First Thing: Trump fills Madison Square Garden with anger and vitriol

In final campaign stretch, Trump and surrogates attack Harris and mock Puerto Rico. Plus, the science behind hugs

Good morning.

Anger and vitriol took center stage at New York’s Madison Square Garden last night, as Donald Trump and a cabal of campaign surrogates held a rally marked by racist comments, coarse insults and dangerous threats about immigrants.

Nine days out from the election, Trump used the rally in New York to repeat his claim that he is fighting “the enemy within” and again promised to launch “the largest deportation program in American history”, amid incoherent ramblings about ending a phone call with a “very, very important person” so he could watch one of Elon Musk’s rockets land.

What were some of the most offensive remarks? One speaker described Puerto Rico, home to 3.2 million US citizens, as an “island of garbage”; Tucker Carlson mocked Kamala Harris’s racial identity; a radio host described Hillary Clinton as a “sick bastard”; and a crucifix-wielding childhood friend of Trump’s declared that Harris was “the antichrist”.

Harris in Philadelphia promises to ‘turn the page on the fear and the divisiveness’

Kamala Harris addressed a boisterous crowd in North Philadelphia yesterday, promising supporters that she would win a seemingly deadlocked presidential race. “Nine days left in one of the most consequential elections of our lifetime, and we know this is going to be a tight race until the very end,” the vice-president told hundreds of supporters. “And make no mistake: we will win.”

Echoing a message that she has hammered at every campaign stop in recent weeks, Harris framed the election as a choice between “two extremely different visions for our nation”. Harris accused Donald Trump of waging a selfish campaign of vengeance while she and her supporters work toward a better future for all Americans.

Puerto Rican stars back Harris. Bad Bunny and Ricky Martin threw their support behind Harris on the same same day that a comedian appearing at Trump’s rally made the offensive remarks about Puerto Rico. Martin posted on Instagram: “This is what they think of us. Vote for @kamalaharris.”

Furor over Washington Post’s decision not to endorse presidential candidate

There was uproar and outrage among the Washington Post’s current and former staffers and other notable figures in the world of American media after the newspaper’s leaders on Friday chose to not endorse any candidate in the US presidential election.

The newspaper’s publisher, Will Lewis, announced on Friday that for the first time in over 30 years, the paper’s editorial board would not be endorsing a candidate in this year’s presidential election, nor in future presidential elections. After the news broke, reactions came flooding in, with people criticizing the decision, which, according to some staffers and reporters, was allegedly made by the Post’s owner, the Amazon founder and billionaire Jeff Bezos.

What was the reaction from Post staff? David Maraniss, a Pulitzer-winning reporter and editor, said: “The paper I’ve loved working at for 47 years is dying in darkness.” Karen Attiah, a columnist, called the decision an “absolute stab in the back” and “an insult to those of us who have literally put our careers and lives on the line, to call out threats to human rights and democracy.”

In other news …

Bolivia’s former leader Evo Morales has accused the government of his one-time ally Luis Arce of trying to kill him after his car was struck by bullets in an early morning ambush yesterday, threatening to ignite a political crisis in the Andean nation.

Approximately 70 people were killed in Israeli airstrikes yesterday, health officials in Gaza said, as Israel’s renewed campaign in the north of the strip shows no sign of slowing despite the revival of ceasefire talks after a three-month hiatus.

Japan’s political future has been shrouded in uncertainty after voters punished the ruling coalition over rising prices and a funding scandal, paving the way for days of wrangling as party leaders try to form a government following a snap election that delivered no majority victor.

Georgia’s pro-western opposition has called on the country to protest against the disputed parliamentary victory of the ruling, Russia-aligned Georgian Dream (GD) party. The vote dealt a significant blow to the country’s long-held aspirations for EU membership.

Stat of the day: carbon emissions of richest 1% increase hunger, poverty and deaths, says Oxfam

The high carbon emissions of the world’s richest 1% are worsening hunger, poverty and excess deaths, a report has found. If everyone on Earth emitted planet-warming gases at the same rate as the average billionaire, the remaining carbon budget to stay within 1.5C would be gone in less than two days, the Oxfam analysis said, rather than current estimates of four years if carbon emissions remain as they are today.

Don’t miss this: Rumble in the Jungle 50 years on

This Wednesday will mark the 50th anniversary of Muhammad Ali v George Foreman. There have been other sporting events that captured the imagination, but no athletic contest in history has inspired as much global joy as Ali’s victory in Kinshasa, Zaire, during the pre-dawn hours of 30 October 1974, writes Thomas Hauser.

… or this: the science behind hugs

After an airport in New Zealand imposed a three-minute cap on hugging in the airport’s drop-off zone, Heathrow in London has told passengers to take as much time as they need saying goodbye to loved ones in departures. This is fortunate, because hugging bestows an array of physical and psychological benefits, experts say. “Many of us know that it feels good to receive a hug, but we don’t often stop and think about the other positive effects of hugging,” says Prof Michael Banissy, a social neuroscientist at the University of Bristol and the author of When We Touch.

Climate check: residents in a wildfire-prone Yosemite town eye more tourism with unease

Kampgrounds of America (KOA) is eyeing a plot in Mariposa, the California mountain town near Yosemite national park, for a camping and glamping development. Should the project move forward, up to 1,000 visitors could end up spending the night on land that straddles a narrow escape route used by people fleeing previous blazes. When a fire inevitably flares again, evacuating may be far more challenging.

Last Thing: inside the ‘science’ of medieval astrology

A new exhibit at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles called Rising Signs: The Medieval Science of Astrology explores how astrology was taught in major European universities for centuries as part of the scientific disciplines, including medicine. Kings hired court astrologers and consulted them on questions of diplomacy and military strategy. The position of the stars and planets at the time of a person’s birth was thought to affect the organs in their bodies and the diseases they might be most likely to develop.

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