Image source, Democratic National Convention

Joe Biden is up, beginning the biggest speech of his political career.

He begins with a quote from civil rights activist Ella Baker: "give people light and they will find the way".

"Those are words for our time," he says. "The current president has cloaked America in darkness for far too long."

Biden then makes a promise: "If you entrust me with the presidency, I will draw on the best of us, not the worst. I'll be an ally of the light, not the darkness."

And with that, he accepts the Democratic nomination for president.

Image source, DNC

Joe Biden's children, Hunter and Ashley, are now up, alternating their remarks.

"He will be tough," Hunter says of his father.

"Caring and principled," adds Ashley. "He'll tell you the truth even when you dontw ant to hear it."

"The strongest shoulder you can ever lean on," her brother continues.

"He'll treat everyone with respect, no matter who you are," says Ashley. "He'll be the worst enemy any bully ever saw."

"He's been a great father and we think he'll be a great president."

Ashley Biden has been a social worker and is an activist who founded her own fashion line.

Hunter Biden you may recall from the Trump impeachment inquiry.

The former vice-president's son had ties to a Ukrainian company that was under investigation, which Trump and his allies claimed, led the elder Biden to encourage the firing of Ukraine's prosecutor.

• Hunter Biden defends Ukraine and China business dealings

These allegations - though widely discredited - were raised by Trump in the now infamous 25 July phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky...which then led to the impeachment investigation.

Image source, DNC

The Democratic Convention has brought the band of 2020 Democratic rivals all together.

Cory Booker, Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar, Beto O'Rourke, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Andrew Yang all turned out to throw their support behind Joe - an impressive show of solidarity after trading barbs on the campaign trail just months ago.

Image source, Democratic National Convention

As we await the appearance of Joe Biden amid what seems the longest build-up, NBA superstar Steph Curry makes a key off-court appearance to help his two young daughters make sense of the 2020 election.

Curry and his wife go over the election with their daughters, before encouraging Americans to get out and vote.

"We'd like to encourage you to do your research, think about your own homes and what you'd like to see projected out in the world," Curry's wife, Ayesha says.

And while the three-time NBA championship winner looks on - doing a little dance - Ayesha steps in with the buzzer beater, an endorsement from the First Family of basketball: "Make sure you vote this election for Biden."

We're now hearing from Biden's grandchildren- Maisy, Finnegan, Noami and Natalie.

"He's always eating ice cream usually."

There's a bit of a debate over what flavour ice cream Joe Biden prefers from his grandchildren - vanilla usually, sometimes chocolate?

On a more serious note, the girls say their grandfather is always there for them - if they call when he's on stage giving a speech, he'll still pick up.

"We just knew that he had to run."

Image source, DNC

Katty Kay
World News America presenter

Joe Biden's political currency is empathy. He's the guy with a sympathetic look, a consoling hug and an ever ready understanding smile. It's a brand, entirely genuine, born of his own personal brushes with grief. He's lost a lot - a wife, a daughter, a son. Over the years, he's become known as the friend who calls when things aren't going well in your life. And right things aren't going well in American lives. 170,000 Americans have died of the coronavirus, millions have lost their jobs - the whole country it seems is grieving. Democrats hope that makes Biden the man for this moment.

Sometimes politicians rise to the occasion but sometimes the occasion rises to meet them. Biden's previous bids for the presidency failed. In 1988 he was inexperienced and mishandled the campaign. In 2008 he was overshadowed by the first major female candidate and the first major black candidate. But, finally, as he accepts his party's nomination tonight, there is at least a reasonable chance that voters will decide that Joe Biden is what this turbulent country needs right now.

As the build-up to Biden continues, let's pull back to the bigger picture for the moment. How are the prospective rival candidates doing in the polls in the battleground states - areas that could plausibly vote Republican or Democrat. Things actually look good for Joe Biden. They suggest he has big leads in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin - three industrial states Donald Trump won by margins of less than 1% to clinch victory in 2016.

US election 2020 polls: Who is ahead - Trump or Biden

Michael Bloomberg, the former three term mayor of New York, is delivering remarks before the Biden family introduces the 2020 presidential candidate.

The world's ninth richest man spent a record $500m on his tilt at the Democratic nomination, hoping to don a centrist mantle to attract independent voters disenchanted with Trump - Bloomberg has in fact been a Democrat, a Republican, as well as an Independent.

His expensive venture ended in March after he failed to win a single state in the primaries, but his money could have been spent elsewhere.

Can you work out which blockbuster film he could have made or how many Tesla cars he could have bought with the money instead?

Image source, Getty Images

Next up on the e-stage: the Indiana Mayor who embarked on one of the least likely presidential bids in years, Pete Buttigieg.

"America, uniquely, holds the promise of a place where everyone can belong," Buttigieg says.

Buttigieg, 33, would have made some firsts had he won the nomination too, becoming the first millennial to sit in the Oval Office as well as the first openly gay president.

"Love makes my marriage real, but political courage made it possible," he says. "Including that of Joe Biden, who stepped out ahead even of this party when he said that marriage equality ought to be the law of the land."

He pulled in a considerable amount of funds, and as our correspondent Anthony Zurcher noted: "His campaign will be one for the history books."

But though the Navy veteran leapt to the top of the rankings in the first small, and majority white, states during the primary election season, he failed to win support among the party's diverse electorate.

• Why young ex-mayor Buttigieg is surging

His sexuality, too, came under attack by conservative critics, who wondered if American voters would pick an openly gay leader.

Buttigieg's record as Mayor of South Bend, (America's 306th largest city, for context) was also a sore spot, as he fired the city's first black police chief and was accused of mishandling a police shooting incident where a white officer shot and killed a black man.

Anthony Zurcher
BBC North America reporter

The final night of the Democratic Convention has had some of the biggest musical stars – the Chicks! John Legend! – but the speakers have, by and large, been pretty low-key. A steady procession of former 2020 presidential candidates and vice-presidential short-listers have made their appearances, but none have particularly set themselves apart – although Andrew Yang, early in the evening, was his typical quirky self.

Speaker after speaker once again hammered home the importance of voting – and given that the Democratic faithful probably make up the bulk of the first-hour audience, that may not be a bad idea.

Julia Louis Drefyus had the unenviable task of trying to provide comedic entertainment without the benefit of a live audience to play off. Her jokes hit and missed, with a quip about Donald Trump immediately after a moving video of Biden talking about his faith and the death of his son the most glaringly off-key.

Perhaps the lack of fireworks is by design. This night is supposed to be about Joe Biden, and the last thing the party wants is for an earlier speaker to overshadow him. The nominee’s job is a tall one – to explain to the nation who he is, what his values are, why he wants to be president and what he will do if he gets to the White House.

It’s a moment Biden has been striving for practically his entire life, and he’ll soon get his chance.

Image source, Getty Images

Tonight is all about Joe Biden, and as part of the celebration of the Democratic nominee, we're seeing a video tribute to his eldest son, Beau, who died of brain cancer in 2015, aged 46.

The former vice-president speaks often of his son, a military veteran, who the elder Biden has said helped influence his decision to run for president once again.

in his book “Promise Me, Dad" - released two years after Beau's death - the candidate said his son made him vow to stay in the fight for what he believed in.

And Beau also ties the former vice-president to his running mate, Kamala Harris. Harris and Beau served as attorneys general at the same time and became close friends.

Giving her convention speech last night, Harris spoke of Beau, saying he gave her the first introduction to Biden.

"I knew Joe Biden as vice-president, I knew Joe on the campaign trail, but I ​first​ got to know him as the ​father​ of my ​friend​ Beau," Harris said. "Joe always made sure that his sons were ​deeply​, unconditionally​ loved, putting in the work day in and day out for them. That's who he is."

Image source, Getty Images

Illinois Senator Tammy Duckworth - speaking now - is no stranger to firsts.

She was one of the first Asian-American women and the first disabled woman to win a seat on Capitol Hill. In 2018, she became the first woman to have a baby while serving as a senator.

Born in Bangkok to a Thai mother and American father, Duckworth - a former US Army lieutenant colonel - was said to have been on Biden's shortlist of running mate picks.

Duckworth lost both legs and most of the use of her right arm in 2004, when a helicopter she was piloting was attacked by insurgents during the Iraq War. Less than two years later, she ran for office in Illinois.

In 2008, President Barack Obama appointed her assistant secretary in the Department of Veterans' Affairs. As a centrist, she's ideologically in line with Biden too.

During the Trump presidency, she's positioned herself as among the most vocal critics of the Republican president, particularly on issues related to the military and immigration.

Speaking this evening, the senator says that Donald Trump "doesn't deserve to call himself commander in chief for another four minutes, let alone another four years".

She makes the case for Joe Biden, saying the former vice-president understands the sacrifices of military families because he's made them himself, with his son Beau.

"That's the kind of leader our service members deserve: one who understands the risks they face and would actually protect them by doing his job as commander-in-chief.

"Instead, they have a coward-in-chief who won't stand up to Vladimir Putin, read his daily intelligence briefings, or even publicly admonish adversaries for reportedly putting bounties on our troops' heads."

Read more on Tammy Duckworth here.

More now from that interview President Trump was giving to Fox News.

Speaking to host Sean Hannity he repeated his controversial claims that universal mail-in voting will undermine November's election.

"It's a fraudulent election... everybody knows it, you don't even need to know politics to know," he said, adding. "It's a terrible thing. They are trying to steal the election."

A record number of people are expected to vote by post due to the pandemic. Mr Trump has repeatedly said mail-in ballots will lead to voting fraud and boost Mr Biden. However, experts say the mail-in voting system - which Mr Trump himself uses - is safe from tampering.

Read more: Do postal ballots lead to voting fraud?

The union workers in Biden's discussion talk about their difficulties as working parents, as part of the middle class in an uncertain economic situation. It draws a concrete promise from the candidate.

"The future really rests on investment," says Biden. "We're gonna be investing $2tn on infrastructure...making sure we have access to do things that really make a difference."

"Keep the faith guys," he says.

The campaign promise is a tall order - infrastructure bills are notoriously difficult to get through Congress. The House has passed more than 275 infrastructure bills in the 2019 term but none have yet been approved in the Senate.

While some people are calling it a genius move to have Veep star Julia Louis-Dreyfus host tonight's convention, others say the jabs at Trump and jokes feel a bit canned.

When he stood onstage at a quaint union hall in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to formally announce his entry into the 2020 presidential race, Joe Biden declared that he stood for two things - workers who "built this country" and values that can bridge its divisions.

Though his 2020 platform includes a number of priorities important to the left flank of the Democratic party - such as student loan relief and racial justice - Biden has always pitched himself as 'working class Joe' and 'a union man' who would bring high-tech manufacturing jobs to the US to revitalise the middle class.

Such industries are key in important states like Pennsylvania and Michigan that traditionally vote Democrat, but went for Donald Trump in 2016.

Biden's conversation with union workers this evening highlights one of his key economic promises to court these voters back.

However, meeting the workers hasn't always worked out as planned - as this campaign argument from March demonstrates.

From political rising stars to secretaries of state warning of voter suppression, we've had plenty of speakers so far tonight. The themes of the evening have centred on denouncing Trump, getting out the vote and paying tribute to America's past.

But the night is still largely a build-up for Biden - and we're getting ever closer to that big event.

Now, we've got a brief appearance from the star of the evening at a panel with union workers, where Biden's discussing the economy.

We're hearing now from Cory Booker - who, in 2013, became the first black senator to represent New Jersey. He was also one of Biden's many 2020 Democratic rivals.

Booker was previously mayor of Newark, and was featured in film documenting his early mayoral campaign as a young, African-American politician. (You may also recognise him as the partner of Rent actress Rosario Dawson.)

A silver-tongued progressive on social issues, Booker began his campaign last February, at the start of US Black History Month, and sought to build on themes of civil rights, community and sacrifice.

But some on the left distrusted the senator's ties to big-money - and despite giving great speeches, his fundraising pool eventually dried up.

During his time on Capitol Hill, Booker has been known for advocating for criminal justice reform and protecting the Affordable Care Act. He's up for re-election this year and is expected to keep his seat.

• Cory Booker and me

With all the compliments heading his way tonight, it's easy to forget that Biden's two previous White House runs ended in, first, embarrassment and then, under-achievement.

On both occasions he failed to win a single state in the primaries.

In 1988 he pulled out when it emerged parts of a speech he delivered were taken from one by a British politician, almost word for word.

Then 20 years later, he was beaten by a history-making candidate, Barack Obama - although that paved the way for their future partnership.

The BBC's Katty Kay takes us back through Biden's career, and explains why his personal qualities have supporters pinning their hopes on this being his time.

Image source, Democratic National Convention

Native American representation is at an all-time high at this year’s Democratic National Convention. Deb Haaland – a Laguna Pueblo native of New Mexico – is the first Native American congresswoman ever to speak at the event.

On Tuesday night nine indigenous leaders addressed the nation on behalf of their respective states.

In 2016, Haaland – decked out in traditional Laguna Pueblo attire – voted for the party’s nominee Hillary Clinton on behalf of the state of New Mexico. In 2018, Haaland and her colleague Sharice Davids of Kansas became the first Native American women elected to Congress.