Fact-checking Trump’s claims about operations for transgender peoplepublished at 19:32 British Summer Time 26 October

19:32 BST 26 October

By Lucy Gilder

A little earlier, Donald Trump repeated a claim that Kamala Harris wants give taxpayer-funded operations to transgender people who are in the US illegally.

This is a claim he makes repeatedly - it refers to an answer Kamala Harris gave to a questionnaire in 2019, drawn up by a civil rights group, external.

It was sent to all candidates in the 2020 presidential campaign and one of the questions was whether they would use their authority as president to ensure that transgender people in prison and immigration detention would have access to "treatment associated with gender transition, including all necessary surgical care".

Harris replied that she would.

The Harris campaign has said this “is not what she is proposing or running on” in this election.

Image source, Reuters

Donald Trump is still speaking in Detroit, Michigan, and has just addressed previous criticism he made of the city.

Earlier this month, he suggested the country would end up "like Detroit" if Kamala Harris were elected.

"Our whole country will end up being like Detroit if [Harris] is your president," he said at the Detroit Economic Club on 10 October. "You're going to have a mess on your hands."

He faced criticism for the remarks - and Harris capitalised on them in an ad campaign.

On stage today, Trump acknowledged he received some flak for the comments, but said he simply meant that Detroit "needs help".

"We're going to make Detroit great again finally after 45 years," Trump said to applauding supporters.

Detroit's population has suffered in recent decades. Its population shrunk from about two million in the 1950s to just over 600,000 today. The rate of violent crime remains among the highest in the nation.

In 2013, Detroit became the largest city in America to file for bankruptcy after accruing some $19bn (£15bn) in debt. But Motor City has in recent years been showing signs of economic revitalisation.

Rowan Bridge
North America correspondent, Washington DC

Image source, Getty Images

Joe Biden had one target in his sights at his latest campaign stop at a union hall in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

"Donald Trump is a loser," he told the crowd.

"He's a loser as a candidate. And more importantly, in my view - and I'm just going to say it straight up - a loser as a man" - invoking a phrase that Trump has used to disparage people.

Trump has being making a play for men without a college degree, and this was President Biden laying out his case, at a labourers' union event, that manual workers needed to support the Democrats.

He acknowledged there were issues - "we've got more to do. We've got to make housing more affordable" - but this was Biden laying out the case against Donald Trump, and calling those present to help get Kamala Harris elected.

He ended with a plea to the crowd to help get the vote out, a key aim for both campaigns - “guys, please, please, please, please, go the extra step. Call the people you know who may be undecided, tell them, please, please, give us a chance.”

• A quick guide to swing state Pennsylvania

Image source, Getty Images

Let's hop over to another swing state now, as President Joe Biden is speaking in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

"Women can do anything a man can do, including being president of the United States of America," Biden says.

He's urging voters to cast their ballot at an event with the Laborers’ International Union of North America.

"You know in your gut how important this is," he tells voters, while warning of what he calls the "dangers" of a second Trump presidency.

Pennsylvania: At a glance

While we're focused on Michigan, where Trump and Harris are campaigning today, let's look at just how close the race is both there and in the other six battleground states.

In short, they're all too close to call - the polls are exceedingly tight, with just one or two percentage points separating the two candidates.

It’s worth noting that there are fewer state polls than national polls so we have less data to go on and every poll has a margin of error that means the numbers could be higher or lower.

• Dig deeper in our poll tracker

Bernd Debusmann Jr
Reporting from Battle Creek, Michigan

Image source, BBC/Bernd Debusmann Jr

Hello from Michigan, where both Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are campaigning on the first day of early voting state-wide.

As is the case in the other six vital battleground states, the race is extremely tight here. Polls suggest Harris and Trump neck-and-neck.

The latest New York Times/Siena polling - updated just this morning - puts Harris's support at 49%, compared to Trump's 48%.

Over one million Michigan residents have already voted by absentee ballots, and people in the city of Detroit have been able to vote since 19 October.

I'm headed to the nearby town of Kalamazoo, where Harris will be holding a "Get Out the Vote" event alongside former First Lady Michelle Obama.

As we saw last night in Texas, and across the country in days prior, the Harris campaign has been bringing out a series of prominent figures such as Beyonce to show their support for the Vice-President.

Trump, meanwhile, is in the town of Novi for a rally of his own. Last night, he held another rally here in the town of Traverse City - where many rallygoers were left waiting in temperatures dipped as low as 10 C (50 F), after the former president's arrival was delayed by several hours while he flew in from his Texas interview with Joe Rogan.

Journalists there reported that many people left after they saw a tweet notified them that he was just leaving Texas around the time the rally was due to begin.

“I am so sorry,” Trump told the crowd. “We got so tied up, and I figured you wouldn’t mind too much because we’re trying to win.”

In 2020, Biden narrowly won Michigan by 2.78% - a far tighter race than many expected.

Michigan: At a glance

Image source, Reuters

Donald Trump is speaking to a crowd of supporters in Novi, Michigan, a Detroit suburb.

He tells people to "dream big" and support a Trump-Vance ticket with only 10 days to go until election day.

"The fate of our nation is truly in your hands, Michigan," he says.

Let's bring you one final question put to JD Vance in Georgia - he's asked about reports that cybercriminals linked to China may have attempted to tap into the phones or networks used by Donald Trump and Vance.

"I've heard that they did it, which sucks," he says.

"It illustrates, quite frankly, the Chinese aren't trying to hack Kamala Harris and Tim Walz's phone.

"I think that what it shows is the Chinese recognise that Kamala Harris provides weak leadership, and Donald Trump provides strong leadership, so they're trying to do everything they can to prevent Trump getting back in the White House."

While we're in Georgia with JD Vance, let's recap why this swing state is so pivotal to the election.

In a nutshell: Donald Trump almost certainly needs to win here to take the White House.

Kamala Harris does not necessarily need to win here to become the next US president, but if she fails in other swing states, Georgia will become key to her path to the presidency.

Famous for: The Savannah skyline, being the home of Martin Luther King Jr, and Atlanta’s vibrant music scene.

Margin in 2020: Biden by 13,000 votes.

It all comes down to... Polling is excruciatingly close in Georgia. All eyes have been on Georgia ever since Democrats unexpectedly triumphed there in 2020.

The big question this year is - will that trend continue and will Georgia truly crown itself a swing state? Or will Donald Trump reinstate the status quo and win it back?

• Read more about the seven swing states set to decide the election

Vance is asked what his pitch is to undecided voters in Georgia - he says the Trump-Vance campaign offers Americans peace and affordability.

Will he accept the Georgia election result if Republicans don't win, a reporter asks.

"Of course we will," he replies.

"We believe in two very important principles: One, that yes we're going to accept the results of the election, but two, we're also going to fight to make sure that every legal ballot - and only every legal ballot - is counted in the state of Georgia."

Vance and Trump have both repeatedly declined to acknowledge that Trump lost the 2020 election.

Donald Trump's running mate JD Vance is taking questions from journalists at a rally in Atlanta, Georgia.

One reporter asks about early voting - more than 30 million Americans have already cast their ballot in this election.

Vance encourages the crowd follow suit and vote early, which contrasts the Republicans' message in the last presidential election in 2020.

The vice-presidential contender notes the attitude surrounding early voting has changed since then: "I feel good about early voting, about where we are on election integrity."

• Who is JD Vance? Read our quick profile

With only 10 days until election day, the candidates are in the final push to shore up support ahead of 5 November.

And they've got packed schedules, with all of them hitting key battleground states where results rest on a knife-edge:

• Kamala Harris is appearing with former first lady Michelle Obama at a rally in Michigan at 19:00 EDT (0:00 BST)
• Donald Trump has rallies in Michigan and Pennsylvania shortly and 16:00 EDT (21:00 BST) respectively
• Trump's running mate JD Vance, has campaign stops in Georgia now (we'll bring you more on that in a moment) and Pennsylvania at 16:30 EDT (21:30 BST)
• And Harris's running mate, Tim Walz, will spend the day in Arizona including a rally at 20:00 EDT (01:00 BST)

Trump chases young male voters with Rogan podcastpublished at 17:01 British Summer Time 26 October

17:01 BST 26 October

Rowan Bridge
North America correspondent, Washington DC

Image source, Getty Images

You might not have heard of Joe Rogan or listened to his podcast. But if you haven't then it's also quite possible you're not who Donald Trump is trying to reach.

Rogan - a stand-up comedian and UFC mixed martial arts commentator - has 14.5 million Spotify followers and YouTube subscribers.

But, and this is key, that audience skews young and male.

Those people tend not to get their news from traditional sources, and they're also less likely to vote.

This was a chance for Trump to try to reach them where they are. It's part of a wider strategy the Trump campaign outlined to the news website Semafor to reach people more generally "who have been disaffected by the mainstream media, independents who are relatively apolitical," according to Trump campaign adviser Alex Bruesewitz.

It's a strategy both sides have been using. Kamala Harris recently appeared on the Call Her Daddy podcast, the top-ranked show among women, and with Charlamagne Tha God whose radio show has a large black audience - both key elements of the Harris electoral coalition.

Grace Dean
BBC News

Here are four more standout moments from Trump on Joe Rogan's podcast:

Harris has 'very low IQ'

Trump lashed out at his political opponents and praised his allies, many of whom are likely to appeal to Rogan’s fanbase.

He called opponent Vice-President Kamala Harris a “very low IQ person” and Elon Musk "the greatest guy".

On extra-terrestrial life

Trump said that he hadn’t ruled out there being life in space.

“There’s no reason not to think that Mars and all these planets don’t have life,” he said, referring to discussions he’d had with jet pilots who had seen “very strange” things in the sky.

On The Apprentice

Trump said that some senior figures at NBC had tried to talk him out of running for president to keep his show The Apprentice on air.

Trump featured in 14 series of The Apprentice from 2004, but NBC cut ties with him after he launched his 2015 bid for the presidency, citing his “derogatory” comments about immigrants.

His health is ‘unbelievable’

Trump has been under pressure from Democrats to release his medical records after Harris released hers, which concluded she was in "excellent health".

Trump’s team haven't shared his records but said doctors said he was in "perfect and excellent health".

He didn't address it directly, but Trump told Rogan that during one physical, for which he didn’t give a date, doctors had described his ability to run on a steep treadmill as “unbelievable”.

• Read our seven takeaways in full here

Grace Dean
BBC News

Donald Trump's podcast episode with Joe Rogan lasted three hours, so we've distilled some of the key lines into this post and the next.

Trump on his 'biggest mistake'

Trump told Rogan the “biggest mistake” of his 2017-21 presidency was “I picked a few people I shouldn’t have picked”.

“Neocons or bad people or disloyal people,” he told Rogan, referring to neoconservatives, policy-makers who champion an interventionist US foreign policy.

Trump says he told Kim Jong-un 'go to the beach'

Trump said he got to know North Korean leader Kim Jong-un “very well” despite some nuclear sabre-rattling initially.

He said he urged Kim to stop building up his “substantial” weapons stockpile. "I said: ‘Do you ever do anything else? Why don’t you go take it easy? Go to the beach, relax."

On 2020 election - 'I lost by, like, I didn’t lose'

Asked for proof to back up his repeated claims that the 2020 presidential was stolen from him, Trump told Rogan: “We’ll do it another time. I would bring in papers that you would not believe, so many different papers."

Rogan pressed him for evidence. “I lost by, like, I didn’t lose,” said Trump, quickly correcting himself.

• Read our seven takeaways in full

At the end of the election season when candidates are hopping from state to state each day, it can be hard to keep track of who is where and when - so here's the last 24 hours in pictures:

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Getty Images

Today marks the first day of early voting in Florida, Michigan, New Jersey and New York.

The idea of voting in-person before election day may seem strange to those of you unfamiliar with the US election system.

But early voting has become increasingly popular this election cycle with more than 30 million already casting their ballots, according to estimates on Thursday:

• more than 13 million of those are in-person votes
• the other 17 million are mail-in ballots (otherwise known as postal votes)

Not all states have the option to vote early or vote by mail, but in the states that do have the option, it appears voters are taking advantage of it and not waiting until 5 November to cast their ballot.

Bernd Debusmann Jr
Reporting from Kalamazoo, Michigan

Image source, Bernd Debusmann Jr / BBC

For journalists, covering the campaign trail can be a time-consuming affair. Media "pre-sets" - where we set up cameras - often take place many hours before the actual events.

This morning, for example, I arrived at the venue at 06:30 local time, well ahead of today's rally at around 16:00.

It was a bit of a surprise then, when I found a solitary rally-goer standing in the cold, dark Michigan morning: 25-year-old Matt Jansen.

Jansen lives in St Louis, Missouri, and drove nearly seven hours overnight after leaving work on Friday to see Kamala Harris and Michelle Obama here today.

"Harris rallies look awesome, like a party," says Jansen, who runs a politics-focused TikTok. "It was on the bucket list."

"I'm just here to share the enthusiasm and be part of the movement that's happening," he adds. "And to see Michelle Obama."

Jansen has a long list of issues that matter to him in this election, But the most pressing, he says, is abortion rights.

"I am terrified for women. I don't know how we can call ourselves a great, free country, when you're taking away half of the population's rights," he explains. "It blows my mind."

"If I decide to have kids, and my wife and I have any problems, what's going to happen?" Jansen adds. "Trump wants to roll us back. I don't want that."

At a rally in Houston, Texas, last night Beyoncé endorsed Kamala Harris.

The Texas Hold 'Em singer said she wasn't there as a celebrity or a politician, but as a "mother who cares deeply about the world my children and all of our children live in, a world where we have the freedom to control our bodies".

She told the crowd it was time to "sing a new song" while urging them to back Harris.

Take a look:

Ana Faguy
Reporting from Washington DC

It's 10 days to go until election day, and the race couldn't be tighter - welcome back to our live US election coverage.

Last night, Kamala Harris appeared alongside singer Beyoncé at a rally in Houston, Texas.

Laying her cards down (down, down, down), Harris made her pitch to some 30,000 people gathered at the event, according to her campaign.

After Trump spoke at a rally in Traverse City, in the swing state of Michigan, last night, his highly-anticipated interview with podcaster Joe Rogan dropped.

During the three-hour long episode, Trump revealed his "biggest mistake" while in office was hiring "bad people or disloyal people" and named his former chief of staff John Kelly and former national security adviser John Bolton as examples.

Both men have been critical of Trump this election cycle and have advised against supporting a second Trump term.

On the penultimate weekend of the campaign, Harris and Trump are pitching to voters in Michigan and Pennsylvania - we'll have all the latest right here.