Latest updates: Follow our full coverage on the US election
Election Day is almost here and millions across the US are preparing to – or already have – cast their votes for Democrat Kamala Harris or Republican Donald Trump.
Here, The National breaks down different aspects of this complicated election into six charts.
What the polls say
This aggregate of a range of nationwide polls shows just how close the race has grown ever since Ms Harris moved to the top of the ticket in July after President Joe Biden announced his decision to step aside.
At the national level, Ms Harris and Mr Trump are neck and neck, with each passing day appearing to bring them closer. The National conducted a poll that showed Ms Harris is ahead by about three points nationwide, though that is within the margin of error.
In the handful of swing states that could decide the election, the margins are even slimmer. In Pennsylvania, for example, FiveThirtyEight shows Mr Trump has a 0.4 per cent edge over Ms Harris. The National's poll has Mr Trump up by one point in swing states.
The electoral college
The US is the only democracy in the world where the head of state is chosen by an electoral college, in which electors decide – usually based on the popular vote in their states – who will become president.
To be named the victor, Mr Trump or Ms Harris must receive 270 electoral votes, or the majority of the total 538 up for grabs.
Electoral votes are based on population, with the more populous states receiving more votes.
The electoral college system is frequently a target of criticism, as it gives more weight to votes in states with lower populations.
For example, one electoral vote in Wyoming – the least populous state – represents about 192,000 people, while one vote in Texas – a much larger and more populated state – represents about 730,000 people.
Major issues
Most polls nationwide show that the biggest issue for American voters is the cost of living, which many feel has skyrocketed in the years since the pandemic hit.
The poll conducted by Deltapoll for The National showed that the cost of living and the economy topped the list for likely Democratic and Republican voters. Issues including abortion access, health care and immigration varied in importance between Democrats and Republicans.
During his keynote speech at a rally at Madison Square Garden in New York at the weekend, Mr Trump asked a question first asked by Republican president Ronald Reagan in 1980: “Are you better off now than you were four years ago?”
Given the high level of uncertainty over the future of the US economy and the high cost of food, housing and other essentials, most people do not feel like they are better off – the question is who voters trust more to improve things.
Importance of foreign policy
Foreign policy, particularly the US approach to the Middle East, could play a large role in this election. Conflict in the region, and especially the situation in Gaza, could significantly influence voters, The National survey showed.
The Biden administration has become the focal point of anger from those opposed to continuing US support for Israel amid the Gaza war, particularly from the Arab and Muslim-American communities.
Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
Results
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2.0
Director: S Shankar
Producer: Lyca Productions; presented by Dharma Films
Cast: Rajnikanth, Akshay Kumar, Amy Jackson, Sudhanshu Pandey
Rating: 3.5/5 stars
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Attacks on Egypt’s long rooted Copts
Egypt’s Copts belong to one of the world’s oldest Christian communities, with Mark the Evangelist credited with founding their church around 300 AD. Orthodox Christians account for the overwhelming majority of Christians in Egypt, with the rest mainly made up of Greek Orthodox, Catholics and Anglicans.
The community accounts for some 10 per cent of Egypt’s 100 million people, with the largest concentrations of Christians found in Cairo, Alexandria and the provinces of Minya and Assiut south of Cairo.
Egypt’s Christians have had a somewhat turbulent history in the Muslim majority Arab nation, with the community occasionally suffering outright persecution but generally living in peace with their Muslim compatriots. But radical Muslims who have first emerged in the 1970s have whipped up anti-Christian sentiments, something that has, in turn, led to an upsurge in attacks against their places of worship, church-linked facilities as well as their businesses and homes.
More recently, ISIS has vowed to go after the Christians, claiming responsibility for a series of attacks against churches packed with worshippers starting December 2016.
The discrimination many Christians complain about and the shift towards religious conservatism by many Egyptian Muslims over the last 50 years have forced hundreds of thousands of Christians to migrate, starting new lives in growing communities in places as far afield as Australia, Canada and the United States.
Here is a look at major attacks against Egypt's Coptic Christians in recent years:
November 2: Masked gunmen riding pickup trucks opened fire on three buses carrying pilgrims to the remote desert monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor south of Cairo, killing 7 and wounding about 20. IS claimed responsibility for the attack.
May 26, 2017: Masked militants riding in three all-terrain cars open fire on a bus carrying pilgrims on their way to the Monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor, killing 29 and wounding 22. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack.
April 2017: Twin attacks by suicide bombers hit churches in the coastal city of Alexandria and the Nile Delta city of Tanta. At least 43 people are killed and scores of worshippers injured in the Palm Sunday attack, which narrowly missed a ceremony presided over by Pope Tawadros II, spiritual leader of Egypt Orthodox Copts, in Alexandria's St. Mark's Cathedral. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks.
February 2017: Hundreds of Egyptian Christians flee their homes in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula, fearing attacks by ISIS. The group's North Sinai affiliate had killed at least seven Coptic Christians in the restive peninsula in less than a month.
December 2016: A bombing at a chapel adjacent to Egypt's main Coptic Christian cathedral in Cairo kills 30 people and wounds dozens during Sunday Mass in one of the deadliest attacks carried out against the religious minority in recent memory. ISIS claimed responsibility.
July 2016: Pope Tawadros II says that since 2013 there were 37 sectarian attacks on Christians in Egypt, nearly one incident a month. A Muslim mob stabs to death a 27-year-old Coptic Christian man, Fam Khalaf, in the central city of Minya over a personal feud.
May 2016: A Muslim mob ransacks and torches seven Christian homes in Minya after rumours spread that a Christian man had an affair with a Muslim woman. The elderly mother of the Christian man was stripped naked and dragged through a street by the mob.
New Year's Eve 2011: A bomb explodes in a Coptic Christian church in Alexandria as worshippers leave after a midnight mass, killing more than 20 people.
The Voice of Hind Rajab
Starring: Saja Kilani, Clara Khoury, Motaz Malhees
Director: Kaouther Ben Hania
Rating: 4/5
