Image source, Getty Images

First up this evening to address climate change, New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham does not mince her words, telling viewers: "Time is running out to save our planet."

The Democrat says voters have a chance this November to end "two existential crises" - Trump presidency and the climate crisis. "The choice is clear," she says. "The choice is Joe Biden."

Image source, Getty Images

The speaker rounding out the convention's message on gun violence is Gabrielle Giffords, a former Arizona congresswoman who was shot in the head in 2011 whilst meeting constituents at an event in Tuscon. Six others were shot and killed, but Giffords managed to make what doctors called a “remarkable” recovery.

She has become a prominent gun control activist since the attempt on her life. Her husband - former astronaut and US Navy Captain Mark Kelly - is running for Arizona’s Senate seat.

"I've known the darkest of days," Giffords begins. "But confronted by despair, I've summoned hope...America needs all of us to speak out, even when you have to fight to find the words."

"We are at a crossroads," she says. "We can let the shooting continue, or we can act. We can protect our families, our future. We can vote.

"We can be on the right side of history. We must elect Joe Biden. He was there for me, he'll be there for you too."

Image source, DNC

After that video featuring Emma Gonzalez, we hear from Indiana mother DeAndra Dycus, whose son was shot at a birthday party when he was 13.

"He was dancing at a birthday party when he was shot in the back left side of his head, shattering his skull," she says. "One shot changed our lives forever. Today, my Dre does not talk, he does not walk. I know he knows me by the smile he shows when I walk in his room, but I'm unsure if he knows a gunshot has changed his life."

She says: "In every town across America there are families who know what a bullet can do. That's why I'm a mom who volunteers to stop this. President Trump, he doesn't care."

Since Parkland, more than 135 gun safety laws have been passed nationwide, according to the Giffords Law Center, which advocates for gun safety. Support for gun control is highest among 18 to 29-year-olds, according to the Pew Research Center.

But gun ownership is protected under the Constitution, and gun-rights groups remain strong in the US, which tops the list of civilian gun-owning countries.

Image source, Getty Images

Gun control is one of the biggest election topics Democrats are highlighting tonight.

We hear from 20-year-old Emma Gonzalez - a survivor of a shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida that spurred massive protests - in a pre-recorded video.

"Until one of us or all of us stand up and say 'I can't do this anymore, I can't sit by and watch the news treat these shootings like acts of God', gun violence isn't just going to stop," she says.

"What we're fighting for will happen, because we're fighting so strongly for it. We're going to make this change."

In 2018, a gunman killed 17 people and injured 17 more at Gonzalez's Florida high school in just six minutes, making it one of the deadliest mass shootings in US history.

A number of student survivors became gun control activists after the attack, founding the March for Our Lives advocacy group.

Gonzalez made international headlines for her impassioned speech demanding gun control during the first march in Washington DC that same year.

The third night of the Democratic National Convention kicks off with a message from the headline act of the evening - vice-presidential nominee Kamala Harris urging supporters to get out and vote on 3 November. She hands straight to actress Kerry Washington who is moderating proceedings tonight. Washington played a crisis management expert, Olivia Pope, in US political drama series Scandal, let's hope she won't be needing those skills tonight.

Jack Goodman
BBC Reality Check

Image source, Reuters

Since the announcement of Kamala Harris as the Democrat’s pick for vice-president, she’s been targeted by false claims and conspiracy theories.

President Trump referenced an inaccurate theory that the California senator was ineligible for the office of vice-president. But anyone born in the US is a US citizen and therefore, Ms Harris is eligible to serve as president or vice-president, external.

It echoed the president’s previous “birther” comments claiming that Barack Obama was born outside of the US, which is false.

Further false claims about Ms Harris's heritage have emerged on right-leaning social media accounts, including misinformation that has been used to discredit the senator in the past.

Among them is an accusation that until accepting the vice-presidential nomination, she had not identified as a black American woman. But this is wrong and the senator has been explicit about her dual heritage, as both a black American and of Indian descent.

She wrote in her autobiography: "My mother understood very well that she was raising two black daughters."

"She knew that her adopted homeland would see Maya [her sister] and me as black girls and she was determined to make sure we would grow into confident, proud black women."

According to the Washington Post, "Harris grew up embracing her Indian culture, but living a proudly African-American life."

You can read more of these fact-checked claims about Kamala Harris in this Reality Check article.

Well, we're about 20 minutes away from the start of proceedings, and it's already been a busy night, with the current and former US presidents rhetorically tearing chunks out of each other.

Barack Obama is expected to warn that the very future of US democracy is at stake in November's poll when he gives a speech towards the end of the event.

But speaking at the White House earlier, Trump said that he was now president because Obama and Joe Biden did not do a good job while in office. He called them ineffective and "terrible".

All of this rather overshadows what is supposed to be the main point of the evening - barrier-breaking California senator Kamala Harris taking centre stage, being formally nominated as Joe Biden's vice presidential candidate and delivering her own keynote remarks.

Stay tuned - it may be a virtual convention, but it could be the most dramatic night so far.

She's a household name at this point in the election cycle, but what's Kamala Harris' backstory?

The California Democrat was born in Oakland, California, to two immigrant parents: an Indian-born mother and Jamaican-born father.

Harris attended college at Howard University, one of the nation's preeminent historically black colleges and universities, which she has described as among the most formative experiences of her life.

She went on to earn her law degree at the University of California, Hastings, and began her career in the Alameda County District Attorney's Office.

Harris became the top prosecutor for San Francisco in 2003 before being elected to serve as California's first black female attorney general.

She used her nearly two terms in office to gain the momentum to propel her election as California's junior US senator in 2017.

Read more about Kamala Harris here.

Laura Trevelyan
Presenter, BBC World News America

Image source, Getty Images

It’s a blockbuster night for women at the DNC tonight, in the week marking 100 years since women got the right to vote here in the US. But it's also a reminder of how women haven’t yet broken the glass ceiling of American politics.

Elizabeth Warren, lion of the progressive left, speaks tonight. Her catchphrase 'I’ve got a plan for that' showcased her intricate knowledge of policy, her debate performances shone - yet she couldn’t clinch the Democratic nomination.

Hillary Clinton famously won the popular vote against Donald Trump in 2016 but lost the election. Her historic candidacy launched a wave of female activism, leading to more women running for elected office.

Nancy Pelosi, also featured tonight, has smashed the glass ceiling of Capitol Hill, being the first female Speaker of the House.

Now Kamala Harris hopes to become the first female vice-presidential candidate who makes it all the way to the White House, succeeding where Geraldine Ferraro and Sarah Palin failed.

To mark this year's centennial of the 19th amendment, the BBC spoke to a number of women running for office - both Republican and Democrat - to see what has been achieved and what is left to do.

Anthony Zurcher
BBC North America reporter

Barack Obama and Donald Trump are exchanging barbs in near real time now. While the former president has offered oblique criticism in the past, in his Democratic National Convention speech tonight he will attack the current president by name.

In excerpts that have already been released, Obama will say Trump hasn’t taken the presidency seriously and he’s shown no reverence for American democracy.

“Donald Trump hasn’t grown into the job because he can’t,” Obama’s speech reads. “And the consequences of that failure are severe - 170,000 Americans dead; millions of jobs gone.”

Asked about Obama’s upcoming address during a press conference at the White House Wednesday evening, Trump offered his own pre-buttle. He said Obama was ineffective as president, made “stupid transactions” and left the nation a “horror”.

Things were so bad, he concluded, “that I stand before you as president".

For more than three years, Trump has treated the 2016 election – one he narrowly won – as a full-throated repudiation of his predecessor and governed accordingly. That has been a risky assumption, given that polls indicate, external Obama is currently one of the most popular political figures in the nation, while Trump has been net negative for most of his presidency.

Wednesday’s clash suggests that the upcoming election between Trump and Joe Biden, Americans will be more than a choice between two men, it also will be one between two legacies – Obama’s and Trump’s. And both the current and former presidents are treating it accordingly.

Image source, Getty Images

The Democratic National Convention drew in 6.13 million viewers across major US television networks ABC, CBS and NBC on Tuesday night - marking a 48% drop from the second night of the convention in 2016.

But the decline in viewers - based on preliminary data from Nielsen Media Research - doesn't include the growing number of Americans tuning in online.

According to the Biden campaign, 10.3 million viewers watched the convention on digital platforms Monday - a figure that includes all streaming services except for Amazon's Prime Video. These numbers mark a more than 7 million jump from 2016.

It's a win, said Biden press secretary TJ Ducklo on Twitter, for a convention moved almost entirely online due to Covid-19 concerns.

"We are producing a digital convention, and people are watching."

Image source, Getty Images

Excuse us now for what is effectively our own ad-break, but are you an African-American voter who is willing to share your perspectives with the BBC?

What issues concern you the most? We want to hear your stories and experiences.

Get in touch - and learn more about our voter panel - here.

When Kamala Haris was unveiled as Joe Biden's running mate earlier in August, we talked to black voters about the historic pick of a candidate with Jamaican and Indian roots. We'll be getting their reaction later to what Harris has to say. This is how Peyton Forte, 21, a graduate from North Carolina A&T State University, saw things.

"To have a woman, the first black woman vice-president in American history - it looks good, it sounds good, but what can you do, she's not my pick," Forte told the BBC.

"Kamala is not my choice because I would have liked for [Democratic presidential candidate] Joe Biden to go with more of a progressive [candidate]. I think that we kind of get carried away by 'firsts', especially as black people, by the 'first this' and 'first that', it's just seen as a gigantic milestone."

"But are you fighting for some of the values that the black community holds dear?"

Some of those paying the closest attention to the convention will be Republicans - specifically those people in the party organising their version of the event next week. We spoke to former Trump 2016 campaign adviser Bryan Lanza about it. His verdict? Not altogether surprising: "[It's] like a telethon... nothing new, its nothing dynamic... all rather boring".

But he believes the Republicans will have to learn some lessons, and quickly. "The challenges are daunting, I'm worried that it [will] come across as an extended version of Fox News, and that's a missed opportunity," he adds.

Katty Kay
World News America presenter

You could forgive Hillary Clinton for having mixed emotions ahead of her convention speech tonight. Too often she stars in the supporting role at these events - on behalf of her husband, on behalf of Barack Obama and now trying to rally support for Joe Biden. Of course she was the star at the last DNC in 2016 but we all know how that ended.

If it’s any consolation, people close to Mrs Clinton say she always believed Joe Biden was the best candidate to take on Donald Trump in November. But she is part of the old guard and to win in November, Democrats need the new guard too.

All those people who stayed home in 2016 because they weren’t energised by her candidacy - those are the people she needs to convince tonight. It’ll be very interesting to hear how she delivers that slightly awkward message - you didn’t vote for me, but please come out and vote for Joe.

Image source, Reuters

Let's turn back to things in Washington DC for a moment - where President Trump's just made an extraordinary intervention from the White House.

He was just asked about excerpts from Barack Obama's convention speech that came out earlier - where Obama levied some pointed digs at Trump - and the sitting president had sharp words for his predecessor.

"I see the horror that he left us, the stupidity of the transactions he made," Trump began, adding that he was "so ineffective, so terrible".

"President Obama did not do a good job. The reason I'm here is because of President Obama and Joe Biden, because if they did a good job, I wouldn't be here."

Trump adds that he may not have even run for the White House if they had done their job.

"I enjoyed my previous life very much, but they did such a bad job that I stand here before you as president."

More teasers for tonight's events at the Democratic convention have been coming in to us. This is part of the video that is going to tee up Kamala Harris' appearance.

Image source, Getty Images

Should the Democrats win in November, vice president Kamala Harris would be a heartbeat away from the presidency - she'd take over if anything happened to President Biden - and that would be the nearest any woman has yet come to the office.

She's only the second woman ever to be picked as the Democrats' vice-presidential nominee. Here, the BBC takes a look at how the three other women who have been on a major party ticket - and one pioneering black female candidate who preceded them - tried to break the glass ceiling.

Read about Women who paved the way for first black female VP hopeful

Image source, Getty Images

More excerpts from the key speeches coming in now - including from former vice president Joe Biden's old boss, President Barack Obama, who is going to talk about his friend's resilience and empathy. Obama took a back seat while the battle for the Democratic nomination raged, but it seems he will play a very active role in the push to get Biden into the White House.

"Over eight years, Joe was the last one in the room whenever I faced a big decision. He made me a better president," Obama will say in prepared remarks. "He’s got the character and the experience to make us a better country."

It's a theme running throughout these appeals from leading Democrats, but Obama too urges supporters to get out to the polls and vote.

You must "embrace your own responsibility as citizens to make sure that the basic tenets of our democracy endure," he will say. "Because that's what's at stake right now. Our democracy."

There are also further pointed digs at Donald Trump. "I did hope, for the sake of our country, that Donald Trump might show some interest in taking the job seriously.... But he never did," Obama - the 44th US president - will say.

The Democratic communications team clearly know we are faced with hours of live coverage to fill before the start of the convention proper, because we are getting a slew of material in now, previewing tonight's main speeches. We've just been sent some excerpts from what Hillary Clinton will be saying later - and she doesn't mince her words about the man who beat her in 2016.

"I wish Donald Trump had been a better president," she will say. "But, sadly, he is who he is. America needs a president who shows the same compassion, determination, and leadership in the White House that we see in our communities."

Clinton also hammers the importance of voting - as Democrats look to get their supporters to the polls on 3 November.

"For four years, people have said to me, 'I didn’t realise how dangerous he was.' 'I wish I could go back and do it over.' Or worst, 'I should have voted.' Well, this can’t be another woulda coulda shoulda election...Vote like our lives and livelihoods are on the line, because they are.”