Siobhan Kennedy , Washington Correspondent

America and the world has its reckoning with the ballot box today. After an enormously expensive election campaign, at a time when many Americans are feeling the pinch economically, the polls suggest this will be an historically close contest.

After millions of miles travelled and billions of dollars spent – the US presidential election campaign is in its final hours. And the tone of the candidates in these final hours could not be more different. Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are spending the day making a final dash for votes, with both holding competing…

Donald Trump has ramped up his war of words with former Republican Liz Cheney, suggesting she should have guns trained on her face. 

In the battleground state of Arizona, polls give Donald Trump the slimmest of leads. So Kamala Harris has been busy courting moderate Republicans during the election campaign – including suburban women. But are they likely to shift her way?

It was to be her closing argument – a set-piece primetime speech in which Kamala Harris, just yards from the White House, set out her final pitch to voters. But sitting in the building behind her, Joe Biden managed to overshadow the big moment.

In one week America goes to the polls. For both sides their version of the Republic is on the line.

It’s the legendary venue he’s always wanted to play: Donald Trump’s first and likely only night at Madison Square Garden was meant to be his last big pitch to undecided voters.

Arizona is important because a special measure on voters’ ballots there will decide if abortion access is protected up to about 24 weeks of pregnancy, from 15 weeks currently. 

In the US, Kamala Harris has called Donald Trump ‘unhinged and unstable’ after hearing of claims from his former chief of staff John Kelly that the former president said Hitler ‘did some good things’.

After a weekend in which Donald Trump talked about sending the military to deal with the “enemy within” after the presidential election, Kamala Harris herself ventured into enemy territory – giving an interview to Fox News.

In the vital swing state of Pennsylvania, the race seems to be closer and more consequential than anywhere else.

At least ten people have been killed and millions left without power – after the powerful Hurricane Milton swept across Florida, bringing tornadoes, flooding and storm surges.

Time is running out for people to leave Florida’s Gulf Coast, as Hurricane Milton closes in, bringing life-threatening storm surges with it.

More than 1 million people living along Florida’s Gulf coast have been warned to “evacuate now” as the monster Hurricane Milton heads for land. One of the state’s biggest cities, Tampa, is in its path, where emergency chiefs warned there could be a “large area of destructive storm surge” which might be “not survivable”. 

In a statement President Biden said that far too many civilians have been killed since the October 7th attacks – adding that Israelis and Palestinians both “deserve to live in security, dignity and peace”.