First Thing: Harris hails first-time and gen Z voters at Wisconsin rally

Artists including Remi Wolf, Gracie Abrams and Mumford & Sons join VP. Plus, new era for erotic lit

Good morning.

Kamala Harris said time was running out at a get-out-the-vote event yesterday in Madison, Wisconsin, where she was joined by a lineup of folk and pop musicians including Remi Wolf, Gracie Abrams and Mumford & Sons. “We have six days left in one of the most consequential elections of our lifetime,” the vice-president and Democratic nominee told the crowd.

“On day one Donald Trump would walk into office with an enemies list,” said Harris, before launching into a speech highlighting her policy planks, including a proposal to cut taxes on small businesses and to expand healthcare coverage for families caring for an elderly parent at home.

• Harris responds to protesters. In two different sections of the crowd, protesters drew attention to Israel’s war in Gaza, shouting “free Palestine” and unfurling banners. Harris said: “We all want the war in Gaza to end and get the hostages out as soon as possible, and I will do everything in my power to make it heard and known.”

• Harris’s slow-mo breakup with president. The delicate dance by Harris’s campaign, simultaneously showing deference to Joe Biden while separating herself from his presidency and thwarting his ambition to campaign for her, has reached a critical juncture.

Judge orders Elon Musk to appear in Philadelphia court over $1m giveaways

A judge ordered all parties, including Elon Musk, to attend a court hearing in Philadelphia today in a lawsuit seeking to stop a political action committee controlled by the billionaire from awarding $1m to registered US voters in battleground states before the 5 November election.

The Philadelphia district attorney’s office filed the lawsuit on Monday. It called the giveaway by Musk’s America Pac, which backs Donald Trump, an “illegal lottery” that entices Pennsylvania residents to share personal data. Musk has promised to give $1m each day to someone who signs his online free-speech and gun-rights petition.

• What do legal experts say about the giveaway? Those interviewed by Reuters last week were divided on whether it violated federal laws that make it a crime to pay, or offer to pay, a person to register to vote.

World must act to prevent ‘ethnic cleansing’ of Gaza, António Guterres says

The UN secretary general, António Guterres, has said Israel could carry out the “ethnic cleansing” of Gaza if the international community does not make a determined stand to prevent it. Civilian casualties are mounting from the Israeli bombardment in the northern of the territory. A strike on Tuesday in Beit Lahiya district killed at least 93 people, in what the UN said was just one of at least seven “mass casualty incidents” across Gaza in the past week.

At the same time, aid deliveries to Gaza are reported to have fallen to their lowest level since the start of the war, leading to growing allegations that Israel’s true intention is to drive the remaining Palestinian population out of at least part of Gaza.

• How many healthcare facilities remain in Gaza? “Only two … out of 20 health service points and two hospitals, Kamal Adwan and al-Awda, remain functional, although partially, hampering the delivery of life-saving health services,” the UN humanitarian affairs agency, OCHA, said.

In other news …

• Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke walked off stage during a solo show in Melbourne after being heckled by a pro-Palestine protester who yelled: “How many dead children will it take for you to condemn the genocide in Gaza?”

• Mysterious monuments continue to pop up poking fun at Trump. Yesterday, in Maja Park, Philadelphia, an another large statue of Trump titled “In Honor of a Lifetime of Sexual Assault” appeared.

• Eight of Mexico’s 11 supreme court judges have submitted their resignations after controversial judicial reforms, the top court has said. In a move that has sparked tensions, Mexico is set to become the world’s only country to allow voters to choose all judges.

• A UN committee has urged Peru to compensate women who were forcibly sterilised in the 1990s, ruling that the state policy could constitute a “crime against humanity”.

Don’t miss this: The tragedy of Palestinian journalist Wael al-Dahdouh

On the day his wife and two of his children were killed in an Israeli raid on a designated safe zone, Al Jazeera’s Gaza bureau chief, Wael al-Dahdouh, became a symbol of the devastating losses faced by Palestinians in Gaza and the particular plight of Palestinian journalists. Dahdouh had barely stepped out of the hospital before he was being interviewed. For weeks he had reported the deaths of others, and now he was the story. This was just the start of his heartbreaking journey, writes Nesrine Malik.

… or this: Spain’s floods bring devastation and despair

Spain’s worst flooding in almost 30 years caused the Magro River to overflow its banks, trapping some residents in their homes and sending cars and rubbish bins surging. The death toll in Valencia and the neighbouring regions of Castilla-La Mancha and Andalucía stood at 95. Utiel’s mayor, Ricardo Gabaldón, said that Tuesday had been the worst day of his life. “We were trapped like rats,” he said.

Climate check: ‘Disturbing’ lack of concrete progress to save nature at Cop16

Governments risk another decade of failure on biodiversity loss owing to the slow implementation of an international agreement to halt the destruction of Earth’s ecosystems, experts have warned. As country representatives dig into their second week of negotiations at Cop16 in Cali, Colombia – their first meeting since the historic agreement to stop the human-caused destruction of life on our planet – alarm is growing at the lack of concrete progress.

Last Thing: Are we entering a new era of erotic literature?

There seems to be a renewed energy in sex writing. The Erotic Review relaunched as a print magazine earlier this year, while dating app Feeld has just published the first issue of its new literary magazine AFM (which interchangeably stands for A Feeld Magazine and A Fucking Magazine). “I think we’re living on the cusp of change in terms of general societal views on acceptable sexual behaviour and what’s deemed normal”, says Lucy Roeber, editor of the Erotic Review.

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