The coronavirus pandemic has transformed the US election - on Wednesday night, Trump and Biden again clashed over how the Covid-19 crisis should be handled.

The latest figures show the country is in the grip of a third wave of infections. More than 500,000 cases have been recorded in the past week, according to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, external. Deaths are also rising, though not to the same degree as they were in spring.

The map below shows that cases remain particularly high in the mid-west, including North Dakota, South Dakorta and Montana.

Chelsea Bailey
BBC News, Pennsylvania

Many Americans who support President Trump are drawn to his leadership style.

Jim Vasilko, a Trump supporter in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, said he likes the fact that the president can be brash at times because he’s sharing his unvarnished opinion, instead of political spin.

“I'll give you any adjective that you want to use to describe President Trump. If you want to say he's arrogant, bombastic. Okay, I'll give you that,” Mr Vasilko said. “Now, tell me why he's a bad president. Nobody has an answer.”

Mr Vasilko lives in a part of rural Pennsylvania that has embraced being called “Trump Country.” But not everyone in Johnstown backs the president.

Jim and Tammy Fiffick voted for President Trump in 2016, but they now say they regret their decision because of how the administration has handled the pandemic.“He’s not the kind of person you want in a disaster, which is what we’re in,” Tammy said. Her husband said he also doesn't like Mr Trump’s character.

“I mean, realistically, you want someone in leadership that has compassion,” he said. “I think President Trump is so removed from that, just because his status and his affluence that he really doesn't realise what people have to go through to live day by day.”

Nicknamed the Keystone State - it was the middle of the original 13 colonies - Pennsylvania may hold the key to victory for both candidates. Polls show the contest is close, so expect to see them back here before election day.

The 20 Electoral College votes are significant and Donald Trump claimed them all in 2016 with a razor-thin majority over Hillary Clinton of less than 1%.

Four years ago, many western Pennsylvanians voted to preserve their way of life, which is reliant on the energy industry, and flipped the traditionally Democratic state for Mr Trump. He promised protection from Democratic promises to reform coal mining and fracking. But has Mr Trump delivered?

Image source, Getty Images

Unemployment has hovered in double-digits since the pandemic struck. Mr Biden, who was born in the eastern town of Scranton (more well-known, perhaps, for being the home of Dunder Mifflin Paper Company, Inc. in the US version of British comedy The Office), has long been a familiar face. Could that personal touch carry take him all the way to the Oval Office?

It's one of seven battleground states where the results will probably decide the election. Try out our interactive game to decide who you think will win the White House.

Gun rights in the US is a divisive issue, even among parents whose children died in mass shootings. Students Meadow Pollack and Joaquin Oliver were shot and killed in the 2018 school shooting in Parkland, Florida.

Their parents are on different sides of the gun control debate. Joaquin's parents want stricter laws on who can buy and carry weapons. Meadow's dad explains that he thinks access to guns keeps communities safer.

The candidate's positions on guns:

• Joe Biden promises stricter controls on who can buy weapons and what type of guns are for sale. He has committed to banning the sale of assault weapons, as well as running a gun amnesty to take weapons out of circulation. He would also fund more research into preventing gun violence
• Donald Trump believes many proposed gun control laws infringe on the US constitution's Second Amendment protection that gives Americans the right to bear arms. He did propose tightening background checks on gun buyers after a string of mass shootings in 2019, but nothing came of the plan and no further legislation has been put forward

Read more: Where do Trump and Biden stand on the issues?

Anthony Zurcher
BBC North America reporter

Florida. The mere mention of the state when talking about politics brings smiles to Republican faces and sends shivers down Democratic spines.

Florida is where liberal dreams are broken. It's the place where, in what was otherwise a Democratic wave election of 2018, the party narrowly lost the governorship and an incumbent Senate seat. It's where, in 2000, 537 votes delivered the White House to Republican George W Bush, instead of Al Gore.

Image source, Getty Images

For Democrats, Florida is like an unreliable friend - never around when needed. The last four times the party won the presidency, they could have lost Florida and still prevailed. But in two of the last three Democratic defeats, winning Florida would have meant taking the White House.

That one exception was 2016, when despite losing the nationwide popular vote, Donald Trump eked out a plurality in enough states to win a comfortable electoral college victory. The results from Florida, however, were the first flashing sign that Democrat Hillary Clinton was in trouble on election night.

Fast forward four years, and Florida is once again an electoral battleground that could decide the presidency. Polls, as they always seem to do here, show the state is close. And if the overall race is tight, Florida - with its 29 electoral votes - could once again be decisive.

Read Anthony's full analysis from the Sunshine State.

Donald Trump and Joe Biden are holding rallies in Florida today - and that's because it's seen as the ultimate electoral prize.

Elections here are always close, so the 29 Electoral College votes up for grabs are often the hardest to win. The Sunshine State may be the adopted second home of Donald Trump, but his victory at the last election was no landslide.The result in Florida is difficult to call because its population is diverse and ever-shifting. The state's large Cuban population leans Republican, but they tend to live in some of the most Democratic counties of the state. Pensioners from other states continue to retire to Florida, and they turn out to vote in droves. Younger voters, who tend to lean Democrat, are multiplying. And suburban voters across the state have been shifting slowly away from the Republican party.Keep your eyes peeled for Florida's result on election night: in every election bar one since 1964, the presidential candidate who has won Florida has also won the White House.

Florida is one of seven battleground states where the results will probably decide the election. Try out our interactive game to decide who you think will win the White House.

Image source, Getty Images

More and more celebrities in recent days have been putting their names behind a presidential candidate.

Now golfer Jack Nicklaus, who has won 18 major tournaments, says he is backing Donald Trump and urges voters to do the same.

Nicklaus said he has seen in the president "a resolve and determination to the right thing for our country". Writing on Twitter, the 80-year-old sportsman said Trump has delivered on his promises and worked for the "average person".

"The election comes amid a reawakening of black activism, not seen since the 1960s," says the BBC's Clive Myrie.

He has travelled to one of the battleground states, Arizona, where black votes could decide who wins. Watch his report below.

Image source, Getty Images

UK-based magazine The Economist has named Democrat Joe Biden as the candidate it backs as the next US president.

The publication argues that Biden would restore "steadiness and civility". "He would thus begin the long, difficult task of putting a fractured country back together again,” it says.

In contrast, the magazine described Donald Trump as a president who has not tried to represent Americans who did vote for him. It accused him of "stoking racial tension" after the police killing of black man George Floyd in May.

This is the magazine's ninth presidential endorsement since 1980, when it recommended voting for Republican Ronald Reagan.

How easy is it to get a mail ballot in the US? Well, that depends where you live.

Ten states automatically send ballots to their residents, while in 35 other states voters need to apply. Among the latter group, five states require a valid reason - and Covid fears are not enough.

Want to know more about how early voting works and how might it affect the result? Watch our video explainer below.

We know that early voting has happened this year in record-breaking numbers. More than 76 million people have voted by post or at a polling station, external open in advance of 3 November - that's more than half the total 2016 election turnout.

We're getting a sense now of who these early voters are - many are young. More than three million young people , external- classified as those aged between 18 and 29 - had cast early votes by 21 October, according to the Tufts University Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (Circle).

About two million of those were in 14 battleground states, Circle adds.

More African Americans are voting early this year, too. According to analysis from data firm TargetSmart, external, more than six times as many black voters had cast early votes by 18 October this year, compared to the same point in 2016.

Overall, this could make turnout in the election the highest since 1908 (in percentage of the overall population). Professor Michael McDonald, who runs the US Elections Project, told Reuters news agency that he predicts that a record 150 million people could vote in this election - which would be about 65% of eligible voters in the country.

Read more about how early voting is shaping the election.

Mobile voting vans are enabling Californians to cast their ballots in person after they were affected by the huge wildfires that have hit the state in recent months.

In Santa Cruz county, more than 900 homes were destroyed in the CZU Lightning Complex fire in August, meaning voters were unable to get their postal ballots delivered.

Others are struggling to deal with aftermath of the fires and would find it difficult to queue for hours on election day itself.

The VoteMobile vans, which have been used for years to help voters in remote places cast their ballot, are helping these residents, as well as others who are worried about contracting Covid-19 at busy polling stations.

Since mid-October, the VoteMobile has also visited farmers markets and a centre for homeless people in the Santa Cruz area., external

The trailers are connected to the county's election information management system and have four private voting booths, a printer to print ballot papers, and even a canopy to provide shade.

The BBC poll of polls looks at the individual national polls from the last 14 days. Currently this puts President Trump on 42%, compared to his challenger, Joe Biden, on 51%.

National polls are a good guide as to how popular a candidate is across the country as a whole, but they're not necessarily a good way to predict the result of the election.

In 2016, for example, Hillary Clinton led in the polls and won nearly three million more votes than Trump, but she still lost - because the US uses an electoral college system, so winning the most votes doesn't always win you the election.

And that's why you have to secure those all-important battleground states, as we explained earlier.

With these caveats aside, 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.

Image source, Getty Images

The election is now just five days away. Millions more Americans than usual are voting by post or at polling stations in advance - that will probably make a busy night even more unpredictable. And with the US very divided over who is best to steer the country for the next four years, tensions could run high.

This is what to watch out for on election night:

• Both candidates are aiming to secure at least 270 of the 538 votes in the electoral college - key states Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin, Florida, North Carolina, Georgia and Pennsylvania will be closely watched to see if they go Republican or Democrat
• Be wary of preliminary results - because of the unprecedented surge of postal ballots, early leaders may not end up winning

When will we know who's winning?

• It will take time for the winner to be officially called and this is unlikely to happen on election night this year. The are different rules in different states about counting postal ballots, meaning there will be large gaps in reporting results. Some states, like Florida and Arizona, begin pre-processing ballots weeks before 3 November. Others, like Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, won't touch these votes until election day, meaning their tallies will come later

Read more about what to look for on 3 November.

President Donald Trump invited Brexit Party founder Nigel Farage on stage during a campaign rally in Goodyear, Arizona, on Wednesday evening. Farage recalled joining rallies during Trump's first run in 2016, the same year as the UK's Brexit vote.

Our theme today is the contest in states that could determine the election outcome, the so-called battleground states.

The US election system can be mystifying to those watching from abroad and even to many Americans. How can a candidate win the most votes nationwide but lose the election?

It comes down to a handful of states and something called the electoral college. Each state has a number of points allocated to it - some have a high number (like California, which has 55) and others have a low number (Alaska has three). For candidate to win the election, they must reach a total of 270 points.

Watch our video below for a quick and clear explanation.

In short, states with a high number of electoral college votes, plus a population that can swing to either Democrats or Republicans, are known as battleground states. Florida, with 29 electoral college votes, is one of those. Candidates put a lot of money and attention on those states to try to persuade voters to support them and get them over the finishing line of 270 electoral college votes.

So, as happened with Hillary Clinton in 2016, a candidate can win more voters nationally (three million more in her case), but not get the majority of electoral college votes and therefore lose the election.

In 2020 the key states to watch include: Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin, Florida, North Carolina, Georgia and Pennsylvania.

The senior US medical official dealing with controlling coronavirus, Anthony Fauci, has criticised President Trump's political rallies in the final stages of the election campaign, saying they are bound to spread Covid-19.

He told the BBC that such gatherings of people not wearing masks or socially separating were potentially superspreading events.

He cited the recent outbreak among Trump Administration staff at a gathering at the White House. Contradicting the president, Dr Fauci also said he believed a US national lockdown would be effective, and was "not off the table". He acknowledged that there was an economic cost, but said the Australian example - in which badly hit Melbourne was closed until there was not a single case of coronavirus - showed that lockdowns can be very effective.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Getty Images

The two rivals will both be campaigning in Florida on Thursday where they are neck-and-neck in the race.

It's a crucial swing state for a presidential candidate to win - if Joe Biden is victorious there, it would make re-election for Donald Trump very unlikely.

Biden is making two stops in the state, while Trump will go on to North Carolina for an evening rally in Fayetteville.

North Carolina is also a must win state for Trump and is currently a toss-up.

Anthony Zurcher
BBC North America reporter

At every rally stop on this multi-state, cross-country campaign swing, Donald Trump - in his words and in his actions - is trying to convince the country that the coronavirus pandemic is on the verge of being "vanquished".

At times, he warns that the cure - aggressive mitigation efforts - cannot be worse than the disease. At others, he downplays the severity of the pandemic.

"I caught it," he told the crowd at one of his Arizona rallies on Wednesday. "And then you get better. And then you get immune."

Sometimes he boasts about the effectiveness of his response and how, if he hadn't acted, two million Americans would have died (this is a number experts say would have been approached only if the government had done nothing at all).

Donald Trump is reaching for a way to address a cold truth - that opinion polls indicate the public believes the coronavirus pandemic is the most pressing issue facing the nation, and the president is not doing a good enough job in handling it.

With only five days before the election, and with 75 million Americans having voted so far, time is running out for the president to change minds. But in a relentless string of rallies, by dint of sheer determination and endurance, he seems determined to try.

Image source, Getty Images

The Supreme Court has made two decisions about absentee ballots in key states "battleground states" Pennsylvania and North Carolina. It ruled on Wednesday that election officials should accept absentee ballots for several days after the election on 3 November.

It has become an issue partly because of record numbers of postal voting due to the coronavirus pandemic - election officials are worried that backlogs in the system could lead to ballots not arriving in time for election day.

Republicans, who say postal voting is open to abuse (evidence suggests fraud is almost zero), have moved to limit how long postal ballots will be accepted in some states. Meanwhile, Democrats in Pennsylvania and North Carolina welcomed the court's decision.

A court spokeswoman said Justice Amy Coney Barrett, the Trump appointee who joined the court on Tuesday, had not taken part in either case because she had not had time to study the arguments. Republicans had hoped her addition to the court this week would break a deadlock in their favour in the Pennsylvania case.