Votes are still being counted in an American election that could not have presented a greater contrast between the candidates. The results have been pointing towards Donald Trump, but one must be careful to temper any euphoria or schadenfreude about the result.

First, despite growing polarisation, anti-democratic rhetoric by Donald Trump, and Russian attempts at election disinformation, the US system performed well. In a country of 333 million people spread over nine time zones one can expect to see stories about extremist groups plotting mischief and Russian social media trying to seed doubt about election integrity.