US election like no other enters nail-biting final month

Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are entering the final one-month sprint to the most dramatic U.S. presidential election in modern history, with both candidates warning the fate of a divided nation hangs on a result that is still too close to call.

The 2024 race has seen more twists than a Hollywood blockbuster, from the vice president's shock replacement of Joe Biden as the Democratic nominee, to the Republican former president riding out two assassination attempts as he eyes a sensational comeback to the White House.

Now the United States is bracing for a cliffhanger ending with Trump, 78, and Harris, 59, neck-and-neck in the polls, and the Republican warning darkly of a repeat of the chaos that followed the 2020 election if he does not win this time around.

The world is, meanwhile, waiting with bated breath to see who ends up in the Oval Office, at a time when the Middle East slips ever closer to all-out war and Ukraine's fight for survival against Russia hinges on the U.S. support that Trump has previously criticized.

"This is a tremendously important election," Peter Loge, director of George Washington University's School of Media and Public Affairs, told AFP.

"They [Trump and Harris] have both cast it in apocalyptic terms."

One thing is for sure: The next four weeks will see Harris and Trump, along with their running mates, Democratic Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Republican Ohio Senator J.D. Vance, relentlessly hitting the campaign trail.

America's idiosyncratic electoral college means they will end up fighting for a few thousand votes in seven key swing states that are expected to decide the election: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

And as America...