Trump travel ban: Judge expands definition of relatives

US Election 2016: Donald Trump would put 'fate of world' at risk

3 November

President Barack Obama has warned that "the fate of the world" is at risk if Donald Trump is elected to the White House next Tuesday.

"The fate of the world is teetering and you, North Carolina, are going to have to make sure that we push it in the right direction," he told a rally for Hillary Clinton, delivering what the Daily Telegraph describes as a "barnstorming address" in North Carolina.

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Obama added: "I am not on the ballot, but I tell you what - fairness is on the ballot; decency is on the ballot; justice is on the ballot; progress is on the ballot; our democracy is on the ballot."

Americans vote on their next president next Tuesday, with polls showing the race tightening between Clinton and Trump. The latest polls in North Carolina show the Republican leading by a fraction of a point.

Obama told voters in the key state: "We won't win this election, potentially, if we don't win North Carolina."

The President continued: "I hate to put a little pressure on you, but the fate of the republic rests on your shoulders."

Trump said Obama should stop campaigning for Clinton and instead concentrate on running the country.

"The bottom line is, no-one wants four more years of Obama," he told supporters in Pensacola, Florida. "If Hillary Clinton were to be elected, it would create an unprecedented and protracted constitutional crisis."

US election 2016: Clinton accuses Trump of 'degrading' women

2 November

Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton has accused her Republican rival Donald Trump of "degrading" women in her new campaign commercial.

The ad shows footage of Trump saying on camera that "putting a wife to work is a very dangerous thing" and "when I come home and dinner's not ready I go through the roof".

The advert was released to coincide with a speech Clinton gave in Florida in which she said she "learned way back in elementary school that it's not okay to insult people".

After being introduced on stage by former Miss Universe Alicia Machado, who says Trump called her "Miss Piggy" after she put on weight, Clinton said: "Can we just stop for a minute and reflect on the absurdity of Donald Trump finding fault with Miss Universe?"

Clinton said Trump called women "ugly, disgusting, nasty, all the time" because he was a "bully". She said she had been a lawyer, first lady, senator, secretary of state, wife, mother and grandmother, while her rival had "spent a lot of time demeaning, degrading, insulting and assaulting women".

Trump, who is facing a string of sexual harassment claims, has threatened to sue his accusers. He denies their allegations, describing them as "lies, lies, lies" and part of a "coordinated and vicious attack", reports NBC News.

A Washington Post/ABC News tracking poll released yesterday showed Trump with a one-point lead over Clinton nationally. This was the first time that the Republican has held a lead in that poll since May.

US election 2016: Mike Pence's plane skids off runway

28 October

A plane carrying Republican vice-presidential nominee Mike Pence skidded off a runway as it touched down in New York last night.

There were no reported injuries in the turbulent landing at a rainy LaGuardia Airport. Pence and the other 30 or so passengers were evacuated through the back of the plane.

Journalists on the Boeing 737-700 said they could feel the plane fishtailing as it landed. It then slid off the runway before coming to an abrupt halt in nearby grass.

Pence sent a tweet after the incident thanking the emergency teams.

A spokeswoman for Donald Trump said the businessman had called his running mate and was "very glad everyone on board the plane is safe".

Trump also told a rally in Ohio: "I just spoke to our future vice president and he's OK.

"Do you know he was in a big accident with the plane? Everybody's fine. But what a great decision it was to get Mike Pence. What a great guy he is. What a great job he's doing."

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton also tweeted she was "glad" that everyone had landed safely.

A spokesperson for the Federal Aviation Administration told CNN it will be investigating the incident.

US election 2016: Clinton would 'start World War III' over Syria, says Trump

26 October

Donald Trump says his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton would provoke a third world war with her plan to impose a no-fly zone in Syria.

"You're going to end up in World War III over Syria if we listen to Hillary Clinton," the Republican presidential candidate said. "You're not fighting Syria any more; you're fighting Syria, Russia and Iran, all right?

Clinton has called for Russian and Syrian planes to be grounded to protect civilians, a measure which some analysts believe "could bring the United States into direct conflict with Russian fighter jets", Reuters reports.

Senior US military officials are "increasingly alarmed" at the prospect of a military confrontation with Russia "that could escalate to levels that were previously unthinkable in the post-cold war world", says The Guardian.

James Clapper, the US director of national intelligence, says the risk of such a conflict is severe. "I wouldn't put it past them to shoot down an American aircraft," he said.

Last month, Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, the highest-ranking military officer in the US armed forces, told a congressional hearing that trying to implement a no-fly zone could end in conflict.

"Right now... for us to control all of the airspace in Syria it would require us to go to war, against Syria and Russia," he said.

The Clinton campaign dismissed Trump's criticism, saying both "Republican and Democratic national security experts have denounced Mr Trump as unfit to be commander-in-chief". The businessman has also been criticised for his praise of Russian President Vladimir Putin's leadership style.

US election 2016: Trump and Clinton trade barbs at charity dinner

21 October

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump exchanged jokes at one another's expense during a charity dinner last night, but there was a dark side to the usually light-hearted affair.

The US presidential candidates were guests of honour at the annual Alfred E Smith dinner, a Catholic fundraiser for children in New York and a traditional stop during the election campaign.

Usually, the White House hopefuls deliver a speech in which they poke fun at themselves and each other, but last night, says The Guardian, "the genuine contempt between the two nominees overshadowed proceedings".

Trump was first to speak and gave his rival a friendly double-pat on the shoulder as he rose - "but quickly, his remarks took a more menacing turn", says the New York Times.

"Trump set off on a blistering, grievance-filled performance that translated poorly to the staid setting, stunning many of the well-heeled guests who had filed into the Waldorf Astoria hotel for an uncommon spectacle: an attempted detente in a campaign so caustic that the candidates, less than 24 hours earlier, declined to shake hands on a debate stage," says the newspaper.

The Republican joked the 1,500-strong crowd was Clinton's biggest audience yet and said it would be unusual for her to be with so many corporate leaders and not get paid, a reference to the lucrative speeches she has made to elite financial firms.

However, he was booed when he said the Democrat was so corrupt she was booted off the Watergate commission and that she was "pretending not to hate Catholics" at the event, which was hosted by the Archbishop of New York.

For her part, Clinton made jibes at Trump's comments about women's looks, telling the guests: "People look at the Statue of Liberty and they see a proud symbol of our history as a nation of immigrants. A beacon of hope for people around the world. Donald sees the Statue of Liberty and sees a 4. Maybe a 5 if she loses the torch and tablet and changes her hair."

She also referred to his insinuations that she had used drugs prior to the televised debates. "I'm so flattered Donald thought I used some kind of performance enhancer," she said. "I did. It's called preparation."

And she closed by telling the guests: "We'll either have the first female president or the first president who started a Twitter war with Cher."

US election 2016: Trump ramps up rhetoric

14 October

In the wake of one of the most dramatic weeks in US election campaign history, Donald Trump has made ever more contentious and colourful statements, even as his presidential campaign wavers following a string of controversies and allegations, in particular over his attitude to women.

The Republican nominee has reached his "moment of reckoning," says CNN's Maeve Reston.

"Presidential campaigns always fear the October surprise," she added. "In Trump's case it was a pattern of demeaning behaviour toward women that took on new significance after a weekend bracketed by two explosive reports of sexual assault."

But as his campaign descended into a state of near-chaos Trump doubled down on his rhetoric in back-to-back, freewheeling rallies in Florida.

In his first speech, the Republican hopeful said that victory for Hillary Clinton next month would see Islamic State "take over" the US.

Referring to the Middle East, he said: "They'll not only take over that part of the world, they'll take over this country, they'll take over this part of the world. "

He then went on to suggest that he would never have sexually assaulted one woman who came forward, apparently because she was unattractive.

"Take a look. Look at her. Look at her words. And you tell me what you think. I don't think so," Trump said of Natasha Stoynoff, a People magazine reporter who alleges he "forced his tongue down my throat”.

Trump even positioned himself as a martyr for his supporters saying: "I take all of these slings and arrows gladly for you – gladly. I take them for our movement so that we can have our country back. Our great civilisation here in America and across the civilised world has come upon a moment of reckoning."

The past week has also seen the Trump campaign forge an unlikely alliance with Wikileaks. The former reality TV star has tweeted the organisation's release of information regarding the Clinton campaign.

"The WikiLeaks Twitter feed has started to look more like the stream of an opposition research firm working mainly to undermine Hillary Clinton," says Robert Mackey of The Intercept.

Last week, when US intelligence officials blamed Russia for previous hacks, the Clinton campaign was quick to point out how a triumvirate of Trump, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange and Vladimir Putin could be seen to be "trying to affect the outcome of the election in favour of Donald Trump."

The fact that people are even asking questions about a connection between Trump, Putin and Assange is "astonishing," says the Guardian's David Smith.

Perhaps most shockingly, Trump could be forced to plumb even murkier depths in his speeches over the coming weeks, says Steve Schmidt, who was a senior adviser to John McCain's campaign in 2008.

"There's real nihilism in the Trump campaign right now, [which is] just determined to do anything and say anything to make this the most disgusting final weeks in a presidential campaign ever," he told the New York Times.

Following weeks of setbacks, polls remain an issue for the Republican nominee.

"It"s hard to see any path that gets him to 270 [electoral college votes needed to win] short of some seismic event," says Russell Schriefer, a Republican strategist who has worked in six of the past seven presidential elections.

"But I'm not ready to say he can't get there, because of how insane this cycle has been."

US election 2016: New sexual assault accusers say Donald Trump was 'like an octopus'

13 October

Donald Trump is facing more claims of alleged sexual harassment, after a number of women came forward to tell their stories.

The New York Times reports claims by Jessica Leeds, who sat next to the Republican presidential candidate on a flight more than 30 years ago. She says he lifted the armrest and began to touch her.

"According to Ms Leeds, Trump grabbed her breasts and tried to put his hand up her skirt," the paper says. Leeds told the newspaper Trump "was like an octopus" and that his hands "were everywhere".

A second woman, Rachel Crooks, has alleged that while she was working as a secretary in Trump Tower in 2005, Trump kissed her on the cheeks and mouth outside a lift in the building.

"It was so inappropriate," Crooks said. "I was so upset that he thought I was so insignificant that he could do that."

Trump has vehemently denied the accusations, describing them as "fiction". He is reportedly preparing to sue the New York Times, which he said had launched "a completely false, coordinated character assassination".

CBS News has also broadcast video footage taken in 1992, which it says shows Donald Trump "sexualizing a 10-year-old girl".

The incident, captured during filming for a Christmas special at Trump Tower, shows Trump speaking with a group of young girls, before he "looks at the camera and brags to the home audience: 'I'm am going to be dating her in 10 years. Can you believe it?'", The Guardian reports.

According to Buzzfeed, Trump also intruded on women who were taking part in the 1997 Miss Teen USA pageant. Four of them say he "walked into the dressing room while contestants — some as young as 15 — were changing", the website reports

"Don't worry, ladies, I've seen it all before," Trump is alleged to have said at the time.

The Guardian reports similar allegations, alleging that the Republican nominee "deliberately walked in on two young Miss USA 2001 contestants while they were naked". One of his accusers said Trump "barged right in, didn't say anything, stood there and stared at us".

In New York yesterday, a federal judge ordered lawyers for Trump and the disgraced former financier Jeffrey Epstein to appear in court on 16 December, along with attorneys representing a woman who claims Trump sexually assaulted her when she was 13 years old.

Epstein, who was convicted of underage sex crimes in 2008, has denied the allegations, as has Trump.

Hillary Clinton's campaign spokeswoman Jennifer Palmieri said that the fresh wave of allegations "sadly fits everything we know about the way Donald Trump has treated women". The "disgusting behaviour he bragged about in the tape are more than just words," she said.

US election 2016: Apprentice creator breaks silence on Trump footage

11 October

The creator of The Apprentice in the US has said he does not have "the ability nor the right" to release unaired footage of Donald Trump from the show.

Mark Burnett, the London-born president of MGM Television, has faced mounting pressure to release recordings from the reality TV show amid suggestions they contain material damaging to the businessman's presidential campaign.

Trump has been hit after leaked footage from an episode of Access Hollywood showed him bragging about sexually assaulting women.

However, Bill Pruitt, a producer on seasons one and two of the US Apprentice, says there are "far worse" tapes in existence.

"Critics of the Republican nominee are eager for the release of unaired recordings from The Apprentice, a show which Mr Trump lead from its creation in 2004 until 2015," says the Daily Telegraph.

Chris Nee, a children's television producer in the US, suggested on Twitter that the "leak fee" for releasing footage was $5m (£4m).

However, in a statement released to Variety on Monday afternoon, Burnett and MGM said: "Despite reports to the contrary, Mark Burnett does not have the ability nor the right to release footage or other material from The Apprentice.

"Various contractual and legal requirements also restrict MGM's ability to release such material.

"The recent claims that Mark Burnett has threatened anyone with litigation if they were to leak such material are completely and unequivocally false. To be clear, as previously reported in the press, which Mark Burnett has confirmed, he has consistently supported Democratic campaigns."