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.

In the US, young people under the age of 35 make up a third of the country's electorate.

So what do young millennials and Generation Z voters who support the Democratic Party think of their candidate?

Image source, Getty Images

More than 70 Republican former National Security officials have signed a letter declaring President Donald Trump "unfit to serve as president". Among them are former CIA Director Gen Michael Hayden and former National Intelligence Director John Negroponte.

Released hours before Biden's nomination acceptance, the former officials have endorsed the Democrat, saying: "Donald Trump has failed our country."

The letter, external accuses Trump of spreading misinformation during a health crisis, undermining experts, aligning with dictators and dishonouring his office.

It also comes as half a dozen high profile Republicans, including former Secretary of State Colin Powell, offered their support to Biden this week.

Dozens of senior Republicans had issued warnings about the Trump presidency four years ago, but more names have been added to the list this time around.

"While we – like all Americans – had hoped that Donald Trump would govern wisely, he has disappointed millions of voters who put their faith in him and has demonstrated that he is dangerously unfit to serve another term," the signatories wrote.

"While some of us hold policy positions that differ from those of Joe Biden and his party, the time to debate those policy differences will come later. For now, it is imperative that we stop Trump’s assault on our nation’s values and institutions and reinstate the moral foundations of our democracy."

Laura Trevelyan
Presenter, BBC World News America

Image source, Getty Images

A group of about 30 Trump supporters are lining the route which they anticipate Joe Biden’s motorcade will take to the Chase Center in Wilmington.

"Rioters and Looters for Biden" reads one sign, while the group regularly chant "Creepy Joe has got to go".

Less than 24 hours after Kamala Harris accepted the vice-presidential nomination, she is a target of Trump supporters. "Commie Kamala" reads one sign, while others make sexually graphic and sexist attacks on the first woman of colour to be nominated to a presidential ticket.

One Trump supporting woman is carrying a poster with the conspiracy theory grouping QAnon‘s slogan, "Where We Go One, We Go All".

Presidential elections generate a lot of interest both inside the US and further afield, but we're not all experts on how the process works. If you’re looking for a refresher or trying to understand it for the first time, the BBC has put together this simple guide to the US election.

More now on President Trump's visit to Joe Biden’s old hometown of Scranton, in the battleground state of Pennsylvania - as he continues conspicuous efforts to divert attention from the Democrats' convention. He told the crowd that "slow Joe" had "abandoned Pennsylvania, he abandoned Scranton" adding that the Democrat had sold out American workers and would be a "nightmare" if he got into power.

Jonathan Marcus
BBC Diplomatic and defence correspondent

For the world beyond America’s shores this will be the most important US presidential election for a generation. At stake is the country’s role in the international system: Will it be more “America First”; the disparaging of allies and the tearing up of treaties or, will it be a return to American leadership and multilateralism?

If Joe Biden wins then expect the US to re-join the World Health Organization; return to the Paris Agreement on Climate Change; and commit again to the Iran nuclear deal, providing Tehran returns to full compliance. Time will be short, but even the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty with Russia, which expires in February, could be extended.

But a Biden presidency will not simply be the undoing of the Trump years or a return to the approach of the Obama/Biden years. There can be no going back. The world has changed too much. Democracy is in disarray. Authoritarian leaders are asserting themselves. The international system dominated by America, that was established in the aftermath of World War Two is fragmenting.

Image source, Getty Images

As we mentioned, tonight's events will be hosted by actress Julia Louis Dreyfus. It's a fitting choice for former Vice-President Joe Biden as Louis-Dreyfus played the entirely fictional (and slightly evil) Vice-President Selina Meyer for seven seasons of the HBO series Veep.

The 59-year-old comic is not new to political activism. In 2017, she used an acceptance speech to condemn President Donald Trump's immigration ban.

"My father fled religious persecution in Nazi-occupied France,” she said at the time. “I’m an American patriot, and I love this country. Because I love this country, I am horrified by its blemishes, and this immigrant ban is a blemish and it's un-American.”

She's also no stranger to Biden. The two filmed a video together for the 2014 White House Correspondents' Dinner in 2014 and in 2017, when Louis-Dreyfus announced she had breast cancer, Biden tweeted his support.

"We Veeps stick together. Jill and I, and all of the Bidens, are with you, Julia."

Image source, Getty Images

Joe Biden's long political career has been a journey marked by adversity and loss. He is a survivor, writes the BBC's Anthony Zurcher, and five pivotal days in his life put this in stark relief.

Read: Joe Biden - this time the Oval Office?

Image source, Getty Images

The big Biden speech is the moment the whole convention has been leading up to, but what else can we expect on an evening themed as "America's Promise".

Our host for the evening will be Julia Louis-Dreyfus, the most famous ( albeit fictional) vice-president in the US, star of the award-winning TV series Veep.

Over the two hours of prime time television, we'll hear from Andrew Yang - who made unexpected inroads in his own presidential campaign - and former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, another out-of-the-blue phenom in the 2020 race. Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and US Senator Tammy Duckworth, both of whom were on Biden's short list of possible running mates, are also on the bill.

Alongside the stirring, highly-produced video segments we have come to expect after three nights of mostly-virtual conventions - we'll also get a dose of pop culture with John Legend, Common and the Chicks (until recently the Dixie Chicks) performing. Stay tuned.

Excerpts of some of tonight's speeches are coming in to us now, and the focus seems to be on selling Biden as a good man with the right character to lead America.

• Andrew Yang - one of the people Biden defeated for the Democratic nomination is to say: "I have gotten to know both Joe and Kamala on the trail over the past year —the way you really get to know a person when the cameras are off, the crowds are gone, and it’s just you and them. They understand the problems we face. They are parents and patriots who want the best for our country."
• And this is from former Mayor Pete Buttigieg - another defeated Biden rival: "Every American must now decide. Can America be a place where faith is about healing and not exclusion? Can we become a country that lives up to the truth that Black lives matter? Will we handle questions of science and medicine by turning to scientists and doctors?"

You don't have to read far between the lines to catch the implied criticism of Donald Trump - not that there hasn't already been plenty of direct criticism:

Image source, Reuters

President Trump has been very actively trying to divert attention from the Democrats' political showpiece this week - and today he is in a symbolic location - just outside Biden's old hometown of Scranton, in the battleground state of Pennsylvania. He is getting the digs in early, charging that Biden would be a "nightmare" if he got into power.

"He spent the last half century in Washington selling out our country and ripping off our jobs and letting other countries steal our jobs," Trump has just said.

Read more: Trump's shortcomings make a weak opponent look strong

Laura Trevelyan
Presenter, BBC World News America

Security has been stepped up outside the Chase Center in Wilmington, and the pro-Trump demonstrators are here, as the city’s favorite son prepares for his moment in the spotlight. There’s no mistaking that you’re in Biden territory - the Amtrak station is named for Joseph Biden junior and so too is the aquarium. It’s almost impossible to go about your business without meeting someone who knows Joe Biden.

Lupe Aquilez, manager of the Charcoal Pit diner in Wilmington, has high hopes of tonight’s speech by his most famous customer, who loves cheeseburgers and ice cream with chocolate sauce. Mr Aquilez hopes that if president, Joe Biden would provide a path for citizenship for millions of undocumented Hispanics living in America. But to get to that position, Joe Biden must use tonight to rally and inspire. The groundwork has been laid by the keynote speakers who preceded him - from Michelle Obama to Jill Biden to Hillary Clinton and President Obama, a picture has been painted of a compassionate man whose personal loss and years of political experience make him uniquely equipped to lead America at this moment.

Mr Biden is not the most eloquent of speakers - aides say this will be a speech seeking to make an emotional connection with the American people. Historian Jon Meachem’s book the Soul of America has been the inspiration for Mr Biden’s reclaiming the soul of America campaign message - and Mr Meachem speaks tonight. So far, the convention has been heavy on Trump bashing and lighter on detail of what the Biden/Harris ticket would do if victorious. Tonight, America will hear from Joe Biden himself.

Because of the coronavirus pandemic, Biden will deliver his speech in front of just a few aides, family members and hand-picked reporters in his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware. It marks the climax of a very untypical political convention which has been largely online, a far cry from the crowds confetti and balloon drops which are normally a staple of these events.

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the climax of the Democratic National Convention, the night when Joe Biden makes one of the most important speeches of his political life. The Delaware senator's primetime address will come after he formally accepts his party's nomination to take on the Republican Donald Trump in the 3 November election.

We'll be live streaming the event on this page and bringing you rolling text coverage of every significant moment. Expect insight from the BBC's correspondents in the US and beyond, reaction from real America and all the context you need to make sense of this year's unconventional showpiece.

We're a few hours out from the main event itself - starting at 21:00EST, 01:00GMT - so settle back as we build up to the action and if you haven't read it yet, you still have time to enjoy BBC North America reporter Anthony Zurcher's excellent long read: Joe Biden: This time the Oval Office?