areas. the storm moves away, it will turn more dry tonight, but the next area of low pressure hurtles in on sunday. a wet and windy start to the day, a bit of brightness greatly through the morning before more rain twitches into northern ireland, northern and western england and wales, where we could see minor flooding. very windy with severe gales later in western scotland, and elsewhere windy too, mild in the south. things calmed down next week at high pressure builds in, less windy, cold with some mist and fog. the headlines: cabinet ministers are meeting to consider plans for a national lockdown in england after a warning that coronavirus is ‘running riot‘ across the country. the prime minister and his senior advisors are due to hold a press conference later this afternoon. we'll bring you that live here on bbc news. scotland's first minister, nicola sturgeon has issued new advice that people should not

travel to or from england, except for essential purposes. and tributes are paid to sir sean connery who has died at the age of 90. now on bbc news, emily maitlis and jon sopel dissect the latest news and analysis from the campaign trail of the 2020 us presidential election race. there are four days to go, it's the final push, straining every sinew. and the big breaking news coming out of america today is that maitlis has arrived. yay! i have to say, i find the natives very friendly here. one of them picked me up from the airport — thank you. another helped me get an unwieldy shopping trolley up a flight of steps when i was looking like a dalek — thank you, morgan. people have been so amazing.

and, zurch, for my part, i have brought you the revels. i will get them to you somehow. excellent. and i have some m&ms from air force one for you. what do i get?! welcome to americast. you can have some too, jon! americast from bbc news. it'sjon in washington, dc. and it's emily, and i can say also in washington, dc. and it's anthony, at home in arlington, virginia after following the president around the country for three days. and, zurch, ithink when we last left you, you were just down in arizona, texas? tell us what your week's been like. it has been a crazy week. i'm still hearing donald trump's voice in my head, i still feel like i need to run to the next campaign event. it was six states, six rallies. i was in nevada, we went down to arizona for two rallies, then on to florida and north carolina,

and now i'm back home. it has been a mad dash. donald trump is trying to win this presidential race just by dint of his energy and endurance down the stretch. it's a remarkable last week for the president. and also, formidable energy from him. he was tweeting at 2:57am this morning. it's notjust donald trump, though, that is out and about. joe biden has been out and about more, but nothing like as much as donald trump. he's also been able to produce a bit of a sort of superstar to come and help him, barack obama, the former president and brilliant orator. and joe biden and barack obama will be on stage together in michigan. it's all coming down to a few states now. and over the course of this podcast, we'll talk about some of the places where they're going to be concentrating their energies. and so barack obama has been out and about, but also he's got the support of bruce springsteen,

and he's happy to have a bit of that as well. the boss has been weighing in as well about why people should be voting democrat in this election. we have lost our mojo, ourfun, our happiness, our cheering on of others. the shared experience of humanity that makes it all worth it, the challenges and the triumphs that we shared and celebrated, the unique can—do spirit that america has always been known for. we are lost. we've lost so much in so short a time. on november 3rd, vote them out. so, this week is technically known as celebrity endorsement week. it is when you see all these characters come out, or they are asked to come out,

and pledge their support. doesn't always work. you might remember a lot of the a—listers and hollywood came out for hillary clinton asked him around in 2016, and it actually allowed to donald trump, then, to say, "i don't need hollywood, i don't need the a—list, i've got the little people," you know, in his terminology. "i've got the people who are on the street who are supporting me," not the glossy people at the top. and yet this time, he has kind of had a little change of mind on that one. zurch, who has been coming out? we found out yesterday that the rapper lil wayne has come out in support of donald trump. we found out about it in the press pool when we were sitting on the tarmac in north carolina while donald trump was supposedly meeting with troops. he was meeting with troops, so we were scrambling to figure out if lil wayne was there also. it turns out that this meeting happened in doral, in miami, florida, on thursday morning. we had been called in the press pool to sit in donald trump's resort in doral for hours, waiting.

nothing happened. it turns out that that was the meeting between lil wayne and trump. we were wondering if it was a fake photo. we were trying to confirm from the white house if this was really something that happened. and then on the flight back, on air force one, press secretary kayleigh mcenany came back and said, yes, they had a very productive meeting. she called the meeting "epic". i think the interesting thing about lil wayne is that anything that helps donald trump get more young black men to maybe not vote republican but maybe not vote democrat either, he will see as a win, because after george floyd, there was a feeling that there was going to be a huge motivation, that millions of young black people would be coming out to vote who did not vote in 2016, and that could be very costly for donald trump. and lil wayne is very helpful in that respect, in donald trump's bid to get the black vote. there was someone else in town as well, on these rallies, that, anthony, has charted around the country. and that was one nigel farage, ex of ukip, perhaps a little

better known in the uk for his involvement in brexit. they have spent four years trying to delegitimize him, four years of the russia hoax, four years of a false impeachment. most human beings under that barrage would have given up. this is the single most resilient and bravest person i have ever met in my life. you might say if lil wayne is there to get the black vote out, then nigel farage is most definitely there to get the white vote out. and we have seen, going back four years, popping up in the gold lift in trump towers, popping up in mississippi of all places for the campaign rallies, popping up just again last week. i am not sure what the connection is necessarily now to what trump is talking about going forwards, but, yeah, he is seen as the donald trump celebrity endorsement. when he came onto the stage,

donald trump, in his early remarks, hinted at farage's presence, saying that the king of europe was in the audience. we didn't know it was farage at the time, but apparently that's the way donald trump thinks of him. and the king of europe, we have, right here. the king of europe? king of england, he'd take. king of britain, he'd take. i don't think he wants to be king of europe! it's actually the least appetizing title for nigel farage anyone has ever thought up ever! it's sort of delicious, actually. so, yeah, we have boris johnson, world king, nigel farage, king of europe. we're good on monarchies, aren't we? right, let us move now to talk to some of the players who are involved in getting out the votes for next tuesday's election and who have been working furiously behind the scenes. guy cecil is the chair of priorities usa, which is a super pac, which is one of these organisations

that is not part of the democratic party, it is not part ofjoe biden but is offering support and is hoping to getjoe biden elected. i just want to introduce a clip ofjoe biden speaking about covid and let's talk on the other end of it. first, i will go to every governor and urge them to mandate mask wearing in their states. and if they refuse, i will go to the mayors and county executives and get local mask requirements in place nationwide. as president, i will mandate mask wearing at all federal buildings and all interstate transportation, because masks save lives, period. guy cecil, welcome to americast. thank you very much for being with us. four days to go. i don't know whether you heard anthony saying in his introduction that donald trump is being far more energetic, doing far more rallies. "sleepyjoe" doing a lot less —

is that deliberate, is that part of his covid strategy to show, "look at me, i'm much more careful, i don't do big rallies"? well, i think part of the strategy is to make sure that we don't have a major party candidate for president who is responsible for the illness and deaths of thousands of americans. priorities released a polljust this week that said, in the closest battle ground states, anywhere from two thirds to three quarters of voters in those states disapproved of the rallies that donald trump was doing around the country, and so the reality is that cases in the united states are rising, deaths in the united states are rising, and it is irresponsible for donald trump to be holding super spreader events — whether they are on the white house grounds or they are in airport hangers in battle ground states across the country — and sojoe biden is behaving responsibly. and he understands that in this case, good public health policy is also good politics.

guy, let me ask you, where are you worried about right now? there is a lot of people that would probably like to seejoe biden just sort of take up residence in florida for the next few days. but he won't. he's all over the place. he's in the midwestern states. i wonder if you think he is overstretching by heading to texas and georgia, when there is plenty of work perhaps still to be done closer to democrat home. i think the strategy of the biden campaign is the right one, which is, "we need to create as many paths to 270 electoral votes as possible." we saw what happened last time when we don't focus on a range of states that can get biden over the top, and so today, he is in the upper midwest, he is in michigan, wisconsin and minnesota. yesterday, he was in florida. kamala harris is in texas. 50 we can make sure that we are covering the six to ten closest battle ground states. the thing about florida — i am a native floridian,

i was born and raised in south florida — donald trump must win florida in order to win this election. ifjoe biden is able to win florida, tuesday night or wednesday morning, then the election is effectively over. there is no path to 270 electoral votes for donald trump without florida. forjoe biden, we have a lot of paths to 270, and we are within a point or two in many of the states that they are expanding the map to, like texas and iowa. so let us just talk about the economy, because that is the one area in polling where people say that donald trump has the clear lead overjoe biden — better trusted, better able to bring backjobs, to bring back growth to the us economy. i just want to play another clip of your candidate talking about taxation and who will and who won't be hit. nobody making less than $400,000 will pay a penny more in tax under my proposal.

that's a promise? that's a guarantee, a promise. i give you my word as a biden. that's an absolute guarantee. and you think it's a good idea to raise taxes when the economy's in dire straits? depending on who you're raising them on. look, if you're raising it on somebody who's making $1 billion a year, it's not a problem if they pay 39.6% — which everybody should pay — and raise another $90 billion. i have to say, guy, to british viewers, $400,000 sounds like a huge amount to set your bar at. basically, he is saying, what, 1.8% of the population only will pay higher taxes? and he is the guy on the left. so i'm guessing he has been quite spooked by donald trump's tax policies and by the fact that he always leads on the economy. first of all, when you look at arizona, michigan, wisconsin, florida, pennsylvania and you ask voters today, who do they think will do a betterjob of getting us out of our economic mess post—covid, in all six of those states, joe

biden actually leads donald trump. and so a lot of this new territory around the economy is changing because americans understand we will not get the economy back on track if we don't get covid under control. the other reality is that we have been dealing with a tax system in america, under this administration, where the very wealthy and the biggest corporations have been rewarded over and over and overand overagain, while we have a president who wants to cut social security and medicare. and so the biden campaign, which has set the mark at $400,000, can make enough revenue to make sure we are moving enough money into state and local governments — who have to balance their budget and are really struggling because of covid. we can move money into college affordability, into infrastructure bills. the reality is that that's a marker that we think the american people will accept, that we can get passed through the senate and the house, so that we can begin bringing more revenue to fix the structural problems that we have

in the country. you're breathing, eating, sleeping this. you're looking at the polls — it all looks quite good at the moment, joe biden is ahead where he needs to be ahead. what's keeping you awake at night? congenitally, democrats in america, we like to worry about everything. that is, it seems to be, in our dna, but the number one thing that i worry about is the extreme efforts that conservatives and republicans have gone to to make it more difficult to vote. the republican party has committed $30 million to litigation to make it more difficult to vote by mail, and early and in person, the president has said he wants to recruit 50,000 poll watchers, which is code for poll intimidators, to make it more difficult to vote. we are still dealing with litigation around our country in terms of how people can vote, how late their ballot can arrive if it is sent by mail,

which is particularly important given that we are in the middle of a pandemic, and so we just want to make sure that every vote that gets cast is counted. and this is what happens. when a political party can no longer win with the votes that are out there, they try to change the dynamic of the voting, they try to change the number of people that are eligible to vote, how they vote, when they can vote, and we want to make sure that we are addressing the systemic problems that we expect over the next four days. this will continue to be a challenge, i think, even after the election, and it's the number one thing i think right now that democrats are concerned about, including me. guy cecil. guy, thanks so much indeed for being with us on americast. i want to turn now tojenna ellis. she's counsel to donald trump, to the trump campaign. i just want to pick up on what guy was saying there because he was talking about being kept awake at night by the thought that there was going to be intimidation of voters, that people who were eligible to vote would not be able to.

what do you say to that? is that true? that's just simply not true. and if you look at the factors of election integrity, america has always been built on the foundation, in our constitutional republic, protecting the right of the american people to vote for the people that we put in office, and so election integrity matters, which means that there should be requirements, such as voter id — like the president has always said — there should be reasonable checks, there always should be valid integrity to make sure that there is not fraud going on. and so what the trump campaign and the rnc is fighting for, and has been fighting for this entire election cycle — for every race, notjust the presidential race but all the way down ticket — is to make sure that every eligible citizen's vote is counted and counted once. but it's more than that, isn't it, jenna? it's about donald trump saying he wants vigila ntes, people to watch over the polls. we don't know what that means,

but a lot of people are going to interpret that as turning up at the stations — in open carry states, maybe that means with weapons — and checking on what other people are doing at the polling station. that is intimidation. first of all, he never said anything about vigilantes. so i'm not sure where you're getting that precise term, but, no, we have armyfortrump.com. you're welcome to go and actually look at the website for our election day integrity operations and to make sure that people understand that they are responsible for their own vote and to make sure also that any of the poll watchers that has always been a part of our american system, to make sure that it is fair and accurate, is something that the american people, as fellow citizens, are willing to participate in. and so this, again, is all about election integrity. you can also go to protectthevote.com to see the principles of election integrity, where we are fighting and why this matters. it should not be a partisan issue. jenna, just let me pick up on that.

you argued with emily over the use of the word vigilante, and fair enough. you just said "join the army for trump" ? does that not sound a tiny bit militaristic of what you want the people to do? not at all. no, not at all. we understand our american history, and certainly being the bbc, you understand the revolutionary war and the patriotism that was in 1776, for freedoms, and why americans are really truly patriotic in terms of protecting our liberties and freedoms. it does not mean army in the literal sense, it means an army in terms of a coalition, and we have a variety of coalitions, including evangelicals for trump, democrats for trump, so you're taking that phrase quite literally in a way that nobody who hasjoined the army for trump has at all. jenna, i guess we would not be having that debate and what happens at the polling station if we were not in the middle of this pandemic.

and it has hit america incredibly badly. donald trump has been talking about health care, he gave an interview with leslie stahl last week, a lot of our viewers will be remembering that as the one he tried to tweet out early, which ended rather abruptly, but he was asked about his health care plan because we all remember he was talking about repealing and replacing, and clearly there has not been a health care plan, there has been no replacing. let's have a listen. you promised that there was going to be a new health package, a health care plan. you said that it was going to be great, you said it is ready, it is going to be here in two weeks, it is going to be like nothing you've ever seen before, and of course we have not seen it, so why did you not develop a health plan? it is developed, it is fully developed, it is going to be announced very soon, when we see what happens with obamacare.

if the supreme court ends this, obamacare... we are going to see what happens. i hope they end it. and if they end, people with pre—existing conditions will be stranded. it is wrong. will and is. we will not do anything in no plan on us we have pre—existing conditions covered. it makes no sense, does it, to say there is a health care plan fully developed when he has been president, in powerforfour years, and we have not seen anything? what did that mean, jenna? i think the president answered that question fully and it absolutely made sense. right now, there is a case pending before the supreme court on the issue of obamacare, and that was something that if you watched the confirmation hearings of now justice amy coney barrett,

that was what the democrats focused on, their own partisan policy initiatives, and wanting to somehow argue for policy during that confirmation hearing, but they focused solely on that issue. that is an issue that has to be resolved any president said very clearly and soon we know what the supreme court is going to do with obamacare, which is the position of the administration, that it is unconstitutional, then he will unveil that plan. so i'm not sure how that was not quite clear. jenna, can ijust pick up on that? what is the plan? if you're waiting on the result, why can you not tell the american people what the plan is to replace obamacare if it is struck down and how you're going to keep people's pre—existing conditions? i think that is a better question to the administration but it was very clear from the answer that they are taking it one step at a time and

they will do the proper thing in the proper order. it is wise to wait on the supreme court's decision. again, he has been focused on the response that has been really amazing from the administration to the pandemic and making sure that every state has all of the available ppe and everything that they need. he has handled this in a way that has minimised the unfortunate deaths in this country. like other countries around the world with the china virus that has been unleashed. the president has handled things exceptionally well in the american people are honest and look at that's genuinely and understand he is fighting for the people and puts us first. thank you. now we can to the most important part of the podcast where you ask us questions which make us look like idiots because they are such good questions and we struggle to answer them. one of them

in there is an absolute corker of the difficult question. anyway, let's go to chris from brighton. he isa let's go to chris from brighton. he is a jeweller. let's go to chris from brighton. he is ajeweller. i'm let's go to chris from brighton. he is a jeweller. i'm chris from brighton and i would like to know what time the us election results are coming in because i have booked the day off work to watch them. loving everything that you do. the day off work to watch them. loving everything that you dolj don't loving everything that you do.” don't know if you put the day off work of the week off work for the rest of the year off work but will try to get with you as soon as we can. there are different closing times of the polls in different states. some of the critical races, we see the polls close at 7pm our time, five hours laterfor the us. nevada, texas, virginia, they will all close their poles at seven o'clock. that doesn't mean we will get a result. in the us instead of having an exit poll, counting every single one, they do a projection,

they do a call. when there is enough of the other candidates can't win then they will start calling those states. florida is counting as we go along, it is counting all the early ballots in the mail ballots as we go. we will start to look at the results there, criticallyjust because you see lots of votes coming in early for the republicans or democrats, it doesn't mean that that is where the result is itjust means that they are counting different counties that might lean one way or the other early. so, don'tjump at that. one thing that i will say is the midwestern states, where we will focus on, michigan, wisconsin, have a different system altogether. they will ballots up to three days afterwards. don't expect anything rapid from some of those critical states. what you remember at this point is that it is not one country. it is 50 states. they all have their

own rules. sometimes different counties have their own rules so this is where it gets really complicated. i guess we will need some patience. i think, take the month off. november, i'm not going to work. can i pick up on that, the bbc election programme will be on bbc election programme will be on bbc world news, bbc iplayer, bbc one from 1130 gmt on november the 3rd. there will be a programme all night on bbc radio 4 and the world service. he will be able to hear and watch the confusion unfold through the course of the night. another thing to add is that there are different states camped in different ways. some states have been opening the postal votes and count them as they go along. others won't open them until the day of polling itself. that will lead to a huge mismatch in the numbers of people when we are going to know the results. anyway, that is it from us

for now. we'll be back next week on tv and on radio four. who knows, we might know the name of the new president. or might not. thanks for being with us. hello there. there is some disruption from the rains and the wins this weekend. there will be a bit of minorflooding in places. we also see the strongest of the winds around the irish sea coast. through today, we will see storm aidan, named by the irish marked service.

there will be 70 to 80 mph gusts. there'll be a blustery end for the date for all areas. it turns dry for a time tonight but the next area of low pressure hurdles in full sunday. a wet and windy start the day. could bea a wet and windy start the day. could be a bit of brightness briefly through the as moore rain, crane sta rts through the as moore rain, crane starts to push through. the end of the day it turns very windy with severe gales across the west of scotland. it will be windy and mild in the south. things that come down next week as high building.

this is bbc news with the latest headlines: cabinet ministers are meeting to consider plans for a national lockdown in england — after a warning that coronavirus is " running riot" across the country. nhs leaders urge the government to move swiftly. it is really important that the government moves quickly and does tough lockdowns as quickly as possible because otherwise the nhs won't have the capacity it needs. the prime minister and his senior advisors are due to hold a press conference later this afternoon — we'll bring you that live here on bbc news. scotland's first minister, nicola sturgeon, has issued new advice that people should not travel to or from england, except for essential purposes. as the government's furlough scheme ends, there's concern from business leaders on what a second lockdown would mean forjobs.