US election roundup: Trump and Biden swing through battleground states

Both candidates to campaign in Minnesota and Wisconsin while president rails against supreme court over North Carolina ruling

The two US presidential candidates swung through northern battleground states on Friday amid signs that the coronavirus pandemic was once more threatening to overcome hospital capacity in several US regions.

Donald Trump was due to hold a succession of airport rallies in Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota, while Joe Biden was scheduled to have drive-in rallies in Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin.

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US shatters daily coronavirus record with nearly 90,000 new infections Thursday

Country approaches world-topping 9m cases as experts warn death rates could more than double by mid-January

The US has shattered the daily coronavirus record, with almost 90,000 new infections reported on Thursday and close to 1,000 deaths, as the US approached a world-topping 9m cases and experts warned of death rates more than doubling by mid-January.

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Why the US military would welcome a decisive 2020 election win

Military chiefs keen to stay out of the way – a decisive result lowers risk of prolonged crisis and the protests it could generate

Federal laws and longstanding custom generally leave the US military out of the election process.

Related: US election 2020: Trump and Biden both head to crucial swing states Minnesota and Wisconsin - live updates

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‘You’re a crook’: barbs-strewn Georgia election debate goes viral – video

Republican senator David Perdue has pulled out of the final debate with his Democratic challenger, Jon Ossoff, after the pair exchanged personal attacks during a televised debate on Wednesday.

In the debate moderated by WTOC-TV, Ossoff called the incumbent 'a crook', while Perdue accused his rival of profiting off 'communist China'. The exchange later went viral after Ossoff shared the clip on social media

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Coronavirus live news: US passes 9m cases; Italian cases jump by 31,000 in a day

Italy also records 199 further deaths; US record surge killing nearly 1,000 Americans a day; Moscow creates vaccination network

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‘He couldn’t move’: New York City man falls into sinkhole full of rats

Leonard Shoulders was waiting for bus in the Bronx when concrete cracked open and he fell into hole, unable to scream for help

A New York City man has fallen through a sinkhole in a sidewalk, landing directly on to a pack of rats and leaving him unable to scream for help out of a fear that they might crawl into his mouth, local media have reported.

In a city long used to tall tales of urban horror, like crocodiles in the sewers, the real-life terror experienced by Leonard Shoulders, 33, appeared to strike an appalled chord with denizens of the Big Apple.

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Hurricane Zeta kills at least six as 100mph winds race through south

More than 2.6 million without power in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia, with life-threatening weather to continue

More than 2.6 million customers were without power on Thursday morning across several southern states and at least six people had been killed after Hurricane Zeta howled ashore in Louisiana with winds over 100mph then weakened to a tropical storm and raced through the region.

According to the website PowerOutage.us, shortly after dawn at least 2 million were without electricity in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia, and the number grew from there. Georgia has the most outages, with more than 800,000 people in the dark.

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The polls point to a Biden victory but can they be trusted this time?

Although polling averages gave Clinton the edge over Trump in 2016 there are significant differences in the evidence today

For months, activists and Democratic party officials have been telling Joe Biden supporters that the only answer to the question “can we trust the polls?” is to go out and vote for Biden, and then get others to do the same.

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White House coronavirus taskforce warns of ‘unrelenting’ spread

US is going in ‘wrong direction’ says Fauci as Covid cases rise in 47 states and patients overwhelm hospitals across the US

The White House coronavirus taskforce is warning of a persistent and broad spread of Covid-19 in the western half of the United States and its members urged aggressive mitigation measures.

“We are on a very difficult trajectory. We’re going in the wrong direction,” said Dr Anthony Fauci, the lead public health official on the taskforce and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

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US election 2020: Trump and Biden hold dueling rallies in Florida – live

Election officials in US battleground states are still fighting to limit the usage of ballot drop boxes, with only days left until 3 November.

Related: 'To me, it's voter suppression': the Republican fight to limit ballot boxes

Joe Biden will campaign in Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin tomorrow.

Both candidates have been making the rounds to swing states in a final push ahead of election day. In Florida today, where polls have found Biden neck-and-neck with Trump, the former vice-president appealed to Latinos – a key demographic that could help deliver victories to Democrats.

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Coronavirus live news: Angela Merkel heckled in parliament; UK job retention scheme to end

Merkel said populists who call coronavirus harmless are dangerous; UK furlough scheme to end on Saturday; France reimposes national lockdown

As the row over the discharge of Covid-positive patients into Scotland’s care homes during the early days of the pandemic deepens, health secretary Jeane Freeman has insisted that a new report does not diminish government accountability, writes Libby Brookes, the Guardian’s Scotland correspondent.

The report – which concluded the risk of an outbreak linked to discharge of positive or untested patients was “not statistically significant” - prompted anger from opposition parties, care chiefs and unions, who argued that it failed to properly explain why dozens of patients who tested positive for coronavirus, along with thousands who went untested, were discharged from Scottish hospitals into care homes in April and May.

For relatives and families of people who have died in care homes during this pandemic, I want them to know really clearly that I am not saying that this report says there is no accountability here or that I think that report in any way offers them comfort. It’s a very technical report and it comes to a statistical conclusion but that doesn’t take away from the human impact of this virus…

Angela Merkel faced shouts and heckles in Germany’s parliament this morning as she outlined her government’s plans for a “soft” second lockdown, writes Philip Oltermann, the Guardian’s Berlin bureau chief.

From Monday, bars, restaurants, theatres, swimming pools and fitness studios will close for a month, and public gatherings be limited to two households or up to ten people. Unnecessary travel is discouraged and hotels advised not to host tourists. Schools, nurseries and shops will stay open, however.

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#EndSars, abolish Ice: the trans activist resisting police violence in Nigeria and the US

Arriving as a teenager, Ola Osaze was shocked by how the US treats Black LGBTQ+ migrants. Today he fights for their rights amid an international uprising

When Ola Osaze left Nigeria at age 15, one of his first sights in America was a sign at the Greensboro, North Carolina, airport.

“Beware of Nigerian drug smugglers.”

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US steps up deportation of Haitians ahead of election, raising Covid fears

The Trump administration justifies the expulsions under a public health law but critics say they risk spreading coronavirus in the Caribbean nation

US immigration authorities have radically stepped up deportation flights to Haiti in the weeks before the election, raising concerns over returned migrants’ safety on their return home and the risks of spreading coronavirus in the impoverished Caribbean state.

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Israeli zeal for second Trump term matched by Palestinian enmity

Netanyahu’s clear choice for US president seen as ‘extremely dangerous’ in Palestine

Anyone in any doubt about Benjamin Netanyahu’s preferred candidate in the US presidential election need only visit his personal Twitter account.

Right at the top, behind the headshot of Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, is a banner photo of him with Donald Trump in the Oval Office, their eyes fixed on each other.

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Seven new charges brought against adult film star Ron Jeremy

He has now been accused by 23 alleged victims and faces a total of 11 counts of rape, eight of sexual battery and 16 other sexual offenses

Porn star Ron Jeremy was charged on Wednesday with an additional seven counts of rape and sexual assault, bringing to 23 the number of his alleged victims, the Los Angeles district attorney’s office said.

Jeremy, 67, one of the biggest names in the adult film industry, was initially charged in June with raping three women and sexually assaulting a fourth, but more women have come forward to police since then.

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Dr Fauci praises Australia’s coronavirus response and Melbourne’s face mask rules

America’s top Covid expert says Victoria lockdown and mask-wearing struck right balance between health and economy and he wished US adopted same mentality

America’s top infectious diseases expert, Dr Anthony Fauci, has praised Melbourne’s response to the coronavirus, saying he “wished” the US could adopt the same mentality.

In an interview hosted by the University of Melbourne and the Melbourne-based Doherty Institute, Fauci said Australia was “one of the countries that has done actually quite well” in handling the virus.

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Republicans use section 230 hearing to berate tech CEOs and claim Trump is ‘censored’

Congressional hearing with Twitter, Facebook and Google CEOs was meant to focus on federal law that protects internet companies

Republican lawmakers berated the CEOs of Twitter, Facebook and Google in a hearing that was ostensibly about a federal law protecting internet companies but mostly focused on how those companies deal with disinformation from Donald Trump and other conservatives.

Jack Dorsey, Mark Zuckerberg and Sundar Pichai testified before Congress on Wednesday about section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, a law underpinning US internet regulation that exempts platforms from legal liability for content generated by its users.

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US blocking selection of Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala to be next head of WTO

Sources say it is unclear if move is attempt to sabotage trade body much criticised by Trump

The US is blocking the appointment of Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala as the next head of the World Trade Organisation despite the former Nigerian finance minister winning the overwhelming backing of the WTO’s 164 members, it has emerged.

Ngozi had moved a step closer to becoming the first woman and the first African to be director of the global trade watchdog after securing the support of a key group of trade ambassadors in Geneva. Soundings taken by a selection panel of three WTO trade ministers found Okonjo-Iweala had far more support than her South Korean rival, Yoo Myung-hee.

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Trump repeats claim ‘Covid, Covid, Covid’ dominates news to undermine his campaign – live

Several polls of battleground states were just released, so the blog is going to sum them up.

First up is Georgia, where Biden has pulled slightly ahead of Trump, according to Monmouth University.

GEORGIA VOTER POLL: President - @JoeBiden overtakes @realDonaldTrump

Registered voters:
45% Trump (47% in Sept.)
50% Biden (46%)

Likely voters, high turnout:
46% Trump (48%)
50% Biden (46%)

Likely voters, low turnout:
48% Trump (50%)
50% Biden (45%) https://t.co/aUyYrRGfMt pic.twitter.com/pygB8gmNML

Trump predicted he would “over-perform” on election day, as polls show him trailing nationally and in key battleground states like Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

At a press event in Las Vegas, Trump says: “On Tuesday, we’re going to over-perform” #Elections2020 pic.twitter.com/UGf7ZHRbuJ

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Eight charged in alleged Chinese plot to coerce family to return from US

  • Five individuals arrested, with three believed to be in China
  • Chinese government allegedly plotted to pressure ex-official

Eight people have been charged with conspiring to work on behalf of China’s government in a plot to coerce a Chinese family in the US to return to their home country to face charges.

Five of the individuals charged, including an American private investigator, were arrested on Wednesday in New Jersey, New York and California. The rest are believed to be in China, top justice department officials said in a news conference.

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