Suspicious packages sent to election offices in 16 US states as threats mount

An investigation has been launched after suspicious packages, some containing white powder, were sent to election officials in 16 states, intensifying fears of disruption to the forthcoming US presidential election.

Election offices in Alaska, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, Tennessee, Wyoming, Oklahoma, Georgia, Missouri, Mississippi, Massachusetts, Indiana, Rhode Island, Maryland, Colorado and Connecticut all confirmed receiving suspect mail, triggering a joint investigation by the FBI and the US Postal Service (USPS).

The substance in some cases turned out, on inspection by local authorities, to be flour.

Dispatch of the packages was disclosed two days after a suspected second assassination attempt on Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, in two months. It comes amid a febrile and increasingly toxic political atmosphere, punctuated by violence and threats and reports from several fronts of the specter of Russian interference, as well as rising fears among election officials and others that the outcome of the 5 November election could be subject to multiple challenges from committed partisans unwilling to accept the result and ready to intimidate election workers.

In one instance, researchers found that a Russian covert disinformation operation created a video featuring a paid actor who falsely claimed that Harris had inflicted injuries on her in a 2011 hit-and-run incident.

The fictitious claim was disseminated by a fake website for a nonexistent San Francisco news outlet named KBSF-TV. The Russian group responsible, which Microsoft called Storm-1516, is described as a Kremlin-aligned troll farm.