Another assassination attempt, baseless claims about pets, and Taylor Swift: the US election is wild, but does any of it matter?

Cristobal Herrera-Ulashkevich/EPA/AAP by Jared Mondschein, University of Sydney It has not yet been a week since the debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump – in which the Democrat was widely held to have bested the Republican – and the US presidential election has been dominated by whether Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, eat dogs and cats; pop superstar Taylor Swift endorsing Harris and Walz followed by Trump posting “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT!” on his social media site; and now a second assassination attempt on Trump. While there is plenty of heat and noise around, will any of it matter on election day on November 5? A second assassination attempt For the second time in only two months, it appears Trump has survived an attempt on his life, this time by a suspect armed with an “AK-47-style rifle”. Though details are still emerging, 58-year-old Ryan Wesley Routh was reportedly within a few hundred yards of the former president while he was playing golf in Florida. However, unlike the July 13 assassination attempt on Trump, the alleged assailant was identified and pursued by secret service officers before he could even fire a shot. Trump was uninjured. Unfortunately, assassinations are not rare...