--:-- Tracy Mumford: From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today's Thursday, October 17th.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Here's what we're covering. Madam Vice President, thank you for the time. Thank you. It's good to be with you, Brett.
--:-- Brett Baer: Last night, Kamala Harris sat for the most contentious interview of her campaign so far, with Fox News anchor Brett Baer.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Brett, let's just get to the point. Right off the bat, the two sparred over border control.
--:-- Brett Baer: We have a broken immigration system that needs to be repaired. So your Homeland Security Secretary said that 85 percent of apprehensions—
--:-- Kamala Harris: Bayer repeatedly interrupted Harris, and the whole thing turned into more of a debate than an interview, as they went back and forth over policy and over Donald Trump.
--:-- Brett Baer: And that people are exhausted with someone who professes to be a leader, who spends full time demeaning and engaging in personal grievances and it being about him instead of the American people.
--:-- Kamala Harris: People are tired of that. If that's the case, why is half the country supporting him? Why is he beating you in a lot of swing states?
--:-- Brett Baer: For Harris, the interview was a chance to make points that most Fox News viewers don't hear in the conservative network's normal programming.
--:-- Kamala Harris: She talked, for example, about the number of Trump's own former administration officials, who now support her instead.
--:-- Brett Baer: And Harris tried to distance herself from critiques of the Biden administration.
--:-- Kamala Harris: Let me be very clear. My presidency will not be a continuation of Joe Biden's presidency. And like every new president that comes in to office, I will bring my life experiences, my professional experiences, and fresh and new ideas.
--:-- Kamala Harris: I represent a new generation of leadership.
--:-- Brett Baer: Harris did this interview with Brett Baer with one very specific audience in mind, which is Republican women, especially those Republican women who voted for or supported Nikki Haley in the primary.
--:-- Nicholas Nehamas: Times reporter Nicholas Nehamas has been covering Harris's campaign.
--:-- Nicholas Nehamas: And I think one of the most interesting things was her message to these women was not about abortion, which is a big issue for more moderate and liberal-leaning women.
--:-- Nicholas Nehamas: It was about immigration which polling has shown is a top concern of a lot of female voters.
--:-- Kamala Harris: So she was able to talk about her plans to secure the border for an audience that likely doesn't get to hear a lot of her message.
--:-- Nicholas Nehamas: I have no pride in saying that this is a perfect immigration system. I've been clear. I think we all are, that it needs to be fixed.
--:-- Nicholas Nehamas: And also, these viewers saw her in a much more combative setting. The interviews she's done, for the most part, have been very friendly.
--:-- Nicholas Nehamas: So here they saw her take on someone who was interrupting her frequently, trying to talk over her and really stand her ground and make her points.
--:-- Nicholas Nehamas: Harris is making a big push to reach out to Republicans. So we'll see how successful this was because a lot of these viewers are skeptical of her.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Meanwhile, Donald Trump held a town hall last night with Latino voters who posed questions to the former president, though Trump often skirted them and avoided answering some, instead retreating to standard campaign language.
--:-- Donald Trump: Remember these two things. I had the strongest border in the history of our country and had the best economy in the history of our country.
--:-- Donald Trump: And I had no inflation, no inflation.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The U.S. will have now paid over $1.5 billion in sex abuse lawsuits.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: It's sold off real estate, liquidated investments, and taken out loans to cover the staggering costs.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The diocese archbishop said in a statement that he hoped the latest settlement would provide, quote, some measure of healing.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: A lawyer representing some of the plaintiffs said the settlement is not full justice, but will give survivors a sense of closure.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: There are still pending lawsuits elsewhere in the state.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The president of the watchdog group that tracks abuse reports related to the church said, quote, There are a lot more dominoes in California to come down.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Lawmakers in Italy have been a new law banning citizens from using surrogacy services outside the country.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The legislation adds to the country's already strict laws which ban the procedure in Italy.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Supporters of the law say it's designed to protect women from being exploited by surrogacy.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: But critics say it's an attack on LGBTQ families, since it's now virtually impossible for gay couples to legally have children there.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Adoption in Italy is only open to heterosexual couples.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Italy is also one of the few European countries that does not recognize same-sex marriage.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The new law is seen as a victory for Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Maloney, who's been trying to appeal to her conservative base on cultural issues by cracking down on gay rights and abortion.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The law will also be a blow to heterosexual couples facing infertility issues. They are believed to be the majority of people in Italy who are using surrogacy.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is speaking to European leaders in Brussels this morning, and again making the case that Ukraine needs more support from its Western allies.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Zelensky says that support is crucial to helping Ukraine turn the tide after weeks of losing ground to Russia.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: They've seen losses not just on the front lines in Ukraine, but the Ukrainian military has also struggled to hold onto the Russian territory it seized this summer.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The Ukrainian offensive into Western Russia clearly lifted the spirits of people in Ukraine.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Finally, they had their moment. They showed the world that they could still have the initiative on the battlefield. And achieve success.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Now, two months into the offensive, the harsh reality of the war has crept in.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The issue is that every Russian village that they regain sort of diminishes the prospect that the Ukrainians can use that territory in order to push the Russians into peace negotiations.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: So to be sure, the Ukrainians still hold something like 300 square miles of territory in Russia that is down from about 400 square miles at the beginning of their offensive.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: But everybody wonders to what extent they be able to hold territory there in the next few months in the face of what looks to be intensified Russian counterattacks.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: And finally, Liam Payne, who rose to fame as a member of One Direction, one of the best-selling boy bands of all time, died at 31 yesterday after falling from a hotel in Buenos Aires.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The circumstances of his fall are unclear.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Payne was a teenager when his music career took off.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: He and four other contestants in the singing competition The X Factor were packaged into a group in 2010 by Simon Cowell, the notoriously critical British music executive and TV host.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Boy bands weren't a new formula, but One Direction became a massive hit with an adoring audience of teenage girls.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The Times review of one of the band's early American concerts said, quote, there was nothing security could do about the screaming.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Payne was one of the group's standout singers.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: One Direction had 29 hits on Billboard's Hot 100, including What Makes You Beautiful.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: And they released five albums before the group broke up in 2016.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The members went on to pursue their own solo careers.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Payne talked openly about how the fame and early success had affected his life.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: He said security would sometimes just keep the band members tucked away in their own hotel room because of the crowds.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: And he started drinking from the minibars.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: He posted a video last year saying he'd stopped drinking after spending time in rehab.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Fans across the world have been reacting to his death.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: At the hotel in Buenos Aires, people gathered last night for an impromptu memorial.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Let it go. We can make no more. We can live forever. We can see the more. We can be in history. We can be in history.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Those are the headlines.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Today on The Daily, a roundtable of Times reporters breaks down this week's campaign news.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: That's next in the New York Times audio app, or you can listen wherever you get your podcasts.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: I'm Tracy Mumford. We'll be back tomorrow.
