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Hi there from the Financial Times. Today is Saturday, November 5th,

and this is a special episode of the FT News Briefing.

The US midterm elections are just a few days away, and over the past few weeks

we've been bringing you stories about some of the key issues on voters' minds,

from inflation to election denialism. So today, we brought all these stories together

for a special FT News Briefing episode. Think of it as your crash course for the election.

We're going to start in the Midwest state of Michigan to find out how abortion is influencing

voters. This year, the US Supreme Court overturned a 50-year-old ruling that protected the right to

this medical procedure, and Michigan is one of a handful of states where people will actually get

to vote on the issue because their ballots will have a state proposal about abortion.

Now, given that Michigan is almost perfectly divided between Democrats and Republicans,

the outcome is really a toss-up. Democrats are hoping for more voters like Anna Target here.

I'm kind of leaning Democrat because I feel like I have to vote that way to get my own

reproductive rights into some other issues that I feel like I am more in the middle,

but this kind of takes a priority for me.

The 21-year-old student was speaking to the FT's James Bleady. James was recently in Michigan,

and he joins me now. Hey, James. Hi, Mark. So, James, you visited Lansing. That's Michigan's

capital, and it's right by Michigan State, which is a huge university. Why did you decide to visit

this area in particular? So, Michigan is kind of the cauldron of the abortion debate in the

midterm elections, and that's because it's a classic battleground state. There are a number of

...