live from london. this is bbc news it's election day in america, polling stations are now open in most of the east coast states. in theirfinal rallies, donald trump and kamala harris have made their last pitch to voters. just one more day in the most consequential election of our lifetime, and the momentum is on our side. cheering. with your vote tomorrow we can fix every single problem our country faces and lead america — indeed, the world — to new heights of glory. in other news, barcelona is hit by heavy rains, as rescue efforts continue after devastating flash flooding in valencia. here in the uk, the new conservative party leader kemi badenoch has finalised her shadow cabinet team. boeing's strike finally ends —

a majority of workers vote in favour of a 38 % wage increase, spread over four years. hello, i'm martine croxall. after months of campaigning the wait is finally over. polling stations are now open in most of the eastern seabord states, as voters decide the country's 47th president. in what has been one of the closest run races in living memory, the final polling shows it's a toss—up between donald trump and kamala harris. this is the scene in new york city where the polls are opening right now.... it is six o'clock local time. we can show you charlottesville, virginia. people are making their way in

early. the two candidates held their final rallies late last night — with a particular focus on the battlegrouds that will decide the election. there'll be extra attention on voters in georgia, arizona, nevada, wisconsin, michigan, north carolina, and pennsylvania , where the result could have particular influence on the overall outcome. in a long—held tradition, the small new hampshire town of dixville notch opened its voting booths at midnight local time. six voters turned up — and in a reminder of how tight this race is, their votes were evenly split between harris and trump. remember there's also been a provision for early voting — in person or by mail — and millions of americans have already voted. we begin our coverage with this report from tom bateman. philadelphia! welcome the next president of these united states...kamala harris. a campaign crescendo for kamala harris. it was a star—studded rally in philadelphia,

where the vice president took to the stage, and an adoring crowd of democrat fans watched her final pitch for the white house. i am looking to make progress, and i pledge to listen to those who will be impacted by the decisions i make. i pledge to listen to experts. i pledge to listen to people who disagree with me. because, you see, i don't believe that people who disagree with me are the enemy. i'll give them a seat at the table. that's what real leaders do! that's what strong leaders do. well, with those words and this crowd, they bring to an end what has been one of the most unpredictable and contentious election campaigns in this nation's history. and now it's over to the voters. state—wide, we have

knocked 700,000 doors. cheering. democrat volunteers have come to pennsylvania from across america, aiming to persuade undecided voters and flooding the doorsteps today to get their base out. taking voters to the polls, canvassing. you know, making sure people stay in line to vote after they hit the polls too close or when there's a long wait. so anything and everything. and pennsylvania has been the final push for team trump too. in the countryside, rally—goers queue at dawn hoping to build campaign momentum with a message for american workers. their paycheques are getting robbed by inflation and taxes, and this person is the only one who actually says the truth and says that, you know, what's going on is not right. just a few tens of thousands of votes could swing this state and therefore the national result either way. of all the swing states,

this one is the biggest prize. and that is why both candidates have been coming back here right until the end, but they haven't been budging the needle — the opinion polls still put pennsylvania as a dead heat. # ..to the hills of tennessee...# and for donald trump, a return to form last night, ending his tour in grand rapids, michigan, where he finaled his last two campaigns — it is another critical swing state. with your vote tomorrow, we can fix every single problem our country faces problem our country faces and lead america, indeed the and lead america, indeed the world, to new heights of glory. world, to new heights of glory. think of that statement, how beautiful that is — new heights of glory, watches and waits. that's what's going to happen. in a vote this close, counting in the swing states could take days or longer. could take days or longer. they will hold the key to this they will hold the key to this election while america election while america and the whole world and the whole world

watches and waits. tom bateman, bbc news, philadelphia. as americans head to cast their votes, the opinion polls are still incredibly tight. each with their own slightly different take on the figures. the individual points, you see vice president kamala harris just a point ahead in the national polls.but the candidates' shares of the national vote won't determine the winner. let's turn to the battleground states, that s the seven that

people are starting to trickle into this polling station in new york. it opened about seven minutes ago. as had the polling stations in virginia and vermont. they opened at five o'clock local time. vermont. they opened at five o'clock localtime. let vermont. they opened at five o'clock local time. let us go down to florida. it is still early in the morning. mr trump is heading towards his residence in mara largo. cbs correspondent jarred hill has been up since early morning, keeping an eye

on polls in virginia. he gave us this update from alexandria. yesterday the harris campaign wrapped up its campaign — only about 100 or so days' worth of campaigning they have done — in the state of pennsylvania. they had multiple stops in pennsylvania yesterday. she went to no other states on this final day, a signal ofjust how important her campaign sees that particular battleground state. it is the battleground state with the most number of electoral votes, it is also one that it is believed she needs to win in order to win this election. and as for donald trump, how did he spend his last few hours of campaigning? former president trump bounced around the us yesterday, visiting a couple of battleground states, ending his night in the state of michigan, grand rapids, michigan, to be specific. this is the same exact location he ended his 2016 campaign, as well as his 2020 campaign. in his final speech he hit

on a couple of the high points, i guess you would call it, of his campaign so far, talking about immigration, talking about inflation. also sowing doubt already in the results of the election if he were to lose this. essentially saying that democrats would have to cheat in orderfor him to lose. at the same time saying turn—out from his supporters needs to be incredibly high, really emphasising from both sides just how close they think this election will be. you mention how close, just how close is it when you compare to other elections in recent times? yes, i mean, this is one of those where i believe in the story you were talking about before, this could potentially be one of the closest elections in recent american history. looking at these battleground states in particular we are seeing essentially numbers that say this is a toss—up. and so the question is going to be, and this is something we have heard from both of these campaigns, how many people can get

to actually show up, just because of the fact that it seems as though american sentiment is so split, it is going to be a matter of how many people from either side of the aisle turn up to polling places like this throughout the course of the day and cast their votes for either one of these candidates. so when do polls close and when can we hope to know the winner? he sighs. that's a great question. and that's a question a lot of us are asking! a lot of people want to know when is this going to be over. we know polls will close over the course of the day. we are still many, many hours away from polls closing. it is likely going to be in the evening when we start to see some of these results coming in. there is the possibility that, depending again on how some of the votes get counted in some of these states, that we may not know an official answer for a day or two after election day. that's if this ends up being as close as we

currently think that it is. but there is the possibility always that this could be a blow—out in either direction and we could know something much sooner, we could potentially know something as soon as this evening. but i think patience is the word that we are stressing to americans, to brits who are watching, and to ourselves as we go through this long election day. jarred hill, cbs correspondent, in alexandria. and, you we will be able to watch live coverage of the results of the us presidential election across the bbc. join us in the bbc�*s us election studio as we find out who will be america's next president. now, whether the winner is vice president kamala harris or former president donald trump, it will be an historic night. right across the country, we'll have all of our top correspondents and editors bringing you the unfolding drama as soon as the polls close. we'll have all the results as they come in, and christian fraser will look in depth at what they mean in the race for the white house. here is the map wiped clean.

in the race to 270, these in grey are the seven battleground states we think will decide who wins the white house. so, for expert analysis and for what the story means to america and the rest of the world, join me, caitriona perry... ..and me, sumi somaskanda, in washington, dc, for the bbc�*s us election results programme. it's a contest that is just too close to call. the international media has descended on washington — because whoever becomes the american president will have an impact on the whole world. the bbc will have full coverage of the results tonight — starting straight after the news at ten and going through the night. jon kay takes us behind the scenes on how our coverage is shaping up. sumi and caitriona are going

to be hosting the bbc coverage and with us on breakfast for the results as they come in. sumi, we often say elections are too close to call, but this one really is? yeah, if you look at the polls leading up to the election, i mean, there hasn't been a closer race in this century so far. the polls have stagnated really with kamala harris and donald trump tied. even if you see kamala harris a little bit ahead here, or donald trump a little bit ahead here, all we know is that this is going to come really right down to the wire. we will have a tonne of information coming into the bbc on the night and it's about getting it out as much as possible to our audiences. would you have done something differently than president biden during the past four years? there is not a thing that comes to mind. they're eating the cats! | they're eating the pets!

so on the night i will be here at the touch screen going through all the results as they come in state—by—state, east to west, and of course we are going to be focusing on the seven battleground states. we have been looking at the various routes the two candidates have to the white house. i'm sarah smith, the bbc's north america editor and i have been travelling around all the key swing states trying to get a sense of how voters are feeling. and i think the thing to look out for tomorrow is the result from the state of pennsylvania. it's the biggest and most important of the swing states and the polls suggest it's absolutely on a knife edge. caitriona, whoever wins, it is history? it really is. both candidates are setting this out as a battle for the soul of america. but either way you're potentially going to have the first female president in this country, the first black woman, the first indian american woman. or you are going to have an individual who was already president, sat out for one term

and is back in again, a twice—impeached, convicted felon. it is dramatic, dramatic time for the united states and of course what that means for the world as well. around the world and across the uk. this is bbc news.

workers at boeing have voted to accept a deal to end a seven—week walk—out. more than half backed the agreement which will see them receive a 38% pay rise during the next four years, as well as a substantial bonus and improved retirement funding. it means 33,000 employees, mainly in washington state and oregon will now return to work, following a strike that analysts believe has cost the company and its suppliers

more than $8 billion. rain continues to cause disruption in spain. parts of barcelona were flooded on monday — less than a week after the devastation in valencia which has killed at least 200 people. water entered parts of the main airport serving barcelona and some motorways were covered by water. further south down the coast, rescue workers in valencia are continuing to comb through underground car parks, searching for missing people. 0ur europe correspondent nick beake has this report. the official search for bodies goes on, all along the flood—ravaged ravines, but many of the families of spain's missing have given up on the authorities and are doing the work themselves. this new instagram page, part tribute, part plea for help to find their loved ones. among them, brothers izan, on the left, and ruben, just three years old. we went to the boys' town and found the family home — what's left of it. the brothers�* bedroom

door one of the few things still standing. every one of the communities devastated by these floods has its own particular dreadful story. what happened here is the sheer power of the water picked up trucks. one of them came crashing down towards the family home. it knocked down a wall. the lights went out. the water came in, sweeping away the two boys and their dad. jonathon, their next—door neighbour, told us what happened next. translation: the water destroyed everything - in its path. the dad told me that he'd managed to take his boys in his arms, but then realised they had gone. he said the power of the water was incredible. "oh, my god," they shouted, when the water flooded valencia's largest shopping centre last week. it had been full of families. many of them escaped, but fears have grown that some may have been trapped

in the underground car park. dozens of empty cars have been retrieved, but others have not yet been reached. when we asked one police officer if he knew whether anyone had died here, he wouldn't tell us. many spaniards are furious at a lack of information. today, in the second city, barcelona, a new deluge filled the streets, cancelling trains and planes, bringing more misery. last week's devastating floodwaters have long receded, but they've exposed anger and a sense of abandonment, and that feeling is not going away. nick beake, bbc news, valencia. the spanish prime minister, pedro sanchez, is currently on

tv. he is responding to the devastating scenes in eastern spain. he has said that 14,000 police officers and troops have been deployed in areas hit by flash floods. of course, last week and continuing over the weekend, we heard local people very angry about the perceived lack of warning ahead of this torrential rain which has caused such damage and cause the death of more than 200 people in places like valencia. the polish authorities have warned that incendiary packages placed on cargo flights earlier this year were possible practice runs by russia's spy agency for attacks on tra nsa ntla ntic planes. 0ne package caught fire in a warehouse in birmingham injuly, another on the ground in germany and two more were found in poland. russia has denied involvement. 0ur security correspondent frank gardner explained how the incendiary packages caused alarm in the uk, germany and poland. well, back injuly,

onjuly the 22nd, there was a suspicious package that caught fire, it self—ignited, and it was at a dhl warehouse at minworth, a suburb of birmingham. that was put out, there were no injuries, it was dealt with at the time. at that time another one exploded in a container in leipzig. again, a package that was due to be placed on a cargo flight. then there were also two other packages in warsaw in poland and a number of arrests have been made there. so this is all feeding into a pattern that both the polish authorities and the us authorities suspect could be part of what is called russian hybrid warfare. russia denies any involvement in this whatsoever but western officials, western intelligence officials, suspect this is some kind of punishment for western backing of ukraine.

0ne fact that we can certainly point to is that there has been a conviction, the first conviction under britain's new national security act that came into force last year, of a man who has been accused of, or convicted, rather, of an arson attack on a ukrainian—owned warehouse in leyton in east london. it is a worrying pattern but russia denies it. what might these packages container? the really worrying thing is that these packages, some of which were reportedly disguised as containing erotic gadgets, electric massage pillows — that isn't the worrying bit — but the worrying bit is they contain a compound of magnesium, reportedly, that burns incredibly brightly, a very bright, hot white flame. you can't put it out with water, you can't douse it with water, in fact it will get even worse. you need a powder to

be able to douse it. the german authorities have said they are investigating this and they are extremely concerned that if that package that ignited in leipzig on the ground, if that had happened in the air it would have caused a major crash, the plane would have been brought down with debris coming over people across germany, and the same presumably applies to the other packages. the polish authorities reportedly suspect that all of this is a test run, a dummy run, for getting packages onto transatlantic flights to the us and canada, but us aviation authorities say there is no current risk to those transatlantic flights. frank gardner, our security correspondent. prince william is continuing his four—day tour in south africa as part of the earthshot biodiversity prize — where today he will visit signal hill in cape town.

yesterday the prince of wales challenged a group of local school children to a game of rugby and met with young environmentalists. today he'll meet with park rangers and conservationists to discuss the importance of biodiversity. 0ur royal correspomndent daniella relph has the latest from cape town. prince william has been climbing table top mountain today. it has been described as a biodiversity hotspot. he has been talking about the endangered plant species here. he has been doing it with people who know all about it. they spend their time looking after it stopped caring for it and nurturing it. the conservationist, the park rangers and firefighters who protected. this is the environmental park of prince william's to appear today. young people has been another focus for him. he had a

roundtable discussion with again climate leaders from across south africa and southeast asia. he was quite direct with them. he told them that they are the future, you are the generation that will make life better for everyone. it has been very much a theme about the power of young people during this visit. tonight, it is his eight shot prize award here in cape town. it is being held in a nicojoan which is usable and recyclable. it will be used again after the event. it is a green carpet event. everyone has been told to wear something eco friendly, something eco friendly, something sustainable. including prince william himself. we have been told that all of his wardrobe is sustainable. we will find out tonight what you are the winners of the hr price. there is a really big challenges around climate change. each of the winners will win a really big challenges around climate change. each of the winners

will win £1 million.- change. each of the winners will win £1 million. voting has o-ened will win £1 million. voting has opened in _ will win £1 million. voting has opened in north _ will win £1 million. voting has opened in north carolina. - will win £1 million. voting has| opened in north carolina. this is part of the country that was affected by the recent her again. 0ur weather is taking a rest at the moment. you can see in st andrews there is a lot of crowd already. also in st helier in the channel islands. across the board, that is the story. the high pressure is in charge for a while and continue for the next few days. a lot of crowd into the afternoon. some breaks across northern scotland, northern ireland and wales. some patchy drizzle across the northern western isles. apart from that, like breezes and the temperature will be 11 to 16 celsius under the cloud. some of us could see some occasional

glimmers of brightness. if you're going to any bonfire event tonight, you may see a few showers in the north—west. for the rest of the country, largely dry and cloudy, mild with some hill fog, especially in parts of the south—east. temperatures will be seven to 12 celsius, botticelli temperature in aberdeen. this rich he is keeping the weather friends at bay. but the wind is coming from it so direction. a lot of crowd once again on wednesday stop as the weather front skirt 0uter wednesday stop as the weather front skirt outer hebrides, it would an rain. breezy across the north west, and for all of us a lot of crowd. some brighter glimpses in the north of england and also wales. highs of 17 celsius. 0n highs of 17 celsius. on thursday, a lot of time to start off with, the his will

lift into low cloud. north—east scotland and wales will be breezy. temperatures 12 to 15 celsius. from friday into the weekend, we have different areas of weather fronts coming our way. some of them could make it to the west, some of them will not. as we head into saturday and sunday, we hang on to a lot of crowd. the chance of some rain in the west. temperatures still above the seasonal average.

boeing's strike finally ends, as workers vote in favour of a new pay deal. wall street holds its breath as polls open in one of the tightest presidential elections in us history and we'll hear from greece's tourism minister — visits there are booming. we'll discuss the risks of overtourism and climate change. welcome to business today, i'm tadhg enright. the strike at boeing is over. 33,000 workers, whose work stoppage has lasted for seven weeks, have voted to accept a deal. more than half backed the agreement which will see

them receive a 38% pay rise amongst other benefits. the deal means that boeing can resume production at two of its plants in washington state and oregon, where the 737 and triple 7 aircraft are made. ending a bitter industrial dispute that analysts believe has cost the company and its suppliers more than 8 billion dollars. here's the president of the union. i'm proud of this membership. this was a defining moment tonight, and we were able to change the past negotiations, and we were able to get wage increases of over 38%. we reduced the cost of health care and added other important insurance programmes. we secured a commitment for the next aeroplane programme. we got commitments on jobs for our facilities and maintenance to maintain the head count, and we made many other improvements. tonight, our membership voted to accept this contract by 59%. yes. joining me now

is aviation expert john strickland from jls consulting. boeing management will be pleased that the strike is over but as we have been saying and reporting it has cost them and their suppliers $8 billion. going forward how much of a headache for this 88% pay rise over the next four years? it really adds enormously to the company's really adds enormously to the compa ny�*s cost really adds enormously to the company's cost going forward, we have to put it into context the ten years ago and some ways it was a dispute where bowen was moving a set amount of work out of the washington state area on the basis of negotiations where they had pension rises. there's that point on pensions and salary bonuses increasing the cost base enormously. again, it has to be viewed in the round, this is coming out of the pandemic where skilled labour was lost and the demand for aircraft was

very buoyant, is a cost of the simply has to be accepted. we see the fitness of the strike even now with 59% excepting workforce kill feeling resentful. it is a bitter pill that has to be swallowed. what ou that has to be swallowed. what you mentioned _ that has to be swallowed. what you mentioned about _ that has to be swallowed. what you mentioned about demand outstripping the ability of the plane manufacturers to supply. for bowen, is there a way that they can ramp up production now to somehow make up for the seven weeks of lost production? it is going to take time. it isn't a matter of days or weeks it will be months, the whole production process has stopped. boeing had its experience through the pandemic and through the pandemic and through the pandemic and through the grounding of the aircrafts when they had a number of production where has been completely finished, the intricacy of production is complex but on top of that there is a whole web of

sub—suppliers who they themselves have fallen impact themselves have fallen impact the strike. they have a difficult times that takes a long time to take back. even when they get back to the numbers of production they were achieving before the strike, still be below pre—pandemic levels. of course, they have a regulated cap for what they can produce until they resolve the issues which they have to address in terms of quality and safety production. that is going to leave production at lower levels for quite some time, we have massive airline frustration,