The BBC's US elections podcast Americast is putting out daily episodes during the Democratic National Convention, bringing all of our news and analysis right into your earbuds.

In the latest edition, Justin Webb, Sarah Smith and Anthony Zurcher are in Chicago to discuss President Joe Biden's farewell speech and chat through a defining week in Kamala Harris’s bid to defeat Donald Trump to the White House.

You can listen here on BBC Sounds.

Phil McCausland
Reporting from the convention

Image source, Getty Images

Tonight's speaker slate will, in part, celebrate Democratic party leaders from Illinois - the state that is hosting the convention.

Former President Barack Obama, who got his start as a community organiser in Chicago before becoming an Illinois senator, will get the primetime slot at 22:00 local time (04:00 BST). Former First Lady Michelle Obama will speak just before him.

The evening will also feature Illinois Governor JB Prtizker - who at one point was a rumoured vice-presidential contender - and Illinois Senator Tammy Duckworth, a disabled veteran.

Several prominent senators will also take the convention stage: Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.

Other key speakers include New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, Mesa, Arizona Mayor John Giles and Kamala Harris’s husband, Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff.

Katty Kay
US special correspondent, in Chicago

I'm hearing some grumbling from senior Democrats about the length of Monday night's programme - including the length of Biden's speech.

When you have to cut James Taylor singing You've Got A Friend, you know you've got timing problems, says one campaign official.

Katty Kay
US special correspondent, in Chicago

Congressman Jim Clyburn tells me he thinks the week is off to a great start.

He feels Hillary Clinton's speech was the best she's ever been. When I asked if perhaps the whole evening had run a little long, he chuckles.

With all the enthusiasm in Chicago I asked Clyburn what worries him - he mentions the wall of social media and misinformation Democrats need to break through, connecting with young voters where they are and whether Democrats will take the fight to Republicans when Trump goes low.

"When they go low, sometimes we need to join them there," he says.

Bernd Debusmann Jr
Reporting from the convention

With just months to go until the November election, Arizona Senate contender Ruben Gallego believes the majority of lawmakers in his party still fail to understand the nuanced views of many Latino voters regarding the border and immigration.

Speaking to a small crowd of journalists, activists and Democratic staffers, Gallego says his fellow Democrats in Congress "don't understand that you can be for border security and for immigration reform".

"You can be for checking everything coming across the border, and at the same time want dreamers to become citizens," he says. "You can add more immigration judges, but still preserve the asylum system."

"You can want to rectify the fact that 10 million people have been living in the shadows that have roots here," he adds. "They have families, and businesses, and houses here. I want them to be on the pathway to citizenship."

Immigration reform, he says, does "not have to be binary".

"I hope that Democrats can understand that, especially when thinking about Latino voters," he says. "Latino voters actually do understand."

Bernd Debusmann Jr
Reporting from the convention

Image source, Bernd Debusmann Jr/ BBC News

Kamala Harris's economic policies will be "disproportionately beneficial" to the Latino community, according to US Representative and Arizona Senate hopeful Ruben Gallego.

Gallego, a Democrat, faces vocal Trump ally Kari Lake to replace independent Senator Kyrsten Sinema in a key race that will be closely watched nationally, with Democrats needing to keep control of the state to maintain a narrow 51 to 49 majority in the 100-member chamber.

Speaking at an Axios event focused on Latino voters on the side lines of the DNC, Gallego says he believes the Democrats' economic policies will ultimately be the issue that most helps garner support among Latino voters ahead of the November election.

The campaign's promise of a $6,000 child tax credit for new parents would be particularly attractive, he adds.

"It's a big deal," he says. "It's not just people in poverty. There are families right now that are making $70,000 to $80,000 that feel that squeeze right now. So [the tax credit] is big, big help."

Gallego adds that Latinos, right now, "are disproportionately not able to buy homes" and would be looking to a new administration for solutions to economic issues.

"It's part of our destiny of living in the American Dream," he adds. "You feel it out there. They are working very, very hard. They're being the most productive they've ever been in the history of this country. Yet they feel poorer and poorer, and generationally it feels worse."

Ione Wells and Caitriona Perry
Reporting from the convention

Looks like we can expect some kind of Coldplay-esque light show tonight judging by the wrist bands on all of the seats inside the United Center.

A volunteer says they are remote-controlled light wristbands and there are various different patterns and uses planned for them later.

They're similar to those used at Taylor Swift concerts to orchestrate a stadium-wide light show.

Alex Lederman
Reporting from Milwaukee

Huge lines have formed outside the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, where Kamala Harris will be holding a rally tonight in parallel with the DNC.

It’s the same stadium where the RNC was held just last month - likely a message to her Republican rivals. I was at the RNC, and the atmosphere was electric.

Donald Trump had just survived an assassination attempt, and Joe Biden’s campaign seemed a sinking ship. Republicans were confident. But the entire dynamic of the race has flipped in the month since.

Democrats are now rejuvenated, as can be seen at the DNC in nearby Chicago.

Yet Harris coming into the same stadium that Trump lit up just a month ago with a show of force - that’s an image that might keep Donald Trump up at night and raving for days.

Mike Wendling
Reporting from Chicago

During his campaign speeches, Donald Trump sometimes just has to say one word to get a response: "Chicago". JD Vance made the reference himself earlier Tuesday as well.

Their supporters know what they mean when he say it - among the Maga diehard, America's third-largest city has become synonymous with mismanagement and particularly with violent crime. And usefully for the Republicans, it has been under firm Democratic Party control for decades.

The reputation is not wholly undeserved.

Chicago has a stubbornly high murder rate compared to other big cities like New York and Los Angeles. Government-ordered police reform has been slow, distrust of the authorities is high, and the worst violence is highly concentrated in the city’s poorest districts.

Over the Fourth of July weekend last month, a particularly bloody stretch, more than 100 people were shot, and 19 of them were killed.

But activists and city leaders have not lost hope. Money is pouring into violence prevention programs.

From a pandemic peak of nearly 800 murders in 2021, the rate of killing has fallen each year since, and is on pace to do so again in 2024, according to statistics compiled by the Chicago Tribune.

Image source, Reuters

Vance also took a swipe the Democrats for choosing to hold their convention in Chicago.

"It's almost a joke to me that they held it in Chicago," he said, blaming Democratic leadership for the city's violent crime rate.

"My little theory about why they decided to have the convention in Chicago is, Tim Walz has been going around saying that he served in war and maybe they did it in Chicago so that he could actually, accurately say that he visited a combat zone."

Vance was referring to a 2018 video promoted by the Harris campaign of Walz talking about gun control, in which he said he "carried weapons in war".

The Harris campaign later issued a statement saying that “in making the case for why weapons of war should never be on our streets or in our classrooms, the Governor misspoke”.

Walz went to Italy with the National Guard in 2003 as part of support for the US war in Afghanistan - but he was never deployed to an active war zone.

Mike Wendling
Reporting from Kenosha, Wisconsin

Image source, BBC / Mike Wendling

As the Democratic Party festivities continue in Chicago, earlier Republican vice-presidential candidate JD Vance spoke to supporters about an hour to the north, in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

The Ohio senator spoke for around 30 minutes and outlined his crime policy - including the death penalty for drug dealers, curbing lawsuits against police officers and mass deportations.

“All this stuff is just simple common sense,” he said.

Listening was Trump supporter and nearby resident Joe Roe, who told me of a gruesome murder in his neighbourhood.

“We live in an area where crime was never a problem,” he said. “We need to close the border and back the police.”

Donald Trump often links crime rates and immigration, and although the connection is tenuous at best, his campaign points to cases of murders and violence committed by migrants.

Vance also joked that he virtually lives in Wisconsin, a crucial swing state.

“You’ll be seeing a lot of me in the next few months,” he told the crowd of a couple of hundred supporters.

That will be true of both campaigns. Kamala Harris will hold a rally tonight in Milwaukee, in the same arena where Republicans held their convention just a month ago.

Phil McCausland
Reporting from the convention

Monday evening proved to be a giant celebration of President Joe Biden, his decision to pass the torch and the new Democratic ticket of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz.

But organisers admitted today that not everything went to plan, as delays undermined a smooth evening programme.

The DNC even had to nix singer James Taylor's planned performance, as it became clear that the convention was falling behind schedule.

As a result, Democratic National Convention Committee Executive Director Alex Hornbrook told reporters that they were changing things up slightly on Tuesday.

"We're working with our speakers and making some other adjustments for this evening, including beginning at 5:30 pm CT (23:30 BST) to make sure that we stay on track."

When asked, Tyler declined to go into specifics about the changes. He noted, however, that "the programme team is working very hard right now to ensure that we can be on schedule".

Madeline Halpert
Reporting from the convention

While the convention centre in Chicago is functioning as a sort of pep rally for the Harris-Walz campaign, outside, there are small signs of discontent.

Just a flew blocks from the United Center Arena this afternoon, a pro-Palestinian protester was peacefully holding a flag.

Nearby, a poster urged Harris to call for a permanent ceasefire. "30,000 dead? Guess we oughtta take a quick pause", it read.

Thousands more have come to Chicago this week to protest the Biden administration's support of Israel's war in Gaza. Crowds have been smaller than organisers expected, but clashes at demonstrations last night led to more than a dozen arrests.

Ione Wells
Political correspondent reporting from Chicago

Chicago police say 13 arrests were made at protests yesterday at the Democratic convention, despite some peacefully exercising their right to protest.

They say the offences leading to arrests included criminal trespass to state-supported land, resisting and obstructing, and aggravated battery of police officers.

“We are not going to tolerate vandalism and violence in our city,” says Superintendent Larry Snelling.

When asked about the National Lawyers Guild saying two protesters were hospitalised after being “assaulted by police officers”, Snelling denies that this was due to "assaults" by police, but rather they were hospitalised to get medication they needed.

He also criticises the protesters who broke through one of the fences at Monday’s protests.

When asked if police have co-ordinated with the group Behind Enemy Lines who are planning a protest at the Israeli Consulate tonight, he says they're prepared to protect the public.

The group has called for the Democratic Convention to be “shut down” over the party’s stance on Israel and Gaza.

Their planned protest for this evening is called “Make it Great like ‘68”, in reference to the 1968 mass protests that took place by the DNC in Chicago over the US’s role involvement in the Vietnam War.

Madeline Halpert
Reporting from the DNC

Image source, Getty Images

The first night of the DNC got off to an unusual start on Monday, with incumbent President Joe Biden giving a send off less than a month after he made the decision to drop out of the race.

He gave a teary 50-minute address in which he touted his administration's accomplishments, praised Kamala Harris and told America: "I gave you my best."

He was one of several seasoned Democratic leaders - including former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton - to give a speech ushering in a new generation of Democrats.

Clinton spoke of the time she tried to break America's "highest and hardest" glass ceilings when she unsuccessfully ran for president in 2016. Harris, she said, would be on the "other side" of that glass ceiling.

The convention also heard from Democratic rising stars, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Raphael Warnock.

• You can read more about what happened on the opening night of the DNC here

Image source, Reuters

Several more prominent Democrats and celebrities will speak at the convention this evening. Here’s a look at what’s on the agenda:

• The Democratic "celebratory" roll call of Vice-President Kamala Harris and Governor Tim Walz will take place later - it's a ceremonial move as Harris was already chosen as the party's presidential nominee in a virtual roll call earlier this month
• Former President Barack Obama is tonight's primetime speaker, and former First Lady Michelle Obama will also address crowds
• We’ll have more political speeches with Illinois Governor JB Pritzker and Doug Emhoff, Kamala Harris’s prominent political spouse, taking the stage in Chicago’s United Center
• Today's theme for the four-day convention is "A Bold Vision for America’s Future"
• Former Trump spokesperson Stephanie Grisham will also be speaking tonight, as well as other Republicans for Harris

Emily McGarvey
Live page editor

Image source, Reuters

Welcome back as we kick off another day of live coverage of the Democratic Party's four-day convention in Chicago, Illinois.

Celebrations began last night with a raft of Democrats and celebrities taking the stage ahead of President Joe Biden's keynote address.

After being introduced by his wife Jill and daughter Ashley, Biden delivered an emotional defence of his presidency, saying: "America, I gave my best to you."

Hillary Clinton, who ran for presidency in 2016, paid tribute to Biden as she addressed the arena, and said she hoped Kamala Harris could finally break the “highest, hardest glass ceiling” in the US by becoming the first female president.

Today's speakers include former President Barack Obama, former First Lady Michelle Obama and several other senators. Illinois Governor JB Pritzker and Harris’s husband, Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, will also take the stage.

And we'll also bring you the highlights from Harris's campaign rally in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where she'll speak alongside her running mate Tim Walz this evening. The pair will address crowds at the site where the Republican convention was held last month.

Stay with us.