Ex-Trump strategist Steve Bannon to be released from prison

Harris has been taking questions from undecided voters at a town hall event in Brookfield, Wisconsin.

The first question came from a woman who noted that federal abortion rights were eliminated by the Supreme Court after Trump placed three conservative judges on the bench.

The woman, who says that she voted Republican before Trump entered the political stage, notes that her daughter has less rights now than her mother or grandmother.

“This decision came down and we are seeing the harm,” says Harris, describing stories of women who have been injured after being unable to have a medically-required abortion.

“Eventually, Congress needs to pass a law restoring these protections,” she says.

Liz Cheney, a former Republican congresswoman who has been campaigning today with Harris, also answers the question.

She notes that she is against abortion, but still believes America needs “a president who understands what compassion is”.

Anthony Zurcher
BBC North America correspondent

Kamala Harris’s third stop on her Monday campaign swing brings a new state, a new crowd and a new moderator – the conservative commentator Charlie Sykes.

The venue, a wood-panel suburban performing arts centre, is also the nicest of today’s locations but the stage set-up here in Brookfield, Wisconsin, is virtually identical to the two previous events in Michigan and Pennsylvania.

There are large “country over party” and “a new way forward” slogans printed on bright red and blue backdrops.

The message from the vice-president is also the same: Donald Trump, in her view, is unfit to return to the Oval Office – and Republican voters should follow the lead of members of their party who have broken ranks and backed the Democrats.

Waukesha County is a mix of wealthy Milwaukee suburbs and rural areas. It is the backbone of the Republican Party in Wisconsin.

Donald Trump carried this populous county with 60% of the vote over Joe Biden in 2020.

Harris has made this the last stop of her day of campaigning to try to chip away at that margin in a state that polls show is a virtual dead heat.

Donald Trump has now finished his last scheduled event of the day. And Kamala Harris has just started her final event in Wisconsin with former Republican representative Liz Cheney.

Cheney was also speaking alongside Harris earlier today in Michigan.

Stick with us, we will bring you key updates.

Mike Wendling
BBC News

New details into the assassination attempt in July against Trump that left him with a bloody ear have emerged from the congressional task force probing the attack.

A local policeman testified that he locked eyes with the gunman moments before the attack, the report says in its preliminary findings.

“I see [Thomas Matthew] Crooks facing downrange towards the stage, but his eyes are back at me as I’m coming up [onto the roof],” the police officer said.

“And I would say, like, his facial expressions was surprised. His eyes were very big, like, ‘what are you doing up here?’”

But it does not appear warnings about the gunman on the roof, who opened fire shortly after, made it to the Secret Service at the event.

The report noted: “To date, the task force has not received any evidence to suggest that message reached the former President’s detail prior to shots fired.”

The investigation, which is still ongoing, also noted several security failures, including that local sniper teams had a limited field of vision at the outdoor rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

• Read more:Officer reveals how he locked eyes with would-be Trump assassin

Trump has spent much of his time speaking to Christian supporters at this event thanking various religious figures and his own family members.

He also addressed the assassination attempt in Butler, which bloodied his ear after he turned his body at the last moment before being struck by the bullet.

“Looking back I realise it’s the hand of God that’s been leading me to where I am today,” says Trump

“My faith took on new meaning,” after the assassination attempt in July, he continues.

“I would like to think that God saved me for a purpose, and that’s to make our country greater than ever before.”

In North Carolina, Donald Trump is about to speak at an event called the “11th Hour Faith Leaders Meeting”.

Eric Trump just spoke – he told the audience they were a “movement of absolute love”.

Also at the event is Peter Navarro, a former trade adviser to Trump who served a four-month prison term for contempt of Congress.

Dr Ben Carson, Trump’s former Housing and Urban Development secretary, will also speak.

We’ll be bringing you any key moments, stick with us.

Donald Trump’s former strategist Steve Bannon will be released from prison next week after serving a four-month sentence for contempt of Congress.

The podcaster was found to have illegally refused to testify before the committee investigating the 6 January 2021 Capitol riot.

His lawyers had tried to get an early release, but it was denied. Bannon has been in a federal prison facility in Danbury, Connecticut.

Bannon was a key player in Trump’s 2016 rise to the Oval Office and later became chief strategist at the White House.

He left the administration after a violent far-right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August 2017, but remains a top ally of the former president.

Bannon has said he was following legal advice in refusing to testify before the House committee investigating 6 January, when rioters ransacked the US Capitol with the goal of stopping the certification of Joe Biden’s election win.

He is scheduled for release on 29 October.

Ana Faguy
US Reporter

For the past few months, I’ve spent much of my day speaking with voters about how they’re feeling about the election.

This afternoon I chatted with Nick Oviatt, a 30-year-old Nebraska voter.

Oviatt, a registered Republican, switched from voting for Hillary Clinton in 2016, to Donald Trump in 2020. He plans to vote for Kamala Harris next month.

He doesn’t feel he can go back to supporting Trump again given the candidate’s age and his recent comments, which Oviatt described to me as “not diplomatic”.

“[Trump] doesn’t seem to be making any new friends in Washington,” Oviatt said. “I don’t see how a Trump administration would be effective.”

Harris, he said, is casting a wider net. Oviatt is impressed by Harris earning Liz Cheney’s endorsement.

“She’s getting a broader coalition, granted it’s because people don’t like Trump, but she’s casting a wider net,” Oviatt tells me.

Anthony Zurcher
BBC North America correspondent, reporting from Michigan

In a moment of levity here in Michigan, Maria Shriver started listing some of the ways people are coping with the stress of this taut presidential election.

“Everybody I talk to says, I’ve got to turn off the news,” she said.

“I can’t do anything. I’m meditating. I’m doing yoga. I’m so anxious. I just don’t even know. I’m eating gummies. What are you doing?”

“Not eating gummies,” Harris answered to audience laughter.

While she’s not partaking in marijuana-laced edibles, she said she is dealing with the stress by exercising, eating right and talking to her family regularly.

Although the Michigan town hall is over, the vice president’s packed day hasn’t concluded quite yet.

She’s now on her way to the airport to fly to another event in Wisconsin before heading back to Washington, DC.

Is there a precedent for Musk’s $1m reward for registered voters?published at 22:24 British Summer Time 21 October

By Jake Horton

Elon Musk says he will give away $1m (£766,000) a day until 5 November to a person who will be selected at random from those who sign a petition pledging support to free speech and gun rights.

Only registered voters in key swing states can sign this petition – leading to questions about the potential legality of the initiative. It is against US law, external to pay people to register to vote.

Musk has pushed back against the criticism, claiming that Democrats and their donors have funded similar initiatives in the past.

On X, he shared a post which claimed the boss of Meta, Mark Zuckerberg “did the same thing in 2020”.

Zuckerberg donated $400 million, external in the 2020 election – but this was given to two non-partisan organisations to help with the logistics around postal ballots. It was not given directly to voters.

The Democratic Party has invested in initiatives in the past elections to mobilise supporters, such as a $25 million voter registration campaign in the 2022 US midterm elections, external.

However, this money was not given directly to voters. The funding went towards initiatives which encouraged voters to register, such as employing people to knock on doors and television and digital advertising.

“It’s legal to pay people to go out to register voters, but you can’t pay people directly to register,” says Michael Kang, a professor of law at the Northwestern Pritzker School of Law.

“I’ve never heard of something quite like Musk’s initiative,” Kang added.

Anthony Zurcher
BBC North America correspondent, reporting from Michigan

In their opening conversation, Liz Cheney and Kamala Harris are making a direct pitch to Republican voters who may be open to supporting the Democrats but are worried that they might be opening themselves up to threats or scorn from their peers.

“You can vote your conscience and not ever have to say a word to anybody,” Cheney says. “And there will be millions of Republicans who will do it.”

Harris adds that she has seen Republicans who have approached Cheney and thanked her for speaking out against the former president – even if they never say anything publicly.

“From my vantage point, she is not alone,” Harris says.

Current public opinion polls show a neck-and-neck race for the presidency. At the moment, most surveys indicate less than 10% of Republicans are backing the Democrats.

If those numbers turn out to be understated – if Cheney is right and there are shy Republicans who will ultimately break ranks and vote Democratic for the first time – Harris’s path to the White House would become much easier.

Introducing Harris, Maria Shriver calls her “the MVP – Madam Vice-President”. MVP is of course a sports term for “most valuable player”.

Former Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney is also on stage. After being a vocal Trump critic in Congress, she has been helping Harris in her campaign to attract conservative voters.

Harris begins by noting that she is campaigning alongside Republicans, because like her, they love their country.

Anthony Zurcher
BBC North America correspondent, reporting from Michigan

Kamala Harris is in Royal Oak, Michigan – a suburb of Detroit – beginning her second event of the day.

Like her first “town hall” in Pennsylvania, she is appearing on-stage with former Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney. This time, Maria Shriver – journalist, former first lady of California and member of the Kennedy family – is performing the moderator duties.

During her opening remarks, an audience member asked Shriver if they would be able to ask questions.

She said that the town hall questioners were “pre-determined”, which should settle any doubts about how stage-managed this event will be.

A Philadelphia resident has been arrested after a federal investigation found that he allegedly threatened to kill a representative from a state political party.

John Pollard, 62, allegedly texted an unidentified party representative after the victim posted online in an effort to recruit volunteers to observe poll locations on election day.

“I will kill you if you don’t answer me,” he allegedly wrote in capital letters in one message. Investigators claim another message threatened, “your days are numbered”.

The US Justice Department’s statement does not mention any political affiliation for the suspect or the unidentified victim.

The arrest is part of the Justice Department’s Election Threats Task Force, which was launched in 2021 to investigate threats against election workers.

Poll watchers, who are also sometimes referred to as election observers, are permitted to watch the voting process. Each state has different laws about who can be an observer, as when and where they can be present.

A new Reuters investigation, external published today found more than 300 cases of political violence have occurred in the US since Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in 2021.

Asked about the report earlier today, Kamala Harris told reporters in Michigan that Trump must denounce “the travesty of the day” on 6 January 2021. “Everybody should speak out about this. Including, and especially, anybody who’s running for president of the United States.”

More now from the Donald Trump rally, where he has been hitting his usual talking points.

He reiterates that if he were to become president, there would be no tax on: tips, overtime or social security benefits for seniors – which is met by huge applause from the heavily partisan crowd.

Trump was the first candidate to bring up the no tax on tips policy, but Kamala Harris has since also said she would not tax tips if she were president.

Trump goes on to pledge to cut energy prices in half, along with interest rates. “We will frack, frack, frack and drill baby, drill,” he adds.

Trump starts his speech by pledging to restore “hope” to the US and calls his opponent, Kamala Harris, “a threat to democracy” and “a threat to a lot of things”.

He goes on to attack “sleepy Joe”, his nickname for President Joe Biden, and criticises the Democratic Party for swapping him from the ticket for Harris. Biden stepped down from the race in July, but Trump has continued to talk about his former rival.

“Kamala – you’re fired! Get the hell outta here,” Trump says, using his reality television catch phrase. He goes on to discuss the recent destruction in western North Carolina after Hurricane Helene hit last month.

“When I’m president, North Carolina will get the support you need and deserve,” he says, claiming that the federal government spend disaster recovery money on “illegal migrants” and had none left to help the state.

Federal emergency officials have debunked that claim, pointing out that funding for natural disasters comes from an entirely different pot than the money used to address migration.

• Read more: Fact checking Trump’s claims that government money earmarked for disaster victims was spent on migrants

Donald Trump has just walked on stage at a rally in Greenville, North Carolina.

The former president has been campaigning today in the key swing state.

Stick with us, we will bring you any key update from the rally.

During one tense exchange during that daily press briefing, a reporter asked Karine Jean-Pierre if Kamala Harris had the “green light” from the White House to express a different point of view on policy than President Joe Biden.

The reporter continued: “Or is she required to be a loyal vice president to President Biden?”

The comment reflects the criticism Harris has received from Republicans who are seeking to cast her as a Biden 2.0, responsible for many of the administration’s perceived failures. When he was running for president, Biden had historically low favourability ratings.

Jean-Pierre said she disagreed with the question, adding that Harris “has been a partner” to Biden and loyal to him in the same way that Biden was to Barack Obama.

“She is certainly going to cut her own path. That’s what we’re seeing from this vice president,” Jean-Pierre said.

The idea of Iran gaining access to leaked classified documents about Israel’s plans of attack is “very concerning”, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has said during the daily press briefing.

Jean-Pierre was asked to confirm if the documents were obtained by Iran and whether the documents were in fact “classified”, a high-security designation.

“I can’t get into specifics,” Jean-Pierre says, adding that the Department of Defense and other US agencies are handling reports of the leak.

“We take this very seriously, we’re very concerned,” she says.

But, she adds, “we need to get answers before I can give you anything further from here. It’s being investigated by the appropriate authorities”.

At the daily press briefing, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has just dismissed multiple requests for comment on tech billionaire Elon Musk’s increasingly prominent role in Donald Trump’s campaign.

Musk has said he will give away $1m (£766,000) a day to a registered voter in key swing states until the US presidential election on 5 November. Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, one of the key battlegrounds, is calling on investigators to look at the legality of Musk’s political stunt.

In addition, Trump has said he would enlist Musk to run a “government efficiency commission” if he wins a second term as US president – as the bond between the two continues to grow.

When pressed on these developments during the White House daily briefing, the answer was: