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Intervention from former Marine general dismissed as a debunked story', as Kamala Harris campaign sees appearances from Eminem and Barack Obama

Ex-president speaks with ultra loyalists in Miami as VP touches on creating economic opportunity for Latino menIt was billed as a roundtable discussion with Latino leaders, but the reality of Donald Trump's appearance at his Doral golf club in Miami on Tuesday was a succession of adulatory monologues from his most loyal Latino supporters, interspersed with familiar, lengthy rants from the former president laden with grievances and insults.Kamala Harris, his Democratic opponent in the 5 November election, also courted Latino voters on Tuesday in an interview with Telemundo, touching on creating economic opportunity for Latino men. Continue reading...

Ex-president questions fitness of Grandpa' as Democratic vice-presidential hopeful calls Elon Musk dipshit'On the first day of early voting in Wisconsin, Tim Walz called Elon Musk a dipshit" while Barack Obama said of Donald Trump: You'd be worried if Grandpa was acting like this."Both were speaking at a rally in Madison, a growing Democratic party stronghold, to encourage early voting and warn of the perils of a second Trump presidency. Obama went on to campaign for Kamala Harris in Detroit on Tuesday evening, alongside rapper Eminem, in an effort to drum up support in Michigan where polls suggest Harris and Trump are in a virtual deadlock. Continue reading...

On the first day of early voting in Wisconsin, Tim Walz criticised Donald Trump over his appearance at a McDonald's in Pennsylvania, saying there was 'something ... cruel about a billionaire using people's livelihood as a political prop'. The Democratic vice-presidential candidate also took aim at Trump over his threats to prosecute his political enemies

Authorities saw a 7% decline in September, with border patrol making 53,858 arrests, down from 58,009 in AugustArrests for illegally crossing the US border from Mexico fell 7% in September to a more than four-year low, authorities said Tuesday. It was likely the last monthly gauge during a presidential campaign in which Republican nominee Donald Trump has made immigration a signature issue.The border patrol made 53,858 arrests, down from 58,009 in August and the lowest tally since August 2020, when arrests totaled 47,283, according to US Customs and Border Protection. Continue reading...

This blog is now closed. You can find more of our US elections coverage hereKamala Harris has a significant advantage over Donald Trump among young voters, matching the lead Joe Biden ended up taking in the 2020 election, a new poll finds.The survey from CNBC Generation Lab shows Harris up 20 percentage points with voters aged 18 to 34, with 60% support compared with Trump's 40%. That's about the same margin by which Biden won the group four years ago. Continue reading...

Allegation references LinkedIn post saying 100 party staffers were headed to US to campaign for HarrisFirst King George III. Now Sir Keir Starmer.Citing the American revolution while misspelling Britian", Donald Trump's campaign has filed an extraordinary complaint against the UK's Labour party for what it claims is interference" in the US presidential election. Continue reading...

VP says she's focused on the challenges, the dreams' of Americans as opposed to Trump who is focused on himself'Kamala Harris said that she has no doubt that the US was ready for a female president, insisting that Americans care more about what candidates can do to help them, rather than presidential contenders' gender.The vice-president's statement came during an interview with NBC News's Hallie Jackson, who asked whether she thought the country was ready for a woman, and a woman of color, to be in the Oval Office. Absolutely," Harris said. Absolutely." Continue reading...

Republican VP candidate tells supporters in swing state to pull friends to polls because race could go either wayTwo weeks out from election day, Republican vice-presidential candidate JD Vance told supporters at a rally in swing state Arizona that they need to pull their friends to the polls because the race could go either way.Here's the scenario that I want you to consider, and I don't mean to give you nightmare fuel here, but I'm going to do it," Vance said to the crowd in Peoria, Arizona. We wake up on November the sixth, and Kamala Harris is barely elected president of the United States by a 700-vote margin in the state of Arizona. Think about that. And ask yourself what you can do from now until then to make sure it doesn't happen."Don't miss important US election coverage. Get our free app and sign up for election alerts Continue reading...

CDC reports 49 cases and says 10 people hospitalized from sandwich-related outbreak that spans 10 statesAn E coli outbreak that resulted in at least one death has been linked to McDonald's Quarter Pounder" hamburgers, US public health authorities said on Tuesday.The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that there have been 49 cases in this sandwich-related outbreak which spans 10 states. Ten people have been hospitalized in this onset of cases. Continue reading...

Milan secured their first points in the Champions League this season with a 3-1 home win over Club Brugge on Tuesday as Christian Pulisic scored direct from a corner.The seven-time European champions had been one of eight sides winless after two games, having lost 1-0 at Bayer Leverkusen earlier this month and 3-1 at home to Liverpool in the competition opener. Continue reading...

Authorities investigate allegations Mike Jeffries and others sexually exploited and abused young men at partiesThe former Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries was arrested on Tuesday as part of a criminal sex trafficking investigation by federal prosecutors, the FBI in Brooklyn and the New York police department have announced.Authorities allege that Jeffries, his British partner Matthew Smith and a third man, Jim Jacobson, ran an international sex trafficking organization" that coerced dozens and dozens" of men into sexual acts, often for the promise of a modeling career with the clothing retailer. Continue reading...

State sees spike in cases related to hurricane activity as bacteria rises after heavy rainfall and flooding'Thirteen people have died from rare flesh-eating bacteria infections in Florida this year amid a spike in cases related to hurricane activity in the state.Florida health authorities said there have been 74 confirmed cases of Vibrio vulnificus infections in 2024, compared with 46 cases and 11 deaths in 2023. Continue reading...

Bridger Aerospace secured $160m in bond from Gallatin county to hire new workers, but spent $134m on debtScrutiny is growing about the Montana aerial firefighting company once led by Tim Sheehy, the former Navy Seal and Republican Senate candidate who could oust the Democrat incumbent Jon Tester in next month's election.According to NBC News, Sheehy's Bridger Aerospace, a company he founded in 2013, negotiated a deal with Gallatin county in eastern Montana to use its pristine credit rating to raise $160m in bonds. The county was meant to benefit from Bridger's plans to hire more workers and build two new aircraft hangers. Continue reading...

Trump didn't work a real shift: the franchise was reportedly closed for normal business hours and the customers were all pre-screenedRemember the creepy clown sightings that started in 2016? All over the world, scary clowns started popping up, terrifying small children. The trend also frightened executives at McDonald's, who started to phase out Ronald McDonald as a result of the current climate around clown sightings in communities".Eight years later there has been another spooky clown sighting at a McDonald's in the Feasterville, Pennsylvania, community. On Sunday Donald Trump popped into the Philadelphia-area fast-food restaurant to serve french fries to hungry passers-by. Or, more accurately, to take photos of himself cosplaying as a minimum wage worker. The former president didn't work a real shift: the franchise was reportedly closed for normal business hours and the customers who passed through the drive-thru in the 30 minutes he stuck around were all pre-screened.Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...

Justice department says eight were charged for their efforts to silence and kill a US citizen because of her criticism of the Iranian regime'A general in Iran's Revolutionary Guards has been charged in New York in connection with an alleged plot to assassinate a dissident Iranian American journalist.The target of the alleged assassination plot was not named in unsealed court documents, but she has been widely identified as Masih Alinejad, who lives in New York. Continue reading...

Judge appointed Ruby Freeman and Shay Moss as recipients of ex-mayor's assets in defamation caseRudy Giuliani must give control of his New York City apartment, a 1980s Mercedes-Benz once owned by Lauren Bacall, several luxury watches and many other assets to two Georgia election workers he defamed.Lewis Liman, a US district judge in New York, appointed Ruby Freeman and her daughter Shaye Moss as recipients of the property and gave the former New York mayor and Trump confidante seven days to turn over the assets. Continue reading...

Documents threaten to reignite accusations about ex-president's attitude towards service membersThe US army has been ordered to release documents about the Donald Trump campaign's pugnacious visit to Arlington national cemetery in a move that threatens to reignite accusations over the Republican nominee's attitude to military service members in the final phase of the presidential election.The court order, in response to a lawsuit filed by transparency advocates, came on Tuesday with an end-of-the-week deadline and could shed new light on an episode that saw Trump accused of exploiting America's most venerated military burial site for campaigning purposes in August. Continue reading...

Daisy Hicks, 84, observed victims waiting for ferry using walkers and wheelchairs before plummeting into waterA woman who says she witnessed a dock collapse in Georgia that killed seven people says she noticed many were using walkers and wheelchairs before the gangway failed and sent them plummeting into the water.I can still see those people bobbling around in that water," 84-year-old Daisy Hicks said in remarks published by the Florida Times-Union and obtained by its reporting partner First Coast News. Saying she was left traumatized by what she witnessed, she added: I can still hear people screaming. I can still see [a] lady that was [subsequently] going around asking for blankets" to carry before the arrival of rescue equipment. Continue reading...

Poll shows a deadlock in Michigan, a key state on the path to the White House with a large Arab American populationArab Americans are slightly more likely to vote for Donald Trump than Kamala Harris, according to a new poll, in a worrying sign for the Democratic nominee's chances of carrying the battleground state of Michigan, which is home to a large Arab American population.The survey, conducted by the Arab News Research and Studies Unit along with YouGov, shows 43% supporting Trump compared with 41% for Harris, and 4% backing the Green Party candidate, Jill Stein. Continue reading...

Authorities have arrested a teenage suspect in what appears to be an instance of family annihilation'Authorities found five people shot to death inside a home south-east of Seattle on Monday morning and arrested a teenager in connection with the killings, police said.The killings in Fall City, Washington, were the 25th mass murder in the US so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive. The nonpartisan archive defines a mass murder as one in which four or more victims are killed. Continue reading...

Study shows roughly 247 more infant deaths per month than expected in 18 months after supreme court's decisionIn the 18 months after the US supreme court overturned Roe v Wade, leading more than a dozen states to implement near-total abortion bans, hundreds more babies died than expected, new research has found.The research, which was conducted by researchers from the Ohio State University and published Monday in JAMA Pediatrics, compared data on infant mortality from the months before Roe's downfall to data from afterward. Overall infant mortality, the researchers found, rose by 7%. Continue reading...

John Kirby says Biden administration unsure if leak or hack led to secret documents appearing online on TelegramThe FBI has launched an investigation into the unauthorized release of classified documents describing Israel's preparation for a potential retaliatory attack on Iran.The White House national security spokesperson, John Kirby, said on Monday that the Biden administration was still not certain if the classified information was leaked or hacked but that officials did not have any indication at this point of additional documents like this finding their way into the public domain". Continue reading...

Labrador Lucy laid down on owner Pamela Helmstadter, 72, to protect her from cold after husband John, 82, fell and diedA dog may have saved a woman from dying alongside her husband after the couple - the animal's owners - became lost for four frigid nights while on a walk in the woods in Maine, according to authorities.John Helmstadter, 82, and Pamela Helmstadter, 72, of Alexander, Maine, left their home on Sunday 13 October, to go for a walk with their one-year-old black labrador, Lucy, officials said. Continue reading...

In addition to worrying that the election will be rigged, now people in Saginaw county are nervous that violence will accompany it

Gerton, North Carolina, population 250, was badly hit by the storm. Emma Churchman describes how the community came together in the aftermathThe small mountain community of Gerton, about 16 miles south-east of Asheville, North Carolina, was one of the areas badly hit by Hurricane Helene.Three weeks on from the storm, the Gerton resident Emma Churchman describes its devastating impact and how locals and volunteers have come together to help the community on its way to recovery. Continue reading...

Billionaire Trump booster said ineligible voters are on state's rolls, but elections official said his claim is misleadingMichigan's top elections official defended the state's elections after repeated attacks on X from Elon Musk, who spread false claims about inactive voters.Jocelyn Benson, the Democratic secretary of state in Michigan, corrected Musk multiple times in recent days and called his comments on voter list maintenance dangerous disinformation". Continue reading...

Jayne Huston's house was destroyed by a tornado during the fierce storm, but friends and family are trying to rebuild itA 105-year-old woman in Florida is recovering after her neighbors pulled her out of the rubble of her house, which was destroyed by a tornado during Hurricane Milton.Jayne Huston lives alone in Rocky Point in Port Salerno, on the east coast of Florida. Born in 1919, her family says that she has seen it all" and never once thought her home in Port Salerno could ever be taken away". Continue reading...

We like to think patients judge us for our medical acumen but, in fact, they observe the words we say, the empathy we show and the kindness we offerNow I am crying because you are sitting there."I am sorry," I say, preparing to jump up. Continue reading...

The great and good of US media and politics can't decide if the lavish giveaway is unethical or illegal. I'm no expert, but it seems off to meFor a guy who has spent his entire life making I am very rich" the keystone of his personal brand, there is something quite poignant about watching Donald Trump get financially cucked by Elon Musk on stage every night. Musk is much younger, much richer, and has had a much more successful series of hair transplants. But needs must, it seems.As you might be aware, Musk has recently decided to update the tired dystopian fiction trope in which impoverished citizens are forced to compete in deadly gameshows where the winner gets a life-changingly glittering prize, and the losers are killed for sport. In Elon's rebooted version, the richest man in the world is giving struggling voters the chance to win a million dollars if they sign a petition" in favour of free speech and the right to bear arms.Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnistA year in Westminster: John Crace, Marina Hyde and Pippa Crerar. On Tuesday 3 December, join Crace, Hyde and Crerar as they look back at a political year like no other, live at the Barbican in London and livestreamed globally. Book tickets here or at guardian.live Continue reading...

Trump has sung the praises of the golf champ's genitals in the past, as he did at a rally over the weekend

Billionaire funding is flooding into the ex-president's campaign. If he wins, will we see prisons on Mars and Taylor Swift shot into space?Welcome to The Maga Millions: a thrilling new contest in which you can win a million bucks if you help a billionaire buy an election. As 5 November draws closer, Elon Musk has decided to try out some interesting - and possibly illegal - tactics to get his pal Donald Trump back into the White House.First up: cash payments. On Saturday, Musk announced that America Pac", his pro-Trump political action committee, will give away $1m every day until the election to a randomly selected signatory to his petition supporting free speech and gun rights. He had previously offered to pay registered voters in swing states - and only registered voters in swing states - $47 (36) to sign the petition, upping the offer on Friday for registered voters in Pennsylvania to $100. Continue reading...

Exclusive: clip from canvasser for Musk's America Pac reveals apparent ease in which GPS location can be spoofedDonald Trump's ground game in Arizona and Nevada may be undercut by canvassers working for America Pac using GPS spoofing to pretend they have knocked on doors when they haven't, according to multiple people familiar with the practice and a leaked how-to-fake-location video.The ramifications for Trump may be far reaching, given America Pac has taken on the bulk of the Trump campaign's ground game in the battleground states, and the election increasingly appears set to be decided by turnout. Continue reading...

Revealed: outcome of coming election may determine staying power of hard-right activist Leonard Leo's crusade to reshape US courtsIn the second year of Donald Trump's presidency, a young lawyer with crisply shorn blond hair approached the podium at a gathering for Texas members of the Federalist Society, a conservative legal group that wields immense power in the US judicial system. As vice-president of the group's Fort Worth chapter, Matthew Kacsmaryk had the honor of presenting the first speaker.We are blessed to have Judge Edith Jones," Kacsmaryk announced. Jones, a longtime judge on the US fifth circuit court of appeals, stepped on stage to introduce the evening's guest, her friend, the supreme court justice Clarence Thomas. In her introduction, Jones also hailed the four new conservative judges Trump had appointed to join her on the appeals court. Continue reading...

Homelessness is the major issue in an election that's projected to be the costliest in city historyWhen the supreme court's conservative majority ruled this summer that cities could fine and jail unhoused people for sleeping on the streets, London Breed, the Democratic mayor of famously liberal San Francisco, greeted the decision as a victory.With more than 8,000 people in the city unhoused, Breed has increasingly embraced law-and-order policies. The supreme court's ruling would help cities like San Francisco manage our public spaces more effectively and efficiently", she argued. Continue reading...

Records show Thomas Klingenstein is at the forefront of donors pushing polarizing politics in the Republican partyThomas Klingenstein, chairperson of the rightwing Claremont Institute, has cemented his place in the pantheon of Republican megadonors with a more than $10m spending spree so far in the 2024 election cycle, according to campaign contributions recorded by the Federal Election Commission (FEC).Klingenstein has been one of Claremont's largest donors for decades. As the institute has made its hard-right, pro-Trump drift in recent years, Klingenstein has continued to publicly describe US politics with extremist rhetoric, calling it a cold civil war", and has encouraged rightwingers to join the fight to defeat what he calls the woke regime". Continue reading...

A conservative consumer movement is trying to create a separate economy from the woke' mainstream. So what are they selling?Last year, an intense transphobic backlash erupted in response to Bud Light using a trans influencer in a social media campaign. Bomb threats were called in to breweries, bars stopped selling Budweiser products, people posted videos of themselves pouring Bud Light down the drain, and Kid Rock filmed himself shooting several cases of it with a submachine gun.Against that backdrop, a company launched a Bud Light alternative called Ultra Right Beer, marketed as being 100% Woke-Free.".Above: Trump Town, a store in Boones Mill, Virginia. Below: the America First Warehouse, Ronkonkoma, New York. Continue reading...

Antony Blinken arrived in Tel Aviv for talks. Plus, Liz Cheney backs Kamala Harris on abortionGood morning.At least 13 people were killed and 57 injured in an Israeli airstrike on Monday near Hariri hospital, Beirut's main government hospital, the health ministry said, revising upwards its initial death toll of four.What has the impact been on Lebanese civilians? Israel's invasion of Lebanon, launched 1 October, has displaced more than 1.2 million people multiple times, according to Lebanese authorities. At least 2,483 people have been killed, according to the health ministry.What is the US doing? Secretary of state Antony Blinken has arrived in Tel Aviv, where he will meet Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Blinken is expected to stress the need for Israel to allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza and to discuss securing the release of the remaining Israeli hostages in Gaza. As Israel's most powerful ally and weapons supplier, the US has sent more than 10,000 highly destructive 2,000lb bombs and thousands of Hellfire missiles since the start of its war on Gaza.What did Cheney say? I'm pro-life and I have been very troubled, deeply troubled by what I have watched happen in so many states since Dobbs ... I have been troubled by the extent to which you have women who - as the vice-president said, in some cases have died - who can't get medical treatment that they need because providers are worried about criminal liability."What are the polls saying? The election is essentially deadlocked. Harris has small polling leads in Pennsylvania and Nevada, while Trump has small polling leads in Arizona, Georgia and North Carolina, but all are well within the margin of error and all the races in the all-important battleground states remain too close to call. Continue reading...

Our polling shows that the best way to defeat Trump is offer a compelling economic platform that puts working families firstThe 2024 campaign has entered the final stretch and, as polls tighten, it seems Kamala Harris plans to lean into attacking Donald Trump as a threat to democracy.Over the past week the Wall Street Journal, the Associated Press, the Washington Post, the New York Times and even the conservative National Review have all reported or commented on the messaging pivot. In a newly unveiled official campaign ad, a disembodied voice warns gravely that a second Trump term would be worse. There would be no one to stop his worst instincts. No guard rails." At a recent rally in Erie, Pennsylvania, Harris reminded her supporters of Project 2025, the detailed and dangerous plan" that she believes an increasingly unstable and unhinged" Trump will follow to cement unchecked power". She sounded the alarm about the dire threat Trump poses to your fundamental freedoms" and how in his second term he would be essentially immune" from oversight. Continue reading...

As a showbiz publicist, I know about the Faustian pact between famous people and the public. Stars think they understand it, but they really don'tAs the worldwide tributes continue, the tragic death of Liam Payne at the cruel age of just 31 has shaken the foundations of how we perceive celebrity and fame. As a publicist and strategist who has worked with many famous people, I know something about this. They are just like us - but they are different.Fame is as seductive as it is destructive. It offers an irresistible promise: transcendence from the mundane, and the opportunity to be more than just another face in the crowd. But it also demands a sacrifice: once your head is above the parapet of anonymity, it's very rare to be able to submerge back into the crowd on your own terms. And most insiders know this, or at least they think they do.Mark Borkowski is a crisis PR consultant and author Continue reading...

Air raid sirens sounded in Tel Aviv on Tuesday after Hezbollah said it bombed the Nirit area in the city's suburbs with missiles. The Israeli military said about 20 rockets were fired in the latest barrage from Lebanon - five toward central Israel and 15 toward the north - and that attempts were made to intercept them. The IDF said there were no immediate reports of injuries. The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, arrived in Tel Aviv on Tuesday for his 11th trip to the Middle East since the war in Gaza began. Blinken will meet the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and is hoping to ramp up negotiations for a ceasefire in the region

The notion that he will claim a victory and stop now is deluded. He will press on until there is the political will in the US to stop himIt's blindingly obvious Benjamin Netanyahu does not want a ceasefire in Gaza or Lebanon or anywhere else - not yet, at least. The Biden administration and Keir Starmer's government can persist with the politically convenient fiction that last week's killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar has opened a window to peace if they must. But it's nonsense. Israel's prime minister violently rampages about like a drunken hooligan armed with a stack of US and UK-supplied bricks. He loves the sound of breaking glass.The unpalatable truth is Netanyahu, his far-right allies and dismayingly large numbers of Israeli citizens believe, foolishly, that they are winning the war that Hamas began on 7 October last year and that Israel has since relentlessly, criminally expanded. They view Sinwar's death, after a recent string of high-profile assassinations, as the latest vindication of Netanyahu's slash-and-burn policy - even though it will inevitably backfire eventually. His next target? Iran.Simon Tisdall is the Observer's foreign affairs commentatorDo you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...

Democrats' fate depends on winning enough non-college-educated voters in swing states. They aren't trying hard enoughKamala Harris is doing a lot of things right that recent Democratic campaigns got wrong. She took a chance on Tim Waltz - coach, solider, snow-shoveling-helper - because she hoped to build bridges to the non-college grads who have abandoned Democrats in large numbers.Nearly 60% of Bill Clinton's supporters were white people without degrees; only 27% of Joe Biden's were. Non-college white people are the largest voting bloc in the country, so if Democrats lose them overwhelmingly, they need the immense support and turnout among people of color to win. Instead, Democrats have lost ground among non-white voters. Their advantage among Latinos has fallen from 39 points in 2016 to 19 points today; that same New York Times/Siena poll found the vice-president down 12 points among African Americans compared with Biden in 2020.Joan C Williams is Sullivan Professor and the current director of the Equality Action Center at UC Law San Francisco and the author of the 2017 book White Working Class. Her next book, OUTCLASSED: How the Left Lost the Working Class and How to Win Them Back, will be released in May 2025 Continue reading...

Our writers give their verdicts on the new season, which tips off Tuesday night. Can New York or Oklahoma City thwart a Boston repeat? And will Bronny James make it to the show?I can't wait to see what Anthony Edwards looks like after his first taste of playoff success and a summer to soak up inspiration from playing alongside his heroes. As the lone No 1 overall pick remaining on the Wolves with the departure of Karl-Anthony Towns, the keys to the franchise are now his. He's primed for a true breakout season. CDL Continue reading...

The success of Herbert Kickl's FPO is no surprise - it had been normalised by the centre right for years. Let that be a warningWhile Europe may be sleepwalking into a far-right trap", Austria is consciously walking straight into it. After all, polls had predicted the most recent electoral success of the Austrian Freedom party (FPO) for almost two years. While the far-right party's leader, Herbert Kickl, heralded its victory as the beginning of a new era", it is better understood as a seemingly unavoidable progression. If anything, the country's recent election results confirmed a broader pattern of far-right normalisation in Europe in general and in Austria in particular.Although 29% was indeed its best result ever in a nationwide election, the FPO has consistently achieved results in the double digits since 1990, has been included in the national government multiple times, and currently governs in several states with the conservative Austrian People's party (OVP). After the most recent state election in Vorarlberg, the OVP is about to form its fourth regional coalition with the FPO there. As such, Austria is a perfect example of the dangerous shortsightedness of normalising far-right parties - a process led in the 21st century by, above all, conservative parties.Cas Mudde is the Stanley Wade Shelton UGAF professor of international affairs at the University of Georgia, and author of The Far Right Today. Gabriela Greilinger is a PhD student at the University of Georgia Continue reading...

The Conservatives believe that they uniquely represent British values - so what need is there to admit the UK is changing?Why exactly are the Conservatives so upbeat, barely three months after their worst-ever election defeat? At their party conference, in their leadership contest and in the Tory press, the mood has been unexpectedly positive, even unrepentant, with relatively few recriminations and little deep reflection. During the conference, I lost count of how often people told me the party would be back in power within a few years.There are some straightforward explanations: Labour's troubles trying to run the country; Tory relief that they have been given a break from that difficult task; the displacement activity of the leadership contest; and the fact that the grind of opposition has not properly begun yet - all these are making being out of office easier than many Tories feared during the long run-up to the election. Continue reading...

Kamala Harris toured swing-states with the Republican, while Donald Trump appeared with faith leaders with 15 days to go until the presidential election