Trump Takes Election Pitch to Storied New York Arena

Republican presidential nominee and former US President Donald Trump speaks during a rally in State College, Pennsylvania, US October 26, 2024. (Reuters)
Republican presidential nominee and former US President Donald Trump speaks during a rally in State College, Pennsylvania, US October 26, 2024. (Reuters)
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Trump Takes Election Pitch to Storied New York Arena

Republican presidential nominee and former US President Donald Trump speaks during a rally in State College, Pennsylvania, US October 26, 2024. (Reuters)
Republican presidential nominee and former US President Donald Trump speaks during a rally in State College, Pennsylvania, US October 26, 2024. (Reuters)

Donald Trump rallies supporters Sunday at an iconic New York arena while Kamala Harris goes neighborhood to neighborhood in Philadelphia just over a week before America votes in an extraordinarily close White House race.

Trump's gathering at the nearly 20,000-seat Madison Square Garden is expected to draw a blitz of coverage in the Republican's home metropolis, which is still very much a Democratic stronghold.

Both candidates are making closing pitches to voters in one of America's most divisive and suspense-filled electoral fights, with polls suggesting a dead heat ahead of the November 5 vote.

Harris, 60, has planned a packed day of campaigning in the biggest city in must-win Pennsylvania, including stops at a Black church and barbershop as well as a Puerto Rican restaurant.

A senior Harris campaign official said Sunday's visit will be the vice president's 14th trip to Pennsylvania since she jumped to the top of the ticket after President Joe Biden's shock withdrawal in July.

Harris will go before supporters to make what her campaign called her "closing argument" on Tuesday in Washington at the park where Trump rallied supporters before the January 6 riot.

Trump's rally Sunday at a venue dubbed "The World's Most Famous Arena" is set to include backers and surrogates like billionaire Elon Musk, who has personally hit the campaign trail for the ex-president.

It is a storied arena in US sporting and cultural life that has hosted the Rolling Stones, Madonna and U2 plus several Democratic and Republican presidential conventions over the decades.

However, the venue's association with the far-right, pro-Hitler Bund group that hosted a rally in 1939, complete with eagles, Nazi insignia and salutes, will generate darker headlines.

Trump appears at Madison Square Garden just days after one of his top former officials, John Kelly, said the Republican fits the definition of a fascist -- something Harris later said she agreed with.

- 'Genuine fear' of Trump win -

The latest high wattage surrogate for Harris, former first lady Michelle Obama, aired her "genuine fear" on Saturday that Trump could retake the White House.

She said Harris would be an "extraordinary president," but Obama also spoke of a sense of frustration and anxiety that few on the vice president's team dare express after she lost some momentum in recent weeks.

"My hope about Kamala is also accompanied by some genuine fear," Obama said, ripping into Trump's record and asking, "Why is this race even close?"

With more than 40 million people already casting early ballots, Americans are deciding between electing the country's first-ever woman president or the oldest major candidate ever.

Trump, 78, still refuses to accept his defeat in the vote four years ago and is expected to reject the result if he loses again -- potentially pitching the United States into chaos.

Trump swept Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania -- three usually Democratic states -- in his shock victory in 2016 only to see Biden reclaim them four years later.

He hopes to claw back one or more of the trio, and win the so-called Sun Belt swing states in the country's south to propel him back into power.



New Storm Bears Down on Philippines after Deadly Trami

 In this photo provided by the Malacanang Presidential Communications Office, a view of a damaged bridge caused by Tropical Storm Trami, in Laurel, Batangas province, Philippines on Friday Oct. 25, 2024. (Malacanang Presidential Communications Office via AP)
In this photo provided by the Malacanang Presidential Communications Office, a view of a damaged bridge caused by Tropical Storm Trami, in Laurel, Batangas province, Philippines on Friday Oct. 25, 2024. (Malacanang Presidential Communications Office via AP)
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New Storm Bears Down on Philippines after Deadly Trami

 In this photo provided by the Malacanang Presidential Communications Office, a view of a damaged bridge caused by Tropical Storm Trami, in Laurel, Batangas province, Philippines on Friday Oct. 25, 2024. (Malacanang Presidential Communications Office via AP)
In this photo provided by the Malacanang Presidential Communications Office, a view of a damaged bridge caused by Tropical Storm Trami, in Laurel, Batangas province, Philippines on Friday Oct. 25, 2024. (Malacanang Presidential Communications Office via AP)

The Philippines raised a fresh weather alert on Monday, days more than 100 people were killed by the worst storm of the year.

Nearly a million people are still sheltering at evacuation centers or with relatives after losing their homes or being driven out by floodwaters brought by Severe Tropical Storm Trami, which struck from October 22.

Now the national weather agency says Tropical Storm Kong-rey will bring heavy rain and severe wind to land in coming hours, and cause rough seas off the east coast.

Kong-rey will strengthen into a typhoon by Tuesday and pass close to small Philippine islands in the north as early as Wednesday, the weather service said in a bulletin. The lowest of a five-stage storm alert is in place on the country's northeast coast.

Trami, by contrast, struck some of the country's most populous areas.

The government's disaster agency put the death toll from Trami at 116, with 39 missing.

"Considering the current movement, a further westward shift in forecast track is not ruled out," it said of the latest storm, which would bring it closer to the country than earlier forecast.

It expects Kong-rey to smash into Taiwan at typhoon strength early Friday.

About 20 big storms and typhoons hit the Philippines or its surrounding waters each year, damaging homes and infrastructure and killing dozens of people.