Barbara Plett Usher
BBC News, Washington

Image source, EPA

The world according to President Trump is one of "America First" nationalism.

But the world according to Joe Biden is a much more traditional take on America's role and interests, grounded in international institutions established after World War Two, and based on shared western democratic values.

It is one of global alliances in which America leads free nations in combating transnational threats.

What would change under Biden?

A few things stand out - the approach to allies, to climate change, and to the Middle East.

President Trump has praised autocrats and insulted allies. At the top of Joe Biden's To-Do list is a full-court press to repair strained relationships, especially in Nato, and rejoin global alliances. A Biden administration would return to the World Health Organization and seek to lead an international coronavirus response.

Read more from Barbara on this here

Back with our daily theme of the US and climate change, we have a question: Why is the US so rubbish at recycling?

The process has become so expensive that some US cities have suspended their programmes.

One of the major issues is that people are throwing away things that can’t be recycled.

Waste management organisations have urged people to get back to the basics - recycling paper, cardboard, bottles and cans.

Joe Biden has vowed to take the threat of climate change seriously if he wins, and to build huge green energy infrastructure which he says would also invigorate the economy.

Watch more about recycling in the US here.

Kerry Allen
BBC Monitoring, Chinese Media Analyst

A video from the Trump re-election campaign comparing Joe Biden to a zombie has been getting a lot of interest in China.

The video, posted on YouTube on Monday, has already racked up more than six million views.

YouTube is blocked in China, but tens of thousands of Chinese have been watching it via state media, like the national Global Times.

And many in China are of the view that if Joe Biden is a zombie, then Trump is the one who started the zombie apocalypse.

China has been very critical of Trump’s handling of Covid-19, especially given comments he’s made calling it the “China virus” and “Kung Flu”.

It’s not won him many fans in the country. Some today say, after watching the campaign video, that they await “Resident Evil 7: The White House Apocalypse”.

“Trump: No-one knows zombies better than me,” jokes another user.

Hello to those of you just joining our live coverage of the upcoming US election.

Here are some of the main headlines so far:

• With less than a week to go, Biden leads Trump nationally by approximately 7 – 12 percentage points, according to various national polls – but the race is tighter in battleground states that could swing the outcome
• A record number of people have cast their ballots early. More than 70 million Americans have voted in person or by post, which is more than half the total turnout in the 2016 election
• The CEOs of Facebook, Twitter and Google will answer questions in Congress later today about how misinformation is regulated on their platforms
• Trump supporters were left out in the cold on Tuesday following a rally in Omaha, Nebraska. The problem was caused by a shortage of shuttle buses from the airfield where Trump spoke, back to where people had parked their cars
• Trump is set to hold two rallies on Wednesday in Arizona – a battleground state
• Biden will give a speech near his home in Delaware on his plans to combat coronavirus, while his running-mate Kamala Harris is also bound for Arizona

Image source, Reuters

Coronavirus cases continue to rise in the US, with 74,410 new infections reported on Tuesday and a further 983 deaths. In the last week alone, almost half a million new cases were reported as a third wave of the pandemic grips the country.

Joe Biden continued to criticise his opponent's handling of the pandemic at a rally in Georgia on Tuesday. He repeated his claim that the president's approach has resulted in the deaths of more than 225,000 Americans. Trump had "shrugged. He's swaggered. And he's surrendered," Biden said.

On the campaign trial in Michigan on Tuesday, Trump stood by his longstanding claim that increased testing is leading to rising case numbers. "We're testing everybody. In many ways, I hate it. In many ways, I hate it," he said.

An NBC analysis, external recently found that Coronavirus testing rates have fallen in several states where cases are increasing.

Read our fact-check of what the candidates have said about coronavirus.

Tangier Island is slowly disappearing due to erosion and rising water levels, but this US community of fishermen is putting its faith in a sea wall - and President Trump - to protect their homes, jobs and way of life.

"We call them big, beautiful Trump stones," Mayor James "Ooker" Eskridge says as he takes us for a ride on his boat out to the wall. He credits the president with helping fast-track a project that had been stalled for years.

But some of the residents on this island in the Chesapeake Bay say their neighbours are in denial about the threat of climate change.

"You have to open your eyes," says Jennifer Bowden, one of the few Biden voters here. "Everything's getting closer and closer to the water. The beach used to go way out."

The mayor accepts that the threat to the island is real - but like President Trump his priority is fixing the economy now.

"You want to protect the environment, the resources, but at the same time, you want to protect the families that depend on that resource."

Image source, Reuters

As we've outlined, Joe Biden's environmental ideas differ from Donald Trump's - but how do his policies compare with those of progressives in his own party?

Democrats on the left-most wing have embraced a raft of proposals that would radically change America's relationship with fossil fuels, known as the Green New Deal. It's backed by Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who also co-chairs Biden's climate change task force.

"Joe Biden's climate plan isn't everything, but it isn't nothing at all," one leading climate activist, Varshini Prakash, told CBS news.

• Biden's plan commits less money to the climate crisis - $2 trillion over 4 years towards clean energy and infrastructure, compared to probably tens of trillions over 10 years that the Green New Deal would require. (Because the Green New Deal is a resolution not a policy with a budget, it's hard to compare it like-for-like with Biden's plans)
• The Green New Deal looks at the climate issue as something that needs change in most areas of life, including healthcare and work. Biden's environmental plans don't look at healthcare, but they do mention the need for a fair transition for workers in fossil fuel jobs
• The Green New Deal calls for a guaranteed job with a family-sustaining wage and benefits for every American. Biden says he will create millions of new jobs by re-focusing the car industry on low-emission vehicles, upgrading buildings to energy efficient standards, and cleaning up pollution from oil and gas wells and coal mining sites.
• Perhaps the area with the starkest difference is fracking (a controversial drilling method for extracting natural gas or oil from previously hard-to-reach places.) Climate activists say banning fracking is a priority, and the Green New Deal's timetable for a rapid green transition largely makes more fracking impossible. But Biden says he is against new fracking, but will not ban existing sites

The Vietnamese community in the US is the only Asian-American group that supports Donald Trump more than Joe Biden. But some younger Vietnamese-Americans, whose parents fled the Vietnam War in the 1970s, have a different view. Watch one voter, Cookie Duong, try to persuade her dad to change his mind.

Image source, Reuters

We mentioned earlier that the CEOs of Facebook, Twitter and Google will answer questions later today about how content, including hate speech and misinformation, is regulated on their platforms.

There's some interesting new research here about how the US sees social media and big tech companies.

About half of Americans think the government should regulate these corporations more, according to Pew Research Centre., external

And around two-thirds are not confident that that technology companies can prevent misuse of their platforms to influence the US election.

Meanwhile, around half of those surveyed believe that social media companies should not allow political ads to appear on their platforms.

Facebook imposed a ban on political ads in the run-up to the election yesterday - but it got off to a wobbly start. Some rule-breaking posts appear to have seeped through, while others were incorrectly blocked, advertisers said.

Tony Bobulinski, a former business associate of Joe Biden's son Hunter, appeared on Tucker Carlson's Fox News show on Tuesday to insist Biden Sr knew about alleged business impropriety involving his son.

Biden has denied his son ever received favours as a businessman in Ukraine or China due to his father's involvement.

“I have not taken a penny from any foreign source, ever, in my life,” the former vice-president said in the final presidential debate last week.

Trump has been keen to promote the claim at every opportunity, however. And according to Bloomberg News reporter Jennifer Jacobs, he now has a new approach...

The president's eldest son Donald Trump Jr will be campaigning in Florida today, hosting 'Make America Great Again' events in Jacksonville, Daytona Beach, and Vero Beach.

It's a reminder that the state is seen as a must-win for Trump, who won it in 2016 thanks to the Panhandle, Southwest Florida and other conservative-leaning counties.

Democrats may never forget that in 2000, 537 votes from Florida delivered the White House to Republican George W Bush, instead of Al Gore.

Will it have the chance to play kingmaker again in 2020?

Our North America Reporter Anthony Zurcher took a look at how much it matters, and why.

First Lady Melania Trump - generally seen as reticent when it comes to campaigning - made her first solo appearance to support her husband's re-election on Tuesday.

Speaking in Pennsylvania, she said: "He loves seeing those around him and his country succeed."

But she added, with a laugh, that when it comes to the president's online presence "I do not always agree with the way he says things..."

As well as bringing you the latest election news and analysis from our reporters, we're taking a closer look at where the candidates stand on climate change today.

So what are Joe Biden's plans for the planet if he wins on 3 November?

Biden has signalled he takes the threat of climate change seriously, and has promised to build huge green energy infrastructure that he says would also invigorate the economy. Here's a look at his policies in more detail:

• Spend $2 trillion on the transition away from fossil fuels in his first four years, aiming to achieve 100% clean electricity by 2035
• Install 500,000 electric vehicle charging stations by 2030
• Upgrade four million buildings to make them more energy efficient, build 1.5 million energy efficient homes, and invest in public transport in cities of more than 100,000 people
• Incentivise car makers to produce zero-emission vehicles
• Re-sign the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, which the US is set to leave under Trump, and advance US leadership on climate change internationally

Image source, Reuters

"An astronaut, a pastor and an American football coach walk into the US Senate" sounds like the beginning of a joke, but that is what could happen when the winners of the 2020 general election take their seats in Congress.

While attention has been hyper-focused on the battle for the White House, an equally important fight is under way for control of Congress on 3 November.

The Democrats already have control of the House of Representatives, so they are looking to keep hold of it, while also gaining a majority in the Senate.

Republicans hold a thin three-seat advantage in that chamber, and there are 35 senators up for re-election - a good many of whom are vulnerable.

A Democratic-controlled House and Senate would have the power to obstruct the plans of a second-term President Trump, or push through the agenda of a first-term President Biden.

We've taken a look at the seats most likely to flip. Read more here on the five races to watch.

Not enough transport at a Donald Trump rally in Omaha, Nebraska on Tuesday night left thousands of people out in the cold, according to journalists there.

The problem was caused by a shortage of shuttle buses from the airfield where Trump spoke, back to where people had parked their cars.

Some gave up waiting and walked back in the near-freezing temperatures, Fox News journalist Jeff Paul tweeted.

Image source, Getty Images

The US has faced a reckoning over race relations in recent months, and now protests in Philadelphia over the police shooting of a black man have again thrown the issue into the spotlight.

Walter Wallace, 27, was fatally shot by police on Monday - his family say he was experiencing a mental health crisis at the time. Police say he refused to drop a knife he was holding. Hundreds of protesters have marched through the city for two nights. Officials say 30 police officers were injured on Monday night.

“We cannot accept that in this country a mental health crisis ends in death,” Democratic candidates Joe Biden and Kamala Harris said on Tuesday.

“It makes the shock and grief and violence of yesterday’s shooting that much more painful, especially for a community that has already endured so much trauma.” They also condemned looting that took place on Monday, calling it a crime.

Donald Trump has attempted to tie the protesters to Biden, without providing evidence of a link. “Last night Philadelphia was torn up by Biden-supporting radicals,” he said on Tuesday.

“30 police officers, Philadelphia police officers, they were injured, some badly. Biden stands with the rioters, and I stand with the heroes of law enforcement.”

How does the US election work? What are "battleground states"? And why can a candidate win the most votes but lose the election?

Watch a quick reminder on how to become US president.

Image source, Getty Images

The chief executives of Facebook, Google and Twitter will appear in Congress on Wednesday to face questions from politicians about hate speech and misinformation on their platforms.

Social media companies have faced scrutiny in this election over how much control they exert over misleading content.

The Senate Commerce Committee will be hearing from Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Twitter's Jack Dorsey and Sundar Pichai at Google. The CEOs are expected to defend a law that says their companies are not liable for users' content on their platforms, and also allows moderators to remove objectionable posts.

The Section 230 legislation has been criticised by Republican and Democrat politicians who are worried about the tech giants exerting influence over what can and cannot be said online.

Before: As a candidate, Mr Trump derided climate change as a hoax concocted by China, and the regulations of the Paris Climate Agreement (an international deal to limit global warming) as stifling to American growth.

After: After three months of hemming and hawing behind the closed doors of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, the president came down decisively on the side near the exits. Quitting the Paris deal, signed by nearly 200 countries, is unequivocally a promise kept. The exit officially takes effect 4 November, the day after the US election.

Joe Biden has promised to reverse the US pull-out if he wins the White House - which would take about 30 days.

You can read a fuller look at Trump's promises kept and broken, here

While millions of voters have already cast their ballots, some have not yet decided who they will be supporting.

Donald Trump and Joe Biden have presented themselves as candidates with very different visions of what the US could be.

We spoke to one voter, Erica, who isn't sure who she agrees with.

Her aunt Kay is backing Biden, while her friend Senen is voting for Trump. Watch as they both make the case for their candidate.