US Elections

Perhaps we should call it "Smackdown at the Mack," since it is being held at the Hofstra University's David S. Mack Sports and Exhibition Complex on New York's Long Island.

So how should you watch this D-Day of Debates? We have some tips for you:

What time does it start?

When Hillary Clinton takes the stage at the first presidential debate, she will make history. Over the past few months the level of scrutiny faced by the first female candidate for president of the United States has ramped up: her policies, her emails, her relationships have been critiqued, dissected and analysed. And so have her clothes.

With national polls showing a tight race just six weeks out from Election Day, the Hofstra University fight offers one of the last chances for each to speak directly to the tens millions of voters who are expected to tune in.

For Clinton, a veteran debater, one of her biggest challenges will be both to provoke Trump and avoid being provoked by him, while delivering an earnest and candid performance.

"We have not invited her formally, and we do not expect her to be there as a guest of the Trump campaign," Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway told CNN's Jake Tapper on "State of the Union."

Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, Trump's vice presidential nominee, told "Fox News Sunday" host Chris Wallace that Trump's suggestion he'd invite Flowers was just "mocking" Clinton's campaign for distracting from the real issues at stake on Monday night.

Their comments come after Trump tweeted that he was considering inviting Flowers to sit in the front row for the first debate.

The Texas senator fought Mr Trump in a bitter primary battle, marked by mud-slinging and personal insults.

Mr Cruz said he would fulfil his promise to vote for the Republican nominee and that electing Hillary Clinton would be "wholly unacceptable".

He drew ire at the Republican National Convention in July, when he was booed off stage for not endorsing Mr Trump.

Waving placards as they drove the red, open-top, double-decker past the Palace of Westminster and St. Paul's Cathedral, the campaigners urged the estimated 200,000 US citizens in Britain to register to vote in the election on November 8.

They stopped off at key American hotspots in the city, including the American School, the City of London financial hub and a popular Philly cheesesteak food truck in Spitalfields, East London.

It is a cliche that politics is a contact sport, but like most clichés, it contains a kernel of truth. Elections are brutal -- and they should be: the winner is the person who ultimately wields power. That means that you have to fight at least as hard as your opponent. Again that makes sense: if you won't fight for your own job, why should voters believe that you would fight hard for theirs?

"America is like the best idea the world ever came up with, but Donald Trump is potentially the worst idea that ever happened to America," he told CBS's Charlie Rose. "He could destroy it."

"America is not just a country," Bono continued in the interview that aired Tuesday on "This Morning." "America is an idea and that idea is bound up in justice and equality for all."

The philanthropist and activist, who was in New York for the meeting of the United National General Assembly, called Trump's rise to prominence within the GOP "really dangerous."

On Monday, Trump Jr. tweeted a graphic that likened Syrian refugees to Skittles, which swiftly triggered a wave of criticism.

"This image says it all. Let's end the politically correct agenda that doesn't put America first. #trump2016," he tweeted, with a graphic that said: "If I had a bowl of skittles and I told you just three would kill you. Would you take a handful? That's our Syrian refugee problem."

Find out all you need to know for the 2016 election on "The Daily DC" podcast

Mr Bush allegedly made the pledge to Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, niece to US ex-President John F Kennedy.

The former president's office has not confirmed the report, with a spokesman saying he was checking.

Mr Bush, who held office from 1989 until 1993, has not endorsed Republican candidate Donald Trump.