The BBC has returned to a unique experiment carried out in the wake of the surprise election of Donald Trump in 2016. Back then the BBC World Service, with American Public Media, asked for smartphone voice recordings from people across Middle America - talking about their lives, about why they voted the way they did, and their hopes for the future.

Four years on, we went back to those contributors to see how their lives changed and what they want to happen now. Listen on this page, or on BBC Sounds.

Vice-presidential candidate Kamala Harris is celebrating her 56th birthday today. If by celebrating, you mean attending a virtual rally with local officials to mark the start of in-person voting in Wisconsin.

Democratic nominee Joe Biden is spending the day preparing for the second (and final) presidential debate this Thursday.

In the Republican camp, meanwhile, President Donald Trump will host a town hall event at the White House, before travelling to Erie, Pennsylvania for a rally.

And Vice-President Mike Pence will be holding a coronavirus task force meeting in Washington.

Trump also discussed his government's response to Covid-19 with Fox and Friends this morning.

He claimed again that the US is weathering the pandemic well and that the outlook for the country is good - despite figures showing rising cases and hospitalisations in almost all states.

"Well, we are living with it. And we're having the vaccines coming out very soon. With or without vaccines, we're rounding the turn," the president said.

Data suggests that the US is heading into a third peak of cases. On Monday the country reported 57,000 new infections and 456 deaths. Ten states on Friday hit their all-time high for new cases reported in a single day.

Lyse Doucet
Chief international correspondent, Kabul

The simple monument is stark and sharp-edged, a pointed block of black-veined marble memorialising a dark chapter in northern Afghanistan during a momentous history.

At this hour, as America edges closer to ending its longest war, it seemed fitting that a visiting delegation of senior American and Afghan military officers should pause at this spot to acknowledge a 32-year-old CIA officer - the first US casualty in the war to topple the Taliban in 2001.

Chiselled in Persian script and in English, this marble marker honours Mike Spann who was killed in a frenzied and bloody battle in November that year: "A hero who sacrificed his life: for freedom; for Afghanistan; for the United States of America."

Nineteen years on, after the deaths of more than 3,500 coalition forces and more than 110,000 Afghans killed, the overriding concern is averting a chaotic conclusion - at worst another descent into civil war - as the countdown gathers pace for the gradual removal of the last US and Nato forces in Afghanistan.

"What we are trying to do is prevent any negative outcomes and keep pushing the situation back into a place where Afghanistan is not faced with civil war, or even less stability than it has now, " says the top US soldier in Afghanistan, Gen Scott Miller, who commands Nato's Resolute Support Mission.

The Taliban, now at their greatest strength since 2001, are advancing and attacking in districts across Afghanistan - despite a deal signed with the US in February which seemed to promise a respite to a nation exhausted by war and increasingly worried it will only get worse.

Image source, Getty Images

Donald Trump has called into the morning TV news show Fox and Friends, and urged that his rival Joe Biden should be investigated by the US Attorney General, Bill Barr.

"We've gotta get the Attorney General to act. He's gotta act. And he's gotta act fast. He's gotta appoint somebody," Trump said.

He was referring to allegations about business dealings by Biden's son, Hunter, in Ukraine and China. The New York Post ran a story last week claiming that emails on a laptop which it alleged belonged to Hunter Biden link his father to those dealings, and contain evidence of corruption.

It has not yet been independently established whether the emails or the computer are genuine.

The FBI is examining the laptop to assess whether it is part of a Russian disinformation campaign - as suggested by more than 50 former senior intelligence officials.

A Biden spokesman said of the allegations: "Investigations by the press, during impeachment, and even by two Republican-led Senate committees whose work was decried as 'not legitimate' and political by a GOP colleague, have all reached the same conclusion: that Joe Biden carried out official US policy toward Ukraine and engaged in no wrongdoing."

William Armstrong
Turkey specialist, BBC Monitoring

Turkey is among the keenest outside observers of the US presidential election. The drawing down of Washington’s traditional global commitments under Donald Trump has opened space for revisionist actors like Turkey, eager to carve out a greater role in its near abroad.

Turkey has staged military operations in Libya, Syria and Iraq in recent years, backed by major domestic defence investments, seeking to boost its clout.Ankara's push to disrupt the status quo dovetails with Trump's scaling back of Washington's footprint, and many believe US isolationism will deepen in a second Trump term.

"A remarkable power gap has emerged with the US partial withdrawal from the region... from the Gulf to Libya, from North Africa to Europe," says Burhanettin Duran, the director of a pro-government think-tank called Seta.

"Turkey is not the same as the old Turkey. The world is not the same as the old world... the America-centred world,” pundit Hasan Basri Yalcin argues.

But Turkey's government is not the only player aiming to fill vacuums resulting from US retreat. Greater turbulence may be expected in the coming period as multiple capitals jostle to extend their influence.

Academic Ilhan Uzgel warns that an order of competitive "global geopolitics" is rising in place of the post-Cold War liberal era. And whether it is Trump or Biden in the White House, Erdogan will seek to continue flexing Turkey's muscles.

Image source, Innersloth

Every day our colleagues are bringing you The Countdown, a round-up of the latest news and analysis on the presidential race.

Computer game Among Us has become a hugely popular way for teenagers to socialise alone, especially during lockdowns. The premise is you are on an alien spaceship and you are either an astronaut or a murderous imposter - can you survive?

It does not sound like it naturally goes with politics but one Congresswoman - Democratic Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - has set up a channel on streaming platform Twitch and is looking for teammates.

The youth vote is important to all politicians and they will be keen to encourage as many young people to go to polls as possible.

You can read the rest of our briefing here.

Yesterday in a call with campaign staff, President Trump described Dr Anthony Fauci, a respected epidemiologist and member of his coronavirus task force, as "a disaster".

"If I listened to him, we'd have 500,000 deaths," Trump said during the call, which included reporters.

It is far from the first sign of tensions between the pair: Dr Fauci has urged people to keep taking Covid-19 seriously, while the president has suggested the worst is over, despite a rise in cases across the country.

Fauci has now responded, brushing off the latest broadside with a reference to The Godfather. Asked by KNX Radio whether he ever feels like quitting his job over the president's comments, he replied:

"It depends if you take it personally. I focus totally on the health and the welfare of the people of this country. That's what I devoted 50 years of my career towards.

"That's the only thing I really care about. That other stuff, it's like in The Godfather: 'Nothing personal, strictly business,' as far as I'm concerned. I just want to do my job and take care of the people of this country. That's all I want to do."

The Godfather quote in question refers, rather chillingly, to a mafia killing.

Pascal Fletcher
Latin American specialist, BBC Monitoring

From Mexico to Argentina, Latin American governments are watching the US election race closely, calculating how a Trump or Biden win will affect their ties with the superpower.

Left-wing-ruled nations, such as Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua, which are targets of US President Donald Trump's incendiary rhetoric and ramped up sanctions, are dearly hoping that the Republican president fails in his re-election bid. They perceive that his Democratic challenger Joe Biden may offer less hostility and even possible negotiations.

Some leaders, such as Brazil's far-right President Jair Bolsonaro and Colombia's Ivan Duque, have forged friendly relations with Trump. As they watch the opinion polls, they may be concerned that a Biden win could bring more US scrutiny on the environment and human rights.

As the US most immediate neighbour, left-leaning Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has bent over backwards to maintain a cordial relationship with Trump, tolerating his public insults about Mexico and Mexicans and repeated sanctions threats.

For AMLO, as López Obrador is popularly known, things can only get better with a Biden victory. Argentina's left-leaning Peronist President Alberto Fernández has also been careful not to pick any serious fights with Trump.

But he would no doubt prefer to see Biden in the White House, as a more harmonious US-China relationship under Biden would also favour the current Argentine outreach to the Asian power.

TikTok has become one of the political stories in the run up to the US election, exposing America's distrust of China. But its users and influencers could help decide who takes the White House.

As part of the BBC's "What the world wants from America" coverage, our colleague Sophia Smith Galer entered the hype houses of TikTok to find out how influential it really is. You can listen above or on BBC Sounds.

Kian Sharifi
Iran specialist, BBC Monitoring

The official line coming out of Tehran is that the Islamic Republic does not care about the outcome of the US presidential election. Iranian officials insist the vote is a matter of domestic politics, but a look at the media coverage shows a clear preference.

The consensus among media from across the political spectrum is that Donald Trump has got to go. But while hardline outlets do not appear particularly happy about the prospect of a Biden presidency, moderate and pro-reform outlets seem more keen on the seasoned Democrat.

This is, of course, unsurprising. When it comes to Iran, Donald Trump's presidency has been marked by a slew of sanctions as part of his "maximum pressure" policy towards the Islamic Republic, which has taken a massive toll on the country's economy. The Iranian currency has lost around 80% of its value against the dollar since May 2018, when Trump abrogated the 2015 nuclear deal.

Iran's preference for Biden is mostly out of disdain for Trump, although he has expressed willingness to return to the nuclear deal. Nevertheless, the Islamic Republic is inherently mistrustful of America and Biden is an American. He has also said that Iran should be prepared for further negotiations, possibly about its ballistic missile programme - something Iran has repeatedly ruled out.

A recent poll in the country found that more than 56% of respondents believed Trump would win a second term whereas only 20% thought Biden has a chance.

Image source, Getty Images

For the first time in its history, the USA Today has endorsed a presidential candidate, telling its readers: "Elect Joe Biden. Reject Donald Trump."

In an article published on Tuesday, external, the newspaper said that in 2016 it had broken with tradition to argue its readers should not vote for Trump: "We stopped short, however, of an outright endorsement of Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee."

This year, however, the newspaper's Editorial Board has unanimously agreed to endorse Biden, whom it said "offers a shaken nation a harbor of calm and competence".

The newspaper, which was founded in 1982, said its decision would not affect its reporting of either the campaign or the next president, whether Trump or Biden. "We may never endorse a presidential nominee again," it said. "In fact, we hope we'll never have to."

BBC Monitoring Disinformation Team

All eyes are on the issue of foreign interference in America's 2020 election. Following the 2016 campaign - when social media giants were unprepared for an avalanche of "fake news" - things seem to be playing out differently, with foreign disinformation campaigns having only a limited effect.

Operations linked to Russia and Iran have been nipped in the bud by social media take-downs. These include a news website connected to the infamous Russian Internet Research Agency "troll factory", using unsuspecting western freelance writers for added realism.

Instead, misinformation has come largely from inside the US, with the cult-like QAnon conspiracy attracting most attention, spreading into the mainstream before Facebook, Twitter and YouTube took belated action.

This month, Facebook uncovered a US-based "troll factory" which it said paid users to spread right-wing talking points in comments under news articles.

Social media companies have become much better at spotting foreign disinformation campaigns, but the QAnon controversy raises concerns that they have been slow to take action on damaging home-grown conspiracies.

While there is little doubt that there is a foreign component to election misinformation, it is hard to tell how effective it has been.

Joana Saba
Middle East specialist, BBC Monitoring

Hillary Clinton's emails have suddenly become an issue again. Not in the US, like they were four years ago when she was running for president, but in several Gulf countries and in Egypt.

Media outlets last week ran simultaneous coverage of what they called new email leaks from Clinton, purporting to show that she supported Islamist groups and sought to destabilise the region.

Coincidentally, this so-called leak came after Donald Trump and the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said they would release a new batch of emails from Clinton's archives. But much of what has been reported so far had been released to the public in 2015 and 2016.

Until recently, much of the Arab media had offered largely neutral coverage of the US election and it is not clear who is driving this new effort.

These Gulf countries and Egypt have benefited to a great extent from Trump's "America First" foreign policy over the past four years. Egypt, after Israel, is the largest recipient of US military aid.

Reality Check

President Trump said at a rally in Arizona that under the Green New Deal (GND) there would be "no more cows" in the US. "The green new deal is the craziest thing, right?... No more airplanes, no more double cars, no more cows," he said.

The GND - backed by some prominent Democrats, although not by the presidential contender Joe Biden - aims to tackle climate change by building a more environmentally-friendly economy. But it does not want to eliminate cows, who release a significant amount of the greenhouse gas methane when they digest food.

It does call for "working collaboratively with farmers and ranchers… to remove pollution and greenhouse gas emissions from the agricultural sector".

Although there is no mention of cows in the proposal's text, external, Trump could be referring to additional documents, external sent out when the GND was put forward in 2019. These documents note: "We set a goal to get to net-zero, rather than zero emissions, in 10 years because we aren't sure that we'll be able to fully get rid of farting cows and airplanes that fast."

Similar comments were posted on a blog by Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who introduced the GND, but later removed.

And she has rejected the idea the GND wants to ban cows, saying: "It's not to say you are going to force everybody to go vegan… [But] we've got to address factory farming, maybe we shouldn't be eating a hamburger for breakfast, lunch and dinner."

Image source, Getty Images

We're bringing you a day of special coverage across the BBC on the theme "What the world wants from America", with analysis from our correspondents and experts from around the world.

In the meantime, here's a round-up of the latest developments in the presidential race:

• President Trump and Joe Biden will have their microphones muted for part of their second and final pre-election debate on Thursday, under new rules adopted by the Commission on Presidential Debates
• The two candidates will each have two minutes to deliver their remarks without interruption during the televised event, before the microphones are unmuted for questions. The new measures have been brought in following a heated first debate marked by ill-tempered exchanges and frequent interruptions
• Meanwhile, the Republican president's campaign have accused the organisers of helping the Democrat by leaving out foreign policy as a topic. The Biden camp shot back that Trump was trying to avoid questions about his response to the coronavirus pandemic
• The US Supreme Court has allowed the state of Pennsylvania to extend its postal vote deadline for the 3 November election. The ruling rejects a bid by the Republican party to block the request from a lower court. That ruling allows officials to count postal ballots received three days after election day, as long as they were sent by the end of that day
• What they are doing today: Trump will join a town hall event at the White House Rose Garden before holding a rally in Pennsylvania; Biden is taking a break from the campaign trail to prepare for Thursday's debate

Will Grant
Mexico and Central America correspondent

In many ways, the administration of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador believes it has found a modus vivendi with Donald Trump. Agreement was reached over a new North American free trade deal and Mexico is largely co-operating with Washington over immigration - a demand the Trump administration tied to trade negotiations.

However, in order to achieve that, Mexico now deploys military personnel against impoverished and weary migrants heading north. It also allows migrants to remain in Mexico while they await their court dates in the US. And President Trump’s rhetoric that Mexico will somehow pay for the border wall has not abated in four years.

While the Mexican Government might think that is a price worth paying for cordial relations, many millions of Mexicans disagree. They have not forgotten his "rapists and murderers" comment about Mexicans while still a candidate in 2016.

Two years later, a survey for Pew Research found that just 6% of Mexicans expressed confidence in President Trump, the lowest of the 25 surveyed nations. If nothing else from this election, they want the cheap insults and constant hostility towards Mexico to end.

Image source, Reuters

Mohammad Haroon
Afghanistan specialist, BBC Monitoring

The Taliban have so far refrained from taking an official position on the US presidential election, but remarks by some of its members suggest the group would prefer a second term for Donald Trump over a Joe Biden victory.

In a recent phone interview with CBS News, for instance, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid lauded Trump for his "decisive actions" while criticising Biden for his "unrealistic slogans".

Although the spokesman later said that his remarks had been "incorrectly" interpreted, he did not clarify how exactly his comments had been misunderstood.

"These days, the Taliban are praying: 'Oh God, make Mr Trump the winner of the upcoming elections and keep him safe!'" Afghanistan's former spy chief Rahmatullah Nabil tweeted in response to Mujahid's reported remarks.

And commentary published on the Taliban's propaganda website Voice of Jihad in July had also voiced a slightly pro-Trump - though not anti-Biden - stance.

"Arg [Afghan presidential palace] warmongers, looking to Joe Biden, are seemingly in the mood for a new interventionist war," the commentary stated.

Donald Trump may currently be behind in the polls, but the race is far from over. Hillary Clinton was ahead of Trump in the 2016 election and even won the popular vote. But that is not how elections are won - it is more about having the right number of votes in the right places

And so there is one piece of news that is giving Republicans hope: a rise in voter registration in three critical states.

While registered Democrats still outnumber registered Republicans in Florida, Pennsylvania and North Carolina, data has shown that the gap has narrowed by around 200,000 voters in Florida and Pennsylvania and by 230,000 in North Carolina since 2016.

Trump won all three states in the last election - in part because voters turned out for him and not for his rival - and his campaign is hoping voters in these areas will turn out for him again in November.

Who is ahead in the polls? Find out more here.

Beril Akman
Turkey specialist, BBC Monitoring

Pundits in Turkey are sceptical of Joe Biden's candidacy and many favour a second term for President Donald Trump, with whom President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has forged warm ties.

Biden has been strongly criticised in the Turkish media, especially over a New York Times interview from December 2019, in which he expressed support for Turkey's opposition.

But the resentment actually dates back to much earlier. During Biden's time as senator, he disapproved of Turkey's 1974 military intervention in Cyprus, which led to the division of the island. He was described as a "Greek-Cypriot puppet" in a 1999 news article, and as "anti-Turkey" when he became US vice-president-elect in 2008.

Today, Biden is at odds with Ankara over a number of foreign policy issues. He has voiced support for Turkey's old foes, including Kurdish-led forces in Syria and Greece in the East Mediterranean. "Biden has adopted an anti-Turkey direction... Can't we just say Donald Trump's re-election would be better for us?" pundit Mehmet Barlas says.

Nevertheless, some observers believe a Biden presidency may not be bad for Turkey, referring to a "golden age" of Ankara-Washington ties during Barack Obama's first presidential term.

Turkish officials have been careful not to openly side with either Trump or Biden. Ultimately, Turkey-US relations will continue to face significant hurdles regardless of who wins.

Image source, Getty Images