US elections live updates: Trump to turn fire on Harris in his first rally since Biden dropped out of race

12.05pm BST

German chancellor Olaf Scholz said he believed it was “very possible” US vice-president Kamala Harris would win the US election later this year, stopping short of endorsing Harris over Republican Donald Trump .

Scholz had been unusually direct in his endorsement of US President Joe Biden before the latter dropped his reelection bid last weekend and endorsed Harris as the Democrat party’s candidate to face Trump in the November election.

“The election campaign in the USA will certainly be exciting, now with a slightly new lineup and a new constellation,” Scholz told an annual summer news conference on Wednesday.

“I think it is very possible that Kamala Harris will win the election, but the American voters will decide.”

11.47am BST

Dozens of Democrats plan to skip Netanyahu address to US Congress

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is due to address the US Congress on Wednesday as dozens of Democrats plan to skip the speech.

Protests over his arrival in Washington DC have already begun , including a sit-in at a congressional office building that ended with multiple arrests, according to the Associated Press.

He will speak to a joint meeting of the Senate and House of Representatives at 2pm (7pm UK time). This will be his fourth time making such an address, surpassing Winston Churchill’s record as the foreign leader who has made the most joint addresses to the US Congress.

Dozens of Democrats plan to skip the speech, many expressing dismay over Israel’s military campaign in Gaza which has killed more than 39,000 people and led to a humanitarian crisis on the ground. Presumptive Democratic nominee Kamala Harris will not be in attendance as she is on the campaign trail outside DC but she plans to meet Netanyahu separately.

Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen told reporters: “For him, this is all about shoring up his support back home, which is one of the reasons I don’t want to attend.”

“I don’t want to be part of a political prop in this act of deception. He is not the great guardian of the US-Israel relationship.”

The Democrats planning to stay away also include Senators Dick Durbin , the chamber’s number two Democrat, Tim Kaine, Jeff Merkley and Brian Schatz , all members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, as well as Patty Murray , who chairs Senate Appropriations.

In the House, those staying away included progressives like Representatives Rashida Tlaib and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez , as well as Ami Bera , a senior member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, and Adam Smith , the top Democrat on Armed Services.

Smith said he never attends joint meetings but also described himself on Tuesday as “very, very opposed to what prime minister Netanyahu is doing in Israel.”

Murray normally would have presided, as the senior Senate Democrat, because Harris will not attend. Democratic Senator Ben Cardin , who leads the foreign relations committee, will replace her.

Netanyahu is due to travel to Florida to meet with Donald Trump later this week. The meeting will be their first since the end of Trump’s presidency, during which the two forged close ties.

11.01am BST

Harris Campaign raises $126m since announcing 2024 run

The Harris Campaign has announced that, as of Tuesday evening, they have raised $126m since announcing 2024 run.

10.41am BST

Trump to turn fire on Harris in his first rally since Biden dropped out of race

Welcome to our coverage of the US presidential race with all the major players due to speak today.

Republican nominee Donald Trump will hold his first rally since it was announced that Joe Biden will drop out of the race. The former president will appear at an event in Charlotte, North Carolina, a state that will be an important battleground in the 5 November election. He will turn his fire on Kamala Harris , who is almost certain to run against him, amid fears from his aides of a “Harris honeymoon”.

Meanwhile, as Reuters reports, the vice-president will head to Indianapolis to speak at an event hosted by the Zeta Phi Beta Sorority , which was founded at Howard University, the historically Black college that Harris attended.

She hopes to tap sororities’ multi-generational network of Black women to deliver strong voter turnout for Democrats in November.

Harris held an energetic first rally as the likely nominee on Tuesday in Milwaukee, telling the crowd that Americans were “not going back” to the “chaos” of the Trump years.

Joe Biden will also be speaking. He is set to make a case for his legacy on Wednesday night when he delivers an Oval Office address about his decision to bow out of the race and “what lies ahead.”

Updated at 12.15pm BST