faced soldiers gave them one minute to get home it took the found me months to build their brick house and just then an hour. we were getting ready to win this election frankly we did win this. donald trump attempts to claim victory in the us presidential election with results still not announced in several battleground states. his rival joe biden has managed to flip the state of arizona in his favor and is currently ahead with 238 electoral votes against trump's 230. alarm clock this is al jazeera live from doha also coming out. with a tightening of votes still ongoing trump threatens to go to the supreme court to stop the counting biden has threatened counter legal action. both candidates

aged over 70 will look at how they're running mate some more important than ever. so the race to the white house has become incredibly tight after the polls closed no candidate has secured enough electoral college votes to win but that hasn't stopped both candidates being confident of victory despite millions of votes still uncounted donald trump has threatened to go to the supreme court something that biden's team said they are ready to challenge the total vote count could yet take a day. we have a team of reporters for you this reynolds is monitoring developments from los angeles tamala shell as in biden's home state of delaware. is standing by in washington d.c. the 1st let's head now from a rose in jordan who takes a look back at how the last few hours have unfolded. shortly after 2

am on wednesday president donald trump told his supporters and the nation that democrats were trying to steal his election day victory and trump said he was suing to hold on to the oval office so we'll be going to the u.s. supreme court we want all voting to stand but with the vote count still unfinished in at least 10 states trump's claim a victory was dubious earlier in the night trump's democratic rival joe biden urged his supporters to as he put it keep the faith i heard terry a night we believe we're on track to win a selection. we merely because of the odd pressure down early vote in a mail in vote is going to take a while we're going to have to be patient until the hard work of tally of votes is finished it's long been standard practice in u.s.

elections to count all the ballots no matter how many days it takes this year the delay is considerable given the more than 100000000 ballots being cast weeks ahead of time as well as the millions of votes cast on election day swing states such as michigan and georgia announced late on tuesday that they would resume counting on wednesday morning and at least one swing state pennsylvania said it might not be done until friday that state's governor pushed back against president donald trump's accusations that counting ballots after election day is illegal we may not know the results today as a result but i. encourage all of us to take a deep breath in and saying just be patient which most important that we hear is that we have accurate results and that every vote is counted even if it takes a little longer for news organizations had biden ahead with more than 200 electoral

college votes but the winning candidate needs 270 to be declared the winner is that likely won't happen before wednesday at the earliest roselyn jordan al-jazeera let's hear now from kemal son summer who has a breakdown of the numbers so far this is the state of the race 238 to joe biden 213 to donald trump it's very tight it's very close and even though clearly joe biden has a lead and is closer to 70 than his rival there are parts for both candidates at this point because there are 5 states left and we're going to run you through them all too close to call at this stage 10 electoral college votes in wisconsin part of the so-called blue belts of course which donald trump picked up 4 years ago that includes pennsylvania 20 electoral college votes which would be vital for either candidate to pick up the presidency at the end of well whichever date ends up being

we're also looking at michigan in that part of the country with its 16 electoral college votes completing the blue belt there important probably more for joe biden at this stage than it is for donald trump there are 2 other states to think about and that is north carolina with 15 electoral college votes and also the state of georgia. with that 16 vote southern states donald trump would be eyeing those ones up to try to get him over the line with some extra pick ups along the way that might include nevada with 6 electoral college votes which we would expect to go blue but then you can always expect the unexpected county so a final look at the state of the race 238-2213 those states in yellow the ones that are left the swing states the battleground states the states which will

ultimately decide this 2020 election. well it's going to cross one of them if issues line for us in washington d.c. the president trumps campaign headquarters and then sold still to play for but so much for the blue wave many democrats were hoping for. exactly it just hasn't materialized so that's going to lead to a lot of questions particularly where did all the money go particularly in florida you know the democrats got a lot a lot of money from small individual donors they spent a lot of that in florida and it made no impact they also put a lot of money into your heigho but again it made no impact here's a couple of things that we need to be aware of we said 24 hours ago the chances are we wouldn't get a result on election night that is proved to be absolutely right i was speaking to one democratic operative and the said look the president can come out and declare victory that doesn't mean he's won i can call myself the king of romania but that doesn't mean i'm the king of media another analogy they gave me they were desperate

to make this point that if you're playing a game of football and you're to nail up you don't start the game in 60 minutes and say hey we won so there's still a lot of votes to go they're looking at nevada which looks as if it's going to stay in the democratic camp are almost certainly going to go for biden the numbers for them are looking good in wisconsin and then there's detroit they still have to count a large number of the votes in wayne county why is wayne county important that in and around detroit and that is a democratic stronghold if they win enough and they take wisconsin and michigan that's the ballgame they've got to do 70 and they will when this election but there is always the concern that donald trump would see we're going to contest the election that has been cheated from is he's laid the groundwork for that over the last few weeks he backed away from it slightly on tuesday when he said we will only declare victory when it's time to declare victory there's no need to to muck around essentially and he is declaring victory before all the votes have been counted. and

he. said he's going to go to the supreme court a few steps he's got to go through before that happens but this could well end up at the supreme court but the democrats are pretty pretty confident that they've done enough that they will be able to say look if people cast votes. this should warn for some time yet and the supreme court would get in the way of that supreme court also where its reputation is a bit on the line as well here so it's going to be an interesting few hours i think we're going to keep an eye particularly on wisconsin and michigan that for the democrats seems to be the ball game know there are those who are saying that there are republicans who should step up and condemn donald trump for what he said for coming out in saying i've won the election when that storm entirely clear that's not going to happen and the reason for that is over the last 1214 hours you've seen a lot of the country and particularly the republican party embrace trump ism in the

way that a lot of the country thought it would be rejected so they're not going to criticize this president a lot of their political futures are no tie to that so big questions to ask after the election but the biggest question we're still waiting on is who is going to be the president of the united states who is going to win this presidential election that has not been decided yet yes we'll have to wait and thanks for that and let's spin across from washington d.c. to delaware which is biden's joe biden's home state tamala shell is in wilmington jamal so yes a lot of questions still to be asked of democrats of course hoping for greater things in there some whatever happens they will be struggling to digest what has happened. and did i mean they had set up this huge stage behind the campaign each group here in delaware nobody has come on to that stage obviously everyone is because the results haven't been finalized but at least there would have been a maybe more joyous atmosphere around if there was that certainty or that come. and

they would cross the finishing line it's still not 'd over there were still those states that i don't was talking about particularly when we're looking at wisconsin michigan michigan the maybe stand a greater chance because it is the metropolis of the traits that are still being counted and that is somewhere where they have traditionally done better and where they are expecting to do better so there is still live there are hope or at least some hope there but obviously they would have preferred or would have wished or expected there i say to be in a much stronger place at this point in the post-election counts than they are in now that being said that kind of may be downsides to things is also coupled with a sense of outrage towards the comments made by president trump there was a statement that was issued by the spokesperson to joe biden's campaign with this

why tom's attempt at claiming victory prematurely as a naked attempt or a naked effort rather taking away the democratic right of the american people to describe it as outrageous and this really is consistent with the message that came out from the democrats from prior to the election where they said that this was a contest to protect american democracy now they're saying well look this is exactly what is happening and we haven't even had a winner yet so. there we are they are still holding out there is still a belief that they can cross the line however albeit a cordial one. and they will be looking very closely at that blue belt or blue wall the pentagon kind of which phrase you want to go with when we're looking at that midwest region particularly likely say wisconsin and michigan and hoping that they will indeed from blue to mount thinks about shell of a little let's move on to robert reynolds who's in los angeles in california the

state with the biggest number of electoral votes of the democrats took about 2 of the states rollback arizona festool and nevada. well let's start with nevada because there was some news there nic the lead that joe biden had enjoyed in that state has diminished considerably when a new batch large batch of votes was counted and displayed from the los las vegas area so that's a situation we're going to be watching very closely the. former vice president is now up by just about $7000.00 votes in nevada which has 6 electoral votes so it's very important for him however we won't know where much until several hours from now since officials in nevada have said that they're going to take

a break and resume counting the votes in the morning. the. situation in arizona is perhaps the brightest spot amid a very disappointing. evening for for democrats their hopes of carrying others formerly republican states like texas were dashed and the blue wave that had been predicted or at least hoped for by many democrats just simply failed to materialize so arizona that's a significant win for joe biden it makes it much more. gives him much more flexibility more paths to winning $270.00 electoral votes and the presidency also a sitting republican senator was ousted there by a democrat so that was

a positive news for the party the biden campaign worked pretty hard to mobilize latino voters a native american voters of which there is a large contingent. in the state of arizona as well as suburban voters in the rapidly growing suburbs around the city of phoenix which itself is one of the most rapidly growing cities in the united states so a lot of very. well remarkable change for this state which had been a rock ribbed republican state the home of barry goldwater's who some call the founder of the modern conservative movement a state that has only gone democratic twice since it became a state in 1912 so that is certainly as i say one of the brighter spots in what is otherwise for democrats a pretty dull evening. all right thanks for that reverend else. another big

state is florida and like texas it voted for donald trump gunning for his in miami and has moved. when you look at where i'm standing now this is miami dade county and you look at how biden did among the latino vote here and it was extremely poor when you compare it to how hillary clinton did with the same community back in 2016 it seems to me the president's push to paint joe biden as a socialist works we already knew that about a 1000000 of the cuban americans that lived in a city like this in miami would likely vote republican but it seems like a lot of latino and hispanic voters who didn't vote for trump last time did so this time now the margin by which won this state was still pretty slim in 2016 he won by about 112000 votes it's about 350000 this time around but the picture is very clear. this was

a state that needed to keep to keep his the hopes alive in this presidential election to get another 4 years in the white house 29 electoral call of college votes really do matter for the president. let's take this on further joining us now from singapore is steve oaken he's a senior advisor at mclarty associates formerly deputy general counsel in the u.s. department of transportation on the president clinton as the 1st up so we had as we've just been here his tights in nevada going to come pennsylvania to come wisconsin looking promising for biden perhaps north carolina and georgia still to come how do you assess the state of play. well look we call this the blue shift and what has happened in this election is that the democrats focused on getting is many people as possible to vote early and to vote by mail in a lot of these states michigan pennsylvania wisconsin in particular all of those votes by mail been coming in for months the you know and weeks in the last few days

but they haven't been counted yet they didn't start to get counted until today so we all knew that what was going to happen was that the votes that were in person which get counted 1st were going to be read predominantly and then they were the total is going to shift to blue so it's exactly what we thought was going to happen the question is will there be enough of a shift of blue to turn the states into the biden victory and he needs 2 of those 3 new dots we also knew that donald trump stake a premature claim on victory if necessary and so it's proved what he might have done and also what's the strategy. well his strategy is twofold his 1st reggie is stop counting the votes now because he knows that the mail in ballots are more likely to go democratic that's why he's saying you can't count any boats after tonight which of course is ridiculous unconstitutional illegal whatever word you want to put it so he's going to fail at that but then he's going to go to the

courts and he's going to try and get as many ballots thrown out as possible on allegations of fraud to saying well the signatures didn't match and therefore the ballots should be thrown out you know the signature when you sign the ballots or when you register or. elect or the electoral system allowed ballots to come in too late even though they were postmarked on election day but they came in after you should throw those out so he's going through all of these legal challenges because he wants fewer votes counted which gives him a better chance to and as you said the democrats knew this was coming it's not like 2000 where they were unprepared they have a complete legal strategy ready for this and it's going to go to the courts if joe biden does and being ahead when all the votes are counted and it just has to be true of those 5 states that are remaining another vital races of course for control of the senate how do you see the. well the senate right now looks like it it

is going to be at best a tie but it could you know from a democratic perspective or it could stay republican and look this is what happened in 1996 where bill clinton as a democrat had the white house but the republican senate said to keep us there to be a check you don't want your white balance government we want to make sure that there has to be negotiations and compromise to get anything done and not let one party shay in charge the whole time so that that the argument that mitch mcconnell was making that lindsey graham was making might who are the republicans might keep control the senate and then if joe biden has the white house you're going to have to see some compromise happening in washington or we're going to have gridlock for another 4 years and talking a grid along how much privileged you think there's going to be a man has what to say but if we do get into seriousness against in the league we need as it were going to sort out well we have to have

a decision under the constitution by december 14th and we don't need a decision before really december 14th and that is when the electoral college which is a process but that's when the electoral college process and show it you know you've got weeks for the states to count them bowing to do a recount if it's needed to make sure that there aren't any fraudulent ballots in there to count for visual ballots so the process is for that to take a couple of weeks then by december 14th you will have the electoral college meet now if we're in the deadlock then or nobody has 270 electoral votes then we could get into a constitutional crisis and the election to go to the house we haven't had that happen the united states since 876 but that is possible yet another water to go to the bridge before to save time being thanks very much steve i can tell just from singapore. well donald trump and joe biden now the 2 oldest presidential

nominees in american history and that means their running mates have become more important than ever mike pence in common the harris couldn't be more different from the politics to the personalities. senator harrison vice president pence thank you for being here when vice president mike pence and senator kamel harris took to the debate stage in october viewers around the world witnessed a study in contrasts but when you see what the american people have done over these last 8 months hasn't worked it's a great disservice the sacrifices the american people of maine so let's talk about caring about the american people the american people have had to sacrifice far too much because of the incompetence of this administration on the republican side 61 year old vice president mike pence who over the past 4 years has proven himself president donald trump's most loyal ally known for his opposition to abortion the former governor of indiana is an evangelical christian and champion of the

religious right critics say pence has been a driving force in the trumpet ministrations efforts to roll back protections for lesbian gay bisexual and transgender people before being chosen as trump's running mate in 2016 pins had openly questioned some of trump's policies after joining the ticket though pins transformed into an adept 2nd in command who always defer to his boss because thanks to your leadership from early on not only are we bringing a whole of government approach to confronting the coronavirus we're bringing in all of america approach even as head of the white house coronavirus task force pince wouldn't let the news that members of his team had tested positive for coping 19 keep him off the campaign trail. continuing to campaign for trump even as public health officials criticized the decision greetings america on the democratic side 56 year old senator kamel harris the daughter of immigrants from jamaica and india

harris in 2016 became the 1st south asian american and 2nd african-american woman elected to the u.s. senate where she represents the state of california in 2020 as the democratic vice presidential nominee she became the 1st woman of color to be included on a major party's presidential ticket that i'm here tonight is a testament to the dedication of generations before me women and men who believe so fiercely in the promise of equality liberty and justice for all known as one of the toughest interrogators in congress harris has repeatedly used skills honed during her tenure as a prosecutor and a former attorney general of california while questioning trumpet administration officials during harris's short lived presidential campaign critics questioned her shifting positions on policy issues and her record as a prosecutor but as a barrier breaking running mate to joe biden harris an advocate for racial and social justice has proven popular with supporters applauding harris's pledge to

offer a path to citizenship to millions of undocumented immigrants living in the u.s. . in the final weeks of the campaign members of harris's team also tested positive for colbert 19 after learning the news harris temporarily stopped travelling a bracing reminder that for america's 2020 vice presidential candidates differences in politics policy and personality could not be more stark. and. let's move on to some other news now and if european has begun military operations in the north of the country amid an escalation in tensions that the local government in the region has been accused of attacking federal troops for local authorities have dismissed that accusing the prime minister of plotting conflicts a 6 month state of emergency has been claimed by the federal government for the feud between the federal government and that is have a burn to graze regional leaders escalated 2 months ago when they went ahead with

regional elections for the 2 great parliament and that is despite the federal government spending all voting because of the coronavirus pandemic the government declared the election was void the regional governing party the people's liberation front has accused prime minister meant of halting the polls to stay in power until recently the a t p l f a coalition of ethnically based parties has dominated ethiopian politics and that changed 2 years ago when up and came to power the coalition has since merged into the prime minister's party but the left itself has refused to join malcolm webb has more now from nairobi in neighboring kenya and he says the feud between the 2 governments only adds to the list of ongoing conflicts in the region. we've got a significant part of the military that seems to be. on to that to grain control though it's worth bearing in mind the history here the reason that large part of the military is integrate is because of decades of conflict we've neighboring eritrea 1st independence war then

a border war but that was finally resolved 2 years ago following president coming to power and that's resolving that conflict with neighboring eritrea he was credited with and that's the key reason why he was awarded the nobel peace prize but now with these escalating tensions between the central federal government and the grey there's also a threat of tensions between eritrea into grey as well that could add a further complicating dimension to this conflict and this is all happening at the same time as a number of brewing conflicts and growing tensions between ethiopia central government and other regions in ethiopia where ethnically aligned regional parties and powers a growing have an increasingly growing dissatisfaction with the central government just a few days ago in the or a mere read into the south rights group supported that more than 50 civilians were killed there by an armed group to the ivory coast where police are surrounding the

houses of several opposition leaders after the president was declared the winner of the presidential election the opposition has rejected reelection and has vowed to set up a transitional government earlier on tuesday police clashed with supporters of former president an opposition leader. as they tried to enter his house to arrest him there's been a lot of anger over the vote concerned that demonstrations will result in violence causing thousands to flee the country. hurrican has made landfall in nicaragua pounding an impoverished region of its caribbean coast is expected to be one of the strongest hurricane to hit the area in years authorities have moved thousands of people from outer islands into low lying areas the storm is forecast to move across central america for days bringing heavy rain and dangerous winds when republicans from. authorities in nicaragua are scrambling to evacuate thousands of

people caught in the path of hurricane ada. with winds of 240 kilometers per hour the powerful category 4 hurricane hammered the nicaraguan coast for hours as it slowly inching toward landfall when it already that's almost like i'm going to we are taking your things out looking for a safer place to take shelter because the fear to protect ourselves above all we're looking for a safer place to weather to her a can of the national hurricane center has an extremely dangerous storm in the community of bill we in northeast nicaragua many families were moved to higher ground over concerns of potentially life threatening storm surge and deadly winds penya market ended up we had to come to this place because we're not safe in our houses because we live near the beach so we had to come here to take refuge the whole family ada is the 12th hurricane of the 2020 atlantic hurricane season it's also the most powerful storm to hit this region in years. environmental experts say

there's a direct link between climate change and the intensity of hurricanes making it increasingly difficult for people to prepare effectively for stronger storms but we cannot be a pair we you know we have some very good people working and sastre management and the international community and into government but their resources are very limited as you know down our herring or. very a climate change which you know are coming very quickly and change very quickly i've got. a storm dynamics is almost impossible. to will weaken quickly as it tracks inland the slow moving storm is expected to dump heavy rains over nicaragua and honduras for several more. days raising the potential for deadly floods and mudslides across a wide portion of central america when measured up

a little al-jazeera. let's take you to some pictures in washington d.c. a new day is dawning over the white house we are still none the wiser as to who has won the election this is how the electoral map is looking at right now joe biden he has $238.00 electoral votes so far this most significant win yet his arizona longtime republican stronghold the dollar trumpet carried in 2016 president trump's tally is 213 as you can see he has managed to retain texas florida ohio and iowa all of which were considered a string swing states and the magic number that they're looking for is 270 electoral votes. so let's recap the headlines here on al jazeera and the race to the white house is a tight one so far there is no clear victor but u.s. president donald trump has declared himself the winner despite votes still being counted he says he will go.