Tuesday Briefing: The U.S. campaign’s final stretch

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October 29, 2024

	By Justin Porter

Good morning. We’re covering the U.S. campaign a week before Election Day and North Korean troops on the battlefield in Russia.

Plus, England’s most haunted village.

Kenny Holston/The New York Times; Maddie McGarvey for The New York Times

Harris and Trump enter the final stretch of the race

With one week to go until Election Day, Kamala Harris is centering her closing argument on the stakes of another Trump presidency. Donald Trump held a provocative closing rally in New York City.

Overall, Harris leads by less than one percentage point, according to The New York Times’s polling average. It’s her smallest lead since mid-August. The battleground states remain extraordinarily tight, with no candidate holding any material lead in the seven states likeliest to decide the presidency, Nate Cohn, The Times’s chief political analyst, writes.

Still, aides to Harris have quietly grown more bullish on defeating Trump. Her strategists are increasingly hopeful that the campaign’s attempts to cast Trump as a fascist, paired with a robust battleground-state operation and strength among female voters still energized by the rollback of abortion rights, will carry it for Harris, albeit narrowly.

Trump’s allies are pushing back, but even some in his camp are worried that his depiction as a budding dictator who has praised Hitler could move a small but potentially meaningful number of voters. At his closing rally on Sunday, a range of speakers took the stage, spewing vitriol and vulgar references to Harris — one described her as “the Antichrist.”

The comic who kicked off the event dismissed Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage,” before deriding Hispanic people as failing to use birth control, Jews as cheap and Palestinians as rock throwers. The Trump campaign distanced itself only from the statement about Puerto Rico.

More on the U.S. election Election Day is Nov. 5. Whoever wins the presidency, seeking asylum in the U.S. may never be the same. Trump’s plan for vast tariffs would rock global markets and shake alliances. Economists described it as “a grenade thrown in the heart” of the international system. Michael Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York City, donated about $50 million to a nonprofit organization that is supporting Harris. A vast Republican network has been laying the groundwork of a plan that could be used to contest a Trump defeat. During her campaign, Harris has often talked about her mother, who died of cancer in 2009 and whom she calls her greatest influence.

A destroyed Russian border post at the Sudzha crossing in August. David Guttenfelder for The New York Times

North Korean troops were deployed to fight Ukraine

North Korean troops have arrived in the western Kursk region of Russia, where they are expected to help Moscow’s forces reclaim territory from Ukrainian troops.

The NATO secretary general confirmed that the North Korean troops had been deployed to the region and said their presence there represented “a dangerous expansion” of the war. The Pentagon said North Korea had now sent about 10,000 soldiers to eastern Russia, with many moving toward the battlefield in Kursk, which Ukraine invaded in August.

Bombs against cities: Russian forces have deployed glide bombs to pound Ukrainian frontline positions during the war. But now, major cities that were seen as out of reach of the weapons are increasingly being struck.

Fishermen this month at the port of Sa Ky, south of Danang in central Vietnam. Linh Pham for The New York Times

Bullied by China at sea

Nguyen Thanh Bien said he suffered internal injuries after the Chinese authorities boarded his fishing boat in the South China Sea last month and bashed him with iron pipes. He woke up with broken ribs to find his catch, worth nearly $8,000, missing. Three other crew members of the Vietnamese fishing boat were injured.

While the Philippines has documented and publicized every perceived act of Chinese aggression in the disputed waters, Vietnam has taken a quieter approach. But the assault on Bien appears to have crossed a line. A foreign ministry spokesman condemned “the brutal behavior of Chinese law enforcement forces against Vietnamese fishermen and fishing vessels operating in the Paracel archipelago of Vietnam.”

The aftermath of an Israeli strike in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza. Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Sports

Jasveen Sangha in California in 2022. Jojo Korsh/BFA.com/Shutterstock

Jasveen Sangha liked to post images on social media of her glamorous life, rubbing elbows with celebrities and traveling to Spain, China and Dubai.

But at her unglamorous home in North Hollywood, Sangha manufactured, stored and distributed illegal drugs, including the ketamine linked to the death of Matthew Perry, prosecutors say. Read more about the “Ketamine Queen” awaiting trial.

Jeremie Souteyrat for The New York Times

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Andrew Testa for The New York Times

England’s most haunted village

Pluckley, a quaint settlement southeast of London, is home to about 1,000 residents and, if you believe the stories, about 12 spirits. A street sign urges drivers to “slow down or you will upset our ghosts.”

The villagers have passed haunted tales down since the early 20th century. These include the “screaming man,” whose legend began after a fatal accident at a brickworks.

A small industry has blossomed around the supernatural in Pluckley. Ghost hunters descend on the village around Halloween in numbers that can triple the population, and some residents wish they’d find another haunt.

Can’t make it to Pluckley? Here are a few of our favorite jump scares. We warned you.

Gentl and Hyers for The New York Times

Cook: This kale sauce pasta is loaded with good olive oil and grated cheese.

Read: A new biography of Piet Mondrian delves into the life of the deeply eccentric painter.

Gaze: Which California home would you buy with a budget of $1.75 million?

Listen: Here are six classic songs from Louis Armstrong.

Ride: Experts weigh in on how to make your commute more pleasant.

Play: Spelling Bee, the Mini Crossword, Wordle and Sudoku. Find all our games here.

That’s it for today. See you next time. — Justin

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