Poll: Trump edges Harris in swing state early voting A new Harvard CAPS/Harris #poll shows President #Trump with a narrow lead over VP #Harris among early voters in battleground states. According to the survey, 48% of early voters in critical swing states are backing Trump, while 47% are choosing Harris. Around 5% picked a third choice or said they hadn't voted yet, Newsmax reported. Poll co-director Mark Penn said Trump's "swing state strategy is paying off," noting that the GOP candidate holds a 2-point lead overall in these regions, with 48% support to Harris' 46%. Despite the edge in battlegrounds, the poll found Harris performing well nationally among early voters, leading Trump by 8 points — 51% to 43%. According to the survey, 45% of voters plan to vote early, while 50% say they will wait until Election Day. Recent polling shows the two candidate neck-and-neck in all seven swing states. Nationally, an aggregate of polling compiled by The Hill/Decision Desk HQ shows Harris with a slim lead over Trump, at 50% to 47%. Both candidates are focusing heavily on the battleground states, which will likely decide the outcome of the Nov. 5 vote. The Harvard/Harris poll, conducted Oct. 11-13, surveyed 3,145 registered voters — including 2,596 likely voters and 898 battleground state voters. The margin of error for the total sample was ± 1.8 percentage points.

In France, 82% of citizens believe the country is heading in the wrong direction, a new historic low, according to an Ipsos survey. Great Britain experienced the biggest fall in optimism this month, dropping 14 percentage points.

The majority of U.S. adults will turn off cookies to manage privacy online 🔻 Key stat: 67% of US adults turn off cookies or website tracking to protect their privacy, putting it second only to changing social media privacy settings, according to a May 2023 Pew Research Center survey. Beyond the chart: 🔻 This data is particularly relevant as cookies are being phased out. The start of 2024 marked the deprecation of third-party cookies for 1% of Google Chrome users, with cookies scheduled to go away completely by the end of the year. 🔻 As third-party cookies fade, advertisers need to find ways to reach users without making them feel violated online, like incentivizing users to share first-party data.