Bernd Debusmann Jr
US Reporter

Image source, BBC News

The inauguration of the next US president - either Kamala Harris or Donald Trump - may still be months away, but Washington DC is already preparing for the event next January.

Fencing has gone up at both the US Capitol and White House, where I witnessed crews bringing in wooden flats for construction.

A black metal fence - similar to those which have gone up ahead of anticipated protests - are already blocking pedestrian access to a road across from the White House. A black-clad Secret Service officer had to open a gate for me so I could walk towards where reporters enter.

While preparations usually get underway well before inauguration, this year's are unusually early - which some experts and local media have speculated is a reflection of a tense political climate in the US.

Rachel Looker
US Reporter

We can now bring you more from residents of swing states who have been reflecting on what it means to be a voter in a battleground state.

Stephen Coats, 34, from Georgia, plans to vote for Harris, and says it's exciting to see his historically safe Republican state become a battleground.

"To have this kind of conversation and be able to know that my vote matters a little bit more and that it's more important than it may have been traditionally is exciting," he says.

Beca Shumann, 29, from Pennsylvania, is voting for Harris but says she is anxious about the result.

"I'm trying to remain optimistic, but I'm still pretty anxious, because it is Pennsylvania and you're surrounded by the division everywhere," she says.

"The conversation about being in Pennsylvania and the burden of how many delegates we have and all of this - it's really wild."

• READ MORE:US voters on living in a swing state

Sam Cabral
Reporting from Washington

Elsewhere in the US political world, Democratic heavyweights gathered at the Cathedral of St Matthew the Apostle in Washington DC to pay their last respects to Ethel Kennedy on Wednesday.

Kennedy, the matriarch of America's most storied political dynasty and the sister-in-law of President John F Kennedy, passed away last Thursday at the age of 96.

Eulogising at her memorial service were some heavy hitters, including President Joe Biden, former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and at least five of her nine living children (she had 11 in total).

Biden was meeting Obama and Pelosi for the first time since they helped push him out of the presidential race this July.

Biden and Obama were seen deep in conversation, but Pelosi admitted this week that she has not spoken with Biden since his ousting and that some people in his orbit "haven't forgiven me for my role".

One notable absentee from the programme was son Robert F Kennedy Jr - whose anti-vaccine views and conspiracy theories have upset most of his family.

If you're just joining our coverage of the US election, here are the main developments you need to know about:

• Donald Trump has defended his role in the events of 6 January, calling it a "day of love" during a televised campaign event aimed at Latino voters
• He also doubled down on his plans to give Elon Musk - who has spent tens of millions campaigning for Trump - a job in his administration if he wins the election
• Kamala Harris took part in a fiery interview on conservative news network Fox, where she defended her record on immigration
• She also told voters her presidency would differ from Joe Biden's, as she sought to reach out to Republican-leaning undecided voters
• Republican vice-presidential candidate JD Vance has said he does not believe Trump lost the election in 2020, firming up his previously ambiguous position
• A judge in Georgia, where voting is under way, has overturned several election rules which were backed by Trump supporters
• Harris maintains a small lead in the polls, but it's a dead heat in the swing states, which will decide the election

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.

Image source, Getty Images

Trump's running mate JD Vance has said he doesn't believe Donald Trump lost the 2020 election - firming up his position on an issue he has been ambiguous on previously.

During a campaign stop in Williamsport, Pennsylvania on Wednesday, a reporter asked the Ohio senator: “What message do you think it sends to independent voters when you do not directly answer the question, did Donald Trump lose in 2020?”

He replied: “On the election of 2020, I've answered this question directly a million times," Vance began. "No. I think there are serious problems in 2020.”

Vance went on: “So, did Donald Trump lose the election in 2020? Not by the words that I would use.”

Trump and many of his supporters have repeatedly falsely claimed the 2020 election was "rigged" and "stolen".

Image source, Reuters

A judge in Fulton County, Georgia, has invalidated seven controversial rules instituted ahead of the 2024 election by the state's Republican-controlled elections board.

It comes a day after a judge in the state moved to temporarily block a requirement for ballots to be counted by hand, which Trump supporters had pushed for.

Democrats had warned of post-election chaos as a result of the proposed changes.

“The court here declares that these rules are illegal, unconstitutional and void,” Fulton County Superior Court Judge Thomas Cox wrote in a Wednesday ruling.

Georgia is a critical battleground state in this election, with both Kamala Harris and Donald Trump fighting hard for its 16 electoral votes. Early voting is already under way there.

Earlier this year, Trump described the members of the election board as "pit bulls fighting for transparency, honesty and victory".

Singer Rufus Wainwright has sent a cease and desist letter to the Donald Trump campaign for its use of his cover version of Leonard Cohen's song Hallelujah.

He tells the BBC that he has been "shaking his head in disbelief" after it was played at a Trump event. Watch his full comments below.

Rowan Bridge
North America correspondent, Washington DC

Image source, Getty Images

Donald Trump faced some pointed questions from Latino voters during a town hall hosted by the Spanish-language TV network Univision but largely skirted specific answers, instead repeating much of his standard campaign language.

He made reference to the 6 January riots happening because those there thought the election was "rigged" without debunking the claim, calling it a "day of love".

Asked about immigration, Trump didn’t talk about his plans for large-scale deportations but attacked Democrats running Chicago and the state of Illinois over crime, which he said was linked to “people [who] came from other countries”.

And he said he was "just saying what was reported" about Haitian immigrants eating pets in Springfield Ohio, a claim which has been shown to be baseless.

Trump repeated his criticism of his former vice-president Mike Pence for certifying the results of the 2020 election - and said the toughest question of the night was when he was asked for three of Kamala Harris's virtues.

The Trump campaign will hope this performance was enough to win over some of those in the audience and watching at home.

With a race as tight at this one, and with Latino voters a key voting block, moving the dial even somewhat could have an outsize effect on the result.

Image source, Getty Images

The Trump town hall event with Latino voters ends with him being invited to say three things he admires about his opponent Kamala Harris.

He says: "That's a very hard question, that's the toughest question, the other one are easy. I'm not a fan."

Trump goes on to say she has an "ability to survive", "seems to have some pretty long-term friendships" and "seems to have a nice way about her".

And with that, the last big campaign event of the day draws to a close. We'll bring you some analysis of that event soon.

Trump is asked whether he agrees with his wife Melania's stance on abortion rights, after she released a book last week in which she expressed her support for such rights.

He firstly says that his wife "has to go with her heart", saying that he wouldn't want to oppose what she thinks.

He then goes on to talk about Roe v Wade, taking credit for its overturning by the Supreme Court in 2022. "I was able to do that", he says.

"It's out of the federal government, which is so good" he goes onto say, saying that "now if you look, the states are voting on it" and says they will settle "a problem that was only going to get more divisive and worse".

Image source, Getty Images

Asked if he believes in taking action against climate change, Trump describes Democratic climate plans as a "green new hoax", adding: "We can't destroy our country".

He adds: "We're competing against countries that don't spend anything on climate change, like China and others... We have to have a strong country and a nice climate and there's no one better at that combination than me."

Commenting on rising sea levels, Trump says "no-one knows if that's true or not" and says he is more concerned about the prospect of nuclear war.

Image source, Reuters

Trump describes 6 January, 2021 - when some of his supporters stormed the Capitol after the former president's false claims that fraud prevented him from winning the election - as a "day of love".

He says hundreds of thousands of people travelled to Washington DC, where he called for peaceful protests.

"They didn't come because of me," Trump tells the Latino town hall event. "They came because of the election. They thought the election was a rigged election, and that's why they came."

He goes on to say: “Nothing done wrong at all. Nothing done wrong. And action was taken. Strong action."

Trump also says: "There were no guns down there, we didn't have guns, the others had guns, but we didn't have guns."

Trump attacks his vice-president from the time, Mike Pence, who refused to block certification of Biden's victory over Trump.

"The vice president, I disagree with him on what he did. I totally disagreed with him on what he did."

Image source, Reuters

Trump was asked how he would reduce US national debt, which has now reached $35.7tr.

He repeated his plan to put billionaire Elon Musk, who has put $75m into campaigning for Trump, in charge of a government body which would aim to reduce “waste, fraud and abuse".

“We’re putting him in charge. He wants to do this so badly,” Trump said.

“And he and his team are going to work on that, we’re going to get it down.”

Image source, Getty Images

Donald Trump has stood by his false claims that Haitian immigrants ate pets in the town of Springfield, Ohio, in front of a Latino audience.

Speaking at a town hall event hosted by Spanish-language television channel Univision, a voter from Arizona asks if he truly believes what he has previously said about the small city.

"I was just saying what was reported... And eating other things too that they're not supposed to be. All I do is report," Trump says.

"I was there, I'm going to be there and we're going to take a look."

Trump adds that "newspapers" have also reported on the claim, without naming any or providing any details.

The former president has previously said he will visit Springfield but has so far not done so.

Rowan Bridge
North America correspondent, Washington DC

Image source, Reuters

Both presidential candidates are making appearances today on outlets that reach voters that aren’t their natural base.

Earlier Kamala Harris was on the conservative network Fox News, appealing to Republicans who may be uncertain about voting for Donald Trump.

Now Trump is about to appear on Univsion, a Spanish-language network.

According to a UCLA analysis, external of voting in 13 states in the last presidential campaign, Latino voters went for Biden by a margin of three to one in 12 of those states. Only in Florida was his margin less than two to one.

The same analysis suggests those voters were crucial in 2020 in deciding who won states which are battlegrounds this time around - Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Georgia and Nevada.

With the polls tight with less than three weeks to go, this is a chance for the Trump campaign to reach out to a section of the electorate which could decide who gets the keys to the White House.

Former Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly writes that Kamala Harris "failed" in the interview by "filibustering" on several answers and being unable to answer tougher questions.

"Two things clear from that interview: 1. She hates Trump 2. She knows nothing other than Point 1," Kelly says.

But Adam Kinzinger, a former Republican congressman who is supporting Harris in this election, praises the Democrat for being confident and refusing to be baited on right-wing issues.

"She went into the lion's den and took them on and stood tall," he writes on X.

Alex Vindman, a Democratic congressional hopeful involved in the first Trump impeachment in 2019, also lauds Harris, writing that she "went into a very hostile Fox News interview environment and likely won over moderate and independent voters with her smarts, competence, and civility".

The Harris interview lasted for about half of Bret Baier's hour-long daily programme.

Later in the show, Baier says that Kamala Harris's campaign team "whittled down" the time he had with her.

"We were supposed to start at 17:00, this was the time they gave us," he says.

"Originally we were going to do 25 or 30 minutes. They came in and said well, maybe 20, so it was already being whittled down."

Harris arrived for the interview about 15 minutes late, he adds.

Baier also says he found it "tough to redirect [Harris] without trying to interrupt" her.

Democratic nominee Kamala Harris has completed what may well be the toughest interview of her campaign to date, appearing in a tense sit-down with conservative news network Fox.

If you missed it, or need a recap, here are the highlights:

• After previously saying she would not have done anything differently to Joe Biden, Harris pledged that she would not represent "a continuation" of the Biden presidency - though she didn't go as far as explaining what she meant
• Denouncing her Republican rival as a threat to democracy, she cited recent remarks in which Donald Trump referred to those opposed to him as "the enemy within"; in his response to the interview, Trump said Harris "wouldn't change a thing" in the US if elected
• Harris said she felt "so sorry" for the family of Jocelyn Nungaray, a 12-year-old girl killed by an undocumented migrant, but she defended the Biden-Harris administration's approach on border security and declined to say mistakes had been made - instead attacking Trump for "preferring to run on a problem rather than fixing it"
• The vice-president also claimed she would "follow the law" on allocating taxpayer dollars to transgender inmates in federal prison who wish to access gender reassignment surgery, arguing that Trump had done the same as president

The difficulties of running for office as vice-presidentpublished at 01:17 British Summer Time 17 October

01:17 BST 17 October

Rowan Bridge
North America correspondent

Vice-presidents running for the highest office in the land always face a quandary - how to make clear you’re your own person, without appearing disloyal to the sitting president.

You are after all an integral part of the current administration.

When Kamala Harris was asked on ABC's The View last week what she would have done differently to President Biden, she said “not a thing that comes to mind”.

That answer morphed into "I’m obviously not Joe Biden ... [and] I’m not Donald Trump" when she was interviewed by the late night talk show host Stephen Colbert later that same day.

In this interview, though, as we reported a little earlier, she pushed her stance further - saying "my presidency will not be a continuation of Joe Biden’s presidency ... I represent a new generation of leadership".