The UK election will be on July 4 US Independence Day. Such independence is marked early at the American consulate in Belfast, and took place on Thursday in warm spirits despite light rain.

We ran today the last of the platform pieces by the three main unionist leaders, from the DUP's Gavin Robinson.

The TUV leader Jim Allister believes he traditional Ulster Unionist supporters could back him in North Antrim.

The Ulster Unionist candidate Diana Armstrong explains here why voters should back her to beat the Irish republican Pat Cullen in Fermanagh and South Tyrone. In this letter, a nurse says he once had confidence in Ms Cullen but no longer does in light of her silence over the IRA 

I write here about why I think there was little prospect of unionist unity at this election.

Of the five main parties in Northern Ireland, only Sinn Fein's leader Michelle O'Neill missed three of the four main election interviews/debates.

On Friday morning I stayed up past 4am to watch the US presidential debate. For more than a year I had said Joe Biden no longer had the capability to get through a head to head debate with Donald Trump, a sense enforced by watching in him Belfast. So it proved. I was a nervous wreck watching the encounter, wondering in dread what humiliation for President Biden would come next.

I hope to go to America closer to the election. A colleague of mine was due to fly there today for a holiday which he has had to cancel due to Aer Lingus strike. The industrial action has also disrupted the plans of people travelling from NI to France for annual Somme commemorations.

Enjoy your reading and your Saturday,

Ben