Reuters US Domestic News Summary

Trump stumps in Midwest, Biden in Pennsylvania two days before election Two days before Election Day, President Donald Trump on Sunday sprinted across U.S. battleground states with appearances in Iowa and Michigan as he seeks to rally past Democratic challenger Joe Biden, who in pivotal Pennsylvania implored his supporters to turn out to vote.

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs. Explainer: Red mirage, blue mirage - Beware of early U.S. election wins

Imagine that the polls have closed in Florida, counties are beginning to report early vote counts, and it looks like former Vice President Joe Biden is way ahead. An hour later, Pennsylvania counties begin to report and it seems to be a slam dunk for U.S. President Donald Trump. Don't be fooled, voting experts and academics say. Early vote counts in the most competitive, battleground states can be particularly misleading this election because of the surge in mail-in or absentee ballots, and the different ways that they are processed. Trump stumps in Midwest, Biden in Pennsylvania two days before election

Two days before Election Day, President Donald Trump on Sunday sprinted across U.S. battleground states with appearances in Iowa and Michigan as he seeks to rally past Democratic challenger Joe Biden, who in pivotal Pennsylvania implored his supporters to turn out to vote. Trump, aiming to avoid becoming the first incumbent president to lose a re-election bid since fellow Republican George H.W. Bush in 1992, has a frenetic schedule for Sunday, with stops also planned in North Carolina, Georgia and Florida. Trump's election night party will be held at the White House, official says

U.S. President Donald Trump will have his election night party on Tuesday in the East Room of the White House, a White House official said. About 400 people will attend the party, all of whom will be tested for the coronavirus, the official said on Sunday. Democrat Gary Peters maintains lead in Michigan U.S. Senate race: Reuters/Ipsos poll

Democratic U.S. Senator Gary Peters of Michigan leads his Republican challenger, John James, by seven points with days to go before an election that will determine which party controls the Senate, a Reuters/Ipsos poll showed on Sunday. About 12 competitive U.S. Senate races are up for grabs in next Tuesday's election, 10 with vulnerable Republican incumbents and two with vulnerable Democrats. To have a majority in the Senate, Democrats need to pick up three seats if the party wins the White House, which gives the vice president a tie-breaking vote, and four if not. U.S. coronavirus cases keep rising in grim march to Election Day

Coronavirus cases continued their grim climb in the United States on Sunday with Midwestern states experiencing record hospitalizations, as increasingly bitter rhetoric kept the virus front and center of campaigning two days before the presidential election. Nearly 87,000 cases were reported on Saturday, with 909 deaths and record hospitalizations for the sixth straight day in the Midwest, according to a Reuters tally. In October, 31 states set records for increases in new cases, 21 for hospitalized COVID-19 patients and 14 for record increases in deaths. (Graphic: https://tmsnrt.rs/2SFLb7o) Explainer: Are Trump's rallies spreading coronavirus? Why it's hard to know the full impact

Stanford University economists estimate that President Donald Trump's campaign rallies have resulted in 30,000 additional confirmed cases of COVID-19, and likely led to more than 700 deaths overall, according to a paper posted online this weekend. The research, led by B. Douglas Bernheim, chair of economics at Stanford University, analyzed data following 18 Trump rallies held between June 20 and Sept. 22, three of which were indoors. Bernheim said in an email the work relies on statistical methods to infer causation after an event has occurred. U.S. CDC reports 229,932 deaths from coronavirus

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Sunday reported 9,105,230 cases of the novel coronavirus, an increase of 80,932 cases from its previous count, and said that the number of deaths had risen by 823 to 229,932. The CDC reported its tally of cases of the respiratory illness known as COVID-19 as of 4 p.m. ET on Oct. 31, compared with its previous report released a day earlier. (https://bit.ly/3mA7Hfa) Texan Republicans lose bid to halt drive-through voting but fight continues

A group of Texas Republicans have lost one of two legal challenges they brought in the hope of halting drive-through voting in Houston and having more than 120,000 votes thrown out. In a brief order issued on Sunday, the Texas Supreme Court denied a request by conservative activist Steven Hotze and others for an order that drive-through voting violates Texas election law. White House coronavirus adviser Atlas apologizes for Russian TV interview

White House coronavirus adviser Scott Atlas apologized on Sunday for giving an interview to Russia's Kremlin-backed television station RT, saying he was unaware the outlet was a registered foreign agent in the United States. Atlas, a neuroradiologist and member of the White House coronavirus task force, appeared on the channel on Saturday and criticized coronavirus lockdowns measures, calling them an "epic failure" at stopping the virus' spread. Days before U.S. election, Biden's lead widens in Rust Belt: Reuters/Ipsos poll

Democrat Joe Biden's lead over U.S. President Donald Trump has widened a little in the final days of the 2020 campaign in three critical Rust Belt states that Trump narrowly won four years ago, according to Reuters/Ipsos opinion polls released Sunday. Biden leads Trump by 10 percentage points in Wisconsin and Michigan, and the presidential nominee is ahead by seven points in Pennsylvania. Biden has led Trump in all three states in every Reuters/Ipsos weekly poll that began in mid-September, and his leads have ticked higher in the each state over the past two weeks.