A US presidential race that defies polls and our idea of America

Alexander Brown writes on a dramatic 24 hours in world politics and what happens next with the US election as the world holds its breath

Everyone predicted a tight race, and if they didn’t say so they were pretending.

Top forecasters fivethirtyeight had Mr Biden winning in 89 out of 100 scenarios, with success for the incumbent in ten of 100.

The idea of a landslide for Joe Biden was always fanciful, and at this point polls are as reliable as a UK Government policy announcement.

But nobody suggested it would be as close as this, a situation where both US president Donald Trump and…