US Election 2020: What you need to know right now

US President Donald Trump on Sunday (local time) begins his final, two-day sprint of campaigning across the battleground states of the 2020 election in a bid to defy the polls and win a come-from-behind victory over Democrat Joe Biden.

The election is just two days away and here's everything you need to know.

- A federal judge in Texas scheduled an emergency hearing for Monday on whether Houston officials unlawfully allowed drive-through voting and should toss more than 100,000 votes in the Democratic-leaning area.

- A record surge of coronavirus cases in the United States pushed hospitals closer to the brink of capacity and drove the number of infections reported on Friday to a new daily world record of 100,000, four days before the election.

- The debate over which presidential candidate’s approach to the Affordable Care Act, President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare legislation, is better for the economy is partly about price tags. Bidencare is forecast to increase federal healthcare spending by $2 trillion or more over 10 years. Trump’s approach is to hold federal spending stable or reduce it.

- Peaceful participants at a rally in a North Carolina city to turn out the vote ahead were pepper-sprayed by law enforcement officials on Saturday, according to videos broadcast online and witnesses.

BY THE NUMBERS

More than 90 million Americans have cast ballots in the U.S. presidential election, according to a tally on Saturday from the U.S. Elections Project at the University of Florida, setting the stage for the highest participation rate in over a century.

GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE

Protesters in Mexico burned effigies of Trump and a border patrol agent on the U.S. border on Saturday, condemning Trump’s migration policies and urging Americans to reject him at the ballot box on Tuesday.

INVESTOR VIEW

Some investors are betting the technology and communications stocks that drove a massive rebound in U.S. markets this year will face a tougher slog in coming months, no matter whether Trump or Biden wins Tuesday’s election.

ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL

Expected events and Reuters coverage on Nov 1:

- Trump campaigns in Michigan, Iowa, North Carolina, Georgia and Florida

- Biden campaigns in Pennsylvania

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Media customers can find complete multimedia coverage on the Reuters Connect planning calendar here here