US election latest: Shock poll puts Kamala Harris ahead in Iowa; VP urges Americans to 'keep calm-ala' in SNL appearance

Trump campaign 'has become very dark'

The Trump campaign "has become very dark", a politics expert has told Sky News.

US and international politics professor Scott Lucas, from University College Dublin, said it was important not to take polls generally but the latest poll from Iowa was "important".

"It's by Ann Selzer. She's one of the most highly regarded pollsters in the US and in a state that Donald Trump won by eight points in 2020. All of a sudden she says Kamala Harris is up by three in that survey of 800 people," he said.

"It doesn't mean Harris is going to pull off an upset in Iowa but it does mean there are even more variables beyond those seven swing states we are looking at which means it is not predictable.

"You cannot call this election. But I would say at this point I would rather be in the Harris camp than the Trump camp because of that bit of a shift."

Asked if the campaigning had been "nasty" in the run up to election day, he added: "Of course it has.

"America has always been a contest of issues versus spectacle and I just have to say on one side that spectacle has become very dark.

"That spectacle has become filled with misinformation, lies and filled with a man who owns an entire social media platform called X promoting that disinformation.

"And filled with a candidate who has no boundaries in terms of what he will say and possibly what he will do if he narrowly loses next week."

'We've had a lot of good energy here': University students handed cookies for voting early in Michigan

In the heart of the University of Michigan's Ann Arbor campus, a cookie is handed out for an early vote.

Artisanal doughy treats piled with square chocolate chips and cream-coloured cookies with blue icing are laid out in boxes on top of a Harris/Walz stand in the main square next to a blue wall of boxes plastered with "students for Harris and Waltz" signs.

I trace the stream of students collecting their free cookies to the early voting centre around the corner.

Through the glass wall of the modern campus building, I see first-time voter Olamiposi move through the voting centre to cast her ballot.

Based on early voting data, Gen-Z-led organisation Voters of Tomorrow predicts youth voters are on track to break turnout records.

'We've had a lot of good energy here': University students handed cookies for voting early in Michigan

Battleground states flooded with voting lawsuits in 'attempt to create chaos'

Political parties and groups have filed nearly 100 lawsuits across seven battleground states that could shape how votes are cast and counted and the legal battle that's expected to follow election day.

The majority were brought by Republicans and allied groups, which voting rights experts told our US partner network NBC News could help bolster efforts by Donald Trump to challenge the outcome of the election if he loses.

Many of the suits aren't designed to succeed but they could help sow further distrust in the voting system, the experts said.

"What we are seeing now that is really troubling is a set of lawsuits being filed so very close to an election that are trying to change the rules of the road in a way that would disenfranchise voters," Danielle Lang, the senior director of the voting rights unit at the Campaign Legal Center, told NBC.

"A lot of this litigation is, quite frankly, not designed to succeed. It's just designed to create confusion and chaos."

Claire Zunk, a spokesperson for the Republican National Committee's election integrity effort, said in a statement that the "operation is committed to defending the law and protecting every legal vote".

Europe will have to rethink support for Ukraine if Trump wins, Hungarian PM claims

Europe will need to rethink its support for Ukraine in its war with Russia if Donald Trump is elected US president, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said.

Mr Orban opposes military aid to Ukraine and has made clear he thinks Mr Trump shares his views and would negotiate a peace settlement for Ukraine. 

He backs the former president in Tuesday's US election.

"We need to realise that if there will be a pro-peace president in America, which I not only believe in but I also read the numbers that way, if what we expect happens and America becomes pro-peace, then Europe cannot remain pro-war," Mr Orban said.

Ukraine will be high on the agenda when European leaders meet in Budapest in the coming week.

"Europe cannot bear the burden of [the war] alone, and if Americans switch to peace, then we also need to adapt, and this is what we will discuss in Budapest," Mr Orban said.

In July, Hungary's foreign minister Peter Szijjarto said that the Hungarian government saw Mr Trump as a "chance for peace" in Ukraine.

That same month, Mr Orban said his team was assisting Trump's aides with policies on families and migration.

Election results could take 'several days or a week'

The former US ambassador to the UK has told Sky News it is unlikely we will see an affirmed result from the US elections on Tuesday.

Speaking on Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips, Philip Reeker said it was "an incredibly tight race" and "nobody can predict it for sure".

"I don't expect to see an affirmed result on Tuesday night," he said.

"You'll recall in the 2020 election, it took several days for some states to come in and be called. And there were lots of legal challenges."

He went on to say "it could be several days or a week" before we get a result.

"And then the legal challenges begin, both sides have lawyered up. They will be ready for this.

"Somebody said, who wins this election? It's the lawyers!"

Asked how a second Trump term will be different to the first, he replied that he will bring "that experience of four years in the White House", with "lessons perhaps learned, perhaps not".

"I think the institutions in America will persevere. They will get us through what is likely to be a tumultuous period of reflection," he added.

"If you look back at history, we've been through these things before. But this will be a particularly anxious time."

Asked if Donald Trump was serious about imposing 20% tariffs on all imports, he replied: "I think that's something people have to expect. Economists expressed great concern about that."

Harris v Trump may be remembered as the 'litigation election' - the world will be hoping it's settled on the night

Politicians and people around the world are holding their breath to see who wins the US presidential election on Tuesday. Will it be a second term for the Republican Donald Trump? 

Or victory for the Democrat Kamala Harris, who would be the first woman POTUS, and only the second person of colour?

Unlike in the UK where a prime minister can be kicked out of Downing Street overnight after a general election, there will be a transition period. The next president will not take office until Inauguration Day - 20 January 2025.

But when will we know who the next president will be? Recent precedents suggest we may not know on the night after polls close but some days or even weeks later - especially if the result looks close this time, as has been widely predicted.

-SKY NEWS