Good morning. One month out from the U.S. election, the race is pretty much a dead heat – more on that below, along with the latest from Lebanon and Mark Carney’s potentially problematic new role.
Today’s headlines
- Israeli strikes takes the war to the heart of Beirut as Hezbollah targets are hit in Lebanon’s south
- Gazans and the families of Israeli hostages feel forgotten as the focus shifts to Lebanon and Iran
- The RCMP tells the foreign interference inquiry that Iran is targeting Canadian relatives of Flight 752 victims
A woman waits for a city bus in Albuquerque, New Mexico.Barbara Davidson/The Globe and Mail
U.S. Politics
Along for the ride
In the compendium of unprecedented U.S. elections – 1968′s chaos; 2000′s chads – this one feels especially unprecedented-y. Already, there have been 34 felony convictions (for Donald Trump), two separate assassination attempts (on Donald Trump), and one very reluctant exit from the race (by Joe Biden). Kamala Harris launched her brat summer by clinching the Democratic nomination. The Supreme Court ruled that presidents had broad cover to do crimes. What am I forgetting? RFK Jr. and that whole dead-bear situation. The childless-cat-lady digs. Project 2025.
Whew! And yet, somehow, even with all that – even with two very different candidates leading the ticket – this is still an extraordinarily tight race. There are roughly 168 million people registered to vote in America. In 31 days, the 2024 presidential election could come down to the choices of just three million of them in a few swing states.
To better understand the calculations of undecided voters – and to have more time to speak with people whose minds are firmly made up – The Globe’s feature writer Ian Brown embarked on a very (very) slow trip across the country by Greyhound bus. Following just behind him, in her own car, was Pulitzer Prize–winning photographer Barbara Davidson, who took these remarkable portraits. You can find more of her work and read about Brown’s journey right here, and keep scrolling to see some of the Americans they met along the way.
Robert Moore with his seven-year-old stepson, Colten, in New Mexico.Barbara Davidson/The Globe and Mail
Robert Moore used to work as a forklift technician in Tucumcari, N.M., but now the “very Republican” entrepreneur buys iconic buildings from the town’s 1950s heyday – including the malt shop and motel – with the intention of restoring them. “The best thing about this town is that it’s 90 miles from everywhere,” he said. “We don’t have Walmart. We don’t have Costco. We have each other.”
Savannah Sahm and Tamara Cadieux in Wisconsin.Barbara Davidson/The Globe and Mail
In early August, more than 12,000 people turned out for a Harris-Walz rally in Eau Claire, Wis., population 70,000. “Kamala doesn’t want to go back – she wants to give people back their rights, like Roe v. Wade,” Tarama Cadieux, 22, said. “It’s important we have the rights to our bodies.”
The Branch County Fair in Michigan.Barbara Davidson/The Globe and Mail
A Yemeni woman carried her young daughter at the Branch County Fair in Coldwater, Mich. According to Coldwater’s Daily Reporter, people from Yemen began to move to south-central Michigan in the 1960s to work at a local foundry. Now, roughly 20 per cent of the town’s 13,000 residents are of Yemeni descent.
Michael Kilian in Pennsylvania.Barbara Davidson/The Globe and Mail
Born and raised in Pittsburgh, Michael Kilian has spent three decades cutting meat at Wholey’s in the Strip District. He isn’t sure who he’s voting for yet. With Donald Trump, Kilian said, “You know what you’re going to get – he don’t sugarcoat nothing.” Harris is more of a mystery. “When you don’t know someone, do you take that chance?” In a race this close, Pennsylvania could be the state that tips the outcome.
Autumn Rose in New York.The Globe and Mail
In Lower Manhattan’s Washington Square Park, 21-year-old influencer Autumn Rose recorded an Instagram video to promote a Chillbo Shwaggins inflatable couch. “We need to save our future. We have to do something before it crumbles,” she said. “Save the future – be real.”
The Chart
Hard times for higher education
It’s difficult to find a university, big or small, across the country that isn’t on the verge of financial ruin, Dan Breznitz writes in the latest essay for his Prosperity’s Path series. Read more about Canada’s troubled higher-education system here.
The Wrap
What else we’re following
At home: The Conservatives have asked Canada’s Lobbying Commissioner whether Mark Carney’s new role as a Liberal policy adviser – while serving as chair of Brookfield Asset Management – violates any lobbying rules.
Abroad: Melania Trump, pro-choice champion? In a video promoting her new memoir, she says that when it comes to a woman’s “individual freedom” over her body, “there is no room for compromise.”
Money woes: Over the past decade and a half, Zimbabwe has made six attempts at introducing a new currency, but everybody (including the country’s president) much prefers to use the U.S. dollar.
Making waves: For the first time in its 173-year history, the America’s Cup will include a women’s regatta – and Canada’s sailors are ready for the challenge.