Summary

  • Donald Trump is the "worst possible person to lead us through this pandemic", Democrat Joe Biden told supporters in Pennsylvania

  • The president too campaigned in the pivotal battleground state, with eight days to go before the election

  • Trump trails Biden in most national polls, but some key states are closer

  • Meanwhile, the US Senate is set to confirm Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court despite Democratic opposition

  • The appointment will likely make the far-reaching decisions of the top US court more conservative

  1. That’s all for nowpublished at 22:14 Greenwich Mean Time 26 October 2020

    Judge Amy Coney Barrett poses for a photo in Washington DCImage source, Reuters
    Image caption,

    Judge Amy Coney Barrett is expected to be confirmed to the Supreme Court

    We're pausing our US election live coverage but will be back again early tomorrow.

    In the meantime, here’s a look at today’s top headlines:

    • Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett is all but certain to be confirmed on Monday. Follow our coverage here for the latest updates on this
    • Media reports say conservative Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas will administer one of the two oaths of office that justices take
    • The White House plans to hold a celebration to mark Barrett's confirmation - a month after an event announcing her nomination was linked to a Covid-19 outbreak believed to have infected the president and others close to him
    • Trump and his Democratic rival Joe Biden have been campaigning in the battleground state of Pennsylvania
    • The head of the World Health Organization cautioned countries against "giving up on control" of the coronavirus pandemic, in response to comments from a senior Trump aide
    • UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the US election and Brexit were two "entirely separate" issues and that the UK would not get involved with its closest ally's vote on 3 November, Reuters news agency reports
    • More than 60 million Americans have now cast early votes in the election, according to data compiled by the United States Elections Project

    We'll be back tomorrow with the latest election news and analysis.

    Monday’s live page was brought to you by: Matthew Davis, Victoria Bisset, Rebecca Seales, Ritu Prasad, Alice Cuddy, Jessica Murphy and Boer Deng - with our team of correspondents around the world.

  2. Where the candidates stand: The Supreme Courtpublished at 21:54 Greenwich Mean Time 26 October 2020

    Text reads: "Supreme Court"

    Today, the US Senate is set to confirm Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court despite Democratic opposition - but are the two candidates' positions?

    President Trump says it's his constitutional right to fill the vacancy on the court during the remainder of his first term in office, and has put forward conservative judge, Amy Coney Barrett.

    One issue that the Supreme Court could soon rule on is the legal right to abortion in the US - something the president and Judge Barrett have opposed in the past.

    Mr Biden wants the vacancy to be filled after the next president enters office.

    He says if elected he would work to pass legislation to guarantee a woman's right to an abortion if the Supreme Court rules against it.

    He has also said he will appoint commission to review the US court system.

    Find out more about the US Supreme Court here

  3. Kamala Harris votes earlypublished at 21:33 Greenwich Mean Time 26 October 2020

    Kamala Harris, the Democratic vice-presidential candidate, disclosed on Twitter that she has cast her vote.

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    The California senator follows President Trump, who voted in Florida over the weekend, and Vice-President Mike Pence, who cast his ballot in Indiana last week on Friday.

    Some 60m Americans have already cast ballots, shattering previous records for early voting.

  4. Trump heaps praise on Barrett at Pennsylvania rallypublished at 21:21 Greenwich Mean Time 26 October 2020

    US President Donald Trump throws a "Make America Great Again" cap into the crowd during a campaign event, in Lititz, PennsylvaniaImage source, Reuters
    Image caption,

    Trump is campaigning in Pennsylvania

    US President Donald Trump has heaped praise on his Supreme Court nominee at an afternoon campaign rally in Pennsylvania.

    “Just a few hours from now the Senate will vote to confirm Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the United States Supreme Court”, he said to a big cheer from his supporters.

    “That was a good choice wasn’t it?” he added.

    He described Judge Barrett as “fantastic” and one of the nation’s “most brilliant legal minds”.

    Democrats have opposed the appointment.

  5. The Countdown: Gen Z and why they votepublished at 21:02 Greenwich Mean Time 26 October 2020

    Stickers are seen at a polling station during early voting in The Bronx, New York City.Image source, Reuters

    Early numbers show youth turnout far outpacing that of past presidential contests.

    In Florida, a key battleground state, 257,720 voters aged 18-29 had already cast their ballots as of 21 October. This is a more than fivefold increase from 2016.

    Young early voters we spoke to said a sense of urgency was driving them.

    "The country's democracy is at stake,” one told us.

    Read more about young voters and the issues that matter to them here

  6. Biden denounces Trump at surprise campaign stoppublished at 20:46 Greenwich Mean Time 26 October 2020

    Biden speaking to press in Chester, PAImage source, Getty Images
    Image caption,

    Biden makes a surprise campaign stop in Chester, PA

    The Democratic presidential candidate made a surprise campaign stop in Chester, a town in the suburbs of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he spoke to the press about Trump, coronavirus and the imminent confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court.

    Speaking outside a campaign field office, Biden denounced Trump's response to the Covid-19 pandemic - the centre of his closing pitch to voters - seizing on comments from the White House chief of staff earlier that the administration was "not going to control the pandemic".

    He also accused the White House of holding "super-spreader events", referring to a Rose Garden reception earlier this month, where a dozen Republicans celebrating Trump's nomination of Barrett, a conservative judge, are believed to have caught the virus.

    Another reception is due to held tonight after Barrett is expected to be confirmed. "I just hope he is willing to have learned a lesson," Biden said, adding that the event should have tests, masks, social distancing and crowd limits.

  7. In pictures: US voters cast early ballotspublished at 20:30 Greenwich Mean Time 26 October 2020

    As we mentioned earlier, more than 60 million people in the US are said to have already cast their ballots for the 3 November election.

    States across the country have begun opening up sites for early in-person voting, with images showing Americans waiting in long queues for the chance to vote.

    Measures are also in place to keep voting safe amid the coronavirus pandemic, with voters wearing face masks and casting their ballots in socially distanced booths.

    People line up in the rain to vote at an early voting site at Madison Square Gardens in the Manhattan borough of New York City.Image source, Reuters
    Voters complete their ballots at socially distanced privacy booths at a early voting site inside the Bismarck Event Center as the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak continues in Bismarck, North Dakota, 26 October, 2020.Image source, Reuters
    People queue to vote early at a polling station in The Bronx, New York City.Image source, Reuters
    A voter wearing an U.S. flag bandanna and a Joker face covering checks in at a early voting site inside the Bismarck Event Center as the coronavirus disease outbreak continues in Bismarck, North Dakota.Image source, Reuters
    People fill out ballots in privacy booths at a polling station located in the Baltimore City Community College (BCCC) Gymnasium in Baltimore, during early voting in Maryland.Image source, Reuters
    A poll worker assists a voter from behind a plastic barrier at an early voting site inside the Bismarck Event Center as the coronavirus outbreak continues in Bismarck, North Dakota.Image source, Reuters
  8. What you need to know about the Supreme Court votepublished at 20:11 Greenwich Mean Time 26 October 2020

    Judge Amy Coney Barrett (file photo)Image source, Reuters

    With Conservative Judge Amy Coney Barrett expected to be confirmed to the US Supreme Court in the coming hours, here are the key facts:

    • President Donald Trump nominated Barrett to the court after the death of liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg last month
    • But the decision was controversial, with Democrats arguing any vote on Ginsburg's successor should not take place until after the 3 November election
    • The Senate is controlled by the Republicans and so Judge Barrett is likely to be confirmed, with senators dividing mostly along party lines - and every Democrat voting against
    • As Supreme Court appointments are for life, Barrett's confirmation would lead to a 6-3 conservative majority, potentially affecting the balance of the court for decades to come
    • The court rules on key - and often sensitive - issues. In recent years, the court has expanded gay marriage to all 50 states, allowed Mr Trump's ban on mainly Muslim majority countries to remain in effect, and delayed a US plan to cut carbon emissions

    Find out more about Judge Amy Coney Barrett in her own words here.

  9. Suffrage leader’s grave gets shield from voter stickerspublished at 19:55 Greenwich Mean Time 26 October 2020

    The grave of women's suffrage leader Susan B Anthony is covered with "I Voted" stickers in November 2016Image source, Reuters
    Image caption,

    The grave was covered with "I Voted" stickers in 2016

    A plastic cover has been placed over the gravestone of women’s suffrage leader Susan B Anthony to protect it from “I voted” stickers.

    In 2016, the tombstone in Rochester, New York, was covered in stickers from voters paying their respects to the women’s rights activist.

    It was the first election in which Americans were able to vote for a female major-party presidential candidate, in Hillary Clinton.

    But Patricia Corcoran, president of the non-profit Friends of Mount Hope Cemetery, told the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle newspaper that a restoration project in the spring had revealed damage to the marble caused by the stickers and the efforts to remove them., external

    Corcoran said plastic covers would be placed over the graves of Susan B Anthony and her sister, fellow suffragist Mary S Anthony, so that the sticker ritual could continue without risking damage.

    “Above all we wanted to protect this iconic gravesite,” she explained.

    The plastic sleeves were in place in time for Saturday - the first day of in-person early voting, and quickly attracted stickers, the newspaper reported.

  10. 'Until now, being gay never factored into my vote'published at 19:37 Greenwich Mean Time 26 October 2020

    Darius

    Today we're focusing on LGBT voters of all political views.

    Darius Caldwell is an Air Force veteran voting for Joe Biden. He grew up in a Southern Baptist household and is a self-described "recovering Republican".

    Why does this election matter to you?

    I've never taken my right to vote for granted. As a recovering Republican, due largely to the rise of Trumpism, I can understand the importance of this election and the value that all of us must place on the preservation of our democratic institutions.

    Does being LGBT influence your vote?

    Up until now, being a gay man never factored into my voting preferences. Even as a Republican, I wittingly neglected my social views in favor of the notion of limited government and fiscal conservatism and I saw the party as an ideal vessel to secure them both over time.

    However, since Trump's rise to the American presidency, Republicans have sought to subvert and denigrate the customs and courtesies of governance by acting as scapegoats and appeasers of Trump.

    closing line

    These voters are members of our US election voter panel. You'll hear more from them throughout the week.

    Join the conversation:

  11. Where the candidates stand: Economy and foreign policypublished at 19:11 Greenwich Mean Time 26 October 2020

    Text reads: "Economy"

    President Trump has pledged to create 10 million jobs in 10 months, and create one million new small businesses.

    He wants to deliver an income tax cut, and provide companies with tax credits to incentivise them to keep jobs in the US.

    Mr Biden wants to raise taxes for high earners to pay for investment in public services, but says the increase will only impact those earning over $400,000 a year.

    He supports raising the federal minimum wage to $15 (£11.50) an hour from the current rate of $7.25 (£5.50).

    Text reads: "Foreign policy"

    President Trump has reiterated his promise to bring down US troop levels overseas, while continuing to invest in the military.

    The president says he will continue to challenge international alliances and maintain trade tariffs on China.

    Mr Biden has promised to repair relationships with US allies.

    He says he would do away with unilateral tariffs on China, and instead hold them accountable with an international coalition that China "can't afford to ignore".

  12. 'The only way being gay impacts my vote is...'published at 18:54 Greenwich Mean Time 26 October 2020

    Mike

    Today we're focusing on LGBT voters of all political views.

    Mike Harlow is a writer, artist, and a former liberal who left the Democratic Party a few years ago. He was once an enthusiastic supporter of Barack Obama, but now wholeheartedly supports Donald Trump, who he says has kept his promises and totally transformed the Republican Party.

    What inspired you to vote in this election?

    I’ve always been an extremely engaged voter. As a New Yorker, it feels like we don’t get a choice in elections. Far-left Democrats have run our city into the ground, and the local Republican Party does absolutely nothing to offer an alternative or seriously compete in elections. I’m hoping if Trump performs well in NYC, it might be a wake up call to local Republicans that it’s time to get to work and do something! Literally, anything!

    Does being LGBT influence your vote?

    Yes and no. The only way being gay impacts my vote is one of rebellion. We have largely attained equal rights, and we are now free to vote on bigger issues of war, peace, country, and economics. The LGBT community is NOT a wing of the Democrats. The idea that all LGBT people (as well as all minorities) must conform and think alike is the definition of bigotry.

    closing line

    These voters are members of our US election voter panel. You'll hear more from them throughout the week.

    Join the conversation:

  13. WHO warns against 'giving up' in pandemic fightpublished at 18:47 Greenwich Mean Time 26 October 2020

    Workers wearing protective equipment clean an ambulance in the USImage source, Reuters

    The head of the World Health Organization has cautioned countries against "giving up" in the fight against the spread of coronavirus.

    Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he understood the mental and physical toll the pandemic was taking on people across the world, but added: "We cannot give up, we must not give up."

    "Leaders must balance the disruption to lives and livelihoods with the need to protect health workers and health systems as intensive care fills up," he said.

    Ghebreyesus' comments came after a senior aide to US President Donald Trump admitted that the US was "not going to control the pandemic".

    Instead White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said Covid-19 could only be defeated by "mitigation areas" like vaccines and therapeutics.

    About 225,000 Americans have died since the pandemic began, the highest figure of any country.

    The US recorded 83,718 new Covid-19 cases on Saturday, according to Johns Hopkins University - just short of the record 83,757 reported on Friday.

    BBC GFX
  14. A marriage that crosses party linespublished at 18:39 Greenwich Mean Time 26 October 2020

    Zhaoyin Feng
    BBC Chinese, Washington DC

    Some say America is now a house divided. In many American families, their houses are indeed divided by political differences, putting strains on their relationships.

    But a Chinese American family in Maryland made it work.

    Thirty-one-year-old Cathy Shao has decided to vote for Biden in the US presidential election, while her husband Chenren Shao, 35, will be voting for Trump a second time.

    Chenren and Cathy ShaoImage source, Zhaoyin Feng

    The couple has been married for eight years, raising their three daughters together.

    “I know she's Democrat, and she knows that I'm a Republican,” Mr Shao says the political difference has never been a problem for their marriage. “I think being humble is the key of not being offended,” he says, “We're not trying to persuade each other.”

    When Mr Shao speaks, Mrs Shao looks at him lovingly. Other than agreeing to disagree, Mrs Shao believes their common goal bonds the family together. “We want to provide a better environment for our children.”

    Though Americans have become less willing to date their political opponents in the Trump era, politically mixed marriages are not uncommon. A high-profile example is Kellyanne Conway, a former counselor to President Trump, and George Conway, who is a harsh critic of the President.

    What does managing a politically divided but happy marriage tell us about how to govern a politically divided country?

    As American politics has become more polarised, Mrs Shao says she always appreciates a different perspective from her spouse.

    “All Republicans should get married with Democrats, then we naturally have different views,” she says with a laugh.

    Mrs Shao hopes the two major political parties will recognise that their common goal is “to make the country better, rather than attacking each other”.

  15. Michelle Obama: ‘They’re scared of you. Scared of us’published at 18:32 Greenwich Mean Time 26 October 2020

    Members of the Tea Party movement protest outside of the Fairmont Hotel before Barack Obama arrives for a fundraiser, 25 May, 2010 in San Francisco.Image source, Getty Images

    More from those excerpts of Barack Obama’s new memoir, external on his time in the White House.

    The former president says he grew increasingly frustrated in 2010 with elements within the Tea Party protests who promoted conspiracy theories, including the racist claim that Obama was a Muslim not born in the US.

    "One thing felt certain," he writes. "A pretty big chunk of the American people, including some of the very folks I was trying to help, didn’t trust a word I said.

    "I wanted to believe that the ability to connect was still there," he says of his hope that he could convince opponents to support his healthcare reform bill.

    "My wife wasn’t so sure. One night, Michelle caught a glimpse of a Tea Party rally on TV—with its enraged flag-waving and inflammatory slogans. She seized the remote and turned off the set, her expression hovering somewhere between rage and resignation.

    'It’s a trip, isn’t it?' she said.

    'What is?'

    'That they’re scared of you. Scared of us.' She shook her head and headed for bed."

  16. 'More than 60m early votes cast'published at 18:16 Greenwich Mean Time 26 October 2020

    Media caption,

    US election 2020: President Trump casts his vote

    More than 60 million Americans have already cast their vote in the election, according to data compiled by the United States Elections Project.

    This includes more than 40 million mail ballots and 20 million in-person votes, it says.

    Around one-third of the votes cast came from the three most populous states - California, Texas and Florida, the data shows.

    With eight days to go until the election, the total number of early votes cast already exceeds that of 2016, according to US media reports.

    US President Donald Trump cast his vote early and in person in the swing state of Florida on Saturday. The president's daughter Ivanka - and her husband Jared Kusher - were pictured on Monday with what appeared to be ballot forms.

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  17. 'The lives we deserve are at stake for trans people'published at 18:04 Greenwich Mean Time 26 October 2020

    Shrai Popat
    BBC News, Washington

    Transgender rights protest in JuneImage source, Getty Images

    In a recent poll for the media monitoring organisation GLAAD, 76% of LGBTQ voters said they support Joe Biden in the 2020 election, while only 17% back President Trump.

    But that hasn't stopped Trump from trying to maintain a pro-LGBTQ image. In a video , externalannouncement in August, Richard Grenell - the country's first openly gay cabinet member - called Trump the most “pro-gay president in American history.”

    But critics describe an array of the president’s policies as anti-LGBTQ, particularly when it comes to trans people. For example, in 2019 the Trump administration banned transgender service members from the military.

    And for the trans community in the US, this election feels particularly urgent. This year alone has seen 33 trans or gender non-conforming people fatally shot or killed, according to Human Rights Campaign, external. The majority of those killed have been trans women of colour.

    “In this election, the lives that we deserve are at stake for queer and trans people,” Raquel Willis, a writer and activist, said.

    She added that that a Biden win could ultimately mean that LGBT people of colour are emboldened to run for office in elections to come.

    Read about the black transgender push to keep the fight alive at LGBT Pride.

  18. Your Questions Answered: Why are Republicans red and Democrats blue?published at 17:46 Greenwich Mean Time 26 October 2020

    Ritu Prasad
    BBC News writer, Florida

    Your questions answered

    We’ve been asking our readers for their most pressing questions about the US election. Now it’s our turn to respond.

    Click here if you want to know more about this project or send in a question of your own.

    Tony Broadhurst, 75, from New Zealand asks: In the US, why is the right, Republicans, represented red & the left, Democrats, represented blue? This is the opposite of the rest of the world.

    We talk a lot about the red and blue state divide in US politics these days - but this colour set-up has actually only been firmly in place since the 2000s.

    Before then, US media organisations used red and blue for both parties, going back and forth on the colour scheme. In 1976, ABC had Republicans as yellow.

    And NBC used red for Democrats and blue for Republicans until the 1980s - citing the way things are done in the UK.

    But things had generally settled into red-Republican blue-Democrat by the 1990s. However, it wasn't until the lengthy 2000 election, when the New York Times and USA Today papers both published full-colour maps using that scheme, that things were set in stone.

    As a Times editor told Smithsonian Magazine, external: "I just decided red begins with ‘r,’ Republican begins with ‘r.’ It was a more natural association."

    A USA Today editor also pointed out that aesthetically, as most of the central US leans Republican, it just looks better to have the lighter colour taking up the most space.

  19. Washington mayor's warning over White House eventpublished at 17:41 Greenwich Mean Time 26 October 2020

    So about that White House celebratory event for Amy Coney Barrett taking place tonight which we reported earlier? Well, the mayor of Washington DC thinks folks should stay away if they aren't willing to leave if the situation becomes unsafe.

    "For all you know you could be packed in a Rose Garden event with somebody sitting next to you hacking," Mayor Muriel Bowser said. "Ask yourself – if that's happening, are you going to get up and leave in the middle of the president's remarks? If you're not, you shouldn't go."

    She also pointed out that some of those who attended the "superspreader" event last month that could have been where the president caught his case of Covid-19 were "embarrassed" they had done so.

    Bowser added that 642 people have died in the nation's capital already.

    "You can believe that you can go to the White House and get Covid and nothing is going to happen to you, perhaps. Or you could die from it."

  20. Conservative newspaper backs Joe Bidenpublished at 17:30 Greenwich Mean Time 26 October 2020

    President Donald Trump arrives for a rally in New HampshireImage source, Reuters

    A conservative-leaning newspaper in New Hampshire has endorsed a Democratic candidate for the presidency first time in more than 100 years.

    The New Hampshire Union Leader backed Libertarian Gary Johnson during the 2016 campaign, having previously only backed Republicans, according to Axios.

    "We were hopeful with Trump’s win that he might change, that the weight and responsibility of the Oval Office might mold a more respectful and presidential man," the New Hampshire Union Leader wrote in an editorial published on Sunday, external.

    But although it praised some of the president's accomplishments during his first term in office, the newspaper commented: "President Trump is not always 100 percent wrong, but he is 100 percent wrong for America."

    In particular, the newspaper criticised Trump's handling of the economy and the coronavirus pandemic.

    "We have found Mr Biden to be a caring, compassionate and professional public servant," the newspaper wrote, in spite of its "significant" policy differences with the Democratic candidate.

    "He has repeatedly expressed his desire to be a president for all of America, and we take him at his word."