The economy is the number one issue at the top of most voters' minds.

But not much further down on the priority list is abortion rights, particularly among women. The issue is a central part of a growing gender divide among voters in this election.

The 2024 presidential election is the first since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade, which protected the national right to an abortion.

The BBC has been speaking to women voters about how they are considering gender and abortion as they cast their ballots in the final days of the campaign.

Michelle Allen, a registered Republican in the battleground state of Arizona, said she plans to vote for the Democratic Party candidate Kamala Harris - who has heavily campaigned on protecting abortion rights.

"I'm concerned about women's rights and women's health care," Allen said. I'm not a one-issue voter, but that is a huge one."

• Read more: Abortion decided these women's votes

As we've just been saying, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump will both visit North Carolina today.

The latest polls suggest the race tightened in the Tar Heel State after Harris became the Democratic presidential nominee.

Some analysts now call it a "toss-up".

Trump, who has said it is a "very, very big state to win," carried North Carolina in 2020 but did so by just over 70,000 votes, which has further buoyed Democrats' hopes that this "purple" state (one that could vote red or blue) could be winnable in this election year.

• Read more: A quick guide to swing state North Carolina

Brandon Drenon
Reporting from Washington

Back on the campaign trail, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump will both make stops today in North Carolina - a critical battleground state that could determine who takes the White House.

Between the two candidates, both have made dozens of visits to the state over the last few months, as Harris tries to defy history by being only the second Democratic presidential candidate to win the state in 50 years.

Polls currently suggest Trump has a one point lead in North Carolina, effectively mounting to a tie, but I've been speaking to voters and both parties are concerned.

One factor is Hurricane Helene, which slammed into the state at the end of September wreaking destruction in western parts of the state like Buncombe County. The county's Republican chair, Doug Brown, says firefighters have been delivering absentee ballots in some of the hardest hit areas.

In the initial days of early voting, the county has been breaking records, he says, adding: "People want to vote."

Susan Roberts, a political scientist at Davidson University in North Carolina said Helene may be the X-factor that tilts the race for Democrats, after President Joe Biden narrowly lost there in 2020 by 1.3%. "Trump needs every western Carolina vote because that's rural and it is red," she tells me.

Lyse Doucet
Chief international correspondent

When US President Joe Biden walked through Kyiv in February 2023 on a surprise visit to show solidarity with Volodymyr Zelensky, his Ukrainian counterpart, air sirens were wailing.

"I felt something… more strongly than ever before," he later recalled. "America is a beacon to the world."

The world now waits to see who takes charge of this self-styled beacon after Americans make their choice in next week’s presidential election.

Will Kamala Harris carry on in Biden’s footsteps with her conviction that in "these unsettled times, it is clear America cannot retreat"? Or will it be Donald Trump with his hope that "Americanism, not globalism" will lead the way?

We live in a world where the value of US global influence is under question. Regional powers are going their own way, autocratic regimes are making their own alliances, and the devastating wars in Gaza, Ukraine and elsewhere are raising uncomfortable questions about the value of Washington’s role.

But America matters by dint of its economic and military strength, and its major role in many alliances.

Informed observers shared their views with me about some of the hurdles the next US president will face - including global conflicts, the climate crisis and business with China. Get up to speed with what they had to say.

Rachel Looker
Reporting from Washington

The 2024 presidential election is the first since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade in June 2022 - returning control over abortions back to individual states. Some states have enacted total bans, while others protect the procedure throughout pregnancy.

I've been speaking to voters about how they are considering gender and abortion as they cast their ballots - here's what some of them have said.

"I'm concerned about women's rights and women's health care. I'm not a one-issue voter, but that is a huge one. I work in the medical sector and I was very personally affected by the overturn of Roe v Wade because I wasn't able to get access to a lot of the drugs I needed. Nobody was sure of what the legality was... even though they're used for other things.

"The whole Republican stance is smaller government and don't let government make my personal decisions, so why are they trying to legislate what a woman can do with her body?

"[A Harris presidency] would mean that all the things that my parents told me when I was younger were true - that just because you're a girl doesn't mean that you are limited."

"[Trump] has definitely said things that he probably should have unsaid. I would have to shake my finger at that, especially as a woman, but I have yet to hear anything that would make me change my mind about my vote.

"I'm not voting personality. I'm voting policy. I don't have to marry the man. I don't have to deal with him. I have to deal with his policies.

"On abortion, [Harris] is not giving a gestational parameter of how late somebody can get an abortion. That cannot be-open ended. I was a NICU [neonatal intensive care unit] nurse for 17 years... I care about women's rights. I care about women. The mother is the first patient. However, that is the turn-off to me that she won't give an answer to that."

In rally after rally, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump have pushed - and been pushed on - a number of issues that've come to define this election. Here's a reminder of each candidate's view on some of them:

The economy: Repeatedly billed as the biggest issue for voters, Harris as vice-president has worked with President Biden to pass various legislation - including major investments in infrastructure and green energy. But while growth and jobs creation have been strong, inflation and high interest rates continue to hit American wallets. Trump has therefore retained a persistent polling advantage on the issue, with a campaign promise to "end inflation and make America affordable again".

Immigration:Harris has repeatedly voiced her continued support for the cross-party border security bill, which was torpedoed by congressional Republicans in February 2024 at Trump's urging. She says she would revive the bill and sign it into law. Trump has vowed to seal the US border - after the number of border crossings hit record levels at the end of 2023 - and launch the biggest mass deportations of undocumented migrants in US history.

Abortion: Harris, who's long supported abortion rights, has made the issue central to her campaign and says she wants legislation that'd safeguard reproductive rights nationwide. Trump has struggled to find a consistent message on abortion - after he appointed three Supreme Court judges who went on to play a pivotal role in the overturning of Roe v Wade.

Israel-Gaza war: Harris has been a long-time advocate for a two-state solution in the region, and has called for an end to the war in Gaza. But she has not supported the arms embargo on Israel. Trump has positioned himself as a staunch supporter of Israel and condemned pro-Palestinian supporters on US college campuses. At times, he's been critical of the way Israel has conducted the war.

Image source, Reuters

Donald Trump kicked off the final week of campaigning with a speech from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, and took the opportunity to defend his Sunday rally in the iconic Madison Square Garden calling it a "love fest".

Polls: Trump began by saying he's leading in all swing states. According to our poll tracker, he's very narrowly leading in five swing states, tied in one, and narrowly behind in another.

Policy: Trump says his presidency will see the US seize assets of "criminal gangs and drug cartels" and use them to compensate "victims of migrant crime". He also says there will be "no tax on social security for seniors", claiming they've been "decimated by inflation".

Crime: Trump said “violent crime in the US is up 37%”, our Verify team took a look at this claim and found it is correct, but if you use one measure of violent crime and look at the increase between 2020 and 2023.

Hurricane Helene: Trump calls Fema - the government agency which responds to hurricanes - a "total disaster" during Hurricane Helene.

For more on the latest speech from Trump, we have this piece from our colleagues in Washington.

A new episode of BBC's Americast delves deeper into Kamala Harris's speech and Biden's response to the Puerto Rico "garbage" comments.

Justin Webb, Sarah Smith and Marianna Spring take a closer look at the events from last night as Biden's comments led to a row between the Democrats and Republicans.

The White House say Biden was referring to hateful rhetoric used against Puerto Ricans, but Republicans and Trump's campaign have condemned the president.

You can listen to the latest episode of Americast on BBC sounds.

With just six days to go until election day let's take a look at where the candidates are headed on their campaign trails today:

• Kamala Harris will be encouraging voters in swing states to keep voting early ahead of election day, she is due to hold rallies in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin
• Donald Trump will also be pitching to voters in North Carolina and will later go to Wisconsin, where he will be joined by Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre
• Her husband Douglas Emhoff will be in Las Vegas at a rally with students at the University of Nevada
• VP nominee Tim Walz will be in North Carolina attending door knocking events and a concert later in Ashville
• Trump's running mate Senator JD Vance will attend a townhall event in Pennsylvania with former congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard

Stay with us as we bring you the latest updates throughout the day.

Image source, Getty Images

Kamala Harris delivered what her campaign has called her "closing argument" last night in Washington DC - at the spot Donald Trump spoke from shortly before the Capitol riot almost in January 2021.

"We know who Donald Trump is,” Harris said, "he is the person who stood at this very spot nearly four years ago and sent an armed mob to the United States Capitol to overturn the will of the people in a free and fair election.”

“I pledge to seek common ground and common sense solutions to make your lives better,” she said. “I am not looking to score political points. I am looking to make progress.”

This election is “probably the most important vote you will ever cast,” Harris said. She also urged voters to "turn the page on the drama and the conflict" in politics.

On the cost of living pressure, Harris said: "I get it, adding "our biggest challenge is to lower costs, costs that were rising even before the pandemic and that are still too high".

On abortion, she said people have a "fundamental freedom" to "make decisions about their own bodies," as she pledged to restore protections for abortion access.

For more on Harris's speech, BBC's Anthony Zurcher has this piece on the vice-president's pledge for a "different path".

Taking a step away now from Biden's "garbage" comment and the row that followed, let's take a look at what the latest polls suggest.

Polls have predicted a close-run election from the start, and with less than a week until election day the race between the two candidates remains tight.

Kamala Harris has had a small lead over Trump in the national polling averages since she entered the race at the end of July and she remains ahead by one percentage point.

Harris saw a bounce in her polling numbers in the first few weeks of her campaign, building a lead of nearly four percentage points towards the end of August.

In the last few days, the gap between the two candidates has tightened, as you can see in the poll tracker chart below, with the trend lines showing the averages and the dots showing the individual poll results for each candidate.

Ros Atkins
Analysis editor

This was not what the Harris campaign had in mind for Tuesday night.

Earlier this evening, Kamala Harris stood with the White House behind her and addressed thousands of her supporters.

It was her last big pitch to voters - but by mid-evening, the White House itself was becoming the story.

In a now heavily-viewed clip, Joe Biden speaks about Puerto Rico being referred to at a Trump rally as a "floating island of garbage". The president says: "The only garbage I see out there is his supporters'". He goes on to reference the "demonisation of Latinos".

Joe Biden has now written on X to say he was talking about "hateful rhetoric" and that that was "all I meant to say" - but the president's decision to post so soon after Harris's big speech is a measure of how seriously this is being taken.

Already this evening at a rally, Republican Senator Marco Rubio referenced Biden's comment while on stage with Trump, and the former president's supporters are taking to social media to highlight the clip.

Comparisons are being made with Hillary Clinton's comment in 2016 referring to some Trump supporters as "a basket of deplorables" - a phrase that is still referenced all these years on.

It is always hard to judge the impact of these moments but the Harris campaign will wish it wasn't having to make that calculation so close to election day.

Anthony Zurcher
North America correspondent

The biggest message from Kamala Harris’s speech may have been the venue – the same location where Donald Trump held his 6 January, 2021, rally shortly before his supporters attacked the US Capitol.

The imagery of Tuesday night, contrasted with that cold winter day nearly four years earlier, provided the subtext for the entire the speech and the point form which Harris could pivot to her vision for what she styled was a different kind of future.

It was, in effect, a trimmed down version of her Democratic National Convention speech from late August – complete with biographical details, policy proposals and repeated swipes at her opponent.

Democrats at their August convention were riding high at that point, enthusiastic about their new nominee after weeks of despondency and infighting that led to Biden’s decision to abandon his re-election bid.

Since then, Harris’s campaign has had ups and downs, and is now locked in what is shaping up to be a photo finish at the polls next week.

In her speech, she acknowledged that many undecided American voters “are still getting to know” her after her abbreviated presidential campaign – which should be of some concern for Democrats given how election day is looming.

Set-piece speeches are a Harris strength, however. And Tuesday night’s address likely hit the key points her campaign wants to emphasis in these final days.

As we've been reporting, Joe Biden has triggered a row with Republicans while speaking on a Zoom event with voters.

In response, both the White House and Biden himself have provided a response to the "garbage" comment, a phrase that Trump repeated to his advantage while speaking in Pennsylvania.

Biden has denied that he meant to denigrate Trump supporters, posting on X he says:

The White House issued a statement saying Biden was "referring to hateful rhetoric used against Puerto Ricans".

In a transcript provided by the White House, they say the "supporter" - referred to in the possessive not the plural - is the comedian who made the jokes about Puerto Rico.

The transcript reads: "The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporter’s -- his -- his demonisation of Latinos is unconscionable."

White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates said in a statement that "the President referred to the hateful rhetoric at the Madison Square Garden rally as "garbage.""

The word "garbage" has been in the headlines a lot in the last few days. Here's why.

Sunday night

• Pro-Trump comedian Tony Hinchcliffe calls Puerto Rico a "floating island of garbage" on stage at a Trump rally in New York's Madison Square Garden
• Trump's team says the joke "does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign"
• Hinchcliffe defends his comment, saying his critics "have no sense of humour"

Monday

• A number of Republicans - including from neighbourhoods with strong Latino populations - condemn the comments
• Leaders in Puerto Rico call on Trump to issue a personal apology
• The Harris campaign capitalises on the comments to court Latino voters in key swing states like Pennsylvania
• Puerto Rican celebrities - including rapper Bad Bunny, singer Ricky Martin, and actress-singer Jennifer Lopez - criticise Trump and show support for Harris

Tuesday

• Trump publicly responds for the first time, saying "somebody said some bad things" but he does not think it was "a big deal" and does not apologise

• Biden speaks to Latino voters on Zoom, where he appears to say: “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters."
• Biden and the White House quickly say he did not mean Trump supporters collectively, but rather the comedian specifically and his rhetoric
• Trump and other senior Republicans seize on the comments and criticise Biden and Harris

Image source, Reuters

Trump learned about the Joe Biden footage while he was on stage in Allentown, Pennsylvania, with Senator Marco Rubio and immediately referenced Hillary Clinton's 2016 remark calling some Trump supporters "deplorables".

"Garbage I think is worse right?" Trump said, before adding, "But please forgive him, for he not knoweth what he said".

Biden denies he was referring to Trump supporters collectively, and says he was speaking about comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, who used a Trump rally to refer to Puerto Rico as a "floating island of garbage".

Trump later weighed in again on his Truth Social website, accusing Harris of "running a campaign of hate".

He wrote: "She has spent all week comparing her political opponents to the most evil mass murderers in history. Now, on top of everything, Joe Biden calls our supporters 'garbage'."

"You can’t lead America if you don’t love the American People," he added.

Did you miss Harris's speech last night? Here's a flavour of what she said.

Importance of election: This election is "probably the most important vote you will ever cast" and a "choice between freedom and chaos". US voters can "write the next chapter in the most extraordinary story ever told".

Attacking Trump: Donald Trump "stood at this very spot nearly four years ago and sent an armed mob to overturn the will of the people". Trump has an "enemies list... [I would] walk in with a to-do list".

Inflation: "Now our biggest challenge is to lower costs, costs that were rising even before the pandemic and that are still too high." On cost of living pressures: "I get it."

Abortion: People have a "fundamental freedom" to "make decisions about their own bodies". Pledged to restore protections for abortion access.

Image source, Getty Images

Peter Bowes
North America correspondent

Could President Biden’s comment, that on first hearing seems to compare Trump supporters to floating garbage, overshadow Kamala Harris’s big night and possibly harm her campaign?

Donald Trump learned about it while he was speaking in Pennsylvania, where Florida Senator Marco Rubio took to the stage to hand Trump a note with the “breaking news”.

The Republican candidate’s mind went straight to the remark Hillary Clinton made during the 2016 campaign, that half of his supporters were from a “basket of deplorables”.

Trump repeated the phrase to his advantage for the remainder of that campaign, which he won.

The White House has moved quickly to try to clarify that Biden was referring to the "hateful rhetoric" as "garbage", not Trump's supporters - but the words will not go away.

A comedian’s crude joke about Puerto Rico - a potential embarrassment for Trump - may have morphed into an awkward problem for both candidates.

Just joining us? Here's what you've missed.

• Kamala Harris gave a major speech at the Ellipse in Washington - the same spot as where Donald Trump spoke shortly before the Capitol riot almost four years ago. She called the election a "choice between freedom and chaos"
• However, her speech risked being overshadowed after footage emerged of Joe Biden appearing to call Trump supporters "garbage". The White House say he was referring to hateful rhetoric used against Puerto Ricans at a Trump rally on Sunday, but Republicans and Trump's campaign have condemned the president
• Donald Trump distanced himself from a comedian who called Puerto Rico a "floating island of garbage" at his rally but did not personally apologise
• He said he had "no idea" who the comedian was before the event and though the comment was "bad", he didn't think it was "a big deal"

• Elsewhere, the US Supreme Court has rejected appeals from independent-candidate-turned-Trump-ally Robert F Kennedy Jr to have his name taken off presidential ballots in two swing states
• Former Trump aide and conservative podcaster Steve Bannon has been released from jail after serving a four-month sentence for contempt of Congress

In case you missed it, Kamala Harris gave a big speech in Washington DC on Tuesday night.

She stood at the same spot that Donald Trump spoke from an hour before rioters attacked the Capitol on 6 January, 2021 - seeking to remind voters of a violent and highly emotive moment in modern America's history.

You can hear that part of the speech below.