1.34pm BST

Reuters report that President Vladimir Putin has called for an agreement between Russia and the United States to guarantee not to engage in cyber-meddling in each other’s elections.

In a statement ahead of the US election, Putin called for a reset between Russia and the US and said he wanted an agreement between the two countries to prevent incidents in cyberspace.

1.29pm BST

If you fancy something to listen to, this week our Politics Weekly Extra podcast features Jonathan Freedland and Daniel Strauss talking about how important this year’s Senate race could end up being.

1.27pm BST

I should imagine we’ll have new polling news every day between now and the election, and this morning is no exception.

Chris Kahn at Reuters this morning says the latest data shows the presidential race is much closer than national surveys suggest – which currently give Biden an eight-ish point lead. But the latest Reuters/Ipsos opinion polls in battleground states show Joe Biden with only a slim lead over Donald Trump in three highly competitive states and in a dead heat in three others.

Related: US election polls tracker: who is leading in the swing states?

1.19pm BST

Jennifer Steinhauer and Helene Cooper report for the New York Times this morning that there is anxiety at the Pentagon that Donald Trump will attempt to drag the military into any post-election chaos. They write:

President Trump gave officials no solace on Wednesday and Thursday when he again refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power no matter who wins the election, and on Thursday, he doubled down by saying he was not sure the election could be “honest.” His hedging, along with his expressed desire in June to invoke the 1807 Insurrection Act to send active-duty troops onto American streets to quell protests over the killing of George Floyd, has incited deep anxiety among senior military and Defense Department leaders, who insist they will do all they can to keep the armed forces out of the elections.

“I believe deeply in the principle of an apolitical US military,” General Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in written answers to questions from House lawmakers released last month. “In the event of a dispute over some aspect of the elections, by law, US courts and the US Congress are required to resolve any disputes, not the US military. I foresee no role for the US armed forces in this process.”

Pentagon officials swiftly said such an outcome was preposterous. Under no circumstances, they said, would the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff send Navy SEALs or Marines to haul Mr. Trump out of the White House. If necessary, such a task, Defense Department officials said, would fall to US Marshals or the Secret Service.

1.11pm BST

Associated Press are reporting that the Justice department has put in a court filing this morning seeking an immediate ban on downloads of WeChat in Apple and Google app stores.

Last week the US Commerce Department moved to ban WeChat from app stores but on Saturday, Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler in California agreed to delay the restrictions, saying they would affect users’ First Amendment rights.

1.05pm BST

Here’s a bit more on that incident in Los Angeles last night where two people were injured by vehicles during protests for justice for Breonna Taylor. ABC News report:

The “largely peaceful” group of protesters began marching around 7pm local time with only isolated reports of vandalism, but shortly after 9pm, things turned violent when a blue pickup truck traveling on Sunset Boulevard maneuvered through the crowd and became involved in an altercation, according to authorities. The driver of the truck attempted to get away from the situation, but police said he struck a protester standing in the street. The protester hit by the truck was transported to a local hospital with minor injuries.

Content warning. Protesters get struck by car during Hollywood march/protest #losangeles #protest #hollywood pic.twitter.com/MJfParkHsS

12.54pm BST

Donald Trump has gone one of his wild early morning tweeting and retweeting sprees. Among his targets this morning are Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker who Trump has trashed as a Republican-in-name-only over mail in ballots in the state.

RINO Governor Charlie Baker of Massachusetts is unsuccessfully trying to defend Mail In Ballots, when there is fraud being found all over the place. Just look at some of the recent races, or the Trump Ballots in Pennsylvania that were thrown into the garbage. Wrong Charlie!

One of the worst polls in 2016 was the @FoxNews Poll. They were so ridiculously wrong. Fox said they were going to change pollsters, but they didn’t. They totally over sample Democrats to a point that a child could see what is going on. Rasmussen, which was accurate, at 52%.

12.44pm BST

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and wife Jill visit Washington today to pay respects to supreme court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg at the US Capitol this morning.

12.35pm BST

The Washington Post has this to say today on the process going on behind Donald Trump’s upcoming supreme court pick, claiming that the process of inviting senators to meet with the nominee has already started. Seung Min Kim reports:

The White House has started its outreach to key senators who will play influential roles in the confirmation fight for President Trump’s yet-to-be-named nominee to the Supreme Court, a sign that the administration is preparing to move rapidly once the president reveals his pick Saturday afternoon.

White House officials have asked several members, both Democratic and Republican, of the Senate Judiciary Committee if they would like to meet personally with the nominee starting next week, according to two officials directly familiar with the invitations.

12.32pm BST

US District Judge Lucy Koh has been hearing a case in California over the plans to cut short the US census, and she delivered her ruling late last night. She has ordered the once-a-decade head count of every US resident to continue for another month through to the end of October, saying a shortened schedule likely would produce inaccurate results.

Civil rights groups and local governments had sued the Census Bureau, which was proposing to end the count at the end of September. Attorneys for the civil rights groups and local governments said the shortened schedule would undercount residents in minority and hard-to-count communities. Koh had also expressed concerns earlier in the hearings that a September deadline would make it harder to count people who had been displaced by California’s record-breaking wildfires.

12.15pm BST

One of the pictures I posted earlier showed riot police surrounding a church in Louisville in what had developed into a stand-off. The Louisville Courier Journal has this on what happened there last night:

After a two-hour standoff outside a downtown Louisville church, police officers and protesters brokered a deal allowing demonstrators back on to the city streets.

The negotiations, which allowed the protesters to return to their cars without being arrested for violating a 9pm curfew, capped off another tense evening in Kentucky’s largest city.

I’m at First Unitarian Church on South Fourth where protesters are using as a safe space. I’ve been here since about 6 p.m. with organizers. It’s 9:01 — one minute past curfew.

Churches are not included in the city’s curfew. @courierjournal pic.twitter.com/frHaZnq845

Line of police cars leaving the church.

The protesters can seemingly go home. pic.twitter.com/s4qypPFCqs

Palmer, who has not spoken publicly since Wednesday’s grand jury announcement, was wearing a black satin “Until Freedom” jacket over a white T-shirt with a picture of Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron and the words “Mitch Bitch.”

11.59am BST

Daniel Strauss in Washington has been looking at how the death of supreme court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has upended Senate races just weeks before the election.

For Republicans, the battle for the Senate is an essential bid to cling to a hugely powerful body; for Democrats, wresting control of the chamber would be a hugely welcome – if previously unexpected – triumph.

In some races, the supreme court vacancy offers a chance for Democrats to rally their bases in states that increasingly lean left. In others, the vacancy gives Republican candidates the opportunity to remind voters who want the high court to tackle cases on abortion, deregulation, and overturning healthcare reform that senators can play a role.

Related: US supreme court vacancy upends Senate races with just weeks to go

11.52am BST

There’s a hearing today into whether Donald Trump needs to finally release his tax returns to a New York prosecutor.

The president’s lawyers argued in court papers filed yesterday that the office of Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr is resorting to “speculation and innuendo” to justify his demands

11.45am BST

Here are some of the pictures that have been coming through showing lasts nights protests across the US.

11.33am BST

Donald Trump may have made ‘law-and-order’ a centerpiece of his campaign, but as Ankita Rao reports for us, what he says about crime in US cities is often at odds with the reality.

Big American cities are largely run by Democrats, with only few under Republican leadership, making comparisons almost impossible, and the increase in crime has hit Republican areas too.

But Trump’s “law-and-order” narrative is now successfully deepening political fissures in the country, without addressing the actual issue of community violence at time of a pandemic which has cost 200,000 American lives, an economic collapse that has killed millions of jobs and widespread civic unrest.

Related: Trump makes ‘law-and-order’ pitch but rhetoric on crime at variance with reality

11.22am BST

Elsewhere in the US, one person was hurt when a vehicle ran into a small crowd of people protesting police brutality in Los Angeles, authorities said.

The driver of a blue pickup truck got into an argument with demonstrators and struck the protester who was standing in the street as the driver tried to get away, police said in a statement. The protester was taken to a hospital with minor injuries.

11.17am BST

Louisville Metro Police have confirmed to the Associated Press that at least 24 people were arrested in Louisville during the second night of protests over a grand jury’s decision not to indict police officers on criminal charges directly related to the death of Breonna Taylor.

Among them, the Louisville Courier Journal reports, were high-profile Louisville Democratic state lawmaker Rep. Attica Scott and well-known Black activist Shameka Parrish-Wright. The paper says that Scott’s daughter, Ashanti Scott, was arrested alongside them. Olivia Krauth writes:

All three are charged with first-degree rioting — a felony — along with failure to disperse and unlawful assembly, both misdemeanors.

“The allegations are outrageous on their face,” said Ted Shouse, Parrish-Wright’s lawyer.

If you arrest the loudest voices fighting racial injustice in Louisville, we have to believe you want to silence the fight against racial injustice. Let @atticascott4ky and @Seasoned4u out and get out of their way.

11.09am BST

There were protests in many major US cities last night demanding justice for Breonna Taylor. Reporters for Associated Press spoke to people who were protesting in Kentucky.

“We’ve got to take it lying down that the law won’t protect us, that they can get away with killing us,” said Lavel White, a regular protester in downtown Louisville who is Black. He was drawn to a march Thursday night because he was devastated by a grand jury’s decision a day earlier not to charge the officers. “If we can’t get justice for Breonna Taylor, can we get justice for anybody?”

11.05am BST

Here’s a reminder that yesterday Donald Trump again raised doubts about the legitimacy of the presidential election. Speaking to reporters before leaving for North Carolina, Trump said: ‘We want to make sure the election is honest, and I’m not sure that it can be.’

11.00am BST

Good morning and welcome to Friday’s edition of our US politics live blog. Here’s a summary of what is up, and what we can expect to see today.

Continue reading…

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/joebiden

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