TOP OF THE AGENDA

Two visions collide on election day

More than 82 million people voted before election day. Credit: Getty Images

After a frantic campaign, marked by two assassination attempts on Donald Trump and a late switch to Kamala Harris as the Democratic candidate, our North America editor Sarah Smith is taking a moment to reflect on what is at stake in this US presidential election. "America doesn't just seem remarkably divided," she writes, "it feels as though two separate nations are awkwardly cohabiting on the same land mass." Faced with warnings of doom if the other candidate wins, people on each side appear to be genuinely afraid of what the future holds if their vote is a losing one. Starting tomorrow, legal challenges and street protests are to be expected. "Whatever the result, roughly one half of the country is about to discover that the other half has a completely different sense of what America requires," Sarah says. 

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• Tonight's the night: Here's what we can expect once the polls have closed.

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• The latest: Following its quirky tradition, the six-person community of Dixville Notch, New Hampshire, has voted at midnight and already counted its votes. You guessed it - it's a tie. Follow our live page for more.

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• Why it's so close: Never in recent US political history has the outcome of a presidential been so in doubt. Anthony Zurcher explains why.

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• Samuel Paty: Eight people have gone on trial in Paris accused of encouraging the killer of the teacher who was beheaded on the street outside his school four years ago.

• No service: Zimbabwe's government has banned police officers from using mobile phones on duty, in a move widely believed to be part of efforts to curb police corruption.

• Some love lost: Only one in five high school boys in Japan say they have had their first kiss, the lowest ever figure recorded in a regular survey on youth sexuality.

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