the coast and in these parts on say doris salaams got 3 wednesdays sundry ones at that. for. as biden closes in on the number of votes needed to win the u.s. presidential election donald trump repeats unproven fraud claims. and dueling demonstrations biden and trump supporters trade calls to count every ballot and protect the vote. i'm still rommany watching al-jazeera live my headquarters here in doha coming up in the next 30 minutes another record jumping corona virus infections in the u.s. more than 120000 new cases are confirmed on thursday. scenes of devastation

across central america where storm letters left dozens dead and thousands more homeless. welcome to the program another day has ended in the united states and still no answer on who will lead the country for the next 4 years the close of the counters to finishing the tighter the race becomes is the overall picture with just 4 battleground states left to count and any of them could get joe biden the when he wants the most likely is nevada here in the west there he has a very narrow lead it's less than a percent donald trump is currently winning in the rest of the states but again the margins a razor thin over in georgia there's just a few 1000 votes that separates them and those states that are being counted are the ones that you see here in yellow now biden has 264 electoral college votes

trump has 214 that still puts both of them in the range of the magic number of 270 that's needed for the presidency let's take a close look at georgia now remember that joe biden is now just fewer than 2000 votes behind trump and that's surprising because georgia has always been a solid republican state for many decades the bulk of the remaining mail in ballots are from the city of atlanta with generally leans towards the democrats. but i was still whole so waiting on pennsylvania the state where joe biden was born what translate has been consistently shrinking that and the remaining mail in ballots are mostly from the democratic leaning cities of philadelphia and pittsburgh and the suburbs giving biden a good chance to actually catch up roslyn jordan has more of the count on the controversy surrounding it counting the ballots one by one in georgia one of

several states that could yet determine who will be the u.s. president on january 20th 2021 the incumbent donald trump demanded again on thursday that the counting is a legal and must be stopped if you count the legal votes i easily win if you count the illegal votes they can try to steal. the election from us if you count the votes that came in late we're looking at them very strongly but a lot of votes came in late trump has repeatedly and incorrectly said the process could be sabotaged but it's actually common for states to need several days to count every vote but trump isn't just complaining he's suing in nevada the trump campaign is hoping this woman story of alleged voter fraud will shut down the count there are going to vote in that called i have a very high percentage going matter and you and yours are her it started in person

this current been mailed out the ballot and somebody took my ballot officials denied stuckey's charges saying they did everything possible to help her vote and in michigan a judge rejected trump's request to halt vote counting in that state around the clock trump supporters have been protesting the vote count even demanding to be let into the rooms where the ballots are being counted after meeting with his campaign staff in delaware democratic candidate joe biden said he trusts the process senator i would continue to feel very good about where things stand we have no doubt that when the count is truly shannon harrison i will be declared the winners so i ask everyone to stay calm all the people to stay calm the process is working the count is being completed and dad will know very soon so no declaration of victory just

yet given the 2 big unknowns the status of the vote counting and the status of the trump campaign's legal challenges roslyn jordan al-jazeera. our white house correspondent complete healthcare tears watching the action unfold from washington kimberly it may just be after 10 o'clock in the morning here in doha but it's the dead of the night where you are what's the latest in terms of what we've been hearing both from the trump and biden camps. what i can tell you with respect to donald trump's campaign is well the lights may be out behind me at the white house for the most part the effort to continue to not only have every ballot counted but to make sure that they are recorded accurately continues by donald trump's campaign a spate of lawsuits have been filed some have been already dismissed as in the case of georgia where the argument was made that the the lawsuit itself was a little bit thin in nature that involved just $53.00 votes was relatively in

consequential to the overall impact and in fact now we are watching as joe biden is closing in on donald trump's lead we expect by the next time that the votes are announced that donald trump will have lost that state and digitally have lost the election at that point because there are very few paths for donald trump without also winning the u.s. state of georgia and this is why we're seeing the u.s. president fighting so hard he's also getting a lot of criticism here domestically on the news networks for the press conference he gave after being quiet for 2 days in terms of his public appearances many arguing that the president did not offer evidence to back up his claims that he is being having this election stolen from him he has put forward the evidence through his campaign and also cited a few examples in his press conference but this is been highly controversial in the united states and even around the world the argument being made that the president is simply trying to so discontented erode confidence in the electoral system it's

going to be a tough challenge for joe biden moving forward because if he does become president elect which it appears increasingly that that will be the case that he is going to have to try and united country that is deeply fractured over this election and has been for some time continues to insist that he's going to keep on fighting but at his press calm. for and so on that he gave you know very recently in the last few hours what was very clear is that the president is saying one thing but his body language showing it is there is a bit of resignation to the fact that he is likely to lose the selection committee how to tell white house correspondent thanks for the update kimberly let's cross over now to scott lucas a professor of american studies at the university of birmingham in the united kingdom always good to have you on the program professor can we just begin with all eyes really on pennsylvania nevada and georgia and this potential

scenario where the final outcome may be decided in the courts if president trumps team has the evidence to present to judges i mean what's your reading of the situation. let's separate the political from the legal and the conspiracy theories the politicos the one joe biden is likely to be confirmed as us president today and that is as he began to explain he is ahead in nevada and the remaining votes are coming from democratic areas so he should secure those 6 electoral votes which if he holds his lead in arizona which you've already called for him that already gives him the election but he is almost certain to overtake trump in pennsylvania today trump's lead is only $800000.00 votes now and most of the remaining about is from democratic areas and in georgia he does have a good chance of overtaking trop dollars less than $1300.00 votes there and again votes are coming in from democratic areas so any one of those gives the victory to

what the shift to is the legal and i'm the conspiracy theory you cited the legal cases where trump lawyers are just trying to block the completion confirmation of the count in certain areas especially in pennsylvania georgia nevada they are trying to as it were influenced the count in other areas such as arizona to try to get trump to tip that state but what you had last night with the conspiracy theories and you were being very kind of how you described it donald trump really put out a series of false hoods that the election is being stolen from him he put out false about mailing balloting about observers at polling stations about suppose of mysterious ballots that had appeared for biden and then he had the conspiracy theory that this was being done by corrupt behind corrupt or close doors in a corrupt system. we know that he's going to try to go the supreme court with this but the danger of the conspiracy theories is a lot of people especially trump supporters will buy into that and that means

you're really undermining american system and i have to add raising the prospect that there will be trouble on the street and indeed of course one would have to look but maybe 20 is because when we look at what happened between al gore and joe george w. bush. that there was a huge legal battle in the in the days after the election to find out who really had won the election what lessons have been learned by the democrats we've heard a great deal about the fact that they've got legal teams they've been building up their legal teams in the weeks leading up to this election to make sure that they can counter any sort of accusation or allegation made by the president's team you're really it's great that you highlight that because the democrats joe biden's team have been preparing for months for this because they knew the prospect of a legal challenge might be their. lawyers or their bias lawyers there but here's the big difference from 2000 neither george w. bush nor al gore went into that a lot action saying i'm not going to recognize it if i lose what occurred in 2000

which is that florida completely mismanage mishandled that selection so we don't know who won there in this case donald trump said in july i might not recognize the outcome of the election and then lay the foundation by these series of false words about mail and balloting hoping that when it came to this point if he did lose i'm not people will buy what he's saying so that it's not just the supreme court but the american public demands that he is kept in the oval office irrespective of the actual vote what does of us what does this tell us really about the election system in 50 states that have a very different system of not only issuing ballots but collating and counting the votes and how they count the votes and when they count the votes does electoral reform need to happen in the united states on the back of what we've seen during this particular election highlighting how fractious that can be and how polarizing it can and confusing it can be for the american public. i think

a lot reform is needed but with the electoral college the actual voting system is handled by the states not the federal government and it's being carried out in this very special circumstances of the pandemic and what we're actually saying with the care being taken with this vote and this is why it's taking so long is that officials in those 50 states are really being careful to make sure that every ballot is legitimate that nothing speaks through one statistic for your viewers point 0004 percent of ballots in american what actions are fraudulent according to the brennan center that is a testimony not to the fact that the electoral system is broken but that by a large it's working and for people to really make sure it works this year in the pandemic i think that should be applauded rather than denigrated scott look it's always good to speak to the we'll be speaking to you through the day as we get those results and conclusions in some shape or form to come out of the u.s. thanks for joining us from birmingham in the united kingdom thank you. well still

ahead here on out as they're going to suppress freedom in hong kong after the arrest of a prominent journalist. and economy near collapse we meet the refugees living on less than $3.00 a day in lebanon to stay with us. hello much of central much of europe i should say is tasty in a bit of early winter in that it feels cold in the morning and cold by day but weather wise in the words the wind and rain the stuff well that's not really of a central europe it's gone down to the southeast corner and is particularly showing itself off the coast of portugal big revolving lazy low produce significant rain i suspect once again portugal focusing on this but it will bring showers up through spain as well and eventually into france but look at the daytime temperatures but

12 degrees in bertie it's warming up now this certainly influence in paris and london but the morning is going to be cold in austria as an example in the sun will shine as far south as greece but if you concrete that's a quarter strong the only wind in fact has been this past metro has been most active recently significant showers all the way now through turkey northern syria probably going to happen the caucasus the backwash wind is quite strong slow moving chassis and likely on the levantine coast but rather more significant rain is likely on the coast of egypt with that strong wind the same is likely to happen eventually i think in morocco and we've seen showers in west africa has fallen also is going to be a siren recently there again on friday. as countries begin easing coronavirus restrictions scientists warn of a 2nd wave of infections in the last few days. in front of the neighborhood and

many feel the economy is be prioritised about for human life until fall off people come to get a little business and they are here because spike in public like places we bring you the latest developments from across the globe coronavirus fundament special coverage on a. fool. oh oh oh. welcome back you're watching al-jazeera with me still romney a reminder of our top news stories the u.s. presidential race remains too close to call for battleground states still counting any of them could get joe biden the win over double trump trump is making unproven

claims that if only legal votes were counted he'd win the election he says legal challenges may end up in the supreme court. and biden is searching people to be patient he says he's confident of becoming the next president he has 264 electoral college votes 270 needed for victory. pennsylvania is one of the critical battleground states which could decide the election has al jazeera is number crunching santamaria why the state is crucial. pennsylvania is famously joe biden's native state you probably heard him mention scranton pennsylvania more than a few times but it is important for anyone who wants to win the white house pennsylvania has 20 electoral college votes on offer and the pollsters believe the keystone state could in fact hold the key in deciding who wins this time around but if history for you here we go back 299246 straight presidential elections it has backed the democrats bill clinton and barack obama who won twice john kerry and al

gore who didn't but pennsylvania still became part of the so-called democratic blue wall but like so many things all of that changed in 2016 pennsylvania flipped red only just when donald trump beat hillary clinton by less than one percent now we're going to bring up the $26.00 electoral map to see who did well where and you've got the democrats down in the southeast they did well the other cities in the suburbs the republicans who won in mostly rural areas did pick up some urban centers and then the 3 counties which we've colored in orange who switched from barack obama in 2 elections to donald trump in 2016 a quick look at some demographics for you and more than 80 percent of pennsylvania's voting population is white blue collar voters who have long been the democrats' base non-college educated voters who favor donald trump also 10 percent of eligible voters are black and hispanics a little over 5 percent so it will probably come down to do is urban voters in

pennsylvania and whether biden can hold on to them and then woo some back from donald trump to decide who gets 20 vital electoral college votes and that is why pennsylvania matters. indeed let's get the very latest on those results in pennsylvania by joining patty culhane who's in philadelphia force of course that is the big question really patty when can we expect a result if one is going to well be happenin happen in the next few hours. i think in the next few hours we will know i have to tell you i've been following the results every hour on the hour for at least 10 hours and there's really no rhyme or reason sometimes they move a lot sometimes they don't read that much right now it's about 2 15 in the morning here in philadelphia people still in this building behind me counting and we have again more movement. this time 4000 votes trumps us president.

leaves shrinking by 4000 now sits at 18229 and this is why the biden camp feels so good about this there's about 150000 votes still outstanding and if they continue with the trend that we've been seeing that's going to be going to take about 80 percent of those votes so all of the democratic experts in the state of been saying as they expect joe biden to walk away with pennsylvania with in excess of 100000 votes there is a heavy police presence here that there has been throughout the day but if you want to just look over here we stop as you're standing outside of the convention center because local news here in philadelphia is reporting that police here got it that there was a gentleman from a man from virginia headed up this way with guns and his plan was to attack the convention center where the count is going on behind me so they they found him his

car according to local media arrested him with his weapons but this is the big concert because there are people out there who are who are huge from supporters who believe that when the president says that the vote has been stolen now and to important to point out what they're counting in pennsylvania are votes that were mailed in and got to the election sites on election day so the president is trying to make the distinction that any vote cast during the day in person that's legitimate anything in the mail was illegitimate this country has a long history of voting by. as our guest said there is no evidence that there is widespread fraud signatures have to be checked identities have to be checked still the president tried to sow doubt there is going to be growing concern in philadelphia as well as up to the use of the local according to local media that a plot to attack the facility behind me where the vote is happening was actually border. statements and called the station about the potential for legal challenges

from the trial i mean what's the latest. you know it seems right now like it's going to be very unlikely he did have a path to take this to the supreme court so it's not getting too far into the weeds but traditionally pennsylvania basically a ballot had to be in by the close at end of the couch when the polls closed on election day the state supreme court got involved because a coronavirus were going to let that go till friday about 6 pm that went to the u.s. supreme court and they were divided it was for for the for the news just as when i and said we're not going to take that up now but and the conservative justices which are in the bar with george had indicated that they would throw those ballots out so those ballots the ones that have come in after november 3rd they're being put over here and they're not being counted so the vote totals i'm talking about every hour that show in trump's lead vanish those are votes that were there by

election day so that is ringback makes it seem highly unlikely that there's anything for the supreme court to really get involved what we can with you as the night progresses where you are in philadelphia thanks very much patty claim that force. now the u.s. has seen another record jump in new coronavirus infections 2 days after the presidential election more than 120000 cases were confirmed on thursday exceeding the record set the day before and that's according to a tally by johns hopkins university an average of $850.00 people die from the virus every day up from $700.00 a month ago now the entire population of liverpool in the united kingdom will be offered a test for covert 90 it's part of a trial for mass testing aimed at helping hospitals and lifting restrictions about 2000 military personnel have been deployed to help. 8 pro-democracy politicians

in hong kong are appearing in court over a fight as a legislative council meeting more than 5 months ago it's the 1st appearance since being arrested earlier this week accused of contempt and obstruction related to an incident in may the critics say it's part of an increasing attempt to sideline decide to voice is no pro beijing little lawmakers involved were arrested on police have denied any political motivation let's get the very latest on this from our correspondent duiker pollack just bring us up to date about what we know regarding this court appearance. that's right as you said that this is an initial hearing so they're going to into court to face the charges against them they are content and interfering in legislative counsel affairs they will then enter a plea of guilty or not guilty and then apply for bail now they were very defiant when they came into court holding up signs calling their arrests political persecution they also pointed out the fact that no praise probe aging legislators

were arrested or are facing prosecution over that brawl over the session on may 8th now that session was over the control of a key house committee it was a regular legislative council session it ended up in confrontations between the 2 sides and the probe aging are the pro establishment side were taking away by security officials this is being seen as yet a nother step particularly by the opposition of the hong kong government trying to silence any criticism or dissent from the opposition. for the moment thanks that they do it part of the force in hong kong. now the head of the united nations says he's deeply alarmed by fighting in ethiopia the northern region is accusing federal troops of attacking its capital in a bid to force it into submission prime minister ahmed said didn't soldiers sentence soldiers and declared a state of emergency but he says the ruling

t p l f party in the region attacked federal troops the army and that assad says it's been forced into an unexpected and aimless war tensions grew in september after the held regional elections despite a government perspire meant dziedzic over 19 degrees realist's a that was a power grab by the prime minister. lebanon's economy is near collapse and life is a struggle for many but syrian refugees are amongst the worst hit the united nations says 80 percent of the $900000.00 registered were already living in extreme poverty on less than $3.00 a day before the beirut port explosion in august worsen the situation for many senator reports. at least 200000 syrian refugees live in lebanon's capital. the united nations says 16000 of them were directly affected by the beirut port explosion in august. we have armor and her family survived the blast

but their source of income did not she explains her husband hasn't been able to find work in weeks like so many other syrians he is an informal laborer now a mother started my husband lost his job after the port explosion he tries his best to find temporary jobs to be able to feed us my son is working he earns $60000.00 lebanese week that's roughly $10.00 on the black market exchange earned by her 10 year old son mahmoud who works 12 hours a day helping a tailor. the local currency has sharply devalued in the past year even before the baby we have ongoing cash distance programs and those are given to us but we have increased the amount in order to partially compensate for inflation it's not enough for many families who are struggling during lebanon's financial meltdown u.s. the cystic show at least 80 percent of the 900000 refugees registered with the agency live below the poverty line that is classified as having to survive on less

than $3.00 a day. the situation was about and after the last it got worse if i work i can just buy food not pay for rent or medicine for my daughter regular jobs are hard to come by already there are government imposed restrictions on the ability of refugees to work support from aid organizations is not enough to stop living conditions from worsening syrians were affected as everyone else in the country but in the greater percentage because when. you are. i mean 1st. person as you would very often are the syrians lebanon hosts one of the highest numbers of refugees per capita in the world and 50 percent of its population of 5000000 people are poor many syrians live in this impoverished neighborhoods next to the port where some of them used to work guarantee you know was among the

areas damaged by the blast at least 40 syrians were among the 200 people killed 3 months on the lack of food and shelter is still a concern for many sent to. beirut. dozens of people are fed dad from tropical storm access that's been flooding and mudslides across nicaragua honduras and guatemala forcing thousands from their homes monreal repeller reports now all of the faces stolz to the region in 2 decades. emergency workers are carrying out critical rescue missions across a large portion of central america heavy rains from the remnants of hurricane ada have caused widespread flooding and mudslides the north coast of honduras has been especially hard hit here flooded roads and collapsed bridges have made it difficult for rescuers to reach those stranded by the flood waters but he made out this this is the 1st time something like this happens but everything is flooded over there everything is flooded on tuesday ada slammed into the nicaraguan coast as

a powerful category 4 hurricane despite being downgraded to a tropical storm the slow moving system has continued to drop to rental rains across nicaragua honduras and guatemala it's the worst natural disaster to hit this region in more than 20 years on thursday 100 officials issued evacuation orders warning citizens to move quickly as weather conditions continue to worsen what we need and they will not feel this amount of water falling on the mountains gives us the space of 2 hours maybe a little more but let's not give it any longer let's keep 2 hours in mind to be able to evacuate to protect people's lives. in cities like lemme people waded through flooded streets many desperately seeking help for their families trapped by the rising water and this no no help has arrived within calling 911 since this morning for them to come for the firefighters to come but no one has shown up. authorities in guatemala say trench will rains and mudslides have already claimed

several lives to make matters worse weather forecasters say ada could regain force in the coming days as it now heads on a predicted path toward cuba and the florida peninsula madrid. al jazeera. your charges are with me still robin a reminder of our top stories the u.s. presidential race remains too close to call those 4 battleground states still counting any of them could give joe biden the win over donald trump trump is making unproven claims that if only legal votes were counted he'd win the election he says legal challenges may end up in the supreme court or by people to be patient he says he's confident of becoming the next president he has 264 electoral college votes 270 and needed for victory our white house correspondent complete halkett has more from washington d.c. .