The moment Donald Trump uttered the words at the debate on Tuesday night I knew I’d be off to Springfield.

And so here I am, with a dispatch from a once unremarkable small American town that’s now utterly remarkable, if you believe the claim.

“They’re eating the dogs! They’re eating the cats! They’re eating the pets of the people that live there,” Trump had said.

First stop – the park to find the dog walkers. The first man I met, with his dog, was called Bruce.

“I’ve heard about it…” he told me when I asked if he could verify the Trump claim. “…but I haven’t seen anything really.”

“You’re not worried about your dog?” I asked. “No.”

“You should ask them…” he then said, pointing to a man in a municipal vehicle.

He didn’t want to be filmed but was happy to chat. He said how the duck and geese numbers had fallen. Maybe they were being eaten he said, or maybe they were just migrating elsewhere.

“What about the pets?” I asked him. And that’s when I got the first hint of how conspiracies are seeded.

“I’ve never seen nothing going on with the dogs and cats, except what I’ve seen on TikTok with the Springfield police arresting a lady for eating a cat. She was from Haiti wasn’t she,” he said.

The video he’d seen has been doing the rounds for the past week in the conspiracy incubator that is social media.

It is police bodycam footage of a woman being arrested a few weeks ago for allegedly killing and eating a cat.

But she isn’t a Haitian migrant. She was born in America. And the incident didn’t happen in Springfield either. The local police have confirmed all these facts to be true.

Across Springfield we have not found anyone who has seen pet-eating immigrants.

Driving the streets and talking to the residents I can confirm that the dogs seem safe; the cats are roaming loose.

The instinct then maybe to laugh at the peak-Trump nonsense. Indeed, the Haitians of Springfield can see the funny side too.

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“The Haitians don’t eat cat and dog. No. It’s not the culture to eat that,” Viteo Lawway, 24, told me, with a laugh.

But within this cat and dog story there are some actual truths. There are huge challenges over immigration in America and they are acute in Springfield.

Viteo Lawway is one of 15,000 to have arrived here in Springfield from war-torn, gang-run Haiti since 2020. The pressures on services and society are obvious.

Springfield is a small place with an existing population of under 60,000.

“How did you feel when you heard Donald Trump’s words?” I asked Casey Rollins the executive director of the St Vincent de Paul centre which helps newly arrived migrants.

“I was physically ill. Still am. I can’t even react. I can’t even repeat it. It’s just unfathomable to me, but that’s what happens when hysteria is spread, you know, and all kinds of fictional narratives and it’s really doing harm to our world.”

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We looked at another view from another Springfield resident that’s gone viral online.

The woman in the video, who appears to be addressing a community group, is heard saying: “I feel like we have been invaded by some sort of pest.

“I am angry that my friends and family are packing up and moving away. I am angry that foreigners are using up the resources they were set up for the Americans who reside here.”

The clip went on to allege and amplify the pet-eating migrant story.

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“Every community, every culture has its myth and its folklore. I guess this is one,” Casey said to me in response.

The tensions in the town are clear but they are being fanned.

An accident last year between a car and a school bus in Springfield was caused by a Haitian driver. There is a particular concern that the newly-arrived Haitians do not drive well.

An 11-year-old boy died in the crash. Donald Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, has cited the tragedy but has framed it a particular way. The boy, Vance said on X last week, was “murdered by migrants”.

A Trump campaign social media page weighed in too: “REMEMBER: 11-year-old Aiden Clark was killed on his way to school by a Haitian migrant that Kamala Harris let into the country in Springfield, Ohio.”

The boy’s father has hit back.

Nathan Clark told a city commission meeting this week that he wished for “the incessant group of hate-spewing people would leave us alone”.

He continued: “My son Aiden Clark was not murdered. He was accidentally killed by a migrant from Haiti. This tragedy is felt all over this community, the state and even the nation. But don’t spin this towards hate.”

Baseless, evidence-free, racist conspiracies usually stay deep down rabbit holes where they belong.

But Donald Trump inhabits these rabbit holes. He is led down them by people in his inner circle, like Laura Loomer, a known conspiracy theorist who regularly travels in Mr Trump’s entourage.

Rumours which would usually only exist in small echo chambers precisely because there is no evidence no support them, suddenly get massively amplified when Donald Trump mentions them.

This is a country where too often people no longer believe their own l neighbours, their own instinct or their own eyes. And that applies to both sides in this divided country. That’s the problem.

Its Black Mirror type stuff – a conspiracy about cats and dogs. Fantasy world stuff but with real world consequences.

A dramatic rescue was captured on live TV in New Orleans as Hurricane Francine swept in to the city.

The category two storm made landfall in the state of Louisiana on Wednesday night, bringing strong winds and heavy rains which caused flooding and knocked out electricity to more than a quarter of a million properties.

Jonah Gilmore, a reporter with New Orleans channel WDSU, was live on air when he spotted a vehicle driving into floodwater.

“We saw the pickup truck going into the canal underpass from the opposite direction… going against traffic… when this area was blocked off,” he said.

The panicked reporter flagged down a nearby police officer as he described how the water was “coming up so quickly” – but as he did so a passing Good Samaritan also leapt into action and approached the car with a hammer.

Mr Gilmore told viewers: “You can see that guy breaking the [vehicle’s] window.”

The footage then showed a man’s head emerging from a rear door window and squeezing through the gap.

The driver was eventually led to safety by the rescuer, Miles Crawford, before firefighters arrived at the scene.

Mr Crawford, who works in a hospital ER department, said afterwards: “I just had to go in there and get him. I’m a nurse so I got to save lives.”

Hurricane Francine came ashore in Louisiana with winds approaching 100mph in Terrebonne Parish, about 30 miles southwest of Morgan City, according to the National Hurricane Centre.

It prompted evacuation orders for thousands of people in a region which has still not fully recovered from a series of devastating hurricanes in 2020 and 2021.

Morgan City fire chief Alvin Cockerham said the hurricane quickly flooded streets, snapped power lines and sent trees crashing down.

“It’s a little bit worse than what I expected to be honest with you…. it’s too dangerous to be out there in this,” he said.

The hurricane’s path later moved inland, cutting power supplies for 261,000 properties across southeast Louisiana, before weakening to a tropical storm.

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Much of Louisiana and Mississippi could be hit by 10 to 20cm (4 to 8in) of rain, with the possibility of 30cm (12in) in some places, said Brad Reinhart, a senior specialist at the hurricane centre.

Francine is the sixth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season and was fuelled by exceedingly warm waters in the Gulf of Mexico.

President Joe Biden has approved emergency support to help Louisiana secure federal money and assistance.

Taylor Swift has won seven gongs at the 2024 MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs), equalling Beyonce in a career total of 30 and matching her as most-awarded musician in VMAs history.

Swift, who used her platform to urge Americans to vote in the upcoming presidential elections, picked up prizes including video of the year for Fortnight, featuring Post Malone, artist of the year and best collaboration.

While Swift overtook Beyonce as the most decorated solo artist in VMA history, the Single Ladies singer has previously picked up gongs for being in girl group Destiny’s Child, and her collaborations with husband Jay-Z as The Carters.

Beyonce did not win any new awards at this year’s VMAs and was notably shut out of the Country Music Association Awards earlier this week.

Upon receiving her award for video of the year, Swift thanked her boyfriend, NFL player Travis Kelce, for his support, saying: “Everything this man touches turns to happiness and fun and magic.”

She also encouraged her fans who are over 18 to register to vote in the upcoming US election, although she avoided directly mentioning her endorsement of vice president Kamala Harris.

On Tuesday, after a presidential debate between Ms Harris and Republican candidate Donald Trump, Swift endorsed the Democratic candidate on Instagram, writing: “I think she is a steady-handed, gifted leader and I believe we can accomplish so much more in this country if we are led by calm and not chaos.”

Swift jokingly signed off her endorsement “childless cat lady” – a move which was followed by Fleetwood Mac star Stevie Nicks shortly after.

Elsewhere, Katy Perry also made VMA history, becoming the first singer to win the Vanguard award – the VMA’s lifetime achievement award – having previously won video of the year and also present the ceremony in previous years.

The stakes were high for the I Kissed A Girl singer after her comeback album – 143 – was panned by fans and critics alike, with the first two singles from the collection sinking without trace.

Perry performed a medley of her biggest songs, including Roar, Teenage Dream and Firework, with her stage show including a risqué performance with rapper Doechii, during which the pair wrapped their legs around each other and lay on the stage.

Accepting her award, which was presented to her by her husband British actor Orlando Boom, Perry said: “There are so many things that have to align to have a long and successful career as an artist. There are no decade-long accidents.”

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Bloom and Perry shared an on-stage kiss after the singer accepted the award, with Perry thanking him “for keeping me grounded”.

She also paid tribute to their four-year-old daughter, Daisy Dove, saying: “Lastly, for my Daisy, the only flowers I’ll ever need.”

Elsewhere, Sabrina Carpenter picked up song of the year for Espresso, while Good Luck, Babe singer Chappell Roan was named best new artist and Blackpink’s LISA won the best K-pop award.

Carpenter wore the same silver sequined Bob Mackie gown that Madonna wore to the 1991 Academy Awards, and surprisingly kissed an alien during her performance of a medley of her hits which included Please Please Please, Taste and Espresso.

Meanwhile, Roan channelled Joan of Arc for her medieval performance of Good Luck, Babe – a summer hit that has made her a break-out star.

Roan – who last month sparked a conversation about boundaries after posting videos online urging fans to stop “harassing her” – had recently faced push-back after cancelling two European shows to play the VMAs.

Eminem won prizes for best hip-hop video and best visual effects, making him the solo male artist with the most wins with a total haul of 14 gongs.

He performed his two latest singles, Houdini and Somebody Save Me, entering the stage with dozens of dancers all sporting bleach blonde wigs.

It was a nod to his 2000 VMA performance of The Real Slim Shady, where he sang at the ceremony in front of hundreds of extras dressed just like him.

The 2024 MTV VMAs will be screened in the UK on MTV and Paramount Plus at 8pm on Thursday 12 September