Biden administration to accuse Russia of trying to influence 2024 election – reportsThe US plans to accuse Russia of a sustained effort to influence the 2024 US presidential election by using Kremlin-run media and other online platforms to target US voters with disinformation, according to CNN, citing sources.The Biden administration will announce a series of actions on Wednesday targeting what it says are Russian government-sponsored attempts to manipulate US public opinion ahead of the November election, NBC reported, citing senior US officials.They will include the White House publicly condemning the actions and the justice department announcing law enforcement action targeting the covert Russian campaign, according to reports.The Russian state media network RT is expected to be a major focus of the announcement, the reports say.The US attorney general, Merrick Garland, is expected to speak publicly this afternoon about the announcement, according to reports.ShareUpdated at 17.17 CESTKey eventsShow key events onlyPlease turn on JavaScript to use this featureInterim summaryHello live blog readers, it’s never a dull day when there’s an election, especially one as pivotal as the 2024 presidential election. We’ll bring you news developments as they happen, so stick with the Guardian.Here’s where things stand:

The US plans to accuse Russia of a sustained effort to influence the election by using Kremlin-run media and other online platforms to target US voters with disinformation, according to reports. The Biden administration will reportedly announce a series of actions later today in connection with such allegations.

A top strategist to the UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, will brief Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign on Labour’s election-winning strategy, according to a report. Deborah Mattinson, Starmer’s polling expert who was his director of strategy while he was leader of the opposition, will reportedly travel to Washington DC next week.

A fundraising event for some of the rioters who attacked the US Capitol on 6 January 2021, aiming to prevent the certification by Congress of Joe Biden’s election victory over Donald Trump, was scheduled to take place today at Trump’s golf club in New Jersey – but has been postponed indefinitely.

Kamala Harris will travel to Pittsburgh on Thursday to prepare for next week’s presidential debate, according to multiple reports. The US vice-president and Democratic nominee for president will spend the final days leading up to the debate on 10 September in Pittsburgh, the reports say, where she will also hold informal meetings with voters in the battleground of Pennsylvania, a crucial swing state.

National polls for the US presidential race have been upended ever since Kamala Harris took over from Joe Biden to run against Donald Trump. While Biden was trailing the Republican former president nationally and in many crucial swing states, Harris has gained about three points in national polls since becoming the nominee. The Guardian’s poll tracker assesses polls over a rolling 10-day period. It now has Harris leading nationally by about two points.

A Republican anti-Donald Trump group is targeting disaffected Republicans and conservative-leaning independents in a new $11.5m ad campaign that will play in key battleground states. The ad buy, by Republican Voters Against Trump, targets voters in swing states and features former Trump voters explaining why they plan to vote for Harris in November.
ShareUpdated at 19.14 CESTRT, the Russian state media network reportedly at the center of US accusations of a Kremlin-backed disinformation campaign to influence the 2024 election, has responded to the allegations.In a statement to Reuters, RT said:
Three things are certain in life: death, taxes and RT’s interference in the US elections.
ShareUpdated at 18.38 CESTMerrick Garland, the US attorney general, is reportedly preparing to speak today about the Biden administration’s claims of Russian disinformation campaigns targeting the presidential election.Garland and other law enforcement leaders are expected to speak briefly at the opening of a meeting of the justice department’s elections threats taskforce, the Associated Press is reporting.ShareUpdated at 18.38 CESTEd PilkingtonGinni Thomas, the far-right activist wife of the supreme court justice Clarence Thomas, has thanked a religious liberties group for its efforts to block reforms of the court aimed at reining in the justices’ ethical breaches, including those of her husband.A new recording obtained by the investigative website ProPublica and the watchdog Documented discloses a July email in which Ginni Thomas thanked First Liberty Institute for fighting to oppose supreme court reforms. She specifically referred to White House proposals from Joe Biden designed to rein in wayward justices on the country’s highest court, of which her husband is the prime example.The email was read out by the head of First Liberty Institute, Kelly Shackelford, on a 31 July call with donors to the group. He said the email had been written by Ginni Thomas that same day.Ginni Thomas wrote the email to the religious liberties group First Liberty Institute. Photograph: Manuel Balce Ceneta/APTwo days previously, Biden had called for sweeping changes to the court, including term limits for the nine justices and a code of ethics that would be enforced by an outside body. Under current arrangements, the justices are liable to a voluntary code which they individually police themselves.In an op-ed piece in the Washington Post, the US president explained why he thought a tougher code of ethics was now necessary. He pointed to “scandals involving several justices” that had damaged public confidence in the court, including “undisclosed gifts to justices” and “conflicts of interest connected with Jan 6 insurrectionists”.Biden did not mention names, but Clarence Thomas has been implicated in both types of ethically questionable behaviour. ProPublica has exposed the lavish international travel that the justice enjoyed courtesy of the Republican mega-donor Harlan Crow.ShareA Russian lawmaker has described reports that the Biden administration plans to accuse Moscow of trying to influence the 2024 presidential election as “pure rubbish”.Maria Butina spent 15 months in US prison for acting as an unregistered Russian agent and is now a lawmaker for the ruling United Russia party.She told Reuters that the US claims were a “witch-hunt”, adding:
Russia thinks it does not matter who wins the US elections – the only winner is the US private military-industrial complex. That is what matters – and nothing else.
ShareUpdated at 18.06 CESTKamala Harris, Joe Biden and Donald Trump are in various stages of planning likely visits to the World Trade Center site in New York City to commemorate the 9/11 attacks next week, according to a report.Harris is planning to travel to New York City after the 10 September presidential debate with Trump, the New York Times reported, citing sources.Biden is discussing his own plans to attend ground zero, the report says. Trump is also considering visiting ground zero, according to the Times.ShareThe Biden administration is reportedly planning to accuse Russia of Kremlin-sponsored attempts to target US voters with disinformation in a sustained effort to influence the 2024 presidential election.According to reports, the White House is expected to publicly condemn Moscow on Wednesday alongside an announcement by the justice department of law enforcement action targeting the covert Russian campaign.As we reported earlier, the Russian state media network RT is expected to be a major focus of the US announcement. US intelligence agencies have flagged RT as a source of Russian propaganda and disinformation and required it to register as a foreign agent.In July, the justice department accused a senior editor at RT of being involved in a Kremlin-backed scheme to spread online disinformation in the US, including about Russia’s war in Ukraine, using fictitious social media profiles posing as authentic Americans.US officials are expected to also name the Social Design Agency, a Russian IT company that has already faced US sanctions for allegedly running fake news sites in Europe on behalf of the Russian government, according to CNN.ShareUpdated at 17.55 CESTBiden administration to accuse Russia of trying to influence 2024 election – reportsThe US plans to accuse Russia of a sustained effort to influence the 2024 US presidential election by using Kremlin-run media and other online platforms to target US voters with disinformation, according to CNN, citing sources.The Biden administration will announce a series of actions on Wednesday targeting what it says are Russian government-sponsored attempts to manipulate US public opinion ahead of the November election, NBC reported, citing senior US officials.They will include the White House publicly condemning the actions and the justice department announcing law enforcement action targeting the covert Russian campaign, according to reports.The Russian state media network RT is expected to be a major focus of the announcement, the reports say.The US attorney general, Merrick Garland, is expected to speak publicly this afternoon about the announcement, according to reports.ShareUpdated at 17.17 CESTEd PilkingtonRepublican Voters Against Trump, the group of disaffected Republicans devoted to stopping Donald Trump from returning to the White House, is stepping up its efforts with an $11.5m ad buy in critical battleground states.The group is rolling out a new advert featuring former Trump voters vowing never again to back him, focused on the three so-called “blue wall” states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, which Joe Biden won in 2020 and which Kamala Harris must retain in November.The executive director of Republican Voters Against Trump, Sarah Longwell, told MSNBC that the thinking behind the ad buy was to give former Trump voters who are thinking about switching to Harris a “permission structure”. She said that focus groups had shown a “tremendous openness” among some Trump voters to backing the vice-president.“We are taking Trump-voting voices and elevating them so it sends a signal to other Trump voters who are Kamala-curious,” Longwell said.
They are interested in voting for her either because Donald Trump presents such a threat, or because people are bored by Trump – they are bored with all the drama and tired of the insults.
ShareUpdated at 17.13 CESTTim Walz, the Democratic vice-presidential candidate, will give the keynote speech in Washington on Saturday at a dinner hosted by the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBTQ+ civil rights organization.In a statement announcing Walz’s attendance, Kelley Robinson, president of the organization, said:
Whether it was as a veteran, teacher and football coach, member of Congress, or governor, he has spent his career championing equality.
BIG NEWS: We are thrilled to have Vice Presidential Nominee Governor Tim Walz join us at our National Dinner! He has been a steadfast champion for the LGBTQ+ community and will continue fighting for our rights once he is elected to the White House. pic.twitter.com/nRsZfzuMYg— HRC 🥥🌴 (@HRC) September 4, 2024ShareUpdated at 17.02 CESTAlice HermanIn August, I attended a Maga-aligned tent revival in western Wisconsin, which promised hope, worship and healing. Much of the event, though, was political: speaker after speaker addressed topics like Covid-19 lockdowns, January 6 (an event one of the headlining speakers at the Courage Tour, Lance Wallnau, attended) and the importance of conservative Christians getting involved in politics.One of the groups, called the Lion of Judah, is working to enlist poll workers to “fight the fraud” in November – an effort that extremism researchers worry could pose problems for election offices.I spent some time digging into the Lion of Judah, and found that their course encourages participants to sign up as poll workers as “the first step on the path to victory this Fall”.“That signals a very insidious desire to monkey around with the results of the election,” said Matthew Taylor, a researcher at the Institute for Islamic, Christian, and Jewish Studies whose work has focused on anti-democratic currents on the religious right.ShareUpdated at 16.50 CEST