Two closing arguments show the stark choice between Trump and Harris

NEW YORK (AP) — In the shadow of the White House, seven days before the final votes of the 2024 election are cast, Kamala Harris vowed to put country over party and warned that Donald Trump is obsessed with revenge and his own personal interests.

Less than 48 hours earlier inside Madison Square Garden, Trump called his Democratic opponent “a trainwreck who has destroyed everything in her path.” His allies on stage labeled Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage” and said Harris, who would be the first woman to be president, had begun her career as a prostitute.

Two nights and 200 miles apart, the dueling closing arguments outlined in stark terms the choice U.S. voters face on Nov. 5 when they will weigh two very different visions of leadership and America's future.

Trump's raucous rally, marked by crude and racist insults, highlighted the uglier elements of his coalition. But other parts of it underscored the former businessman's appeal as someone who vows to fix the economy and the border, and as a political outsider eager to defy any and all conventions despite the risks.

Harris, the vice president for the last four years, chose a more formal setting — the grassy Ellipse near the White House — to underscore the seriousness of this moment in American history and the threat Trump poses to democracy. She faced a massive audience in the same place where Trump addressed thousands of his loyalists on Jan. 6, 2021, before they stormed the U.S. Capitol in one of the darkest days of modern history.

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Harris urges voters to reject Trump’s efforts to sow division and fear

WASHINGTON (AP) — Kamala Harris stood before an overflowing crowd near the White House on Tuesday and promised Americans she would fight for them every day as she urged voters to reject Donald Trump’s efforts to sow division and fear, declaring, “It doesn’t have to be this way.”

One week out from Election Day, the vice president tried to drive home the contrast with Trump by delivering her closing argument from the same spot on the grassy Ellipse where the Republican former president had fomented the Capitol insurrection in 2021, pledging that she would work to improve people's lives while arguing that her Republican opponent is only in it for himself.

“I’ll be honest with you: I’m not perfect,” she said. “I make mistakes. But here’s what I promise you: I will always listen to you, even if you don’t vote for me. I will always tell you the truth, even if it’s hard to hear. I will work every day to build consensus and reach compromise to get things done. And if you give me the chance to fight on your behalf, there is nothing in the world that will stand in my way.”

Harris began her capstone speech by reminding voters of Trump's role in the chaos of Jan. 6, 2021, when he spewed falsehoods about the 2020 presidential election that inspired a crowd to march to the Capitol and try unsuccessfully to halt the certification of Democrat Joe Biden's victory. She brought up his threats to use the military against his political rivals and his labeling of those who disagree with him as “the enemy from within.”

“Look, we know who Donald Trump is. He is the person who stood at this very spot nearly four years ago and sent an armed mob to the United States Capitol to overturn the will of the people in a free and fair election,” she said. Trump, she added, “has spent a decade trying to keep the American people divided and afraid of each other.”

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Trump says his New York rally marked by crude and racist insults was 'an absolute lovefest'

ALLENTOWN, Pa. (AP) — Urged by some allies to apologize for racist comments made by speakers at his weekend rally, Donald Trump took the opposite approach on Tuesday, saying it was an “honor to be involved” in such an event and calling the scene a “lovefest” — the same term he has used to describe the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

Trump gathered supporters and reporters to his Mar-a-Lago resort two days after a massive rally at Madison Square Garden featured a number of crude remarks by various speakers, including a set by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe in which he joked that Puerto Rico was a “floating island of garbage.” Some of Trump’s top Republican allies have condemned the remarks, and his campaign took the rare step of publicly distancing itself from Hinchcliffe’s joke, though not the other comments.

But given the opportunity to apologize at multiple events and in interviews Tuesday, Trump instead leaned in. Speaking at his Florida resort, he said that “there’s never been an event so beautiful” as his Sunday rally in his hometown of New York.

“The love in that room. It was breathtaking,” he said. “It was like a lovefest, an absolute lovefest. And it was my honor to be involved.”

On Tuesday night, he told Fox News' Sean Hannity that he knows nothing about Hinchcliffe but said, “I can’t imagine it’s a big deal.” He later agreed, though, that “probably he shouldn’t have been there.”

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Biden suggests Trump supporters are 'garbage' after comic's insult of Puerto Rico

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden took a swipe against Donald Trump's supporters on Tuesday as he reacted to the Republican presidential nominee's weekend rally at Madison Square Garden, which was overshadowed by crude and racist rhetoric.

In a call organized by the Hispanic advocacy group Voto Latino, Biden responded to a comic at Trump's rally who called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage.” Biden's initial comments were garbled.

“Just the other day, a speaker at his rally called Puerto Rico a floating island of garbage. Well, let me tell you something, I don’t, I don’t know the Puerto Rican that I know, the Puerto Rico where I’m fr -- in my home state of Delaware. They’re good, decent honorable people,” he said.

The president then added: “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters. His demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American. It’s totally contrary to everything we’ve done, everything we’ve been.”

White House spokesman Andrew Bates said Biden “referred to the hateful rhetoric at the Madison Square Garden rally as ‘garbage.’”

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Israel must step in if it bans the UN agency that is a lifeline for Gaza, UN says

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United Nations stressed Tuesday that if Israel puts in place new laws cutting ties with the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, the Israeli government will have to meet their needs under international law.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a letter obtained by The Associated Press that there is no other alternative to the agency, known as UNRWA. It has been a lifeline during the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, and the Israeli legislation “will have devastating consequences for Palestinian refugees” in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem, he said.

The U.N. agencies for children, health and migration also stressed that UNRWA is the “backbone” of the world body’s operations in Gaza, where people have relied on its emergency food aid and health centers during the more than yearlong war, which has killed tens of thousands and left much of the enclave in ruins.

The United Nations is heartened by statements of support for UNRWA from all quarters and countries, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said, and “we would very much appreciate efforts by any member state to help us get over this hurdle.”

Israel has alleged that some of UNRWA’s 13,000 staffers in Gaza participated in the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas that sparked the war. It's also accused hundreds of UNRWA staff of having militant ties and said it has found Hamas military assets in or under the agency’s facilities.

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Israeli strikes in northern Gaza kill at least 88, officials say

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Two Israeli airstrikes in the northern Gaza Strip on Tuesday killed at least 88 people, including dozens of women and children, health officials said, and the director of a hospital said life-threatening injuries were going untreated because a weekend raid by Israeli forces led to the detention of dozens of medics.

Israel has escalated airstrikes and waged a bigger ground operation in northern Gaza in recent weeks, saying it is focused on rooting out Hamas militants who have regrouped after more than a year of war. The intense fighting is raising alarm about the worsening humanitarian conditions for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians still in northern Gaza.

Concerns about not enough aid reaching Gaza were amplified Monday when Israeli lawmakers passed two laws to cut ties with the main U.N. agency distributing food, water and medicine, and to ban it from Israeli soil. Israel controls access to both Gaza and the occupied West Bank, and it was unclear how the agency known as UNRWA would continue its work in either place.

“The humanitarian operation in Gaza, if that is unraveled, that is a disaster within a series of disasters and just doesn’t bear thinking about," said UNRWA spokesperson John Fowler. He said other U.N. agencies and international organizations distributing aid in Gaza rely on its logistics and thousands of workers.

In Lebanon, the militant group Hezbollah said Tuesday it has chosen Sheikh Naim Kassem to succeed longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike last month. Hezbollah, which has fired rockets into Israel since the start of the war in Gaza, vowed to continue with Nasrallah’s policies “until victory is achieved.”

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Canada alleges Indian Home Minister Amit Shah ordered campaign targeting Sikh separatists

OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — A Canadian official alleged Tuesday that Indian Home Minister Amit Shah ordered a campaign of violence, intimidation and intelligence-gathering targeting Sikh separatists inside Canada.

Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister David Morrison told Parliament members of the national security committee that he had confirmed Shah’s name to The Washington Post, which first reported the allegations.

“The journalist called me and asked if it was that person. I confirmed it was that person,” Morrison told the committee.

Morrison did not say how Canada knew of Shah's alleged involvement.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said a year ago that Canada had credible evidence agents of the Indian government were involved in the murder of Canadian Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in British Columbia in June 2023.

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China launches new crew to its space station as it seeks to expand exploration

JIUQUAN, China (AP) — China declared a “complete success” after it launched a new three-person crew to its orbiting space station early Wednesday as the country seeks to expand its exploration of outer space with missions to the moon and beyond.

The Shenzhou-19 spaceship carrying the trio blasted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China at 4:27 a.m. local time atop a Long March-2F rocket, the backbone of China’s crewed space missions.

“The crew condition is good and the launch has been successful,” the state broadcaster China Central Television announced.

China built its own space station after being excluded from the International Space Station, mainly because of U.S. concerns over the People’s Liberation Army, the Chinese Communist Party’s military arm’s overall control over the space program. China’s moon program is part of a growing rivalry with the U.S. and others, including Japan and India.

The team of two men and one woman will replace the astronauts who have lived on the Tiangong space station for the last six months. They are expected to stay until April or May of next year.

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Duterte’s jarring testimony into drug killings in Philippines relives a nightmare for many

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The cockiness, expletives and threats unleashed by former President Rodrigo Duterte in a Senate inquiry brought back the nightmare of the bloody “war on drugs” for many families of the thousands of victims who were gunned down under his rule.

Speaking under oath in Monday's televised hearing into the killings, a defiantly combative Duterte returned to the national spotlight for the first time since leaving office in 2022 with little show of remorse.

He got away with it again, critics say.

"If I’m given another chance, I’ll wipe all of you,” Duterte, 79, who is seeking a new term as mayor of his southern home city of Davao next year, said of drug dealers and criminals.

Duterte again denied that he authorized extrajudicial killings of drug suspects, saying there were no “state-sponsored killings.” But he acknowledged that as mayor of Davao, before becoming president, he kept a small “ death squad ” of gangsters whom he had ordered to eliminate other criminals.

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AP PHOTOS: River and air pollution in India's capital pose a severe health threat to residents

NEW DELHI (AP) — One of India’s most sacred rivers, the Yamuna in New Delhi, is covered with white toxic foam, with vast sections frothing as a result of pollutants discharged from industries around the city. The pollution poses a severe health threat to residents since the river provides more than half of the Indian capital's water.

New Delhi also has some of the world’s most polluted air every year, and the current festival season is exacerbating the situation. On Tuesday, the air-quality index deteriorated to “a very poor” reading of 273, 18 times higher than the World Health Organization’s recommended levels. The tiny PM 2.5 particulate matter can enter deep into the lungs and cause diseases.

Still, Hindu devotees have not given up their religious practices at the Yamuna. On Tuesday morning, a young couple was among a group that visited the river bank, had a dip, and then left.

Jasraj, a 70-year-old retired government clerk, said he has been visiting the river for a bathing ritual since 1980.

"I worship the river as a mother, and there is no question of its being clean or dirty. It's dirty on the surface but clean below the top," said Jasraj, who uses one name.

News from © The Associated Press, 2024