Pence takes on Oprah as midterm battle heats up ... Bolsonaro moving Brazilian embassy to Jerusalem ... Google workers protest over sexual misconduct

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Good morning, I’m Tim Walker with today’s headlines. If you’d like to receive this briefing by email, sign up here.

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Top story: Trump floats unconstitutional immigration measures

In a Thursday night address that was long on lurid language and short on policy specifics, Donald Trump proposed an extreme clampdown on immigration including the indefinite detainment of Central American migrants in “cities of tents”, and using military firepower to target people throwing stones. The live White House broadcast of almost an hour, five days before the midterm elections, suggests the president has decided to end the campaign on immigration scaremongering – and little else.

Hostile environment. Some migrants are held for years at the El Paso Processing Centre in Texas. The authorities call it a “holding and processing facility”, but most people would recognise it as a prison, reports Justine van der Leun.

Migrant caravan. In Matías Romero, Mexico, David Agren finds the trek from Honduras to the US is taking its toll on the migrant caravan, especially parents and young children.

Pence takes on Oprah as midterm battle heats up in Georgia

Play Video 1:37 'Vote your values': Oprah Winfrey campaigns for Stacey Abrams - video

Mike Pence and Oprah Winfrey have hit the midterm campaign trail in Georgia, where the Democrat Stacey Abrams is running to become the first black female governor in the US. Stumping for her Republican rival Brian Kemp, the US vice-president attacked Abrams’s “liberal Hollywood friends”, saying: “This ain’t Hollywood, this is Georgia.” As some pointed out, Pence’s boss is a former reality TV star, while Georgia in fact hosted more major motion picture productions than California in 2016.

Woke Vote. Alabama’s African American voters were key to defeating Roy Moore’s US Senate bid. Will they turn out again to sway the midterms, asks Caleb Gayle in Birmingham.

Voter suppression. Millions will be excluded from voting in the midterms, thanks to widespread voter suppression that rigs elections against minorities and the poor, writes Gary Younge.

Bolsonaro pledges to move Brazilian embassy to Jerusalem

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The current Brazilian embassy in Tel Aviv. Photograph: Jack Guez/AFP/Getty Images

Brazil’s populist, pro-torture president-elect, Jair Bolsonaro, has restated his intention to move the country’s embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a step that will alienate many Muslim countries but has already delighted the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who issued a statement calling it “historic, correct and exciting”.

Three countries. Brazil will be the third country to have an embassy in Jerusalem, after Guatemala and the US.

‘Troika of tyranny’. The US national security adviser, John Bolton, has welcomed Bolsonaro’s election as a “positive sign” for Latin America, while condemning Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua as a “troika of tyranny”.

Thousands of Google employees protest at sexual misconduct

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Google workers protest at the company’s Mountain View HQ. Photograph: Noah Berger/AP

Thousands of Google employees walked out of their offices around the world on Thursday to protest over claims of sexual harassment, gender inequality and systemic racism at the company. At Google’s Silicon Valley HQ, several hundred listened as speakers recounted allegations of harassment and management’s attempts to silence them.

Moral compass. A midterm ballot measure would tax big companies in San Francisco to help the city’s homeless. Will it help Silicon Valley to relocate its moral compass, asks Vivian Ho.

Listen to Today in Focus

Today, the Guardian’s new daily podcast turns to the midterms. Gary Younge has spent several weeks in Racine, Wisconsin – traditionally a bellwether city in a bellwether state – to see which way it’s swinging in the Trump era.

Crib sheet

Asian shares have soared amid reports the US and China are on the verge of settling their trade war , after Donald Trump tweeted that he had enjoyed a “very good conversation” on trade with the Chinese president, Xi Jinping.

An uninhabited Japanese island has disappeared completely, eroded by wind and drift ice, in a region where even such a tiny landmass is important for Japan in maintaining its territory in maritime disputes with China and Russia.

Residents of an English village used to illustrate a Republican attack ad have hit back at the “unfair” depiction, with one Jaywick Sands local calling Donald Trump “a cheeky sod”.

Ridley Scott is developing a sequel to his Oscar-winning 2000 epic, Gladiator, working from a script by Peter Craig, who also wrote the forthcoming Top Gun sequel, Maverick.

Must-reads

Facebook Twitter Pinterest ‘Women are not something that you pick up and put down’: Alexandra Waterbury. Photograph: Alexandra Waterbury

How sexual misconduct permeates the world of ballet

When Alexandra Waterbury caught her boyfriend sharing intimate images with their fellow dancers, she sued the New York City Ballet. Hers is just one story in a long history of powerful men abusing their position in the ballet world, reports Alexandra Villarreal.

New Caledonia debates independence from France

The Pacific island of New Caledonia is more than 10,000 miles from Paris; now a referendum presents the possibility of independence from France. Kim Lévy and Prianka Srinivasan hear from indigenous locals who say they’ve suffered “165 years of exploitation”.

Twilight at 10: the teen vampire saga’s feminist legacy

A critical turkey transformed into a box-office beast, the first Twilight movie was released a decade ago this month. Kate Muir says the franchise finally forced Hollywood to pay attention to a previously underserved demographic: girls.

OnePlus 6T proves cutting-edge tech needn’t cost the Earth

OnePlus has always kept its smartphone offerings simple, providing high-spec tech at budget prices. With its in-display fingerprint scanner and unobtrusive notch, reviewer Samuel Gibbs says you’d have to spend double to do better than the new OnePlus 6T.

Opinion

It is now a month since Jamal Khashoggi entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, never to emerge alive. The murdered journalist’s fiancee, Hatice Cengiz, says his killers must not escape accountability.

The perpetrators should know that they can never erase Jamal’s vision for his beloved country. They have only emboldened it. It is now left to the international community to bring the perpetrators to justice.

Sport

Atlanta United’s Venezuelan striker Josef Martínez has scored 31 goals this season, an MLS record. He talks to Francisco Navas and Jakub Francowicz about the looming playoffs, and the responsibility of being a role model for his troubled country.

With the NFL season reaching the halfway point, Oliver Connolly picks its best performers so far, and updates his Super Bowl predictions.

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