October 2020

October 31, 2020

'They give me the willies': scientist who vacuumed murder hornets braces for fightChris Looney helped dismantle the first nest of Asian giant hornets in the US. Now he’s preparing for the next stepThe eradication of the first nest of Asian giant hornets on US soil somewhat resembled a science fiction depiction of an alien landing site. A crew of government specialists in white, astronaut-like protective suits descended upon the hornet nexus to vanquish it with a futuristic-looking vacuum cleaner, to the relief of onlookers.The nest of the fearsome invasive insects, notoriously known as “murder hornets”, was found in a tree crevice near Blaine, in Washington state, via a tracking device attached to a previously captured worker hornet. The Washington state department of agriculture (WSDA) confirmed the nest had been successfully removed, with dozens of live captives taken back for inspection.“It was cold so they were docile, so between their slowness and the protective gear no one was hurt,” said Chris Looney, a WSDA entomologist who was tasked with vacuuming up the hornets.Wielding a lengthy, toxic stinger, the hornets can cause renal failure and death in people, as dozens of people in Japan have found out to their cost. One entomologist in Canada described the feeling of being stung as like “having hot tacks pushed into my flesh”.They can also squirt venom, as Looney saw first-hand when his lab workbench was sprayed by hornets as they roused themselves following capture. “I was more worried about getting permanent nerve damage in the eye from the squirted venom than being stung,” said Looney, who wore goggles for the capture. “They are pretty intimidating, even for an inch-and-a-half insect. They are big and loud and I know it would hurt very badly if I get stung. They give me the willies.”Murder hornets do not earn their moniker from killing people, however, with honeybees far more likely to be targeted. A honeybee colony can be decimated within a few hours, with the hornets decapitating their victims and feeding severed body parts to their young. This poses a gnawing concern for hobbyist beekeepers and even farmers in the US north-west, where managed honeybees are crucial for the pollination of crops such as blueberries and raspberries.Asian giant hornets were first discovered in North America last year, popping up in British Columbia, Canada, before a handful of specimens made it south of the border to Washington state. The hornets, native to east Asia, most likely arrived on the continent clinging to imported goods sent via sea or air. A close relative of the hornet has already made separate inroads into France and the UK.A key, and unnerving, question is how far they will manage to spread across America. Looney said the removal of the first nest found in the US was just a “small victory” in a battle likely to rage for several years to contain the insects. Thousands of sightings have been reported in Washington, and while many are false or mistaken, Looney said it was likely the hornets had spread, potentially establishing dozens more nests.“It’s hard to say how they will behave here compared to their native range, but the fear is that there are large apiaries of bees that could be sitting ducks, while as the hornets move south to warmer weather their colonies could grow larger,” he said. “The object of our work is to avoid finding this out.”Scientists who have modeled the potential spread of the hornets predict they will be able to extend down the west coast into California. The Rocky Mountains and drier interior of the US pose major barriers to an eastward push but environs on the east coast such as New York would be ideal homes for the murder hornets should they inadvertently be transported there.Looney said he was “troubled” by evidence that overwintering hornet queens like to bury themselves in straw and hay, commodities that are regularly shifted around the US by train or truck. A hornet queen that hitched a ride would still face challenges establishing a nest even if moved to the east coast – it could immediately be crushed underfoot, after all – but the potential pathway is there.“I’m more worried about human transportation of these hornets than I initially was,” Looney conceded.The Asian giant hornet is just the latest invasive species to make its mark on North America. Burmese pythons are now legion in southern Florida, while Asian carp are common in the Mississippi river system. In the insect world, the spotted lanternfly is a growing agricultural pest and emerald ash borers have arrived to lay waste to stands of trees.These arrivals are symptoms of the growth in international trade and tourism, while climate change is making many parts of the US more hospitable for certain invasive species. The Asian giant hornet, for example, is thought to favor the sort of elevated temperatures that the US is experiencing as the planet heats up. This could help it spread at the rate of its cousin species in France, which has been able to advance up to 78km a year. If it is not controlled, the murder hornet could fundamentally change ecosystems across the US.Still, even in a fraught year racked by a pandemic, social unrest and economic disaster, Looney said any fears of being assailed by a murder hornet should be “low on the anxiety meter”.He added: “We should be concerned about it but we will do our best until the money runs out or the battle is won or lost. If we fail, it will be unpleasant. But there are other things to be much more worried about right now.”




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October 31, 2020

Dozens of undelivered ballots found at Miami-Dade post office with mail backlogSpecial agents with the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General discovered 48 pieces of election mail sitting in a post office in South Miami-Dade County on Friday, the office announced Saturday morning. Forty-two of them were ballots that had not yet been delivered to voters, officials said, while the other six had already been filled out and were brought to the Miami-Dade supervisor of elections Friday night.




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October 31, 2020

Biden Team Cancels Texas Event After Highway ‘Ambush’ by MAGA CavalryJoe Biden’s presidential campaign canceled a Friday event in Austin, Texas, after harassment from a pro-Trump contingent.Texas has emerged as a battleground state in Tuesday’s presidential election, with polls showing the typically Republican stronghold now only marginally favoring President Donald Trump. The Biden campaign scheduled a Friday event in the state, in a bid to drum up last-minute support. But when the Biden campaign bus drove to Austin, it was greeted by a blockade of pro-Trump demonstrators, leading to what one Texas House representative described as an escalation “well beyond safe limits.”The cancelation comes amid national anxiety about voter intimidation, a tactic the Trump campaign has implicitly endorsed.Historian Dr. Eric Cervini was driving to help with the Biden campaign stop when he filmed a line of pickup trucks along the highway, many of them flying Trump flags. The drivers were “waiting to ambush the Biden/Harris campaign bus as it traveled from San Antonio to Austin,” Cervini tweeted.“These Trump supporters, many of whom were armed, surrounded the bus on the interstate and attempted to drive it off the road,” he alleged. “They outnumbered police 50-1, and they ended up hitting a staffer’s car.”A Biden campaign staffer told The Daily Beast that Trump supporters surrounded the bus on the highway and slowed down in front of it, attempting to stop it or run it off the road. The official sent a picture taken on the bus, showing Trump trucks surrounding the front of the vehicle. Staffers on the bus called police, who helped the bus reach its destination.Video from the highway shows trucks surrounding the bus, at one point colliding with an SUV.> This is a traffic violation and attempted homicide. Why hasn’t anyone been arrested? pic.twitter.com/QnfF4vXMQn> > — haunting student debt owners (@mcbyrne) October 31, 2020> I flew down to Texas to help with the Biden/Harris bus tour, intended to drum up enthusiasm at polling locations. Instead, I ended up spending the afternoon calling 911. 1/ pic.twitter.com/gKAjv7gv85> > — Dr. Eric Cervini (@ericcervini) October 31, 2020Footage from a CBS affiliate in Austin shows Trump supporters with signs and bullhorns surrounding the bus when it parked, with one person screaming that Biden was a communist.Rep. Sheryl Cole, a Democrat representing nearby Pflugerville in Texas’s House, announced that a Biden event in her city had been canceled due to the harassment.“This is a 1st for me - but we just cancelled a joint event in Pflugerville w/ @JoeBiden campaign,@AustinYoungDems, & more, due to security reasons,” she tweeted. “Unfortunately, Pro-Trump Protestors have escalated well beyond safe limits. Sorry to all who looked forward to this fun event.”The Biden campaign’s Texas communications director, Tariq Thowfeek, said holding the event would have placed Biden staffers and supporters at risk. “Rather than engage in productive conversation about the drastically different visions that Joe Biden and Donald Trump have for our country, Trump supporters in Texas today instead decided to put our staff, surrogates, supporters, and others in harm’s way,” Thowfeek told The Daily Beat.“Our supporters will continue to organize their communities for Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and Democrats up and down the ballot, and to the Texans who disrupted our events today: We’ll see you on November 3rd.”The Trump campaign—and often Trump himself—has encouraged in-person conflict around the polls. Trump used the first presidential debate to urge supporters to act as “poll watchers,” a call that sparked concerns of voter intimidation. His son, Donald Trump Jr., made an explicit call-out regarding the Biden campaign’s Texas outreach efforts.In a video ahead of a Friday event by Biden’s running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris, Trump Jr. encouraged his father’s supporters to show up at Harris’s event.Trump’s Crew of Far-Right Vigilante Poll Watchers Is Coming“Hey Laredo, Don Jr. here,” he said. “I heard you had an awesome turnout for the Trump Train. It’d be great if you guys would all get together, head down to McAllen and give Kamala Harris a nice Trump Train welcome. Get out there, have some fun, enjoy it. Don’t forget to vote and bring all of your friends. Let’s show them how strong Texas still is as Trump country. Get out there, guys.”Some Trump supporters appeared to heed the call. At least one Facebook event with more than 700 responses, viewed by The Daily Beast, encouraged Trump fans to attend a Harris event in Fort Worth, Texas on Friday and “give Kamala Harris a big Texas welcome..... TRUMP STYLE!” The event was listed as canceled ahead of time, although its organizers acknowledged that some people might still try to attend, “and that's your right.”Trump supporters have previously been accused of intimidation this election. In Beverly Hills, California this week, an Australian television personality filmed participants at a pro-Trump rally shouting at her and threatening her in her car. A man brandishing a Trump flag at her appeared to photograph her and take down her license plate number.“We’ve got you now,” the man shouted. “You’re going to vote for Trump whether you like it or not, you’ve got no choice.”When Biden spoke at a Minnesota event on Friday, the same day as his campaign was ambushed in Austin, Trump supporters in a caravan of vehicles reportedly surrounded the venue honking their horns and chanting.During early voting in the swing state of Virginia late last month, a caravan of Trump supporters drove to the Democratic-leaning Fairfax County and surrounded people in an early voting line, shouting at them on loudspeakers“We had a couple poll observers there that had to actually escort voters in because we saw people that would get to the edge of the parking lot, and see this giant group of Trumpers yelling and screaming,” the executive director of the Fairfax County Democratic Committee told The Daily Beast at the time.‘Daily Show’s’ Jordan Klepper Hits One Last ‘Eerily Quiet’ Trump RallyRead more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.




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October 31, 2020

Orthodox priest in 'critical condition' after shooting in Lyon, FranceFrench police locked down parts of Lyon on Saturday as they searched for gunmen who shot an Orthadox priest with a sorn-off shotgun before fleeing. The priest, who has Greek nationality, was closing his church when the attack happened and is now in a serious condition. The interior ministry warned people to "avoid the area" where the attack took place. A police source said the priest was of Greek nationality, and had been able to tell emergency services as they arrived that he had not recognised his assailant. The motivation for the attack was not known last night, but the shooting came in the wake of several grisly Islamist attacks on French soil and a growing tension between France and the Muslim world. Emmanuel Macron, the French president, lashed out at Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, slamming Turkey's "bellicose" stance towards Nato allies. Mr Macron said that France's wish was now that things "calm down" but for this to happen, it is essential that the "Turkish president respects France, respects the European Union, respects its values, does not tell lies and does not utter insults," Macron said.




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October 30, 2020

Official: Rifle shell casings found at Breonna Taylor sceneTwo long-rifle shell casings were found in and near Breonna Taylor's Louisville apartment after a botched police drug raid that ended in Taylor's death, Kentucky's attorney general said. It's the first time these specific shell casings have been mentioned by authorities investigating Taylor's death. One of the casings was found by Taylor's sister in her bedroom and the other was found in the parking lot outside the apartment, according to a court filing this week in a criminal case against the sole Louisville police officer charged in connection with the raid.




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October 30, 2020

Lawyers: Cop video of shooting of 2 suggests cover-upA body camera worn by a suburban Chicago police officer who shot a Black couple in their car was only turned on moments after the shooting, a fact that the lawyers representing the woman say suggests an attempt to cover up what had happened even before he fired.




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October 30, 2020

Fauci says first U.S. COVID-19 vaccines could ship late December or early JanuaryIf all goes well, the first doses of a safe and effective coronavirus vaccine will likely become available to some high-risk Americans in late December or early January, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious diseases expert, said on Thursday. Based on current projections from vaccine front-runners Moderna Inc and Pfizer Inc, Americans will likely know "sometime in December whether or not we have a safe and effective vaccine," Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said in a live chat on Twitter and Facebook. "The first interim look (at trial results) should be, we hope, within the next few weeks," he said.




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October 30, 2020

Popular Thai pro-democracy figure charged over flash mob rallyOne of Thailand’s most popular anti-establishment politicians has been charged for his role in an illegal flash mob protest last year, in a move that is likely to fuel the current wave of pro-democracy protests. Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, 41, a charismatic billionaire and founder of the dissolved Future Forward party, is accused of five public assembly violations linked to the rally in Bangkok's central shopping district last December, Krisadung Nutcharat, his lawyer, said on Thursday. The charges include failing to notify police of a public gathering, blocking a sky train station, using a megaphone without permission and holding a rally close to a royal residence. Four other people from his Progressive Movement Group and Move Forward Party face similar charges. All five deny any wrongdoing. Mr Thanathorn has been an outspoken advocate of the protest movement that has gripped the Thai capital, Bangkok, since June, and he recently condemned a short-lived emergency order aimed at keeping demonstrators off the streets. During last year’s elections, he and his pro-democracy Future Forward Party, proved to be enormously popular with young, first-time voters, and garnered the third-largest share of seats.




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October 30, 2020

Supreme Court issues flurry of last-minute election ordersWisconsin, no. That’s how the Supreme Court has answered questions in recent days about an extended timeline for receiving and counting ballots in those states. At first blush, the difference in the outcomes at the Supreme Court seems odd because the high court typically takes up issues to harmonize the rules across the country. A big asterisk: These cases are being dealt with on an emergency basis in which the court issues orders that either block or keep in place a lower-court ruling.




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October 30, 2020

Death toll rises in Vietnam after Typhoon Molave triggers widespread flooding, landslidesAfter forging a path of destruction over the northern and central Philippines and strengthening over the South China Sea, Typhoon Molave brought its deadly impacts to Vietnam from Wednesday into Thursday, inflicting more damage in a country that has been battered by numerous landfalling tropical systems since the beginning of the month. As of Thursday evening, local time, the death toll has risen to 35 and at least 50 people are still missing, according to state media. The death toll is expected to rise in the coming days as search and rescue missions continue and communications with more remote villages are restored. Soldiers and villagers dig through mud after a landslide swamps a village in Phuoc Loc district, Quang Nam province, Vietnam, on Thursday, Oct. 29, 2020. Three separated landslides triggered by Typhoon Molave killed over a dozen villagers and left dozens more missing in the province as rescuers scramble to recover more victims. (Lai Minh Dong/VNA via AP) A dozen of those killed by the typhoon were sailors of two fishing vessels that sank while trying to seek shelter from the powerful typhoon. According to VnExpress International, the vessels sank near the province of Binh Dinh on Tuesday night. While strong winds from Molave created treacherous conditions across the western South China Sea, heavy rainfall caused deadly landslides across central provinces. CLICK HERE FOR THE FREE ACCUWEATHER APP Military officers, who were put on standby by Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc ahead of Molave's arrival, scrambled to three villages where three separate landslides were responsible for killing at least 19 people and are suspected of burying more than 40 others in thick mud and debris, The Associated Press reported. Homes and roadways in parts of Tra Van village, Tra Leng village and Phuoc Loc district were buried under the landslides. Officers used bulldozers and excavators to help clear gain access to the affected areas and begin rescuing victims, The AP said. Four more residents were killed in Quang Nam province, a tourist draw for an ancient town and Hindu temples, by falling trees and collapsed houses, The AP reported. More than 130 people have been killed in the central Vietnam province since the beginning of October following the tumultuous weather pattern that has brought a relentless series of tropical storms and typhoons. Typhoon Molave is the fourth named tropical system to make landfall over Vietnam this month, and officials are calling this the strongest storm to hit the country in the last 20 years, The Associated Press reported. Molave made landfall just prior to midday Wednesday, local time, according to VnExpress International, unloading torrential rain and damaging winds across the typhoon-weary nation. At landfall, the typhoon had the equivalent strength of a Category 2 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale in the Atlantic and East Pacific basins. Molave lost some wind intensity just prior to landfall after spending some time with the equivalent strength of a Category 3 major hurricane. Ahead of the storm, officials were preparing to evacuate 1.3 million residents along the coast of central Vietnam, according to Reuters. Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc also urged provinces in the typhoon's path to prepare by bringing boats ashore. This satellite image shows Typhoon Molave closing in on the Vietnam coast on Wednesday morning, local time. (CIRA/RAMMB) Molave is the fourth named tropical system to make landfall over Vietnam since Oct. 11, according to AccuWeather Lead International Meteorologist Jason Nicholls. It is also the country's sixth landfalling storm this year. Fierce winds were already beginning to whip ahead of Molave's landfall, with a local news agency reporting nearly 82,000 customers had lost power in the province of Phú Yên by Wednesday morning, local time. As of Wednesday evening, local time, Molave had lost enough wind intensity that it was designated a tropical storm over western Vietnam. Molave first developed into a tropical depression to the east of the Philippines late last week and was given the name Quinta by the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration. Molave is the name used by the Japanese Meteorological Agency for the part of the basin that falls under the agency's purview. Residents wearing masks to prevent the spread of the coronavirus wade through a flooded road from Typhoon Molave in Pampanga province, northern Philippines, on Monday, Oct. 26, 2020. The fast-moving typhoon has forced thousands of villagers to flee to safety in provinces. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila) The storm quickly strengthened into a typhoon with sustained winds of 120 km/h (75 mph) before making its first landfall over San Miguel, Philippines, on Sunday evening, local time. This is equivalent to a Category 1 hurricane in the Atlantic and East Pacific tropical basins. Widespread rainfall totals of 100-200 mm (4-8 inches) were reported in the northern and central Philippines. More than 120,000 people have been displaced by the storm, and at least eight are missing. As of Friday morning, local time, the typhoon is being blamed for at least 22 deaths in the Philippines. As recovery efforts continue, all eyes will be on the strengthening Typhoon Goni, also known as Rolly in the Philippines. Residents impacted by Molave in the Philippines are likely to face impacts from Goni this weekend. Goni could go on to bring more tropical downpours and gusty winds to Vietnam next week. Keep checking back on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios.




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October 29, 2020

Woman Beheaded in French Knife ‘Terror’ Attack at Church, 3 DeadThree people have been killed—including one elderly woman and another person by decapitation—and several others injured in a suspected terror attack inside the Notre-Dame basilica in the French city of Nice. The knife-wielding assailant, who was wounded by police gunfire, allegedly yelled “Allahu Akbar” several times, including while he was being detained, in what has come to be known as a battle cry for Islamic extremists in Europe.The city’s mayor, Christian Estrosi, wrote immediately after the killings that “everything suggests a terrorist attack,” and said the unnamed suspect had been arrested and taken to a hospital in the city. The Paris’ anti-terror prosecutors office said it has opened an investigation. Italian police said late Thursday that the killer is a 21-year-old Tunisian migrant who was smuggled to the Italian island of Lampedusa in September. After he completed the mandatory two-week COVID-19 quarantine, he left the migrant camp and made his way to France. Authorities have his details and fingerprints as part of the immigration process and are working with French police. “The suspected knife attacker was shot by police while being detained. He is on his way to hospital, he is alive,” Estrosi told reporters at the scene. Although a motive has not been confirmed by officials, the mayor expressed his wish to “wipe out Islamo-fascism” from the country.French President Emmanuel Macron declared a state of emergency and ordered security to be strengthened at places of worship across the nation. On Wednesday night, Macron had put France back into lockdown because of its out-of-control resurgence in coronavirus cases. Hours after the attack, he visited the basilica and met with security and rescue personnel.The Nice slashings occurred on the same day that an assailant was shot dead by police near another French city, Avignon, after he reportedly waved a gun at officers, and also as a guard was reportedly attacked outside the French consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.Local reports in the French Riviera city say the elderly woman and a man who died were attacked inside the heart of the Nice basilica. The BBC reports a woman who fled to a nearby cafe was stabbed many times and died at a hospital, and that a witness at the scene managed to set off an alarm on a “special protection system” set up by city officials. One eyewitness told the BBC: “We heard many people shouting in the street. We saw from the window that there were many, many policemen coming, and gunshots, many gunshots.”In July 2016, Nice was the scene of unthinkable carnage when an armed French delivery driver attacked a waterfront Bastille Day fireworks party with a truck, killing at 84 people, including 10 children. France has been under high alert for terrorist acts in recent weeks as 14 people suspected of murdering 12 Charlie Hebdo staffers, a female police officer, and four men in a Jewish supermarket in 2015 in retaliation for the publication of cartoons of the Muslim Prophet Muhammad went on trial.As the courtroom proceedings opened, two people were stabbed near the publication’s old offices in Paris on Sept. 25 in what the French interior minister then declared was “clearly an act of Islamist terrorism.”The Nice attack also comes less than two weeks after the beheading of middle-school teacher Samuel Paty in Paris after he had shown his students cartoons published by the satirical magazine.Estrosi said the two attacks were similar. “The methods match, without doubt, those used against the brave teacher in Conflans Sainte Honorine, Samuel Paty,” he said.Family of Moscow-Born Teen Who Beheaded Teacher Were from Chechnya Where Charlie Hebdo Cartoons Are DemonizedPresident Macron delivered the eulogy at Paty’s funeral, and said France would not abandon its right to free speech. “We will continue, Professor. We will defend the freedom that you taught so well and we will promote secularism, we will not renounce caricatures, drawings, even if others retreat,” Macron said. “We will continue the fight for freedom and the freedom of which you are now the face.”Macron’s comments have drawn sharp criticism in the Islamic world with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan calling for a boycott of French goods. In response, Charlie Hebdo published a caricature of Erdogan in his underwear lifting a Muslim woman’s skirt on Wednesday, drawing scorn from Erdogan for what he referred to as a “a grave insult to my prophet.”Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.




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October 29, 2020

US election polls tracker: who is leading in swing states, Trump or Biden?With the presidential election just days away, the Guardian is tracking the latest polling in eight states that could decide the electiondefault Joe Biden is leading ​Donald Trump in the national polls for the presidential election.But that doesn’t guarantee ​the Democratic candidate victory. Hillary Clinton also had a clear lead over Trump in the polls for almost the entire 2016 campaign. She ended up losing in the electoral college.​Because the presidential ​voting system assigns each state a number of electoral college votes, which​ go to the state’s victor regardless of the​ margin of victory (with the exception of Nebraska and Maine), a handful of swing states will ​probably decide the election and be targeted heavily by campaigners.Each day, the Guardian’s poll tracker takes a rolling 14-day average of the polls in ​eight swing states.In order to track how the race is developing in the areas that could decide the election, six of the eight states we focused on were those that flipped to Trump​ in 2016 after backing Barack Obama in 2012. Arizona and North Carolina were also added due to what they might tell us about a shifting electoral landscape – they could emerge as vital new swing states this year.We must caution that the polls – particularly some swing state polls – severely undercounted Trump supporters in 2016. We are not certain, despite assurances, that they they have corrected this​. Additionally, they may be over-counting Democratic support (more people may say they will vote for Biden than actually turn out).We present the latest polls with those caveats in mind.default The national pollsThe latest polling average puts Biden ahead of Trump nationally.While the national poll tracker is a poor indicator of how the crucial swing states will sway the election, a strong polling lead across the country can point to how the race will develop.Each day, the Guardian’s national poll tracker takes a 14-day average of national voting intention polls.default On Tuesday 3 November 2020, Americans will vote for their next president, with a choice between ​Donald Trump, the Republican incumbent, or his Democratic challenger, Joe Biden.default MethodologyThe Guardian poll tracker tracks the latest polls in eight crucial swing states. For Biden to win, he needs to reclaim some of these swing states.The Guardian is collating polls in each of these ​states, as well as another set of national polls. Polls are assessed for their reliability by looking at factors such as their sample size.Our polling average is a 14-day rolling average: on any day, we collate any polls published in the last 14 days and take a mean average of their results.If any ​company ​has conducted multiple polls in the last 14 days, we average out their polling results in order to give them just one entry. After this standardi​zation process, we take a mean average of these daily entries to present the polling average. * This article was amended on 28 October 2020 to clarify that Maine and Nebraska are alone in assigning their electoral college votes in proportion to the popular vote.




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