The Latest: Harris keeps a focus on 'blue wall' states in the campaign's final weeks

With three weeks left in the presidential campaign, Democrat Kamala Harris is spending most of her days trying to shore up support in the “blue wall” states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin as she tries to avoid a repeat of Hillary Clinton’s collapse there eight years ago.

Her schedule reflects the Democratic nominee’s focus on her most likely path to victory over Republican candidate Donald Trump. Harris’ campaign says she’s not ceding ground in Sun Belt states like North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona and Nevada even though most of her time is spent elsewhere.

The vice president campaigned at a hockey rink on Monday in Erie, Pennsylvania, where she denounced Republican candidate Donald Trump as “unhinged.” She visited an art gallery in Detroit with actors Don Cheadle, Delroy Lindo and Cornelius Smith. Jr. on Tuesday, then recorded a radio town hall with Charlamagne tha God.

On Wednesday, Harris was back in Pennsylvania to stress allegiance to the Constitution as she stood just steps from the banks of the Delaware River, where George Washington crossed with his troops in a pivotal moment of the Revolutionary War.

Her pace doesn’t let up for the rest of the week.

Harris is headed back to Milwaukee Thursday as she seeks support from college-age voters.

She’ll drop by a business class at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, then hold a student rally at University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. She closes out the day with a rally in Green Bay.

The vice president is expected to hold meet-and-greets in Michigan on Friday. She then campaigns in Detroit on Saturday.

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Here’s the latest:

Mark Cuban is telling supporters of Kamala Harris at a rally Thursday that Donald Trump used to be “a little bit coherent.”

“But I don’t know what happened to him,” said Cuban, an owner of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks and celebrity investor on “Shark Tank.”

The rally is at Recreational Eagle Center, the main sports and recreation facility on the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse campus. The school has about 9,400 undergraduates and about 930 graduate students. A large sign on one end of the arena reads, “A New Way Forward for La Crosse.”

Cuban warned the crowd that if Trump was elected in November, his tariffs proposal would make holiday gifts cost 60% more than they are now.

“You won’t be able to afford the presents you want for your family and friends,” he said. The choice, he said, is to elect Harris.

President Joe Biden thinks Vice President Kamala Harris turned in a “strong” performance during her first interview on Fox News.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden caught the interview, which was broadcast nationally on Wednesday night, and thought the Democratic presidential nominee’s performance was “strong.”

“I think what you saw, and this is what he believes, is that you saw why Americans and people want to see her continuing to fight for them” Jean-Pierre told reporters accompanying Biden on a trip to Germany on Thursday. “She was strong and incredibly impressive.”

Harris engaged in a combative interview with Bret Baier, the host of “Special Report,” sparring with him on immigration and shifting policy positions while asserting that if elected, she would not represent a continuation of Biden’s presidency.

Republican Donald Trump stopped by a barbershop in the Bronx borough of New York City on Thursday.

The former president entered the barbershop through a security tent that been set up outside and once inside, greeted a room full of men who were seated in barber chairs.

“How good are the barbers here?” Trump asked the room, according to a video posted on social media by his spokesman Steven Cheung. “I can see they’re good.”

With just weeks before election day, Trump has often taken a hypermasculine tone as he tries to secure support from male voters, including Black and Hispanic men.

Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris said Thursday the killing of Hamas’ top leader, Yahya Sinwar, by Israel “gives us an opportunity to finally end the war in Gaza.”

Speaking from a Wisconsin college campus where she was campaigning, Harris said the war “must end such that Israel is secure, the hostages are released, the suffering in Gaza ends and the Palestinian people can realize their right to dignity, security, freedom and self-determination.”

“It is time for the day after to begin,” she said.

As she arrived to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee campus, protesters shouted outside “Free, free Palestine.”

Israel says Sinwar was killed in a battle with Israeli forces in Gaza. Iaraeli Foreign Minister Katz called Sinwar’s killing a “military and moral achievement for the Israeli army.”

Sinwar was a chief architect of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel that precipitated the war and escalating conflicts across the Middle East.

Former NBC News anchor Brian Williams will be working again on election night, anchoring a live special with results and analysis to stream on Amazon Prime Video.

Amazon announced the plans on Thursday, saying the election night streamcast will begin at 5 p.m. Eastern, with no end time given. His longtime NBC colleague, Jonathan Wald, will be executive producer.

An election night telecast is a new frontier for a big streaming service, one that doesn’t have its own news operation. Prime Video was scant on details in a news release, saying the show will have results from third-party news sources and a variety of as-yet unnamed guests to talk about them.

Williams and Wald were not immediately available, according to Amazon.

Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz is making the talk show rounds with scheduled appearances on “The View,” and “The Daily Show.”

The Minnesota governor will appear on both shows Monday, with just a few weeks to go before the presidential election. He’s heading to ABC’s “The View” after Kamala Harris was on Oct. 8. Her appearance delivered the longtime talk show’s highest ratings in three and a half years, according to ABC.

Walz will be interviewed on Comedy Central’s popular talk show by Jon Stewart, campaign officials said. Stewart, the show’s longtime leader, has come back to host once a week on Mondays.

Early in-person voting began statewide Thursday in the presidential battleground of North Carolina, including in mountainous areas where thousands of potential voters still lack power and clean running water after Hurricane Helene’s epic flooding.

More than 400 locations in all 100 counties were slated to open for the 17-day early vote period, said State Board of Elections Executive Director Karen Brinson Bell. Only four of 80 sites in the 25 western counties hardest hit by the storm weren’t going to open.

Helene’s arrival three weeks ago in the Southeast decimated remote towns throughout Appalachia and killed at least 246 people, with a little over half of the storm-related deaths in North Carolina. It was the deadliest hurricane to hit the U.S. mainland since Katrina in 2005.

Early in-person voting, which continues through Nov. 2, is very popular in North Carolina. More than 3.6 million ballots — 65% of all cast ballots — were cast this way in the 2020 general election. In the 2016 election, 62% of all cast ballots were cast during early in-person voting.

Absentee voting in North Carolina began a few weeks ago, with over 67,000 completed ballots turned in so far, election officials said. People displaced by Helene are being allowed to drop off their absentee ballot at any early voting site in the state.

On Thursday, Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz was expected to campaign in Winston-Salem and in Durham, where he was to be joined by former President Bill Clinton.

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi and Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley were expected to appear on the “Team Trump Bus Tour” when it resumes Thursday in Rutherford County, which was among the hardest-hit areas.

As President Joe Biden left the White House on his way to Germany Thursday, he was asked about Donald Trump’s recent social media post that Kamala Harris was “the worst vice president in history.” Biden, walking from the White House to Marine One on the South Lawn, stopped and said: “You don’t listen to Donald Trump, do ya?”

Biden hasn’t had any nice words for the Republican nominee, calling him a “loser” during a campaign event earlier this week. He also said that Harris, if elected, would cut her own path as president and her “perspective on our problems will be fresh and new. Donald Trump’s perspective is old and failed and quite frankly, thoroughly totally dishonest.”

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks during a Univision town hall, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024, in Doral, Fla. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks during a Univision town hall, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024, in Doral, Fla. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

A supporter greets Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump after a campaign event at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris greets people at a campaign event at Washington Crossing Historic Park, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024, in Washington Crossing, Pa. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a campaign event at Washington Crossing Historic Park, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024, in Washington Crossing, Pa. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a campaign event at Washington Crossing Historic Park, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024, in Washington Crossing, Pa. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at a campaign event at Washington Crossing Historic Park, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024, in Washington Crossing, Pa. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

BERLIN (AP) — A brand new fire station in Germany, which was destroyed in a fire, causing millions of euros in damage and destroyed equipment did not have a fire alarm system, local media reported Thursday.

The fire broke out early Wednesday morning at the Stadtallendorf fire station in Hesse and destroyed, among other things, the equipment hall and almost a dozen emergency vehicles, German news agency dpa reported. Initial estimates put the damage at between 20 million and 24 million euros ($21 million to $26 million). No one was injured.

Local officials told dpa that no fire alarm system was installed in the building because experts had considered it not necessary — much to the astonishment of many observers now that the station has burned down.

The fire broke out on an emergency vehicle belonging to the fire department, which contained lithium-ion batteries and an external power connection.

The station opened less than a year ago, local media reported.

“I believe that what has happened will make many people think and act,” about improving fire protection requirements at fire stations, Norbert Fischer, the head of the State Fire Brigade Association of the state of Hesse, told dpa.

Precisely because there is a lot of technology in fire stations and batteries are being charged, it would make sense to equip them with fire alarm systems, Fischer said, noting it was unclear whether such a system could have prevented the worst in Stadtallendorf.

“This fire spread at breakneck speed," he said.

Firefighters work on the site of a fire in a vehicle depot in Stadtallendorf, Germany, Wednesday Oct. 16, 2024. (Andreas Arnold/dpa via AP)

Firefighters work on the site of a fire in a vehicle depot in Stadtallendorf, Germany, Wednesday Oct. 16, 2024. (Andreas Arnold/dpa via AP)

Firefighters try to extinguish a fire in a vehicle depot in Stadtallendorf, Germany, Wednesday Oct. 16, 2024. (Michael Rinde/dpa via AP)