Can you ‘undo’ political polarization? Left and right might be closer than we think, study finds

University of California, Berkeley, research shows people are committed to protecting democratic institutions despite differences

You know that uncle whose political takes threaten to turn family gatherings into food fights? Don’t decline his Thanksgiving invitation just yet. When it comes to support for democracy, left and right in America are much closer than you might think.

As a historic US election approaches, both sides see each other as working to upend democracy. But it’s our assumptions about our political opponents – rather than their actual views – that drive polarization, according to new research. And if Democrats want to prove to voters on the fence that they’re acting in good faith, they might want to consider a surprising “grand gesture”.

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Harris grabs unexpected last-minute lead over Trump in Iowa poll

In shocking result that could reshape the race, ex-president falls three points behind in a state he won in 2016 and 2020

A poll in Iowa that has unexpectedly put Kamala Harris ahead of Donald Trump in what was previously expected to be a safe state for the Republicans has sent shockwaves through America’s poll-watchers.

The Selzer poll carried out for the Des Moines Register newspaper showed Harris ahead of her Republican rival by three points.

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Georgia judge rejects last-ditch Republican attempt to block voting

Judge allows Fulton county election offices to be open Saturday and Sunday for mail-in ballots to be dropped off

A Georgia judge on Saturday rejected a Republican lawsuit trying to block counties from opening election offices on Saturday and Sunday to let voters hand in their mail ballots in person.

The lawsuit only named Fulton county, a Democratic stronghold that includes most of the city of Atlanta and is home to 11% of the state’s voters. But at least five other populous counties that tend to vote for Democrats also announced election offices would open over the weekend to allow hand return of absentee ballots.

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US politics live: Women’s marches hit the streets in support of Harris as both candidates target east coast – as it happened

Harris leading Trump in new Iowa poll in startling reversal, pulling ahead of Trump 47% to 44%

Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump head to North Carolina on Saturday to try to clinch support in the south-eastern battleground state just three days before Tuesday’s US presidential election.

It will be the fourth day in a row that vice-president Harris and former president Trump visit the same state on the same day, underlining the critical importance of the seven states likely to decide the race, which opinion polls show to be on a knife’s edge, Reuters reported.

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Supreme court rejects Republican bid to throw out thousands of Pennsylvania ballots; Harris says Trump’s Cheney remarks ‘disqualifying’ – live

Justices rule swing state can count provisional ballots of voters whose mail-in ballots were rejected; Harris condemns Republican nominee’s gun remarks

Joe Biden has released the following statement on the latest job report:

In October, unemployment was unchanged at 4.1%, but the devastation from Hurricanes Helene and Milton, and new strike activity, lowered job growth. Job growth is expected to rebound in November as our hurricane recovery and rebuilding efforts continue. In addition, I want to congratulate the leadership of the Machinists and Boeing for negotiating a new contract proposal that will be voted on by union members. Machinists at Boeing have sacrificed over the years and deserve a strong contract.

America’s economy remains strong, with 16m jobs created since I took office, including an average 180,000 jobs created each month over the last year – more than the year before the pandemic. We have the lowest average unemployment rate of any administration in 50 years, our economy has grown more than any presidential term this century, incomes are up $4,000 over prices, and inflation has fallen nearly to its 2% target.

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Blow for Republicans as supreme court rejects appeal over Pennsylvania ballots

Voters in key swing state will be able to cast provisional vote if they forget to put mail-in ballot in secrecy envelope

Pennsylvania voters will be able to cast a provisional vote if they make an error and forget to put their mail-in vote in a required secrecy envelope, the US supreme court ruled on Friday, a decision that could lead to thousands more votes being counted in a key battleground state where the presidential race is extremely tight.

The supreme court announced its decision on Friday on its emergency docket, giving no reasoning for its ruling, which is customary in emergency cases.

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How will the outcome of the US election affect Australia, Aukus and our region?

Australia’s future is closely tied to the future occupant of the White House. What impacts could a Kamala Harris or Donald Trump presidency have?

More people have gone to a ballot box in 2024 than in any other year in human history. Billions have cast votes across scores of countries, including some of the largest, most powerful democracies on Earth.

But America’s remains the world’s global election, the most forensically examined, the most consequential all over the world. America matters.

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Jennifer Lopez campaigns with Harris in Las Vegas – as it happened

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A lot of money has been spent on this year’s elections.

Only 150 billionaire families have contributed $1.9bn in support of presidential and congressional candidates, according to a new report from Americans for Tax Fairness.

Of this giant figure 72% went to support Republicans compared with the 22% spent on Democrats.

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Trump deploys garbage truck to trash Biden gaffe at Wisconsin rally

Republican presidential candidate in high-vis vest says ‘250 million Americans are not garbage’ as he capitalises on latest twist in Puerto Rico debate

Dressing like a sanitation worker and, at one point, appearing in the cab of a garbage truck, Donald Trump sought to convince voters in battleground state Wisconsin on Wednesday that Democrats believe those who vote for him are “garbage”.

The theatrics came in response to an apparent verbal gaffe made by Joe Biden the night before, which the president said was intended to condemn a comedian over his racist remarks at a massive rally Trump staged at New York City’s Madison Square Garden over the weekend.

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Biden says he meant to condemn comedian, not Trump supporters, in ‘garbage’ comments

Edited video clip of president’s remarks suggests he insulted Trump backers, but his wording is unclear

Joe Biden put out a statement that he had “meant to say” earlier on Tuesday that a pro-Trump comedian’s “hateful rhetoric” about Puerto Rico was “garbage”. But in an edited video clip already widely circulating on social media Tuesday evening, a phrase that came out of Biden’s mouth was “the only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters”.

Republican politicians and rightwing media outlets quickly picked up the clip to argue that Biden had called Trump’s supporters garbage, comparing his remarks with Hillary Clinton’s labeling of half of Trump supporters as belonging in “a basket of deplorables” in 2016, a comment that is widely seen as undermining her campaign.

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Trump claims ‘nobody loves Puerto Rican community more than I do’ at Pennsylvania rally

Ex-president’s comments come after comedian at one of Trump’s recent rallies called Puerto Rico ‘island of garbage’

Donald Trump praised Puerto Ricans on Tuesday during a Pennsylvania rally, days after a comedian made a racist joke and referred to Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage” at one of his rallies.

“Nobody loves our Latino community and our Puerto Rican community more than I do,” the former president said a little over an hour into a rally in Allentown, in the Lehigh Valley, which has a sizable Latino population.

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Supreme court rejects RFK Jr plea to remove name from battleground ballots

Kennedy, who suspended campaign and endorsed Donald Trump, will remain on ballot in Michigan and Wisconsin

The supreme court on Tuesday rejected an emergency appeal to remove Robert F Kennedy Jr from presidential ballots in Wisconsin and Michigan.

Kennedy wanted to remove himself from the ballot in the two crucial swing states after dropping his independent bid and endorsing Donald Trump. He argued that keeping him on violated his first amendment rights by wrongly implying he still wanted to be elected president.

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Puerto Rico Republican chair demands Trump apology for rally’s racist remarks

Angel M Cintrón, party’s chair on island, says he will not vote for Trump unless he says sorry for speaker’s comments

The president of the Republican party’s branch in Puerto Rico has said he will not vote for Donald Trump unless he apologises for racist remarks made at his rally referring to the US island territory as a “floating island of garbage”.

Outrage even among fellow Republicans is continuing to mount after the racist insult at the Republican nominee’s rally at New York’s Madison Square Garden on Sunday, with the podcaster Tony Hinchcliffe coming under fire for his inflammatory comments made about Puerto Rico in the opening speech.

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Kamala Harris delivers ‘closing argument’ in Washington – as it happened

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Most Americans are prepared to accept the election results as legitimate, according to a new ABC/Ipsos poll released on Tuesday.

The poll, conducted between 18 October to 22, 2024, states 83% of Americans surveyed and 86% of registered voters surveyed are prepared to accept the outcome of the presidential election as legitimate, regardless of which candidate they support.

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Kamala Harris calls for a ‘new generation of leadership’ in Washington speech

Vice-president strikes hopeful tone in remarks delivered from site of Trump’s speech before deadly January 6 attack

With the White House illuminated behind her, Kamala Harris asked the vanishing slice of undecided Americans to elect a “new generation of leadership”, likening Donald Trump to a “petty tyrant” who had stood in the very same spot nearly four years ago and, in a last-gasp effort to cling to power, helped incite the mob that stormed the US Capitol.

The choice between her and Trump in the deadlocked presidential contest was “about whether we have a country rooted in freedom for every American or ruled by chaos and division”, Harris said, from the Ellipse near the White House’s South Lawn, where tens of thousands of supporters gathered one week before the final votes of the 2024 election are cast.

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US election live: outcry grows over ‘hateful’ Trump rally remarks; Harris says Puerto Ricans ‘deserve better’

Congressional Hispanic caucus hits out at ‘shameful’ rhetoric; vice-president releases ad condemning Trump and comedian’s remarks

Here’s our story of the resignation of Washington Post columnist Michele Norris, the latest high profile writer to leave the newspaper in protest at its decision not to endorse a candidate in next week’s presidential election.

Norris says the Post’s non-call was a “terrible mistake & an insult to the paper’s own longstanding standard of regularly endorsing candidates since 1976”.

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Outcry over Trump’s hint at ‘little secret’ with House Republicans

Critics condemn ‘sinister’ remark that suggests potential Trump-Mike Johnson plot to settle contested election

Donald Trump faced mounting suspicion of hatching a plot to steal next week’s presidential election as Democrats and commentators focused on his references to a “little secret” at Sunday night’s tumultuous Madison Square Garden rally.

The allusions initially attracted little notice amid the angry backlash provoked by racist jokes and incendiary rhetoric from a succession of warm-up speakers, including an offensive comment about Puerto Ricans that even Trump’s own campaign felt obliged to disavow.

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Trump fills Madison Square Garden with anger, vitriol and racist threats

Marking final stretch of campaign in New York, Trump and cabal of surrogates attack Harris and mock Puerto Rico

Anger and vitriol took center stage at New York’s Madison Square Garden on Sunday night, as Donald Trump and a cabal of campaign surrogates held a rally marked by racist comments, coarse insults, and dangerous threats about immigrants.

Nine days out from the election, Trump used the rally in New York to repeat his claim that he is fighting “the enemy within” and again promised to launch “the largest deportation program in American history”, amid incoherent ramblings about ending a phone call with a “very, very important person” so he could watch one of Elon Musk’s rockets land.

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Trump repeats ‘enemy from within’ rhetoric at Madison Square Garden rally as speakers give racist remarks – live

Tucker Carlson among speakers to take jabs at Harris, Puerto Rico and trans people after vice-president rallies in Philadelphia

Following her appearance at a predominantly Black church in Philadelphia this morning, Kamala Harris has just visited Philly Cuts, a barbershop not far from the west Philadelphia church.

From a barbershop chair, Harris answered questions from several young Black men, including about student loan debt, in a conversation moderated by Pennsylvania state representative Jordan Harris.

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Racist remarks and playing to the base: key takeaways from Trump’s MSG rally

The ex-president took the stage at Madison Square Garden, where he doubled down on his anti-immigration rhetoric and gave little on his economic agenda

Donald Trump reveled in what advisers called his happy place at Madison Square Garden on Sunday, as he enveloped himself in the adulation ahead of the final stretch of campaigning until the November election.

The capacity rally at the Garden – something Trump had talked about for years – was essentially a reboot of the Republican national convention this summer, widely seen as Trump’s most confident moment.

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