Harris, in a pitch to voters who do not have a university degree, says it's her goal to "double registered apprenticeships" by the end of her first term - if she became president

"Let's eliminate degree requirements while increasing skills, development," she says.

She adds that she will begin the policy with jobs in the federal government, and this will serve as a model to the private sector that companies should be "emphasising skills and not just degrees".

She also pledges to business leaders that she will "cut red tape and keep things moving faster".

"Nobody can tell me we can't build quickly in our country," she says, noting how speedily the Pentagon and the Empire State Building were erected.

Trump, she claims, is "one of the biggest losers ever on manufacturing" who "constantly got played by China" during his time as president.

And with that, Harris finishes her speech.

Image source, Reuters

Harris says that 3 million new homes will be built under her administration, and pledges that the government will provide $25,000 "down payment assistance" for first time home buyers.

She says this will help younger Americans with no real estate holdings to "just get their foot in the door".

"I believe that the source of our success," she says, is "ingenuity" and "dynamism".

She also praises entrepreneurs, but says they sometimes lack the access to capital that they need.

In a dig at Trump, she says that not everyone has access to a "silver platter". She goes on to note the million dollar investment he was gifted by his father when he was starting out in business, and the multiple times that he has declared bankruptcy.

Harris says that she aims for 25 million new small business applications to be filed within her first four years in office, if she wins in November. She says this would be achieved with a tax deduction increase from $5,000 to $50,000.

"Small businesses, the point being, drive our economy," she says.

Harris begins her speech to Pittsburgh, aka the Steel City, by telling a familiar story about her mother struggling to pay bills and her own middle class background.

As she continues to introduce herself to voters, she is tying her childhood and upbringing to average Americans' financial struggles.

"I have pledged that building a strong middle class will be a defining goal of my presidency," she says, adding that "when the middle class is strong, America is strong".

"I am a capitalist," Harris continues, knocking back an attack line Trump has repeatedly used against his rival, who he calls "Comrade Kamala". He has repeatedly called her a communist, socialist and Marxist.

"Companies have to play by the rules," she says, arguing that during her time as California attorney general, she kept businesses accountable to the public.

Under her plan, she claims, more than 100 million Americans will get a tax break, including $6,000 "for new parents during the first year of their child's life".

Kamala Harris has just walked on stage at the Economic Club of Pittsburgh.

The presidential candidate is expected to outline some of her economic plans.

You can watch the speech live at the top of this page.

Who had more manufacturing jobs – Biden or Trump?published at 20:05 British Summer Time 25 September

20:05 BST 25 September

By Jake Horton

In his speech in North Carolina, Trump talked about creating a “manufacturing renaissance” and said Kamala Harris “killed” 24,000 manufacturing jobs.

Trump was talking about the latest monthly data, which shows a drop of 24,000 jobs in the manufacturing sector from July to August, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, external.

The investment bank JP Morgan says jobs in the car industry, external made up about a quarter of these losses but said they “expect these jobs to rebound in September as summer auto manufacturing plant shutdowns subside".

Despite the drop, there are currently more people employed in US manufacturing than at any point during Trump’s presidency.

As of August 2024, the data shows more than 12.9 million people working in the sector - that’s 100,000 more than at its peak under Trump.

Like most industries, manufacturing jobs dropped off dramatically during the pandemic, but began to bounce back under Trump. He added more than 400,000 manufacturing jobs during his three years in office.

This continued under the Biden administration which has added almost 740,000 manufacturing jobs since January 2021.

James FitzGerald
Live reporter

About 240 million people are eligible to vote in this year’s US election, but only a relatively small number of them are likely to settle the question of who becomes the next president.

Experts believe there are only a handful of states that could plausibly be won by either Kamala Harris or Donald Trump, for the Democrats or Republicans respectively.

Seven of them - Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin - hold the keys to the White House.

Now, in the final months of the election, both campaigns are at full throttle to win over undecided voters in these states.

• Read more: The battleground states that could decide the next president

Kamala Harris is scheduled to deliver a speech in Pittsburgh in the coming hour, in which she will lay out her plans for the economy if she's elected as president.

Speaking in the battleground state of Pennsylvania, she will describe what her campaign says are new incentives to boost domestic manufacturing and to grow the middle class.

The speech at the Economic Club of Pittsburgh will highlight her middle-class background, according to a campaign aide speaking to reporters on condition of anonymity.

"For Donald Trump, our economy works best if it works for those who own the big skyscrapers. Not those who build them," she will say in her speech, the aide told Reuters.

Marianna Spring
Disinformation and social media correspondent

Image source, Supplied

Wild Mother - the online alias of a woman called Desirée - lives in the mountains of Colorado, where she posts videos to 80,000 followers about holistic wellness and bringing up her little girl.

She wants Donald Trump to win the presidential election.

About 70 miles north in the suburbs of Denver is Camille, a passionate supporter of racial and gender equality who lives with a gaggle of rescue dogs and has voted Democrat for the past 15 years.

The two women are poles apart politically - but they both believe assassination attempts against Mr Trump were staged.

Their views on the shooting in July and the apparent foiled plot earlier this month were shaped by different social media posts pushed to their feeds, they both say. I travelled to Colorado to find out their stories, which you can read about below.

• How social media assassination conspiracies are uniting pro- and anti-Trump voters

Away from his remarks on his manufacturing pledges, Donald Trump also also hones in on Iran, saying he would destroy the country if it "harms" a US election candidate.

Yesterday his campaign said he was briefed "regarding real and specific threats from Iran to assassinate him in an effort to destabilise and sow chaos in the United States".

The Iranian government did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but Tehran has previously denied US claims of interfering in American affairs.

“If I were the president, I would inform the threatening country, in this case Iran, that if you do anything to harm this person, we are going to blow your largest cities and the country itself to smithereens. We’re going to blow it to smithereens. You can’t do that. And there would be no more threats,” he says at the rally.

“But right now we don’t have that leadership or the necessary people, the necessary leaders,” he claims.

It comes after Trump posted on the social media site X, formerly Twitter yesterday, that there are "big threats on my life by Iran".

Image source, EPA

At his rally in Mint Hill, North Carolina, Donald Trump says under his plans for the economy, US workers "don't need to be worried about losing their jobs to foreign nations".

"Here is the deal I'll be offering to every major company and manufacturer within our country: I will give you the lowest taxes, the lowest energy costs that will cut your energy in half, the lowest regulatory burden and free access to the biggest and best markets but only if you make your product here in America and hire American workers," he says.

He says the centrepiece of his plan for a "manufacturing renaissance" would be "a 15% made in America tax rate" for products produced in the US.

Trump hails his time as president during which he passed the largest corporate tax cut in US history, from 35% to 21%.

He focuses on furniture jobs and speaking to attendees at the North Carolina rally, says "all your furniture companies" are going to come back "bigger and stronger" than before.

The race remains tight at the moment, with Kamala Harris still ahead of Donald Trump in the national polling averages but only by a couple of percentage points.

Harris saw a little bounce in her numbers after the presidential debate on 10 September, as you can see in the chart below.

Her lead edged up slightly from 2.5 percentage points on the day of the debate to 3.3 points just over a week later. But Trump has made up ground in the last few days and the margin is back at 2.6 points at the moment.

We are tracking the polls every day as we approach the election here.

Republican nominee Donald Trump is now delivering a speech at a rally in North Carolina - one of seven swing states in the US election.

We'll bring you the key points from what he has to say, so stay with us.

Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are presenting differing visions for the US economy. Throughout the campaign season, the BBC regularly speaks to voters to get their opinions on the leading candidates and big issues.

We want to hear from you. Tell us: What are your thoughts on the US economy? Do you think their policies will make a difference in your life? How much of a factor is the economy in how you'll vote? What more do you want to see from Harris and Trump on the economy?

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We may publish a selection of your comments with your name, age and state. Your contact details will never be published, though we may contact you for future stories.

The economy is set to be a focal point for both presidential candidates on the campaign trail today. Here's Kamala Harris and Donald Trump's pledges on the issue:

Harris has said her day-one priority would be trying to reduce food and housing costs for working families. She promises to ban price-gouging on groceries, help first-time home buyers and provide incentives to increase housing supply.

Trump has promised to “end inflation and make America affordable again”. He has promised to deliver lower interest rates, something the president does not control, and he says deporting undocumented immigrants will ease pressure on housing.

Kayla Epstein
US reporter

Donald Trump pledged that the US would “take other countries’ jobs” as he laid out his plans to slash taxes and lower energy costs and regulations for manufacturers that made goods on US soil.

At a campaign rally in Savannah, Georgia, yesterday, Trump promised a "manufacturing renaissance", reiterating his pledge to punish American companies that manufactured outside the US, and slap large tariffs on foreign-made goods to protect US industries.

Trump and Vice-President Kamala Harris have stepped up efforts to outline their competing visions for the economy in the final stretch of the campaign, highlighting what voters say is a top concern in the 2024 election.

As we've reported, Harris is expected to unveil a new set of economic proposals in a major speech in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, later.

North America correspondent Anthony Zurcher makes sense of the race for the White House in his weekly US Election Unspun newsletter.

Readers in the UK can sign up here.

Those outside the UK can sign up here.

British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer says it would be “very good” to meet both US presidential candidates, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, before the election in November.

Speaking to reporters on the plane to the UN General Assembly in New York, Starmer added: “We’ll just have to see what’s possible. But, I mean, I’m going for the General Assembly”.

As we've mentioned, the UK PM is expected to deliver remarks at the UN Security Council today.

Starmer has also been speaking to the BBC's political editor Chris Mason, and you can read what he had to say here.

Brandon Livesay
Reporting from New York City

We’re down to just 40 days until the US election.

And as polling day on 5 November approaches, the campaigns for Donald Trump and Kamala Harris ramp up a little bit more.

Today we are expecting a Trump rally in Mint Hill, North Carolina.

Harris is expected to unveil a new set of economic proposals at a campaign event in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, before her first solo interview of this election campaign tonight.

And Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, is in Michigan for his own rally.

These events are all in swing states, battlegrounds which are likely to decide the election.

Over in New York, world leaders are gathering at the UN General Assembly. British PM Sir Keir Starmer is expected to speak at the UN Security Council, with his remarks likely to focus on the Middle East.

We’re also covering the latest news from Lebanon, Israel and Gaza here, if you are looking for in-depth news and analysis. Stick with us, it’s another busy day of US politics.