in moldova, the pro—eu incumbent president. we are ahead of her challenger in the run—off election. and here in the uk — in herfirst interview as conservative leader, kemi badenoch has said her approach to the economy would be "completely the opposite" to that of labour's chancellor. hello, i'm karin giannone. with two days to go before the american election, donald trump and kamala harris are blitzing through the handful of swing states likely to decide the result. harris is in michigan, where she has been holding rallys in a number of cities. trump is in north carolina, and later will speak in georgia. earlier the former president told supporters in pennsylvania he should not have left the white house after losing the last election in 2020 — which he has not conceded. he also called for the result to be announced on election night, despite warnings

by officials in multiple states that it could take days before the outcome is clear. can you imagine, they spend all this money, all this money on machines, and they are going to say, "we may take an extra 12 days to determine." and what do you think happens during that 12 days? what do you think happens? these elections have to be... they have to be decided by nine o'clock, ten o'clock, 11 o'clock on tuesday night. bunch of crooked people. these are crooked people. democrats say they have plans in place if trump tries to claim victory prematurely. in michigan, harris said she trusted the electoral system. she also spoke at a church congregation during a sunday service. the prophetjeremiah wrote, "for i know the plans i have for you." applause.

"they are the plans for good, and not for disaster. "to give you a future and a hope." church, god has a plan for us. he has good plans for us. plans that will heal us and bring us together as one nation. helena humphrey has been in that swing state of north carolina — where donald trump is speaking now. it is in the battleground states where the race to the white house will be won or lost. we are here in the swing state of north carolina. some 16 electoral college votes here are up for grabs. both candidates in recent weeks have been pouring significant time and resources to campaigning in this state. for kamala harris, this is part of something called her sunbelt strategy. were she to lose one of the so—called blue wall states — pennsylvania,

michigan, wisconsin — she could hope to make up for that by flipping this state blue. for donald trump, however, if he loses north carolina, well, his path to victory could appear to be more challenging. now, donald trump on the ground in the past five days, holding a rally here in north carolina every day. i wanted to know more about the democratic ground game, so i spoke to the chair of the county democratic party, michael mclamb. barack obama carried the state in 2008, he had a field operation in every single county. this is the closest we have been to boots on the ground in every single county here in western north carolina. over the past several weeks, we've had a number of issues, recovering from hurricane helene, but still voters are coming out, they are engaged, they are knowledgeable of the issues, and i think they will make the right choice. the harris campaign hopes that north carolina is perhaps their best chance of flipping a state in this presidential election. donald trump carried it by some 7a,000 votes in 2020,

meaning it is all to play for here in north carolina and it will be a prime focus on election night. ione wells is in east lansing in michigan, where kamala harris is due to hold a rally. as you can see behind me, this hall in east lansing at michigan state university is filling up with lots of kamala harris supporters who have been queueing, in some cases, for hours to come and hear the vice president speak. this is herfinal stop today in what has been a campaign tour of michigan, which is one of the seven very key swing states in this election. places like here in east lansing are pretty solidly democrat areas. i think she is pretty confident that here she will really be speaking to her base, her core supporters within the democrat party, but that cannot really be said for the whole of michigan any more. there are certain areas that used to be pretty solidly democrat that she now can longer rely on. places like macomb county, which is a predominantly white working class area that donald trump managed to flip in 2016, appealing

in particular to people's socially conservative values, with some of his economic messages as well. but also areas like dearborn, which is the largest arab majority city in the us. i was there on friday when donald trump came to visit. that is an area where there is a lot of anger at the moment about the democrats' handling of the conflict in the middle east. as a result, a lot people there who may have voted for the democrats in the past now turning away from them. so i think kamala harris is aware that this is a state where she faces a lot of challenges and so she needs try to convince some of those voters that are undecided or maybe have hesitations about her party, but also making sure that her core supporters in places like this actually show up and vote for her. ione, how much of a boost has that poll from iowa had been, the poll that came out late last night, that showed harris leading in that particular state? that is right. as you mentioned, a poll came out for the state of iowa,

usually solidly red, that the democrats pretty much write off as ever within their sights. i think this poll certainly is from a very reliable pollster, so it has pricked up a lot of ears on the democrats' side. i think it should be said that it is just one poll, polls can only ever suggest what their poll sample is saying at a particular moment in time, so i think while it is significant and definitely significant in what it said about female voters in iowa shifting towards kamala harris, i think what it has done is really given kamala harris�*s campaign and the democrats a sort of momentum boost with just two days to go until the election. it is certainly something which donald trump i think has referenced in some of his campaign rallies today, as well. but i think kamala harris will certainly see that as a bit of a boost, momentum wise, even if it is just one poll and as i say cannot necessarily be taken as a sign of where things could go on the night.

here are the seven main swing states, which are the least loyal to either the democrats or republicans and therefore more likely to determine the result. polls show it's an incredibly tight race. ruth igielnik, polling editor at the new york times, said polls are great about the big questions — but they can't really tell us much about the tight races on what the outcome will be. it really is incredibly close. i mean, we are seeing this again and again and again. if we look at each individual state, things are sort of swinging around. but at the aggregate across the seven states, this is the closest polling we've seen in decades. you deal with polls all the time as yourjob. what can polls tell you and what can polls tell you and what can't polls tell you? what can't polls tell you? that is the question of the hour. that is the question of the hour. i think polls are an i think polls are an exceptional tool for exceptional tool for democracy to give every voter democracy to give every voter a voice and really help us a voice and really help us understand what voters understand what voters across the country diverse across the country diverse voters, ideologically, racially, ethnically, voters, ideologically, racially, ethnically, by age, what all these by age, what all these different voters different voters

think about things. think about things. and one thing that and one thing that polls really struggle polls really struggle with is telling us these very with is telling us these very small margins in these really, small margins in these really, really tight races, right? really tight races, right? if we're wondering if it's if we're wondering if it's 51% or 52%, that's 51% or 52%, that's something that polls something that polls might not be great at. might not be great at. polls are incredible polls are incredible at telling us, you know, at telling us, you know, what people are thinking what people are thinking about abortion or how about abortion or how americans feel about guns. americans feel about guns. to know if it needs a little i think polls tell us very well i think polls tell us very well that this is a close race, that this is a close race, but i think the margin of error but i think the margin of error that is inherent statistically that is inherent statistically in any poll makes it difficult in any poll makes it difficult for us to say beyond a margin for us to say beyond a margin of error exactly what of error exactly what the outcome will be. the outcome will be. i think you likened it to i think you likened it to taking a spoonful of the soup, taking a spoonful of the soup, but you don't know what but you don't know what the rest of the whole the bowl tastes like, but you don't need to taste the whole bowl to know what the flavour is. that's exactly right. so yeah, the way we think about sampling and why we have this margin of sampling error is we can't talk to all americans. we don't have the time the rest of the whole or effort to do that in a tight election race. so much like a bowl

of soup, you don't have to drink the whole bowl of soup

poll is an outlier and it might be a little bit different. but there's also reason to believe that there's some interesting stuff in that poll that's probably real. some of that movement among women, some of that movement among independent voters in favour of harris. so is it plus four in iowa, as that poll said, i don't know. or plus three for harris in iowa, it's hard to say. and it does feel like an outlier. but on aggregate, there's reason to believe that some of the things in that poll are really interesting and meaningful and comport with what we're seeing in other states in the upper midwest. rumours, misleading allegations and outright lies about voting and fraud are flooding online spaces ahead of the us election. the claims are posing a challenge to election officials who are having to debunk rumours and reassure voters. dr sander van der linden is a professor of psychology at cambridge university, and author of foolproof: why we fall for misinformation & how to build immunity. iasked him more about the threats posed by wide—spread misinformation.

certainly i think the threat of election misinformation is real. you know, we're not only talking about trying to change people's vote, which can be difficult, especially, you know, because most voters in the us are partisan, but it can have other effects. some people become confused. we know from psychological research that when people think that the election is fraudulent or, you know, there are problems with the integrity of the election, people are less likely to vote. they disengage from the democratic process, and that can in itself undermine elections, too. and so, you know, aside from the direct threat of influencing people's vote, there's also the potential for larger confusion, which can be, you know, can put people off from the entire process. i'm really fascinated by what you say about a lie founded in a little reality, becoming something that can be expanded to be a generalisation. for example, as you say, one or two instances of voter fraud then being widened out, as in the whole system is corrupt. yeah, absolutely.

so, you know, what producers of misinformation do is they look for the things that sound minimally persuasive to people so that they can build on it. so, for example, you know, the conspiracies that the voting machines are secretly changing people's votes sounds kind of ridiculous, so that's not going to get the most traction. but if you take a real example of, hey, there's been one person who's voted twice or who's been arrested or being investigated for, you know, trying to cast multiple votes. they're taking that anecdote and then blowing it up into a conspiracy that the whole thing is rigged. while, in fact, this only means that the system is working. they're spotting, you know, amongst millions of people, they're spotting that one person who's not abiding by the rules. that's how good the system is. and they're trying to use that against people by coming up with unfounded conspiracy theories. what sort of impact is that sort of misinformation having on voter numbers in faith in the democratic systems, as far as you can tell?

yeah, so it's very hard to study how these things influence, uh, you know, people's votes, of course, how we feel about candidates, that all matters. but i think what disinformers try to do, because they know that, you know, people's beliefs can be difficult to to influence, and that's often why they wait until election day. so they try to target swing voters. undecided people are still, you know, listening to different speeches, different, you know, opinions. that's where they can get the most traction. so i think actually now we're sort of in the danger zone where most of the disinformation can come and actually confuse people in terms of how they're casting their ballot on the day of the election. and that's in addition to just, you know, making people cynical about the whole process. we know from experiments, from research that, you know, when people know that or when people believe election fraud rumours, they're less likely to to accept the result. and maybe i should add, the real risk, of course, is that if people think that the election was fraudulent, which, you know, we're already seeing that in polling numbers, that trump's base is starting to think that, you know,

if he doesn't win, it's likely to be fraud that can actually turn violent. so, you know, online conspiracy theories can turn into offline violence. we've seen that with the 2020 election and the capitol insurrection. and so we want to do is prevent that from from happening again. i mean, if people believe that the election was fraudulent, there's a real risk of escalating violence. king felipe of spain says he understands the anger and frustration of the people in flood—ravaged valencia, where furious crowds pelted him, the queen, the prime minister, and the regional president with mud. there's been huge criticism of the late warning of the torrential rains, in which at least 217 people are known to have died and many more are still missing. meanwhile, spain's weather agency has issued a new severe rainfall alert. mark lowen sent this report from valencia. spain's despair is boiling

over. the king came to paiporta, ground zero of the carnage. along with the prime minister, who is accused of a painfully slow response. they chant murderer. the anger grows, a protester attacks our camera. and then they huddle what they can find from the torrents below. this isjust unprecedented. people are picking up mud, throwing it at the king. the depth of anger here, the fury is just extraordinary to see. the queen is with mud on herface, her bodyguard bloodied. there are still dead people inside paiporta, the woman screams. the royals stay, converting some. do what you can, says this man. we need the army. the anguish of the people echoed on

paiporta's face. i am just 16, he says. we are helping and the leaders do nothing. people are dying, i can't stand it any more. i have no strength left. they left us to die, she tells me. when we needed them, they weren't here. we have lost everything, our businesses, our homes, our dreams. and others have lost family. and others have lost family like rafa, who owned a print shop with his two brothers, now a wreck. as the waters rose, his brother tony stayed inside to take refuge. tony's body was found a street away. his three sons now without a father. translation: we are outraged. this is a great country, but with disgusting, incompetent leaders. i'm so angry i can't talk any more. i don't have the strength to speak about my brother. he was a really good person. i have no more words. i'm sorry. it is frankly hard to take in the apocalyptic scale

of this destruction. to get paiporta alone back on its feet, the homeless rehoused in shelter, damage reimbursed could take months. but then repeat that for mile after mile of this stricken region. spain stunned, traumatised and where rage is tipping over, only eased by the solidarity of the people. today, the spark was ignited here. and as the number of dead rises further and the depth of loss becomes deeper, this country is at a delicate moment. mark lowen, bbc news, valencia. bbc mundo reporter jorge perez had this update from catarroja, one of the worst affected areas in the valencia region. we have arrived to the town of catarroja. this is south of the city of valencia. what we see here looks even worse than all the towns that we have previously visited. basically, because this is part of the ground zero of this natural disaster.

some of the people we have been talking to even mentioned that they still feel in day one of the tragedy after, well, all this week of trying to resist one of the biggest natural catastrophes that spain has been going through in the past decades. we were chasing earlier a team of volunteers, a team of rescue volunteers, because there is still the hope that they might find some missing alive people. but as the time passes by, that possibility, unfortunately, is reducing. we have also been seeing this large amount of volunteers arriving for communities like this one. they were the first aid to come and help, and they still express their message of gratitude, because along with the help that has progressively arrived from the government, for them, these volunteers are the main heroes of this situation. to the middle east now —

and health officials in gaza say fresh israeli airstrikes have killed at least 31 people. the attacks come as the un's children's agency condemned the killing of 50 children in the past couple of days injabalia in northern gaza, which has been under intense israeli attack for weeks. unicef said the entire population of northern gaza was at imminent risk of death from disease, famine and ongoing bombardments. amnesty international has called on iran to release a young female student detained on saturday for stripping in what's being seen as a protest against the country's strict dress code at a university in tehran. a spokesman for the islamic azad university said she'd been found to have a "mental disorder". she was detained by security guard, but what has happened to her since is unknown. rana rahimpour is an iran analyst and a former bbc persian presenter. the details of exactly what happened, it's still unclear and a lot of rumours are going around

on social media. but one thing that is clear is how this woman's protest has been received by large parts of the iranian society. many believe that this is a very brave act of protest against compulsory hijab. there are reports on social media that suggests that this woman was harassed by the so—called security officers, orforces at the university, or a member of basij, the militia, because she wasn't wearing a headscarf when she was entering the university, and as a result of that encounter, the member of the basij tore that woman's clothes and in protest, she has taken it off. and that doesn't come as a surprise, because the iranian regime for decades have been suppressing iranian women and has imposed compulsory hijab on them. and, in 2022, we saw a peak of it when a woman was killed while in the custody of the morality police and this

oppression has continued. this is a show of frustration, a show that the islamic republic of iran is refusing to accept. some breaking news to bring you. in moldova, it appears the pro eu candidate has won the presidential election. with more than 96% of the vote counted, maia sandu has more than 53% of the vote. her pro—russian opponent alexandr stoianoglo, was around 46%, which means he can no longer overtake her. it has been so tight that exactly an hour ago we were thinking that the pro—russian candidate was in the lead. there are a large number of diaspora votes to count for people outside of moldova who had voted. those have been

counted in the latter stages of the count and they have put maia sandu ahead. it is being seen as a choice between europe and russia, and there have been many, many accusations of russian interference in the former soviet republic, thanked very significantly by ukraine and romania. here in the uk — in herfirst interview as conservative leader, kemi badenoch has said her approach to the economy would be "completely the opposite" to that of labour's chancellor. speaking on sunday with laura kuenssberg, mrs badenoch said she'd reverse the move to charge tax on private school fees. our political correspondent iain watson has more. have you got a lot of work to do, miss badenoch? can you unite the party behind you? she's a new conservative leader who's promising to drive her defeated party down the long road back to power. a massive week for both of you.

kemi badenoch sat beside the labour chancellor today, but she was keen to emphasise that there weren't politically close. thinking about the economy in a different way, in my view, is going to be completely the opposite of what rachel reeves is doing. raising taxes in this way, whether it's employer ni or elsewhere, is not going to grow our economy. and despite not making any specific policy commitments during her leadership campaign, she has pledged to scrap labour's vat on private school fees. that is a tax on aspiration. taxing education is wrong. it is against our principles. she said conservative governments had got some things wrong, too, and drew an interesting lesson from lockdown. a lot of the stuff that happened around partygate, i thought that it was overblown. we should not have created fixed penalty notices, for example. that was us not going with our principles. it now feels as though the political battle lines are even more clearly defined than at the last general election. kemi badenoch says that the tax

burden has been too high under the last conservative government, and she says the size of the state needs to reduce. rachel reeves, on the other hand, seems to be increasing it. she's argued that raising billions from businesses from national insurance is essential to improve public services, and the chancellor isn't for turning. i'm not immune to their criticism, but we've got to raise the money. we've got to put our public finances on a firm footing and also fund our nhs properly. so the package we announced this week includes 40,000 additional appointments every single week in the nhs, more teachers in our schools, and more homes being built. rachel reeves argues that her budget wasn't ideological. my my that report from ian watson. if you want to follow the very latest in what is going on in the us in the last 48 hours before the election begins, the presidential election, it is all on our live page. the two candidates have been going

across those swing states at a rapid pace. focusing on the last few parts of the us where the states could swing one way or the other. plenty of coverage coming up, as well as the rest of our news on our website. hello. it's been a week devoid of sunshine for the vast majority due to cloud being trapped underneath an area of high pressure. that high pressure system stubbornly sits across europe for much of this week, but as it moves away eastwards at times and weather fronts get close by to the west, we should start to get a bit more of a breeze as we go through the week. that will help to break up the cloud a bit more, so we should see a bit more sunshine come through later on, but that does mean some night time and morning fog patches are possible, and with southerly winds developing, it's going to be quite a very mild week — in fact, gets milder as we go through. notice on our anomaly chart, these deeper oranges and reds appearing in the north of scotland around the moray firth and also inverness — we could see temperatures six to seven degrees above average by thursday. it's here though, we start chilliest first thing on monday

morning after clear skies through the weekend. eight or nine degrees for many elsewhere. another very familiar picture there, rather grey skies, cloud trapped under this area of high pressure. on the edge of it, though, so we may see a little bit more breeze help to break the cloud across some of these western areas to allow some brightness through. but it's here there's a greater chance of one or two light showers. we could also bring in a bit more sunshine as well to the southeast and southern counties of england every now and again, but a cloudier day in the north east of scotland and temperatures as they have been through the weekend. now, monday night into tuesday, cloud sits in place where you get any breaks. temperatures could dip down into single figures. also, we could see some mist and fog with some clearer breaks towards east anglia and the southeast, but certainly into tuesday hot a huge amount change to begin with. but as we start to see this weather system get close by, it's not going to have a direct impact on us. but what it will do, it starts to bring in from the south more in the way of low cloud towards irish sea coast — could turn quite misty around these areas, damp and drizzly, too.

a southerly wind also developing means northern scotland to get favoured for a bit of sunshine, maybe to the north east of wales, too, and still some sunny breaks possible towards the south and southeast. temperatures lifting just a little bit into tuesday. so it will be a mild day, fairly cloudy one. fireworks add a little bit of colour to proceedings in the evening for bonfire night, with most places staying dry and mild. as we go through the rest of the week, it's a familiar picture — high pressure to the east, but as these weather systems get a bit deeper towards the west, a strengthening southerly airflow. notice on our capital city forecast, the temperatures lift — could hit around 17 or 18 around the moray firth on thursday, but still to the south and east during the next few days, the chance of lots of cloud and some overnight mist and fog.

this is bbc news, the headlines with less than two days before america goes to the polls, kamala harris and donald trump make last minute appeals to voters in swing states. king felipe of spain says he understands the anger and frustration of the people in flood—ravaged valencia — after protesters threw mud at the monarch spain's national weather agency says passing storms will "not be like tuesday's" after it earlier issued a red weather alert for parts of southern valencia. moldova's pro—eu president maia sandu appears on course for a second term after a pivotal presidential election run—off seen as a choice

between europe and russia. now on bbc news...newscast. newscast. newscast from the bbc. hello, it's laura in the studio. and simonjack in the studio with laura. and it'sjames in glasgow. so undoubtedly this has been, as you said, simon, an absolute whopper of a budget. the government is well aware they still need to explain it. they are still making the argument, as they would say. and rachel reeves has been on lots of visits already. she was with us this morning, and that central question that keeps coming back and still hasn't gone away is what the impact of this national insurance change for employers is going to be. notjust because it is going to be hard for a lot of businesses to swallow it, but also because in

the election, they were not explicit that this