WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris will make her first campaign appearances with Barack Obama and Michelle Obama, two of the most popular figures in the Democratic Party, at get-out-the-vote events this month in Georgia and Michigan.
It will be the former first lady's first time hitting the trail for Harris.
Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, is set to appear with Obama in Georgia on Oct. 24 and with Mrs. Obama in Michigan on Oct. 26, according to a Harris campaign senior official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss events before they are officially announced.
The official did not disclose the cities where Harris will join the Obamas.
The former president recently campaigned for Harris in Pittsburgh and has appearances scheduled Friday and Saturday in Arizona and Nevada, respectively, and next week in Wisconsin and Michigan.
Early voting opens statewide in Michigan on Oct. 26, and Harris and the former first lady will encourage supporters to cast their ballots as soon as possible, the official said.
In Georgia, where early voting opened this past Tuesday, more than 310,000 people voted on the first day, a record.
The Obamas endorsed Harris in July and spoke at the Democratic National Convention in August in Chicago. They remain prodigious fundraising draws and popular surrogates at large campaign events for Democratic candidates.
It was previously announced that Mrs. Obama will headline a rally in Atlanta on Oct. 29, three days after joining Harris in Michigan.
The rally, which will feature celebrities and civic leaders, is being hosted by When We All Vote, a nonpartisan civic engagement organization that the former first lady founded in 2018 to reach out to people who are less likely to become involved in politics and elections.
Among the group's celebrity co-chairs are NBA players Stephen Curry and Chris Paul; musical artists Jennifer Lopez and Janelle Monáe; beauty influencer Bretman Rock; and actors Tom Hanks, Selena Gomez, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Kerry Washington.
The friendship between Harris and the Obamas goes back 20 years, when the former president and current vice president met during his campaign for the U.S. Senate. She was an early supporter of his 2008 presidential campaign and went door-knocking for him in Iowa before the caucuses.
Former President Barack Obama speaks during a campaign rally supporting Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024, at the University of Pittsburgh's Fitzgerald Field House in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Matt Freed)
Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at a campaign rally at the Resch Expo in Green Bay, Wis., Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group said Friday it is entering a new phase in its fight against invading Israeli troops, as the region continued to reckon with Israel's claim that top Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar has been killed in a battle with Israeli forces in Gaza the previous day.
Hamas has still not responded to the Israeli announcement, but its ally Iran released a statement commemorating the Palestinian militant leader via its mission to the United Nations. Sinwar was a chief architect of the attack on southern Israel that precipitated the latest escalating conflicts in the Middle East.
Many, from the governments of Israeli allies to exhausted residents of Gaza, expressed hope that Sinwar's death would pave the way for an end to the war, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a speech announcing the killing that “Our war is not yet ended.”
On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led militants blew holes in Israel’s security fence and stormed in, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting another 250. Israel’s offensive in Gaza has killed over 42,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, who do not distinguish combatants from civilians. The war has destroyed large areas of Gaza and displaced about 90% of its population of 2.3 million people.
Here's the latest:
JERUSALEM — Israel’s military said Friday that its forces killed two militants who crossed into south Israel from neighboring Jordan.
The militants entered Israeli territory south of the Dead Sea, the military said.
Such infiltrations into Israeli territory are relatively rare, especially as Israel has ramped up border security since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel, when militants from Gaza stormed southern Israel and killed around 1,200 people.
JERUSALEM — Israeli prosecutors are set to indict a Palestinian from East Jerusalem on Friday who police say planned to carry out an attack on a hostage protest in Tel Aviv.
In a statement Friday, the police and Israel’s Shin Bet security agency said the man was a supporter of Hamas and other militant groups, and planned to carry out multiple attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers in retribution for Israel’s offensive in Gaza.
The man had not yet acquired a weapon or explosives to carry out any of the attacks, the police said, adding that he was planning to attack a protest calling for the return of the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. Such protests occur weekly in Tel Aviv.
BEIRUT — Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group says it is entering a new phase in its fight against invading Israeli troops, adding that it has introduced new weapons over the past days.
A statement from the group’s operations room early Friday said that Hezbollah’s fighters have used new types of precision-guided missiles and explosive drones for the first time.
The statement appears to refer to a drone laden with explosives that evaded Israel’s multilayered air-defense system and slammed into a mess hall at a military training camp deep inside Israel, killing four soldiers and wounding dozens.
The group also announced earlier this week that it fired a new type of missile called Qader 2 toward the suburbs of Tel Aviv.
The statement also said that Hezbollah’s air defense units shot down this week two Israeli Hermes 450 drones.
Hezbollah said its fighters are working according to “plans prepared in advance” to battle invading Israeli troops in several parts of south Lebanon.
UNITED NATIONS — Iran’s Mission to the United Nations issued a statement honoring Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas, after Israel said Thursday he had been killed in fighting:
“When U.S. forces dragged a disheveled Saddam Hussein out of an underground hole, he begged them not to kill him despite being armed. Those who regarded Saddam as their model of resistance eventually collapsed. However when Muslims look up to martyr Sinwar standing on the battlefield — in combat attire and out in the open, not in a hideout, facing the enemy — the spirit of resistance will be strengthened. He will become a model for the youth and children who will carry forth his path for the liberation of Palestine. As long as occupation and aggression exist, resistance will endure, for the martyr remains alive and a source of inspiration.”
Iran and Iraq fought a brutal war in the 1980s that began when Hussein launched an invasion of Iran. It killed more than 1 million people on both sides.
An Israeli security forces officer examines the damage to a home struck by a rocket fired from Lebanon in the town of Majd al-Krum, northern Israel, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
Smoke rises following Israeli bombardment in southern Lebanon as seen from northern Israel, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
Israelis celebrate the news of the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, near Kibbutz Erez, southern Israel, on Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024, (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)
FILE - Yahya Sinwar, head of Hamas in Gaza, delivers a speech during at a hall on the seaside of Gaza City, on April 30, 2022. (AP Photo/Adel Hana)
FILE - Yahya Sinwar speaks to foreign correspondents in his office in Gaza City on May 10, 2018. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra, File)
A demonstrator holds a sign about the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar during a protest calling for a cease-fire deal and the immediate release of hostages held by Hamas on Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024, in Tel Aviv, Israel. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
Displaced men fleeing the Israeli airstrikes in Beirut's Dahiyeh suburb, eat as sit at Beirut's seaside promenade, along the Mediterranean Sea while the sun sets over the capital Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
