It has been an agonising night for print media: what to lead with when polling stations are closing in America but the result of the world’s most important election is still not in view? “America decides” is the simple headline on the front page of the Financial Times, over a photo of ballot boxes in use at a polling station in New York. The paper sums up the contest in four bullet points: “High-stakes race ends”, “[Kamala] Harris and [Donald] Trump both sense victory”, “Polls point to tight result” and “Anxious world watches”.
A US election “meltdown” makes the front page of Metro. “Result on knife edge…” the headline says, “then voting machines fail in crunch states”. The paper reports a computer glitch affecting “several ballot machines in the crucial swing state of Pennsylvania, where handfuls of voters could turn the whole result”. Technicians were called in to fix them, it adds.
Over a photo of what appear to be members of a US armed response unit, the i headline says: “America votes for its future – and braces for election unrest.” Apparently the UK is preparing for “six scenarios… for if Trump wins”. Away from the US, readers can turn to the Nature section and follow one penguin’s 2,100-mile swim to Australia. “Are we nearly there yet?” is a question not just for the penguin of course.
Rachel Reeves’s “inheritance tax raid on farmers will put food security at risk and leave Britain more reliant on foreign imports”, the Daily Telegraph quotes suppliers as saying. The chancellor announced last week that inheritance tax relief for farms would be limited to £1m, meaning all assets above that threshold passed down to the next generation would be taxed. She insisted the changes would affect only the wealthiest farmers. The Telegraph also reports the Foreign Office is pleading with private schools to offer discounts to diplomats after the new government’s “VAT raid” on school fees. Hundreds of diplomats’ children receive government funding to help with their boarding school fees, the paper says. A photo of Trump after casting his vote leads the paper’s US election coverage, along with a report that Russia was blamed for bomb threats which disrupted voting at two polling stations in the swing state of Georgia.
The same photo of Trump and his wife Melania looks out of the Daily Mail where, in a glorious mixed metaphor, the headline declares that “Tinderbox America” is on a “knife edge”. According to the paper’s experts, the result is “basically a coin toss”.
“World awaits America’s fate” is the main headline on the Times, over a composite image of a laughing Harris and a smiling Trump. Inheritance tax for UK farmers is the paper’s second story. “Farmers are plotting a strike to disrupt the food supply system in protest,” it says. Apparently “about ten” farming influencers are deciding which days would be best for strike action this month. “They say we are only ever four meals away from anarchy,” one farmer remarks, as quoted by the paper.
A photo of Harris, smiling with her phone to her ear, steals the front page of the Guardian under the headline “Hope… and fear”. The contest for the White House was “hurtling towards an uncertain finish”, the paper says. The headline of an opinion piece says “Democrats dare to believe” after “the dread and the angst” of the election campaign.
Photos of Trump and Harris make the front page of the Sun but they are somewhat shunted aside by one of Coleen Rooney who apparently may be spared some challenges on a forthcoming series of I’m A Celebrity because she suffers from painful reactive arthritis.
“Pray for victory.. brace for chaos” reads the headline on the front page of the Daily Mirror, adding the world “holds its breath”. There are fears that “Trump will raise more hell” if he loses, the paper says.
“House prices to rise £84,000 in five years” splashes the Daily Express, quoting “experts”. “First-time buyers face even tougher battle to get on property ladder as values surge,” it says. A photo of Trump leads the paper’s coverage of America’s “tense day of election reckoning” and the Queen is down with a bug but hopes to recover “for Poppy Day”.
“Bigly trouble” shouts the Daily Star over a main photo of Donald “Orange Manbaby” Trump and an inset image of Kamala Harris. The US is “braced for riots and legal chaos”, the paper says.
