Good morning.
At 9pm EST tonight, on a debate stage in Philadelphia, weeks of rigorous preparation and breathless analysis will be road-tested with reality, as Kamala Harris and Donald Trump go head-to-head in their first presidential debate.
The event will mark the first time Harris and Trump have met face to face, and it comes less than two months after Joe Biden withdrew from the presidential race.
The change at the top of the Democratic ticket appears to have unnerved Trump, who has struggled to land attacks against Harris. For Harris, the debate could allow her to deliver on her oft-repeated promise to voters: that she will prosecute the case against Trump. She goes into the event having been prepared by aides who have mimicked Trump’s often vicious and insulting debating technique, especially towards women.
What do the polls say? One recent national New York Times/Siena College poll found that Trump was up one percentage point over Harris – a difference within the survey’s three-percentage point margin of error.
What are the debate’s rules? Tuesday’s event, hosted by ABC, will take place under the same rules that governed the Trump-Biden debate, with candidates’ microphones being muted when it is their opponent’s turn to speak.
Khan Younis safe zone strike: 40 killed in Israeli attack on al-Mawasi, Gaza officials say
At least 40 people have been killed in Israeli airstrikes on a tent encampment designated as a humanitarian zone in Khan Younis, Gaza officials said on Tuesday, in what the Israeli military said was an attack on a Hamas command centre. Gaza civil defence officials told Agence France-Presse and the BBC that a further 60 people from the al-Mawasi site were injured and transferred to local hospitals.
Residents and medics said the tent encampment had been struck by at least four missiles. The camp is crowded with displaced Palestinians who have fled from elsewhere in the enclave. “Our teams are still moving out martyrs and wounded from the targeted area. It looks like a new Israeli massacre,” a Gaza civil emergency official said.
What do we know about the Israeli strikes? The Gaza civil emergency service said at least 20 tents caught fire, and missiles caused craters 30ft deep. The Israel Defense Forces said it “struck significant Hamas terrorists, who were operating within a command and control centre embedded inside the humanitarian area in Khan Younis”.
What is the humanitarian cost of the war? Since the 7 October attack, when Hamas killed about 1,200 people and took 250 hostage, the Israeli assault on Gaza has killed more than 40,000 people, decimated infrastructure and housing, displaced at least 90% of the population, and brought widespread malnutrition and famine to the coastal strip.
James Earl Jones, revered actor and voice of Star Wars’ Darth Vader, dies at 93
James Earl Jones, the actor known for his beautifully sonorous voice, has died at the age of 93. He was a massively accomplished and distinguished African American star of the stage and screen, an Egot titan and a great interpreter of classical and modern roles from Shakespeare to Eugene O’Neill and August Wilson, writes Peter Bradshaw in his Guardian obituary.
“It was how he sounded which made him a legend. That great rumbling basso profundo was like a thunderstorm surmounting the horizon, an almost supernatural voice of wisdom and power, which made generations of moviegoers from the 70s to the 90s tremble in the presence of a father figure, good and bad,” Bradshaw writes.
In other news …
The White Stripes duo Jack White and Meg White have filed a lawsuit against Donald Trump, alleging “flagrant misappropriation” of the song Seven Nation Army in a campaign video.
The Princess of Wales has said she has completed chemotherapy treatment and is planning to return to limited public engagements in the coming months.
The disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein was taken from prison to a New York City hospital to receive emergency heart surgery after he experienced chest pains, his representatives said.
Ukraine’s population is “trapped in cycles of terror” through Russian attacks on civilian facilities – such as hospitals, schools, supermarkets and energy infrastructure, according to Volker Türk, the UN human rights commissioner.
Stat of the day: Operation begins to remove radioactive debris from Fukushima nuclear plant
An operation to remove a small amount of radioactive debris from the Daiichi nuclear plant in Fukushima, Japan, has begun. About 880 tons of extremely hazardous material remain onsite 13 years after a tsunami caused by a 9.0-magnitude earthquake triggered one of the world’s worst nuclear accidents.
Don’t miss this: Inside the global illegal organ trade
Yonas, from Sudan, agreed to give up his kidney for $10,000 in Cairo, Egypt, to pay for travel to Europe. “This is the last thing you want to do … But for me there was no other way,” he said. For the long read, the Guardian spoke to dozens of people – from “donors” to brokers – to find out how the exploitative organ trade trade thrives on chaos and desperation.
Climate check: Gulf coast braces for storm impact as hurricane season intensifies
A storm forming in the Gulf of Mexico is expected to become a hurricane when it reaches the US coast on Wednesday. Tropical Storm Francine was spotted about 300 miles south of the mouth of the Rio Grande and is expected to move north, hitting the gulf coastline of Louisiana, as a category one or two hurricane. Such storms have wind speeds of at least 74mph or 110mph, depending on the category.
Last Thing: Does the Minecraft movie really look that bad? We asked a 10-year-old
Viewers of the Minecraft movie trailer have labeled it “horrifying”, “devastating”, “expensively naff” and the “worst thing to happen in cinema in 2024”. But what, Rich Pelley asks, does a 10-year-old think?
Bad, says Arlo. “They should have made it like The Lego Movie or Super Mario Bros. That was good because it didn’t have live action people.”
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