Harris says ‘justice has been served’ over death of Hamas leader Sinwar
Joanna Walters
Moments ago, Kamala Harris stepped up to a podium while on the election trail in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and commented on Israel’s stating that it killed Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas, in a battle in Gaza today.
“This moment gives us an opportunity to end the war in Gaza,” the US vice-president and Democratic nominee for president in this election, said.
She said “justice has been served” over the reported killing of the leader of the Islamist militants that control Gaza.
Harris reiterated the administration’s stance that “Israel has the right to defend itself and called for the remaining hostages held by Hamas since it led an attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, to be released.
But she added that “the suffering must end” in Gaza and said it was “time for the day after to begin without Hamas in power”. Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not pledged a ceasefire.
We are live blogging all the developments in Gaza, Lebanon and Israel, here.
Key events
The US will try and push forward a ceasefire and hostage release proposal following Israel’s killing of Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar, Reuters reports.
Speaking during a press briefing Thursday, state department spokesperson Matthew Miller said, “Over the past few weeks, there have been no negotiations for an end to the war because Sinwar has refused to negotiate.”
Biden hails Sinwar death as ‘good day for Israel’
Joe Biden has released a statement on Israel’s killing of Hamas’s Gaza chief Yahya Sinwar.
In his statement, Biden called the killing a “good day for Israel, for the United States, and for the world”.
Biden went on to add, “As the leader of the terrorist group Hamas, Sinwar was responsible for the deaths of thousands of Israelis, Palestinians, Americans, and citizens from over 30 countries.”
“Over 1,200 people were killed on that day, the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust, including 46 Americans. More than 250 were taken hostage, with 101 still missing. That number includes seven Americans, four of whom are believed to still be alive and held by Hamas terrorists. Sinwar is the man most responsible for this, and for so much of what followed,” Biden continued in his statement.
He added that he will be speaking soon with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders to “discuss the pathway for bringing the hostages home to their families, and for ending this war once and for all, which has caused so much devastation to innocent people.”
Notably, Biden made no mention of the 42,400 Palestinians – including healthcare workers and journalists – that Israeli forces killed since October or the nearly 2 million survivors who Israeli forces have forcibly displaced across the narrow strip.
Harris says ‘justice has been served’ over death of Hamas leader Sinwar
Joanna Walters
Moments ago, Kamala Harris stepped up to a podium while on the election trail in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and commented on Israel’s stating that it killed Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas, in a battle in Gaza today.
“This moment gives us an opportunity to end the war in Gaza,” the US vice-president and Democratic nominee for president in this election, said.
She said “justice has been served” over the reported killing of the leader of the Islamist militants that control Gaza.
Harris reiterated the administration’s stance that “Israel has the right to defend itself and called for the remaining hostages held by Hamas since it led an attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, to be released.
But she added that “the suffering must end” in Gaza and said it was “time for the day after to begin without Hamas in power”. Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not pledged a ceasefire.
We are live blogging all the developments in Gaza, Lebanon and Israel, here.
In the Middle East, the government of Israel has announced its military forces have killed Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas, in a battle in Gaza. This comes less than three weeks after Israel also killed Hassan Nasrallah, the head of Hezbollah, during air strikes on the outskirts of Beirut in Lebanon.
Confirmation on Sinwar’s death is awaited from the Palestinian side. If verified that means the heads of Iran’s two most powerful proxy forces opposed to Israel have been wiped out. We are following all the developments on this live in our international blog and you can find all that news here.
Interim summary
Hello, US politics blog readers, it’s another lively day on the campaign trail with less than three weeks to go before the election. There’s a lot more news to come and we’ll keep up with developments as they happen.
Here’s where things stand:
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Donald Trump told the audience at the Univision town hall last night that “we can’t destroy our country” in order to save the planet from the climate crisis. Answering a question from a veteran construction worker, who had seen first-hand “the devastating impacts of climate change”, whether he still believed global warming was a hoax, Trump launched into a lengthy tirade.
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Kamala Harris posted that “Donald Trump incited an attack on our nation’s democracy because he didn’t like the outcome of the election. If January 6 [2021] was a bridge too far, there is a place for you in our campaign.” This is further outreach from the Democratic nominee for president herself, including to hammer home facts about the insurrection at the US Capitol that day. It came a day after she did an interview with rightwing Fox News and led a rally attended by more than 100 prominent Republicans.
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Tim Walz, Harris’s running mate, will campaign in Durham and Winston-Salem in North Carolina with Common today, to mark the first day of early voting in that important swing state. The Emmy-winning rapper and voting rights activist is to join Walz in Winston-Salem, in a push to get out the vote.
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Harris is on a swing through two vital “blue wall” states today, with campaign stops including Milwaukee, La Crosse and Green Bay in Wisconsin, then heading to Grand Rapids, Michigan.
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Joe Biden announced today further student debt relief for public servants – amounting to about $4.5bn. The action affects about 60,000 borrowers across the country, said the White House, touting the efforts of the US president and Harris, his vice-president and successor as presidential nominee, to improve loan forgiveness since taking office.
Donald Trump’s campaign has released some details about his rally schedule for the coming days.
On Sunday, Trump will hold a town hall in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, at 5pm.
On Monday, he will deliver remarks at a rally in Greenville, North Carolina, at 3pm.
In another state hit hard by hurricanes recently, early voting is underway.
Many voters had to relocate after Hurricane Helene hit North Carolina, where Tim Walz is making a campaign stop. But the state’s board of elections is ensuring those displaced or who live in an area under the federal disaster declaration can still vote via an absentee ballot.
“If you had to relocate due to the storm, you do not have to return to your county to vote. You can request to have your ballot delivered to your temporary housing location or wherever you can receive mail,” the website of North Carolina state board of election reads.
Absentee ballots can be requested at a local county board of elections office during business hours, or online at the North Carolina absentee ballot portal until 5pm on 29 October and must be received no later than 7.30pm on 5 November.
Hurricanes like Milton and Helene, which recently battered US states in the south, is top of mind for many voters. Those who live in natural disaster-prone areas increasingly at risk due to the climate crisis have even more at stake.
Despite this, many of these residents are still choosing to back Donald Trump, a vocal climate denier. The Guardian’s Oliver Laughland and Tom Silverstone travelled to south-west Louisiana to speak to some of these communities.
Trump told town hall: ‘We can’t destroy our country’ to save climate
During Donald Trump’s Univision town hall, the former president pushed back on the climate crisis, telling an audience member at one point: “We can’t destroy our country” in order to save the climate.
Answering a question from a veteran construction worker who had seen first-hand “the devastating impacts of climate change” on whether he still believed global warming was a hoax, Trump launched into a lengthy tirade, saying:
I get awards, environmental awards, for the way I build it for the water, the way I use the water, the sand, the mixing of the sand and the water, I mean, many different, but I’ve had many awards over the years for environmental, the way I’ve built because you know about building, that’s what you do … ”
Q: Given the amount of the mounting evidence of climate change, do you still believe it’s a hoax?
Trump: I get awards environmental awards for the way I build it for the water, the way I use the water, the sand, the mixing of the sand and the water, I mean, many different, but… pic.twitter.com/CPEBBdxXFl
— Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) October 17, 2024
Donald Trump’s team will ban Project 2025 affiliates from a future administration, according to Politico.
Robert Tait reports for the Guardian:
Donald Trump’s transition team is reportedly preparing a blacklist of potential officials to be banned from a future administration, with special emphasis being placed on those with links to the radical Project 2025 plan to overhaul the US government.
The former president’s eldest son, Donald Jr, is spearheading the drive to compile the list of barred staffers, according to Politico, citing a former official in the first Trump administration.
“Clearly people working on Project 2025 are blacklisted,” another ex-official told the site.
The Republican nominee publicly disowned the 922-page document, prepared by the Heritage Foundation thinktank, after polls showed that its ideologically driven prescriptions – including mass firings of civil servants and plans to outlaw abortion – were an electoral liability.
For the full story, click here:
Harris hits out at Trump’s ‘day of love’ comment
In response to a video of Donald Trump answering a question from an audience member during a Univision town hall in which he said the January 6 riot was a “day of love”, Kamala Harris wrote on X:
Donald Trump incited an attack on our nation’s democracy because he didn’t like the outcome of the election.
If January 6 was a bridge too far, there is a place for you in our campaign.
Donald Trump incited an attack on our nation’s democracy because he didn’t like the outcome of the election.
If January 6 was a bridge too far, there is a place for you in our campaign. https://t.co/YWmubEBHkg
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) October 17, 2024
Trump has repeatedly said that he did not lose the 2020 election – a baseless claim which his running mate JD Vance doubled down on this week, saying: “Did Donald Trump lose the election? Not by the words that I would use.”
Kamala Harris will travel to Atlanta, Georgia, this weekend for a campaign rally.
According to her campaign, Harris will use the rally to encourage Georgians to vote early.
The US vice-president has visited the crucial battleground state at least 8 times this year. Her upcoming visit to Atlanta will follow a rally that Donald Trump held in the city on Wednesday.
Walz to campaign in North Carolina with the rapper Common
Tim Walz will campaign in Durham and Winston-Salem in North Carolina today to mark the first day of early voting.
The Emmy-winning rapper and voting rights activist Common will join Walz in Winston-Salem where the two will speak to North Carolinians about the importance of voting, according to the Harris-Walz campaign.
When Lauren Miller found out she was pregnant with twins in the summer of 2022, she was shocked and excited. But an early scan revealed that one of the twins was not developing at the same pace as the other. He had severe abnormalities, and a rare chromosomal disorder called trisomy 18.
Lauren lives in Dallas, Texas, where abortion is illegal unless the pregnancy places the woman at risk of death or “substantial impairment of a major bodily function”. Carter Sherman, the Guardian US reproductive health and justice reporter, explains why this exception does not necessarily reassure women wanting treatment:
Harris to campaign in three Wisconsin cities today
Kamala Harris is set to travel through Wisconsin today, Politico reports.
Her stops include Milwaukee, La Crosse and Green Bay, as well as a college business class. The US vice-president will also hold two rallies before heading to Grand Rapids, Michigan.