two us astronauts stranded in space for months say it was hard to watch their malfunctioning craft depart the international space station without them, but they are happy and trained to "expect the unexpected". now on bbc news, path to the presidency. i've talked to three undecided voters. you found the three! yeah! they might be the three who decide the election. ok, so somebody�*s in a very noisy place... that's me. ..somebody�*s in a quiet library. i'm in london. we are really spread out at the moment. um, ithink... sumi, how are you? are you in, like, a nightclub or something? i wish i were. i wish! but if i were in a nightclub at, i don't know, midday on a thursday... i'd be...

i would be impressed. yeah, i would be impressed with myself as well. no, i'm in a lovely cafe in downtown doylestown in pennsylvania, in bucks county, pennsylvania. i don't know if you've been to doylestown. it is beautiful. you should definitely come here. caitriona, you're in a library or a fake library? i'm in a fake library. yeah. no, it's not... i mean, full disclosure, any library you see on television these days is fake. let's be honest. i don't think there's a librarian on the planet that would let me speak this loudly if i were in a library, but i am in the library corner of the bbc washington bureau, so i have nipped into the library corner to have this chat with you guys, because it is very busy in this bbc bureau. we've had a lot of reinforcements come into town for the debate this week. of course, it's been another crazy busy week and a crazy busy month and a crazy busy year, but i'm delighted that us three are going to find the time every week to just get together and have a chat about what we've noticed from the campaigns, what's impacting voters ahead, of course, of the three of us being together in studio

on the big night, election results night in november, and a few days have passed since that big debate now, i think people have had a chance to come up for air and kind of think about what happened, moving away from the sort of dizzy enthusiasm that we saw in the spin room that night. you know, it was a night of claims and counterclaims, studying of body language, stories about eating cats, cat lady endorsements. but i've been really wondering and trying to investigate how much this impacts voters and how much attention people actually pay to it. i mean, we hearfrom abc... that's the big question. isn't it? i mean, we hearfrom abc news, 61 million people tuned in to watch this, about 10 million more than watched trump and biden injune. but what we got was kind of same old, same old donald trump, and we got kamala harris trying to shift the focus onto him. so all those polls we saw in advance that people wanted to hear from her, learn more about her

and what she stood for, she was very successful, i think, in deflecting the attention onto him. i mean, she laid those traps that he walked into, talking about his crowd size, his vote size, the size of his wealth, and so on. but she didn't answer some of the key questions that people had. the first question she got on the night being potentially the most important, when she was asked, did she think the american people were better off now or were better off four years ago, which is the question that donald trump and all the republicans keep hammering heron. and she didn't actually give an answer for that. she didn't have an answer prepared for that. she didn't give too many specifics either. now, maybe the strategy was to try and keep the focus on donald trump. and i was speaking to a high—level democratic strategist about this, and he had a really interesting takeaway, which was that he felt at the end of that debate, they had succeeded in making donald trump look like

an old person who wasn't in command of their thoughts, who was rambling and easily distracted. he certainly looked like an old cross person. which were, you know, the old was the thing that people were saying about joe biden and that they were kind of, they were happy that they had shifted that onto donald trump that night, and that they were very happy with how the whole thing went. but i don't know. i mean, we won't know for another week or so if it's had any shift on the polls. but nothing has shifted donald trump's performance for about a year. he's been coming in, you know, between 48% and 50%, no matter what has happened to him, including that assassination attempt. so i don't know. do you guys think, will this make any difference? well, i'll tell you that i've been speaking to some voters here in bucks county, pennsylvania, where i am, specifically about the debate, because i was curious, you know, how did this actually go down with voters? so it's just anecdotal, what i can tell you from here. but really interesting that every person that i've spoken to here about the debates, is that they all say that they were disappointed by the performance of both candidates onstage because they

feel like policy issues were not actually addressed. they feel like... one man described it to me like two kids playing in a sandbox orfighting in a sandbox, and that they weren't actually focused on answering the questions that matter to people. and specifically, we've been talking a lot to small business owners, and they're so frustrated about inflation, rising costs, and they feel like neither candidate has actually presented a plan and explained how they would implement that plan to bring down some of these costs. so again, this is anecdotal here, but, you know, interesting to note that. several times, she mentioned specifically small businesses. she did. yeah. that was like, to the extent that she mentioned an economic plan and she didn't really talk about what that plan would be. but she made a point of talking about small business owners. and the $50,000 grant that she was going to give to small business owners. but it's interesting, when you mention housing to me, because that was something that struck me at the debate — she said, "i have a housing policy." full stop, move on. there was no detail on what is the housing policy, and that is something that everyone in this country

is concerned about, whether it's access to housing, whether it's rent, whether it's mortgages, whatever form it is, it really matters to people. they need a roof over their heads. and that's the kind of thing that voters vote on, isn't it, when they go into the polls? i think that, you know, it's... i mean, after the kind of, sort of giddy euphoria of the night, of democrats being so happy that kamala harris had not performed badly, which i think everyone can agree. she didn't perform badly. she probably exceeded expectations. certainly, she exceeded the performance ofjoe biden back in june. um, i'm struck by how many messages i've got from kind of democratic strategists and how many conversations i've had, you know, i spoke to david plouffe, who ran barack obama's 2008 campaign. i spoke tojim messina, who ran barack obama's successful 2012 campaign this week. and several democrats have come... just in the last even 2a hours, i'm looking at a text that i've just got from somebody this afternoon saying, "same swing states, same undecided voters,

same lack of clarity." there's been this kind of slight chill has set in now. maybe democrats are very nervous about being too exuberant and they see the polls, but it is striking, the degree to which people are asking the questions. i'm assuming, to the extent that, you know, you've been talking to voters, i think there's a realisation that she gave a good performance. but will that... i mean, some people are saying these set pieces don't make any difference when it comes to the polls. will that actually change any minds? and i think that seems to be the key question. it sounds like you're both hearing the same thing that i've been hearing that, yes, it was a good performance, but was it enough to persuade people that she had the policies to bring down the price of goods? i had a few republicans say to me as well, very privately, they were prepared to admit that it wasn't a great night for donald trump, which, of course, is not what they're all saying publicly. but they said to that exact point, it doesn't matter, because he was classic trump. you know, he delivered that

maga megamix of classic hit lines about how the democrats, the biden—harris campaign have destroyed the economy, how the borders are being flooded by immigrants, how other countries are emptying their prisons and theirjails and their asylum institutions, and all of this stuff that donald trump says at every rally, of which there is absolutely zero evidence of that happening, we have to say. but he delivered all of those lines. so if you're a donald trump supporter and you're watching that, or even if you're not, that's what you're you expecting to hear from him. yeah, definitely. and just in the spin room, you know, we were at the debate in philadelphia and talked to a bunch of lawmakers and surrogates and members of the campaign teams. and of course, it's a spin room, so you have both sides claiming that they won the debate, of course. but i thought it was so interesting... including donald trump. including donald trump, who was just actually two booths down at fox news. and so we could barely hear or do anything because of the massive scrum that gathered around him, which is usually the case. but, you know, it was so interesting that you heard some of the surrogates for donald trump, like

congressman byron donalds from florida, who came down to sit with us and talk to us right after the debate, who said, "listen, we very clearly are ahead on these issues, on the economy, on crime, on immigration." and yet when he was making those points, he was able to prosecute that case better than donald trump did during the debate itself. and kamala harris's surrogates and some of the lawmakers we spoke to, like veronica escobar of texas, a congresswoman, she was saying, "look, you know, we know that voters might not know what kamala harris's plan is on immigration yet, but we do believe that voters will trust us, because they see this performance and they see that she's in command." again, you know, we'll have to see whether it actually has any sort of impact. but interesting to see that the harris team on the ground and her supporters as well really were taking so much away from being confident, at least that night, the first night, right after the debate had concluded, by the fact that she had performed better than expected, to your point, caitriona. so i had a very interesting conversation. i mentioned david plouffe, who was the kind of guru of barack obama's 2008 campaign in the way that kind

of alan greenspan was called "the oracle of the economy" when he was chairman of the federal reserve. david plouffe was kind of heralded as this person who can perform miracles when it comes to democratic politics. and certainly, 2008 was a very successful democratic campaign. and i asked him this question that we've been posing about whether it makes any difference and if so, specifically, which groups of the electorate he felt might have been targeted by this debate performance. and i thought it was interesting the way he kind of broke it down to me in three separate groups of people. and now, he is a senior adviser to kamala harris and he's working on her campaign, so this comes from that perspective. but the way they're kind of micro—targeting is kind of worth perhaps framing it. and one is that he felt that there are a lot of voters who want to learn more about her, who don't know much about her — voters of all different ages, and he thinks that's

somewhere between 4% and 8% of the voting population, and he felt that they will have got confidence from her performance on the debate stage because she looked like she belonged there, was how he phrased it. she, you know, she looked — this phrase — she looked like a commander in chief. she looked confident. she kind of owned the stage. she didn't look like she was apologising for being there. she didn't look nervous. maybe at the beginning, i'd say the first 5 to 10 minutes, she did look a bit nervous, but he felt that they would have been reassured. so that's one group. another group, the second group that he spoke about, were people who aren't sure whether they're going to vote at all, and who he felt would have been energised by that debate performance. and i suppose that speaks to the fact that 60 million people tuned into it, which is, you know, it is a sizeable chunk of the american electorate, and that they will have seen a high—energy performance from her and that that might motivate them, if they've been sitting on the fence, to feel this is something worth going to the polls for. and then the third group of people that they were trying to target, the people who were leaning towards donald trump but don't

like his character. and i'm sure you've both heard this out on the campaign trail. i've heard it a lot. people who say, "well, i don't really like the things he represents, "i don't like the way he talks about women, "i don't like some of the kind of antics, "i don't like his twitterfeed, but i like his policies." and he felt that some of those people may have been a little demoralised by what they saw onstage, by donald trump's performance, by the fact that he came across, as you said earlier, as kind of old, which was a strategy of the harris campaign, was to use that word, "old". it was like a drinking game after a bit, you know, every time she said "old story", you could take another shot. and the other thing i think that's interesting that i've heard from the harris campaign is that they are super conscious that this is an election that's going to be won on the margins. so even if in each of those three different groups of people, which i think are probably broadly what have been known, rather dismissively, i think sometimes, as low—information voters, or people who make up their mind late, you only need to peel away

a few of them, right? you only need to peel away a thousand or two, potentially in the swing states, you know, 5,000 in georgia or 5,000 in arizona, and you can start having an impact on the outcome of the race. i just thought it was an interesting... from someone who's such a master strategist in terms of they went into this debate with very clear people they wanted to reach, and that was how they felt they were going to reach them. yeah, i think it's quite clever of them in a way, because those people you've described, those sort of low—propensity voters, they do tend to vote... much nicer than low information. yeah. they do tend to vote for donald trump. and they're really hard to capture in polls because they're not engaged in sort of the daily day political cut and thrust, as we... many of them are kind of, you know, women who have kids and are getting them to school and they have jobs. they have a life. super busy. they have a life to do. they have shift working to do. they have all of that family stuff.

but they do tend to vote for donald trump. so it shows just how concerned they are about those marginal voters that they're trying to target those people at this remove. and i think the other point that's worth noting is we're about to start mail—in balloting, right? alabama has already sent out its postal votes. they have to go out to all the states within the next 10 or 11 days. so there are people, that's going to be, you know, an issue. they can cast their vote now, seal the envelope and get it off and they don't need to worry about, are they going to have to get the earlier bus on election day to get to their ballot centre, or will they have to swap shifts with somebody else and all of that? i mean, that's the other really interesting conversation i had this week is, i met deborah mattinson, who is a british pollster who was advising keir starmer in his very successful election this summer on how to win back voters, specifically in the north of england, who had drifted towards the conservative party and to get them back into the labour fold, and it's the kind of,

in britain it's known as the red wall, in america we would call it the blue wall. and she has been doing a string of focus groups and advising, helping the harris campaign with this issue of how to recapture voters they feel, to recapture voters they feel, working, basically working working, basically working class voters in the blue wall. class voters in the blue wall. and the key thing that she said and the key thing that she said to me, and i spoke to me, and i spoke to her before the debate to her before the debate and after the debate, and after the debate, and before the debate, and before the debate, she said, the main thing she said, the main thing for all of these voters is, for all of these voters is, the single biggest thing the single biggest thing is affordability and the second is affordability and the second biggest thing is immigration, biggest thing is immigration, and that she described and that she described in herfocus group people that they want to try in herfocus group people who have been going who have been going around grocery stores... around grocery stores... actually, this was in actually, this was in georgia, not in one georgia, not in one of the blue wall states. of the blue wall states. but she's been looking at the other battlegrounds but she's been looking at the other battlegrounds and she says, you know, and she says, you know, they'll go round the grocery they'll go round the grocery store and they'll put stuff store and they'll put stuff into their basket and they'll into their basket and they'll tally it all up on their phone, tally it all up on their phone, and they'll get to the checkout and they'll get to the checkout and they'll have to remove and they'll have to remove some of it. some of it. you know, "i can't afford that you know, "i can't afford that orange juice this week, orange juice this week, so that goes back." so that goes back." and she said it's for those and she said it's for those

voters that are really hard voters that are really hard to reach that democrats feel to reach that democrats feel that they want to try and reach.

that got actually quite a lot of pushback, even from democratic economists. i mean, it's not something that people particularly like it. they say it could actually hurt competition, that's not the way the american economy is meant to work, it doesn't sound very free market. so it's interesting that in the focus groups, because she just said people are so focused on the price of goods in particular, and that she, harris, is going to have to come up with something clean and crisp. and one thing that i thought was interesting is that if you think about harris, she's never been known for economic policy. her background is as a prosecutor, and she's kind of law and justice, and now more recently, abortion and people's rights. but if you think of bernie sanders, bernie sanders is so associated with medicare for all, elizabeth warren associated with corporate profits and corporate power. i mean, even donald trump to some extent associated with immigration and kind of the working... and that's just not what kamala harris has been passionate about during her career.

but mattinson�*s point was that this was something she really has to work on. and i think that's why we're seeing donald trump and the republicans really trying to skewer kamala harris on economic matters time and again, because, as you say, that's not something she's known for, and she's trying to distance herself from the biden administration. but as donald trump and all of his spin doctors keep saying, it's the biden—harris administration, it's notjust the biden administration. but for me, travelling around this country over the last few months, i've been to six of the seven battleground states so far, it's the number one issue for people. even when they say economy, they actually mean cost of living. they mean how... affordability. we all know from living here, it's impossible to go to the grocery store and spend less than $50. like, even if you just go in for milk, bread and a couple of apples, you've almost no change out of $50 and you're walking away going, "what do i have to show for this?" a friend of mine was back home in ireland recently and sent me a message showing me the boot

or the trunkload of groceries that she had bought in an irish supermarket for the same cost of a basket of stuff here. and so it's a real thing. and, yes, wages are rising, but they're not rising in track with the price of things in shops. and that's what people are really feeling in their pockets. you know, what i've been looking at this week, no surprise — you know, what i've been looking at this week, no surprise — pennsylvania, since i'm here in bucks county. and there were two things about it that i was really thinking about, you know, coming out to bucks county, it's one of these collar counties, so outside of philadelphia, we're about an hour's drive outside of philadelphia. and you've really seen the growth of these collar counties as people have moved further out from the suburbs into the areas further and further outside of the big city, and that means that, of course, the demographics and the politics also change a little bit as well. we talked to a staunch trump supporter yesterday who said, "i don't like that all these liberals keep moving out here and changing the politics out here." and i think that's a sentiment that we've seen among some of the more republican—leaning

voters we've been speaking to. but the other aspect actually tees up to something that caitriona mentioned a little bit earlier, which is housing. you know, it's the groceries, the gas prices, but every single person we've spoken to has complained about the price of rent or the inability to buy a home. and if you think about, you know, the american dream is often so based on that concept of buying your own home, isn't it? and because of that, you know, the people we've been talking to say they feel like they can't fulfil their potential, they can't fulfil their own dreams because they can't build a house, or they can't buy a house, or they remain renting and they see their rents go up by $600, $700. and, you know, it made me think about the fact that in 2017, i was travelling around germany at the time and talking to people about election issues before that country's election, and we assumed that the biggest issue on people's minds was going to be immigration. it was just after the massive immigration crisis in 2015, where you had about a million people entering germany. it was affordable housing — in small towns, in big cities, that was the point we kept hearing. and it's so fascinating to see that this is still a big issue

here in small towns, where i am, in doylestown, but also, of course, in big cities like philadelphia. and i wanted to look, i was just looking at the washington post and have some numbers here next to me. since 2019, home prices have risen 54%. if you add that to the high interest rates and then the low inventory, you can really see the pressure that that adds on housing. and of course, you have the policies that are being introduced, so kamala harris saying she'll build 3 million new homes and then give down payment assistance, up to $25,000 to first—time home buyers. donald trump talking about relieving some of those regulatory pressures on building housing. but all of that is not actually going to help the fact that you need new inventory quickly. and all of that takes time. so i really wonder if any of these measures will make a difference. i don't know, what do you think, katty? i mean, it's interesting because, you know, you've you heard the same thing in the uk, right? pressures on housing and what a problem, and what a big deal that was in the uk general election this summer. it's interesting that you heard, you know,

there are similar things in other places in europe. and you can see how then that ties into immigration, and we are seeing some of that play out kind of online and with some of the trump campaign, particularly from some of his surrogates and people standing up saying, "well, there wouldn't be such high housing costs if it weren't for immigrants moving into our area." that's an argument that i've been hearing from people around the trump campaign. now, that doesn't always necessarily correlate, it's not always that simple, but you can see how it's easy from the point of view of the trump campaign to kind of weave — i don't know if we use that word any more — anyway, weave an argument together that is, you know, that you tie in the economy, as trump has done kind of masterfully in the past, touching kind of hot button kind of cultural and social issues and people's fears by saying either "they're taking yourjobs away" or potentially, you know, "they're driving up the price of housing" as well. and one thing i'm watching for, as we come out of this debate week and throwing it forwards, is how much the harris campaign now feels they want to get her out, notjust at rallies,

but, you know, talking as much as possible to the media, talking in town halls, you know, doing the reps, i mean, like, you know, practising bicep curls, but i mean, getting her out as much as possible to hone this specific economic message. and whether they feel that that would... i know that they've kind of resisted that up until the moment of the debate, but i think they will feel not just pressure from the press, from all of us and from the trump campaign, as clearly there is pressure from the trump campaign around this, and kind of goading her into doing that, but also whether they think that they're going to need to do that if, you know, the debate alone hasn't totally sold the case. that she hasn't made, you know, the sale with some of those key demographic groups yet. demographic groups yet. do you think that some do you think that some people, also in a state people, also in a state like pennsylvania, might like pennsylvania, might just not vote? because until now, just not vote? because until now, i haven't found anyone who said they won't vote — theyjust haven't decided yet i haven't found anyone how they would vote. how they would vote. i think that was a real risk i think that was a real risk earlier in the year, wasn't it? earlier in the year, wasn't it?

i think so much has happened i think so much has happened that people do feel that people do feel a bit more energised. a bit more energised. that's what i've... that's what i've... the sense i've had anyway. the sense i've had anyway. i often wonder, when people i often wonder, when people come up with a microphone, and i've had this many times come up with a microphone, going around kind of battleground states, battleground states, and everybody always tells me and everybody always tells me they're going to vote, they're going to vote, and ijust wonder, occasionally i'm a little bit sceptical and ijust wonder, occasionally and i think there is a difference between telling a difference between telling a journalist who is asking you, a journalist who is asking you, "are you going to vote?" "are you going to vote?" and your kind of sense of civic duty kicks in and you say, "yes, of course i'm going "yes, of course i'm going to vote, ijust haven't decided to vote, ijust haven't decided who to vote for," and actually who to vote for," and actually kind of doing the paperwork kind of doing the paperwork and getting to the ballot box. and getting to the ballot box. because clearly, we know because clearly, we know american elections don't american elections don't have massive turnout. have massive turnout. so there are a lot of so there are a lot of the electorate who choose the electorate who choose not to go out and vote. not to go out and vote. so we'll see what the so we'll see what the actual turnout is going actual turnout is going to be in november. to be in november. always a good number to watch. always a good number to watch. and a long road from here to there — even if it's only a matter of weeks, plenty can happen, as we know, and we will be back here each week, talking about what we've seen and heard through the week. but we'll leave it there for today. and chat soon, sumi and katty. see you soon.

reorientate a little bit will see some of the warn england into parts of northern england and north wales overnight. the rain quite patchy at times here. a few showers for the north—west of scotland staying dry to the south. temperature is around 4 degrees in the

coldest rural areas. this band and a long road from here _ thisi and a long road from here . _ this band coldest rural areas. this band of rain, quite weak and patchy of rain, quite weak and patchy the north wind england and the north wind england and wales not moving very far. it wales not moving very far. it will be dampier. a band of will be dampier. a band of heavier rain with some sunshine heavier rain with some sunshine following. towards the south following. towards the south and east it should say dry and and east it should say dry and sunny. temperatures here 20 sunny. temperatures here 20 celsius. heading into the week celsius. heading into the week we saw celsius. heading into the week we sa . , , , sunny. temperatures here 20 celsius. heat a g into the week sunny. temperatures here 20| celsius. hea-e week celsius. heading into the week we sa . , ,, ., we saw quite a lengthy spell of d and we saw quite a lengthy spell of sunny. temperatures here 20| celsius. hea_k sunny. temperatures here 20 celsius. hea we saw quite a lengthy spell of d and we saw quite a lengthy spell of dry and settled _ we saw quite a lengthy spell of dry and settled _ we saw quite a lengthy spell of dry and settled weather. - dry and settled weather. - we saw quite a lengthy spell of dry and settled weather. they | dry and settled weather. they could beast some cloud left we saw quite a lengthy spell of dry and settled weather. they | dry and settled weather. they could beast some cloud left over from from that week with a over from from that front. most of us will have a dry day on monday. temperatures high teens to low 20s. as a area of high pressure reorientate a little bit will

see some of the warmest

live from london. this is bbc news. thousands attend the funeral of olympic athlete rebecca cheptegei in uganda. she died after being set on fire by a former boyfriend. keir starmer returns to the uk after talks in washington. he and president biden make no public announcement on ukraine's request to use long—range western missiles inside russia. and trained to expect the unexpected — two us astronauts explain how they cope with being stranded in space.

hello, i'm lewis vaughanjones. thousands of people have attended the funeral for ugandan olympic athlete, rebecca cheptegei, who was killed by a former boyfriend this month. the service was in her family's home town, bukwo. she received full military honours, having been a member of the ugandan armed forces. the 33—year—old marathon runner, who competed in the paris games last month, died after being doused with petrol and set alight. rebecca cheptegei's body was brought in from kenya, where she lived and trained. her death has renewed concern about the level of violence against women in kenya. herformer partner has since died of his injuries. we are guilty as government but

also the community is guilty. it is