L.A. Dodgers win World Series and Trump targets blue states in the campaign’s last days: Morning Rundown

Donald Trump takes his campaign to New Mexico, one of several blue-state stops. The Los Angeles Dodgers take home a World Series title. And a trip underground to see a 600-ton sphere that scientists hope will help unlock the universe’s mysteries.  

Here’s what to know today.

Trump’s unconventional final-week campaign stops

New Mexico. Virginia. New Hampshire. They’re states where former President Donald Trump is trailing Vice President Kamala Harris by more than 5 points in recent polls, where he lost by double digits in 2020 and where the GOP nominee for president hasn’t been elected in two decades. Yet Trump is lined up to host rallies in the first two states and is flirting with a trip to the third. A visit to Albuquerque, New Mexico, is on the agenda today.

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The visits to these states in the final week of the presidential campaign seem to show the Trump campaign is confident that he is in such good shape to beat Vice President Kamala Harris that he can afford to divert focus from the seven main battleground states the two sides have focused on for the entirety of the race. Harris, in comparison, is scheduled to visit Phoenix today, as well as Reno and Las Vegas.

However, both candidates campaigned in coveted battleground Wisconsin yesterday, where Harris tied to court young voters while Trump donned an orange vest and climbed into a garbage truck to highlight comments made by President Joe Biden a day earlier. (Harris also spoke out against Biden’s comments.)

A Trump campaign official said the visits to non-battleground states are part of a strategy to capitalize on what the campaign says are Trump’s diverse coalition and favorable positioning on the map. Another Trump campaign official said that if it is going to a state, it’s because the campaign sees movement there. 

But questions are swirling about whether Trump’s campaign is high on its own supply or grounded in a reality that public polls have missed. The unexpected destinations, plus Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally last weekend in deep-blue New York, has led some Republicans to infer that Trump is overruling the political pros on his team. 

Read the full story here.

More election coverage:

➡️ With the presidential election looking extremely close in polls, it’s possible results could hinge on a recount in a battleground state. Here’s how the process works in seven key states. Plus, how ballot-counting rules differ across these states.

➡️ Trump said in a campaign rally speech that he would “protect” women, “whether the women like it or not.” 

➡️ Trump and his allies are calling out routine election processes as signs of fraud in Pennsylvania. The playbook is familiar.

➡️ Reggaeton star Nicky Jam backtracked on his endorsement of Trump over the Puerto Rico “garbage” joke made at a rally last weekend.

➡️ Backers of Nikki Haley are turned off by Trump’s harsh and sometimes racist rhetoric. But for some, their dislike of Harris is stronger.

➡️ Haley, meanwhile, told voters at stops in Pennsylvania to put aside their feelings about Trump and “focus on the policies.”

➡️ An officer who fought off a pro-Trump mob on Jan. 6 and was also on duty for Harris’ speech this week at The Ellipse compared the two events: “Didn’t do that on the 6th.” 

How Elon Musk turned X into a pro-Trump echo chamber

Before Elon Musk owned X, the app then known as Twitter was regarded as a global town square. When Musk offered to buy the app in April 2022, he pledged that the platform wouldn’t take sides in politics. It hasn’t worked out that way. 

Musk has transformed the platform into an echo chamber in the two years since his purchase. Right-leaning causes are amplified, in particular former President Donald Trump’s electoral campaign, according to academic research, public opinion surveys, data on X’s most influential users, engagement metrics and reports about X’s working directly with the Trump campaign. And in recent months, Musk has become one of Trump’s biggest donors and supporters. 

All told, Musk’s structural changes to the app have tilted in favor of far-right users and posts, researchers say. Look back at how Musk has reshaped the platform under his leadership.

Los Angeles Dodgers win the World Series

The Los Angeles Dodgers are 2024 champions after winning Game 5 of the World Series in a thrilling 7-6 win against the New York Yankees. The Yankees appeared to be cruising toward a victory, leading 5-0 headed into what would end up being a consequential fifth inning. Instead, the team made three huge fielding mistakes that allowed the Dodgers to tie up the game. Here’s what happened.

New York retook the lead in the sixth inning, but two sacrifice flies by Los Angeles in the top of the eighth inning put the Dodgers in the lead for good. 

This marks the Dodgers’ second World Series in the last five years. First baseman Freddie Freeman won World Series MVP. It also marks a first World Series for superstar Shohei Ohtani. Relive highlights from last night’s game.

More World Series coverage:

• Ohtani is a national hero across Japan — and especially in his rural hometown, where fans gathered for a World Series watch party to witness the “once-in-a-century” talent. 
• The two Yankees fans who interfered with Mookie Betts’ Game 4 catch were banned from Game 5, and the tickets were given to a 15-year-old cancer patient and his family.

Floods kill at least 95 in Spain

More downpours are in the forecast today in Spain, a day after at least 95 people were killed and many others are still missing after torrential rain in parts of the country, local authorities said. It’s the country’s worst natural disaster in nearly 30 years and the deadliest rain event in Europe since 2021.

Some areas recorded nearly 8 inches of rain that turned roads into rivers and disrupted highways and railway lines. One town got more than 19 inches of rain in just eight hours. Here’s what else we know.

Read All About It 

• North Korea said it test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile, or ICMB, that could strike the continental U.S., a move quickly condemned by U.S. and South Korean leaders.
• In a first, a pig in Oregon tested positive for H5N1 bird flu virus, the Agriculture Department said.
• Los Angeles County District Attorney said he supports clemency for the Menendez brothers less than a week after he recommended that the brothers be resentenced.
• Starbucks will stop charging an extra fee for non-dairy milk options.
• The number of people sickened in an E. coli outbreak linked to McDonald’s burgers rose to 90, the CDC said.

Staff Pick: The race to solve a scientific mystery

Some 2,300 feet below the Earth’s surface in China is a 600-ton plexiglass sphere that looks like something from a sci-fi flick. Soon, Chinese scientists will fill the sphere with liquid, seal it shut and never open it again, in hopes that they’ll catch a glimpse of the tiniest particles known to physicists: neutrinos. The sphere is meant to usher in a new wave of international research that could untangle the last mysteries of the Big Bang or identify new phenomena in physics.

Earlier this month, Beijing-based producer Eric Baculinao went to southern China and traveled deep underground for an up-close look at the 13-story sphere before it was too late. This story gave me the opportunity to work hand-in-hand with our Beijing bureau so we could share the story of Eric’s unique and rare journey. — Evan Bush, science reporter

NBC Select: Online Shopping, Simplified 

Fall is good hair season. Make it even better with these great leave-in conditioners, according to hairstylists. Plus, here are 24+ gift ideas for astrology lovers and for every zodiac sign, perfect for anyone who has ever asked, “What’s your sign?”

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