spreading across Australia since the beginning of the war in Gaza in October 2023, Burgess warned these incidents might only get worse as extremists are increasingly self-radicalizing and “choosing their own adventure” toward potential terrorist activity.

“Threats transitioned from harassment and intimidation to specific targeting of Jewish communities, places of worship, and prominent figures,” he said. “I am concerned these attacks have not yet plateaued.”

Several Jewish sites in Australia have been targeted with vandalism and even arson in recent months, continuing a rise in antisemitism that began with the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of and massacre across southern Israel, amid the ensuing war in Gaza. A recent report from the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) found that antisemitism in Australia quadrupled to record levels following the outbreak of the Gaza war, with Australian Jews experiencing more than 2,000 antisemitic incidents between October 2023 and September 2024.

Burgess described how narratives originally centered on “freeing Palestine” have expanded to include incitements to “kill the Jews.”

Last week, Australia experienced its latest scandal in which two nurses were caught on video vowing to kill Israeli patients, prompting outrage from authorities.

At Bankstown Hospital in Sydney, two nurses, Ahmad Nadir and Sarah Abu Lebdeh, were seen making inflammatory statements in a video that surfaced online, during a night-shift discussion with Israeli social media personality Max Veifer.

The footage featured Lebdeh stating she would refuse to treat an Israeli patient and would instead kill them, while Nadir used a throat-slitting gesture when he confessed to having already killed many.

“It’s Palestine’s country, not your country, you piece of s—t,” Lebdeh told Veifer. “One day your time will come, and you will die the most disgusting death.”

After the video went viral, both nurses were suspended and permanently barred from employment within the New South Wales state health system.

Following the incident, the health minister of the state of Victoria, Mary-Anne Thomas, directed health-care facilities across the state to remove anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian badges and markings, declaring that political displays in hospitals are “unacceptable” and “will not be tolerated.”

Jews in Australia have questioned their safety at hospitals across the country amid a flurry of anti-Israel and even anti-Jewish animus coming from health-care facilities.

Last year, ASIO raised the national terror threat level from possible to probable and warned Australian defense personnel about being targeted by foreign spies.

“Australia has entered a period of strategic surprise and security fragility,” Burgess said on Wednesday.

As the country’s federal elections approach in the coming months, the federal government warned foreign embassies about attempts to interfere, including planting news stories about candidates or instructing people on how to protest.

Burgess warned that “high-impact sabotage,” such as attacks on nuclear-powered submarines or major cyberattacks, is becoming more likely, along with “state-sponsored or state-supported terrorism.” He singled out Russia, which could target Australia due to its support for Ukraine, and Iran as potential threats to Australia and its allies.

“A small number of authoritarian regimes are behaving more aggressively, more recklessly, more dangerously,” he said. “More willing to engage in what we call ‘high-harm’ activities.”

Burgess’s comments came after law enforcement in Australia last month started an investigation into the origins behind the spree of recent antisemitic crimes, announcing they suspect individuals outside the country have coordinated the campaign of hate.

Burgess also revealed that cyber units from at least one nation-state “routinely try to explore and exploit Australia’s critical infrastructure networks, almost certainly mapping systems so they can lay down malware or maintain access in the future.”

The post Australia’s Spy Chief Warns Surge in Antisemitism Across Country Has ‘Not Yet Plateaued’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Israeli Singer Noa Kirel Leads New Rom-Com Series With Argentine Pop Star Agustin Bernasconi

Agustín Bernasconi and Noa Kirel co-star in the new series “NOA.” Photo: Provided

Israeli singer Noa Kirel is starring alongside Argentine actor and fellow pop singer Agustín Bernasconi in a new music-centered romantic comedy series that will begin filming in March, The Algemeiner has learned.

The 25-episode series “NOA,” which will be filmed entirely in Argentina, is a global co-production from Argentina’s FAM Contenidos and Israel’s entertainment studio Sipur.

In the series, Noa (Kirel) travels to Argentina to meet her boyfriend, after months of having a long-distance relationship, but things don’t turn out the way she thought they would. She then meets Tomy (Bernasconi), “a young man who tries to reconcile with his past and forge a new life away from music, all while Noa begins a journey of discovery in search of her musical identity, while dealing with pressure from her parents and her new reality in Buenos Aires,” according to a provided synopsis.

Kirel is a singer, rapper, songwriter, dancer, and actress. She competed on behalf of Israel in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2023 and finished third with her song “Unicorn.” She was also formerly a judge on “Israel’s Got Talent.”

Bernasconi is an Argentine actor, singer, composer, and musician, with over 100 million views on YouTube.

“It will be a great experience to star in the series with Noa,” said Bernasconi. “She is an exceptional artist, and we complement each other very well.”

“NOA” producer and Dori Media Group founder Yair Dori, who originated the series, said: “I am very proud to be part of this great project, which I believe will have a very solid performance worldwide.”

Sipur CEO Emilio Schenker added: “NOA marks the beginning of our co-financing and co-producing major IP franchises globally. I can’t think of a better team or first project to invest in outside of Israel. It fits perfectly with our mandate to bring high-quality fiction, documentary, and unscripted projects to the world through high-level strategic partnerships and the support of powerful investors.”

Sipur’s latest projects include the Hebrew-language scripted drama series “Bad Boy,” from original “Euphoria” creator and Academy Award-nominated screenwriter Ron Leshem and Hagar Ben-Asher. Netflix acquired streaming rights for “Bad Boy” in November 2024. Sipur’s recent works also include the medical thriller series “Heart of a Killer,” starring “Tehran” lead actress Niv Sultan, the documentary “We Will Dance Again,” “The Devil’s Confession: The Lost Eichmann Tapes,” and the documentary series “Munich ’72” about the Palestinian terrorist attack on Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, Germany.

The showrunners for “NOA” are Alejandro Cacetta and Mili Roque Pitt, and the director is Mauro Scandolari.

The post Israeli Singer Noa Kirel Leads New Rom-Com Series With Argentine Pop Star Agustin Bernasconi first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Freed Hamas Hostage Agam Berger Begs Trump to Help Get Israeli Captives Home: ‘Don’t Stop Until All Are Back’

Released Israeli hostage, Agam Berger, a soldier who was seized from her army base in southern Israel during the deadly Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas, is reunited with her parents following her release, in a handout photo obtained by Reuters on Jan. 30, 2025. Photo: Israel Defense Forces/Handout via REUTERS

Former Hamas hostage Agam Berger urged US President Donald Trump to continue pushing for the release of the remaining Israeli hostages in a Hebrew-language video message that the president shared on his Truth Social app on Monday night.

A soldier in the Israel Defense Forces, Berger, 20, also thanked Trump for helping to secure her release from Hamas captivity in Gaza last month.

“I want to take this chance to say to you, President Trump: Thank you from the bottom of my heart for everything you’ve done and continue to do for the hostages,” Berger said in the clip. “Thanks to you, we’re home. But we must remember there are still people who truly depend on you and are waiting for you to save them. They’re waiting for your help and you have the power to do it.”

Berger was kidnapped from the IDF’s Nahal Oz military base on Oct. 7, 2023, along with four other Israeli soldiers. Dozens of IDF soldiers were murdered at the military outpost. Berger was released from Hamas captivity in January a week after four of her fellow IDF soldiers, as part of a ceasefire agreement between Israel and the US-designated terrorist organization.

The ceasefire deal took effect the day before Trump entered office last month and it put a pause to the 15-month war in Gaza. The agreement was mediated by the outgoing Biden and incoming Trump administrations, and the framework of the agreement was agreed upon last year.

“I beg you, don’t stop until all the hostages, both living and deceased, are brought back as quickly as possible,” Berger also told Trump in her video message. She then talked about her time in Hamas captivity, saying: “I went through many hardships there. The days didn’t pass. They stood still. Every night and day felt eternity. That’s how those [hostages] still feel there.”

“We must act fast to bring everyone home. They’re just waiting to be rescued,” she added.

Monday marked 500 days since Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists infiltrated southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, slaughtered 1,200 people, and took 251 hostages back to the Gaza Strip. Seventy-three men, women, and children remain in Hamas captivity. The bodies of four deceased hostages will be returned to Israel on Thursday, two days before the next round of living hostages will be released.

The post Freed Hamas Hostage Agam Berger Begs Trump to Help Get Israeli Captives Home: ‘Don’t Stop Until All Are Back’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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