A two-year-old video, tweeted by a film-maker who makes clear that he is doing this to campaign for Joe Biden, has had millions of views.

It shows Joe Biden hugging the son of a victim of the 2018 mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida.

Many shared how the unscripted empathy of the moment moved them to tears.

At the same time Trump continues to draw in large, adoring crowds of supporters, despite the pandemic.

His speeches rely on his positive connection with the crowd: In Gastonia, North Carolina last night he said the word "great" 104 times, "love" 20 times and "vote" 23 times.

Read more about this - and other bitesize election updates - in the Countdown.

Image source, Reuters

If you're following our coverage from the US, good morning - and good afternoon to our readers in the UK.

It's been a busy day. To help you catch up, here are the main headlines.

• Trump and Biden are going up against each other tonight in the final debate of the election
• The debate is being held in Nashville, and will start at 21:00 EST (02:00 BST)
• There were a lot of interruptions in the last debate - so, this time, organisers are introducing a mute button so that both candidates can deliver their opening statements uninterrupted
• Meanwhile Amy Coney Barrett's nomination for the Supreme Court was confirmed by the Senate Judiciary Committee - despite a boycott from Democrats
• The FBI has said that Iran and Russia have been using US voter registration information to try and interfere in the election. Among the examples given by Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe was an instance of Iran posing as the far-right group Proud Boys to send intimidating emails to voters.

Image source, Reuters

Senate Judiciary Democrats boycotted today's key committee meeting to confirm the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court.

In their places were poster-sized photos of people who have been helped by the Affordable Care Act, and its mandated coverage for people with pre-existing conditions.

Barrett might potentially cast a deciding vote striking down the act.

Addressing the hearing, Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer said they were "voting with our feet".

"We are boycotting this illegitimate hearing," he added. "The nomination of Amy Coney Barrett is the most illegitimate process I have ever witnessed in the Senate.

"Her potential confirmation will have dire, dire consequences for the Senate, for the Supreme Court and our entire country for generations to come."

Joe Biden has been ahead of Donald Trump in most national polls since the start of the year. He has hovered around 50% in recent months and has had a 10-point lead on occasions.

And a new series of polls from Fox News looking at key battleground states have put Trump slightly ahead of Joe Biden in Ohio - but the president has fallen far behind in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Among Ohio respondents, 48% said they preferred Trump, compared to 45% who said they would vote for Biden.

In Michigan, however, 52% of likely voters said they preferred Biden, while 40% said they preferred Trump. In Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, Biden led by five points.

In response, Trump tweeted that the Fox News polls were "totally FAKE", adding: "I am leading in all of the states mentioned, which you will soon see."

We're tracking the polling in more detail here.

Joe Biden has tested negative for Covid-19 ahead of Thursday night's final presidential debate in Tennessee.

“Vice President Biden underwent PCR testing for COVID-19 today and COVID-19 was not detected,” the Biden campaign said in a statement.

The Democratic nominee for president has tested negative 13 times since the beginning of October.

Image source, EPA

The Supreme Court has reinstated a ban on kerbside voting in Alabama.

Kerbside voting means that voters can cast their ballots while in a car, driving outside the polling station, instead of having to go in.

Disabled and other at-risk voters argued that making them go inside polling stations to vote would put them in danger of catching Covid-19.

As is customary, the court didn't explain its rationale for allowing the ban to go ahead - but Justice Sonia Sotomayor did write a dissent for the court's Democratic appointees, arguing that kerbside voting was a "modest" accommodation to those most at risk of severe illness or death of coronavirus.

“If those vulnerable voters wish to vote in person, they must wait inside, for as long as it takes, in a crowd of fellow voters whom Alabama does not require to wear face coverings,” Sotomayor wrote.

We're watching tonight's debate with voters from battleground states - the places that will ultimately decide the election.

Next up, Lesley Batson. She was raised in Canada and became a US citizen in 2016. She is an independent voting for Joe Biden.

What are you looking for in the final presidential debate?

Biden to be able to articulate his policies on the various topics uninterrupted.

Why do you support your candidate?

Biden sees humanity and doesn't make everything a political issue. He'll look to experts for recommendations on Covid-19 and carry out plans that will serve the people for the better. He acknowledges that systemic racism exists and will work to change it. Biden is not a criminal. Honestly, do you want me to go on?

Lesley is a member of our US election voter panel. We want to hear from you - what questions do you have for our focus group tonight?

Image source, Reuters

After a chaotic and ill-tempered first debate, President Trump and Joe Biden will have their microphones muted for part of their second and final pre-election encounter, 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 two candidates have already feuded over what topics will be covered in the debate, with the Trump campaign claiming it should have included more foreign policy. The Biden camp says Trump is trying to avoid questions about his response to the coronavirus pandemic.

The topics chosen by moderator Kristen Welker will really come as no surprise however: Fighting Covid-19, American Families, Race in America, Climate Change, National Security and Leadership.

Watch first debate lowlights:

How can I watch the debate?

The final presidential debate of this US election year is taking place at Nashville's Belmont University in the southern, lately solidly Reublican state of Tennessee.

The debate starts at 21:00 EST (02:00 BST; 01:00 GMT) and runs for 90 minutes without commercial interruption. You can watch the whole debate - plus build up and reaction - in the live stream at the top of this page from 20:30 EST.

Here's a full guide to the final US presidential debate.

Anthony Zurcher
BBC North America reporter

Joe Biden is an old-school politician, and he has come up with a decidedly old-school response to the question of whether he wants to increase the number of justices on the US Supreme Court.

He’ll establish a commission.

In case there’s any doubt, policy commissions are a traditional Washington tactic for punting on difficult issues. Worried about the budget deficit? Let a commission look at it. Need to figure out how to solve immigration or gun-control problems? A commission can arrange some studies.

This raises the question of why Biden allowed this court issue to linger so long - with hemming and hawing about not wanting to distract from Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation process - if, in the end, he was going to bat it away in such a generic manner.

There’s always the chance that, should Biden win the White House, his court commission will come up with tangible reforms to the US judiciary.

If that happens, however, a blue-ribbon seal on the proposals won’t mean Biden will have any easier of a time trying to push them past what is sure to be stiff opposition. All he has done is try to buy himself some time.

The election is only 12 days away, but there are plenty of people who don't know who to vote for.

In this video, Erica tells the BBC why she's still undecided - while her aunt, a Biden-backer, and friend, a Trump supporter, try to win her round to their way of thinking.

The Pinellas County Sheriff's Department is investigating reports that two uniformed and possibly armed security guards set up a tent near a voting location in downtown St Petersburg, Florida, claiming they were hired by the Trump campaign.

After being questioned by deputies, the men left, saying they would return the following day, according to Julie Marcus, the county's supervisor of elections.

"I and the sheriff take voter intimidation very seriously,"Marcus told a local ABC affiliate, external. "This is unacceptable. I have been here for 17 years and I have never seen this happen before."

The Trump campaign vigorously denied that they hired the men in a statement, saying, "The Campaign did not hire these individuals nor did the Campaign direct them to go to the voting location”.

Sheriff's deputies will be at the polling location in case the men return.

In his CBS interview which we mentioned earlier, President Trump was asked about his number-one priority.

He responded that it was to return to normal, so the American economy "can be great again".

Last week the number of people seeking unemployment benefits in the US fell to 787,000, down from 842,000 the previous week.

The figures, released by the Labor Department today, indicate that job losses are easing slightly.

However, the number of people seeking unemployment every week is still more than three times pre-pandemic numbers.

Image source, Getty Images

As the Senate moves forward in approving Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination to the Supreme Court, let’s remind ourselves what we know of the likely new justice.

Judge Barrett is a 48-year-old conservative intellectual and devout Catholic who lives in South Bend, Indiana, with her husband Jesse and seven children – two of whom were adopted from Haiti.

She has spent much of her career as a professor at her alma mater, Notre Dame, where she was voted professor of the year several times. In 2017, she was selected by President Trump to serve as a federal appeals court judge in Chicago – and has long been seen as the president’s favourite pick to replace liberal justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, who died at the age of 87 in September.

Judge Barrett's legal opinions and remarks on abortion and gay marriage have made her popular with the religious right, but earned vehement opposition from liberals. During her confirmation hearing she repeatedly refused to be drawn on abortion, healthcare and LGBTQ rights, saying that she had “no agenda” and vowed to stick to “the rule of law”.

Read more about Trump's Supreme Court pick.

President Trump is a climate change sceptic, and wants to expand non-renewable energy. He aims to increase drilling for oil and gas, and roll back further environmental protections. He has committed to withdrawing from the Paris Climate Accord - the international agreement on tackling climate change - which the US will formally leave later this year.

Biden says he would immediately re-join the Paris climate agreement if elected. He wants the US to reach net zero emissions by 2050, and proposes banning new leases for oil and gas drilling on public lands, as well as a $2tn investment in green energy.

How election could decide battle against climate change

As expected, Senate Republicans in the Judiciary Committee have voted to approve Amy Coney Barrett's nomination to the Supreme Court. Minority Democrats unhappy with the way the nomination was rushed through ahead of the 3 November election boycotted the vote.

The full Senate is due meet to endorse Justice Barrett on Monday.

Anthony Zurcher
BBC North America reporter

The president is being counselled to use a softer touch this time around, after his belligerent attitude in the first debate was thought to have hurt him with suburban women, a key voting demographic. His advisers say allowing an opponent not always known for his way with words to speak uninterrupted could help his cause.

The debate commission's decision to mute the other candidate's microphone during the initial two-minute answer period might also help impose some discipline on Trump and put the pressure on Biden to provide the kind of clear, extended answers to policy questions he avoided in the last debate.

Any time Biden goes into greater detail about his positions, it risks angering various parts of his electoral coalition, made up of factions - left-wing progressives, blue-collar workers, Democratic moderates and disaffected Republicans - that have very different hopes for a Biden presidency.

Trump could very well decide he still needs to go on the attack, of course - or, in the heat of the moment, abandon his planned strategy. Biden flashed his temper two weeks ago but mostly maintained his composure and avoided serious pitfalls. In the final set-piece of a long presidential campaign, he may be tested one more time.

CBS also interviewed President Trump for 60 Minutes - but it didn't go too well.

Correspondent Lesley Stahl interviewed Trump at the White House on Tuesday, but - unhappy with the line of questioning - the president left the interview early and threatened to release his own clips.

Now, he has tweeted again about the interview - this time saying he'll post his recording of it in full.

Joe Biden has said that, if he were to win the election, he would appoint a bipartisan commission to study the US court system and make recommendations for reform.

He made the comments in an interview with CBS's 60 Minutes programme, which is due to air on Sunday.

"It's not about court packing, there are a number of other things that our constitutional scholars have debated," he said.

Court packing is the process of adding more judges to an existing court, such as the Supreme Court. The issue has been discussed recently since the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg last month, and the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett as her replacement. In fact, Justice Barrett is the third conservative appointed by President Trump during his term. The appoinments have changed the balance in favour of conservatives. Justices in the US Supreme Court serve for life.

So one of the main points in the debate will, of course, be the pandemic.

President Trump set up a coronavirus task force at the end of January which he says has now shifted its focus to "safety and opening up our country". The president is also prioritising the speedy development of coronavirus treatments and vaccines, directing $10bn towards such projects.

Mr Biden wants to set up a national contact-tracing programme, establish at least 10 testing centres in every state, and provide free coronavirus testing to all. He supports a nationwide mask mandate, which would require face coverings to be worn on federal property.

Here's our simple guide to the US election.

Image source, Reuters

Later today, at about 13:00 EST (18:00 BST), the Senate Judiciary Committee is going to start voting on Judge Amy Coney Barrett's elevation to the Supreme Court.

The full Senate will then vote on Monday.

However, Senate Judiciary Democrats are planning to boycott this key vote, over complaints that the nomination process has been rushed through after the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg last month.

Barrett was Trump's pick to replace Ginsburg. Judiciary Committee Democrats have until now been criticised by the left for not doing enough to question the legitimacy of the confirmation proceedings for Barrett.

Republicans say they can still hold the vote, and even advance the nomination, even if Democrats do stage a boycott.

President Trump hopes to win conservative votes with the appoinment, which will tilt the balance of the Supreme Court in their favour for years - possibly decades - to come. Supreme Court justices serve for the remainder of their lives.