made states and towns made big improvements from their primaries until now but they needed more resources to do it. so there is ple nty of resources to do it. so there is plenty of blame to go around and it should start at the white house because there hasn't been a good response to anything but in terms of the election, this is too important to fool around with. we won't know tonight or tomorrow morning the result. 0k, tonight or tomorrow morning the result. ok, for the moment, thank you both for the moment. we are waiting to see whether donald trump says he's going to say something, great to see what and when he says it. let's get a check on the news. there is still no clear outcome in the us presidential election as voting in key battle ground states has been close and most of the swing states have not been called for either candidate. as the votes are counted, projected results suggest president trump has held traditional republican states like indiana and

kentucky. california went as expected to joe biden kentucky. california went as expected tojoe biden who is also projected to win washington state and oregon. in the last few minutes, florida has been projected to have been won by president trump. with 29 electoral college seats, the state was seen to be crucial for a trump victory. a short time agojoe biden told supporters he still believes he is on track to win. he said it was clear a result could take a while because of early and mail—in voting and said it would not be over until every vote was counted. good evening. your patience is commendable. we knew this was going

to go on but who knew we would go into maybe tomorrow morning, may be longer? we feel good about where we are. we longer? we feel good about where we a re. we really longer? we feel good about where we are. we really do. i am here to tell you we believe we are on track to win this election. we knew, because of the unprecedented early vote, mail—in vote, it would take a while. we will have to be patient until the ha rd we will have to be patient until the hard work of tallying votes is finished. it ain't over until every vote is counted, every ballot is counted. with the development so far, here is our reporter. a picture is emerging and points to a tighter election than opinion polls suggested, with votes still being counted, trump and biden have won states they expected to carry but america waits for a result from a

key swing state that will decide this race. turnout could be unprecedented with election day seeing people pouring into stations. more than 100 million americans cast ballots early which might mean a longer wait for the winner to emerge as all those postal votes are counted. while the world waits to see how this election on faults, tension is high. in the campaign sent on america's streets, a sense on how much both sides of the political divide believe is at sta ke. political divide believe is at stake. in front of the white house ona stake. in front of the white house on a street known as black lives matter plaza, there have been antifascist protesters. this is a nation on edge waiting for a result that could take days to become clear. the make up of the new us senate is beginning to become clear. the democrats picked up a seat from the republicans in colorado but in

kentucky, the republican leader has been re—elected for a seventh term. lindsey graham, a strong supporter of donald trump is won a close race in south carolina. i have had to macro calls, one from president trump. he is going to win. he is going to win. to all the pollsters, you have no idea what you are doing. and all the liberals in california, new york, you wasted a lot of money. this is the worst return on investment in the history of american politics. austria is beginning a second of three days of national mourning after a gunman killed four people in after a gunman killed four people in a terrorist attack in vienna on monday. police carried out raids and made 1a arrests in the wake of the attack. a brutal shooting spree that brought

viennese nightlife to a sudden halt. the attacker, a 20—year—old islamist terrorist, had beenjailed for trying tojoin terrorist, had beenjailed for trying to join islamic state terrorist, had beenjailed for trying tojoin islamic state in syria before early release after convincing austrian authorities he no longer held extremist views. as well as in austria, he was a citizen in north macedonia. where he would visit family. this local pensioner says he is very sorry and that the whole village is ashamed. in austria, police have arrested 1a people and two swiss citizens have been arrested near zurich, all with suspected links to the gunmen. the four victims remembered. an older man, older woman in her 405, a young male passer—by and a waitress. another 22 were wounded. further

lives were saved thanks to the heroic interventions, including one from a muslim martial arts fighter of turkish origin. translation: we abhor any terror. we are not people who do this kind of thing. if the attack happened again i would do the same without thinking. austrians are now coming to terms with the latest in a string of terror attacks across europe. there is much more bbc news online and on your mobile. you can find the latest details and analysis by correspondence. you can also use the live results map to see all votes in every us state as they come in. that i5 every us state as they come in. that is on our website... now back to us 2020.

good morning. if you havejust woken up good morning. if you havejust woken up you arejoining the bbc‘s good morning. if you havejust woken up you are joining the bbc‘s special coverage of the american presidential election of 2020. we have been on air since 11:30pm last night and will be with you until 9am here on bbc one and on other channels. what we can tell you is as results have been coming in, this election in america is too close to call. what we can also say is that donald trump seems to be doing better than his critics, the pundits, the media in the united states or indeed europe seem to think he would. and that the battle for the white house has proved rather tough a forjoe biden than it looked when america started to go to

the polls. there is a live picture of the white house and my colleague in washington, dc is katty kay. we are being reminded during the programme and this night it is a 50-50 programme and this night it is a 50—50 country. democrats went in hoping they could have a knockout blow against donald trump, that they might takea blow against donald trump, that they might take a state like florida, georgia, north carolina and shut donald trump out of the race to 270 electoral college votes to win the white house. that has not happened but several big states have still not called and that is because of the covid pandemic and the number who voted early, by post, and those ballots have not yet been counted, so that is whyjoe biden came out in the last half hour and said to supporters you have to be patient. donald trump tweeted in the last few moments that thinks any votes carried counted after the vote closes are votes that are stolen and

he will win. we are in a febrile atmosphere and this is probably the result the country did not necessarily need because we face the prospect of days of not knowing who i5 prospect of days of not knowing who is the next president and days of a vacuum, with room for lawyers, and potentially violence. let's hope that does not happen but we are in the position of not knowing who the next president will be and we may not know even by the end of today. or even by the end of the week. there is huge uncertainty engulfing america now. we have no idea how it i5 america now. we have no idea how it is going to be resolved. we have heard from joe biden, and we are still waiting to hear from heard from joe biden, and we are still waiting to hearfrom donald trump, although he has already implied people are trying to steal the election and that he has won. to bring you up—to—date on the latest picture with results declared, we can go to christian fraser.

if you are just waking up can go to christian fraser. if you arejust waking up and joining us, you have timed it perfectly. we are getting into the nitty—gritty of the race. this is how the map stands. let me remind you, we are talking about the electoral college and this is the figure one of these men has to get two, 270 or more will deliver the white house. joe biden, 205. donald trump, 171. what are the big states that have gone so far? in ohio and florida in the past couple of hours. ohio went to donald trump. right in the sweet spot for him, and older, whiter state, 91% of the vote counted and eight points ahead, pretty much where he was in 2016. florida, it is always close. not so close this evening. donald trump eking out more for the republicans in florida. a three—point lead. that was called about an hour ago. there

are some states on the east coast that have been yet too close to call. north carolina was close before the election in the polls. donald trump has a 76,000 vote lead. there must be some uncertainty in north carolina for them not to call that at the moment. this was the absentee vote, skewed heavily towards joe absentee vote, skewed heavily towardsjoe biden. absentee vote, skewed heavily towards joe biden. we absentee vote, skewed heavily towardsjoe biden. we do not know the votes they have to count but they have not called it. georgia, i urge caution. many say it is leaning to donald trump tonight. they have had problems with the county georgia but they are now counting the absentee ballot. it is skewing again towards joe absentee ballot. it is skewing again towardsjoe biden. absentee ballot. it is skewing again towards joe biden. it absentee ballot. it is skewing again towardsjoe biden. it is a lead donald trump a5 towardsjoe biden. it is a lead donald trump as of 236,000 votes. the new york times is actually

projecting georgia for biden. i do not know what they base it on but i know some of the votes will be in atla nta. know some of the votes will be in atlanta. a60 7% probability, the new york times says, but some of the votes are york times says, but some of the votes a re in york times says, but some of the votes are in atlanta and some of it will be absentee votes. that one still very much in the balance. arizona, better news for biden. not yet called but a healthy lead for joe biden by seven points. 80% of the vote counted. fox news had called it forjoe biden. the white house did not like that. i am not sure what the republicans are seeing but it looks to me as if that is going towardsjoe but it looks to me as if that is going towards joe biden. but it looks to me as if that is going towardsjoe biden. i am looking at the rest of the map. suddenly, it is all about the midwest, a5 suddenly, it is all about the midwest, as we said it would be at the beginning of the night. let's get to our safe map, the states i think we'll be in red and blue by

perhaps nine o'clock. i will key in those that later today may have been coloured in for us. texas we think will go for donald trump. we will leave north carolina and georgia. i will put arizona in the blue column. nevada looks good in terms of the absentee ballot. that is what the score would look like. 233, 216. ap have called minnesota already for joe biden which takes him to 243. he i5 joe biden which takes him to 243. he is now 27 short, ok? we have pennsylvania, 20. he could take pennsylvania. some of the exit polling looks good for biden. a combination of two of those three would deliver the white house tojoe biden. i am going to put pennsylvania in red and georgia in red and north carolina to show you

if it goes to donald trump, and those go tojoe biden, as we think they will, looking at the absentee ballot, suddenly, two congressional districts look very important. nate silver knows a little bit about polling and said where goes new hampshire could go maine also. it is a similar electorate. that could be enough forjoe biden. it is not there yet so we will put it in great. it is a scenario but there is a lot in the balance. it is on a knife edge. let's go straight to the white house and get the reaction from there and jon sopel. this is like a roller—coaster. we went into it with the poll suggesting the democrats could have a blow out. a couple of hours ago it looked like donald trump might be further along towards 270. now it looks like joe biden further along towards 270. now it looks likejoe biden is back in contention and could be winning it.

it is contention and could be winning it. it i5a contention and could be winning it. it is a 50-50 contention and could be winning it. it is a 50—50 country and this is a very close election, isn't it? it's a very close election. and i think we are heading towards the nightmare scenario that we have talked about for weeks. that of the election fails to resolve anything. that it's allup in the fails to resolve anything. that it's all up in the air on election night. it will all come down to votes are counted as days later. that will set in train legal challenges. i have walked through protesters to get here tonight to this position. there i5 here tonight to this position. there is only is on the streets. you travel around america at the moment, washington, everywhere you look is boarded up. there is a fear of civil unrest. and i think a scenario like this, where the election doesn't seem this, where the election doesn't seem to be resolved and you get a claim and counterclaim, accusation and counter accusation about who is trying to steal the election, who doesn't want every voter to be counted, and that is a pretty toxic

recipe for trouble, and that seems to be the direction in which we are heading. there is no clear victor forjoe biden. there is no clear victory for donald trump. and so we will have to wait. what you require i5 patience and fortitude, and both of those things are thin on the ground. we are at the end of several months of a pandemic and none of us have much patience orfortitude. what are we expecting from the president himself? he say suggests the voter might be being stolen. is he going to elaborate on that? what are you expecting? he has said that he will speak. when he will speak we don't know. it was clear that the president was watching the biden statement because it was like in a nanosecond afterjoe biden stopped that the presidential tweet arrived, saying the democrats are trying to steal the election. and vowing that

he will prevent that from happening. i think you will amplify that and maybe he will make his own claims, that he believes he is on course to win the presidential election. and the impasse and the impatience will grow as a result of this. so an evening that has seen stances and nothing was happening has suddenly come in the last half an hour, become quite dramatic, withjoe biden saying, we are on course to win, and donald trump accusing him of trying to steal the election from him, he will not let it happen. this i5 him, he will not let it happen. this is not a happy place for america to be, to wake up to in the morning. john sobel at the white house. thank you. so we are now able to predict texas for donald trump. 38 electoral college votes. it is the second biggest collection of electoral college votes from one state in the united states. california the biggest, then texas,

new york and florida are third equal. mr trump won texas in 2016 with a little bit more than he looks to have won this time. 92% of the votes are counted. he has got 53%. mr biden has 46. he has got a 7% lead. there had been hopes, a5 mr biden has 46. he has got a 7% lead. there had been hopes, as there have been in recent elections, that the democrats might take this, but this result shows they still have some way to go before they can put taxes into the democrat column. -- texas. you are right. every cycle the democrats are chipping away at that late. mitt romney won texas by 16 points. that was back in 2012. in the space of eight years that lead has shrunk. and it has swung again from republican to democrat. every cycle, democrats who live in texas,

say, please come here, to the party. the biden campaign resisted that pressure and concentrated on the rust belt, which tonight might prove to have been the right for them. as people are waking up in europe, i ju5t people are waking up in europe, i just want to let them see what is the real row tonight as this election is developing. if we can put the president's tweet back on the screen. this followed joe biden making a statement saying every voter should be counted and that we won't know the result until every voter is counted. that is virtually all he said. he also appeared in order to give his supporters in the middle of the night in america a bit of confidence building and so on, for being with him. it was immediately followed after mr biden had made this public statement with this tweet from the president. "we are up big, but they are trying to steal the election. we will never

let them do it. votes cannot be cast out at the polls are closed." in the original tweet polls was spelt p o lts. it was then corrected. not long after that mr trump are saying they we re after that mr trump are saying they were trying to steal the election and that votes cannot be cast after the polls. of course votes cannot be cast after the polls close. but they can be counted after the polls have closed. there is a difference there. twitter then put this statement up saying... so there you have big tech in open conflict with the president. absolutely. to add to the back and

forth around that we have a statement from the trump campaign saying that a silicon valley continues its campaign to censor and silence the president. the back—and—forth between not just donald trump and joe biden, but now donald trump and joe biden, but now donald trump and twitter a5 donald trump and joe biden, but now donald trump and twitter as well, with the poll saying the election has been stolen and that being censored by twitter. this is going to be the town, right? i think we have just seen in the course of the last half an hour the tone of what the country is in for. john sobel i5 right. after we have gone through this pandemic, 230,000 americans have died, the country is on edge, we have had a year in which, it is not just a day shops we have had a year in which, it is notjust a day shops are boarded up around my house and our washington, dc bureau, they have been boarded up ever since george floyd died and we saw the black lives matter protest. the country was on edge anyway. we

we re the country was on edge anyway. we were hoping we would have a clean result in the election in some sense of normalcy could be restored. that i5 of normalcy could be restored. that is clearly not going to happen. you wonder what will happen in the next few days. there will be a lot of lawyers getting involved very quickly on both sides. mr trump is now fighting on all sides. he is fighting with twitter. earlier in the night he was fighting with fox news, which might seem strange, a5 fox news is thought normally to be on his side. he was complaining they we re on his side. he was complaining they were calling state too quickly, particularly arizona. we are now able to project montana. that is for donald trump. we had it on that area, pulled it back a bit, looked again, montana is in the donald trump camp. a big mountain state. not much of a population. only three electoral college votes. joe biden i5 electoral college votes. joe biden is in wilmington, delaware. it is his home state. it is where he addressed his democrat faithful

about an hour ago. barbara plett usher i5 about an hour ago. barbara plett usher is there for us. let's go to her. yes, about an hour ago he addressed his supporters on the stage behind me. they had come out in their cars ina sort me. they had come out in their cars in a sort of driving raleigh, which has come to characterise his campaign because of covid restrictions. a short speech but one that was meant to encourage his supporters and to also stake a claim and say that even though all the votes had not been counted, he felt, and the democratic campaign felt, that they were on track to win. he also made this cautionary note, which he has done before, saying it i5 which he has done before, saying it is not up to mr trump to claim victory, not up to him, mr biden, to count the votes, but it is up to all of the votes themselves to be counted to determine the election. he was asked earlier yesterday, on election day, if president trump does come out and say that he has

won or make some controversial claim, what will be his response. he said, let's see what he says exactly, i don't feel i have a responsibility to respond as such. i guess we will see where that goes. his campaign has certainly tried early on in election day to set the narrative, to set the tone. they came out and talked about on the one hand feeling very confident even the polling numbers, but also giving the early voting numbers, they were in a strong position then, they were across the data, they knew how votes we re across the data, they knew how votes were being counted down to the cou nty level, were being counted down to the county level, they said, and so they would be across how it was happening. they felt quite optimistic about doing well in states that were quite competitive. such as georgia, north carolina. they never suggested florida was more than a coin toss, frankly. but they also come on the other hand, laid the groundwork for what we are seeing now, which is to say, look, it could go any direction, but we

have many paths to win. that could involve the three midwestern states that donald trump flipped last time, pennsylvania, michigan and wisconsin. if that is the case, those votes take longer and it will go into the next day or perhaps towards the end of the week. if that i5 towards the end of the week. if that is the case, it's not like that is a catastrophe, but we are looking at those possibilities. they try to cover a ll those possibilities. they try to cover all eventualities. the fact the day is ending with things very much up in the year and no clear winner, and mrtrump much up in the year and no clear winner, and mr trump making those noises, doesn't sound quite ominous. but the campaign did try to anticipate that and put their own narrative out there and encourage and support us. and also the media, i suppose, to try to keep all of these different things in mind and to send the message they were across the data, they knew how to evaluate what was coming in in terms of calls

being made. thanks, barbara. michigan is one of the key states we are waiting to report on. too early to project. with 60% of the vote counted, mr trump i5 with 60% of the vote counted, mr trump is on 53, mr biden is on 45. it is trump is on 53, mr biden is on 45. it i5a trump is on 53, mr biden is on 45. it is a healthy lead. however, as the other 40% are counted that is likely to narrow. the state is still in contention. it could go either way. and that of course is to do with those votes that were mailed in. when you have a vote that comes in by post, it is complicated, time—consuming, labour—intensive. you have to open the envelope, sometimes another envelope, you have to flatten out the piece of paper, you have to get it scanned and then you have to get it scanned and then you have to check the signature. no one person is allowed to be alone with that ballot at anyone time. there have to be two people. all of

this can take time, which is why we are not getting those results as quickly as we might do from the ones where you vote in person and it is scanned automatically and registered automatically. let's go to detroit, michigan. janet from cbs news is there. michigan 16 electoral college votes, that could prove essential to joe biden if he is going to win the white house. do we know when we will know whether or not he has got them? well, first of all, good morning. this is the city's football stadium. it was a vote counting centre but it has long since cleared out. you have perfectly set the stage about michigan. it has become much more important now that we have seen florida break for president trump. 16 electoral votes and the question is where are we now? as you have indicated, so many mail—in votes from the state still being counted.

originally the secretary of state said we would not know before friday what the tally would be. she corrected that or updated it earlier when she said we should know by wednesday evening, at or before this time. so we're not going to know anything tonight. as you indicated, or as andrew indicated, right now president trump has a substantial lead, however, we are still waiting on the mail—in ballots, many of them which tend to be democrat voters, and additionally we are waiting for and additionally we are waiting for a ballots from here in the detroit area, wayne county, some 300,000 or so, which tend to go democratic. that is the conundrum. it is looking like president trump but it is way too early to tell considering how many votes are still out there. and let's recall 2016, were president trump won this state about fewer than 11,000 votes. that was the

smallest margin of victory in any state. so we should know more in about 18 hours. janet, in the 2018 mid—term elections the democrats did well in michigan because they did well in michigan because they did well with female voters and they did well with female voters and they did well with female voters and they did well with voters in the suburbs. are well with voters in the suburbs. are we seeing that pattern play out again this time around, or is there more of a move towards donald trump from some of those voters? so you're right about that. yes, the democrats did very well in 2018. they elected a democratic governor of the state. both campaigns will tell you right now at this hour that they think they are going to win michigan. but it's important to note that we think that president trump may have lost some of that suburban support, white women, white women with college degrees and without. both parties have gone very much after the

african—american vote here. in fact, kamala harris made detroit her last visit today on the 2020 campaign, but there is the belief that a lot of those that you have mentioned have switched over to biden. 0k. janet, thank you. we are going to get the news shortly. before we do let's give you some latest projections. it's a little bit complicated here in nebraska. they allocate their electoral college seat by congressional district. at least partly by that. the second congressional district in nebraska, which is basically the area around omaha, nebraska i5 which is basically the area around omaha, nebraska is a pretty republican state, around omaha, it's much more democrat. we are predicting that will go to mr biden. the other will go to mr trump. he

also gets the three electoral couege also gets the three electoral college votes of montana. he gets a 38 from texas. rhode island, a small state on the east coast, four electoral college votes for mr biden. io and florida both for it mr trump. now the significance of that one electoral college vote in that second district of nebraska i5 one electoral college vote in that second district of nebraska is that now that he has got that, it opens up now that he has got that, it opens upa now that he has got that, it opens up a route to the white house for a jill biden that wouldn't necessarily mean pennsylvania —— need to pennsylvania. he wouldn't have to win the tnecessarily. the truth is that either mr trump or mr biden could win this election and we don't yet know. we have got plenty more to tell you this morning. let's get the latest news first

there is still no clear outcome in the us presidential election. most of the swing states have not been called for either candidate. vote suggests mr trump has held states like indiana and kentucky. joe biden i5 like indiana and kentucky. joe biden is projected to win washington state and oregon. within the last hour, florida has been projected to have been won by president trump. the sunshine state was considered to be crucial for sunshine state was considered to be crucialfor a sunshine state was considered to be crucial for a trump victory. this election remains a nailbiter and there are votes to count but this morning joe biden appeared before supporters and told them to hold their nerve. we feel good about where we are. we really do. i am

here to tell you we believe we are on track to win this election. within seconds president trump hit back on twitter with his first remarks of the night. he said he would win big and then claimed democrats were trying to steal the election. president trump has won florida. democrats had dreams of blocking president trump's path to the white house by winning florida but his vote stayed strong there. the election seems to come down to the battle ground states donald trump won last time and with millions of postal violet ballots to count it could become a protracted and contested slog. in other news, police in vienna are continuing to search for potential suspects.

good morning, mp5 will vote today on lockdown measures for england with restrictions coming into force tomorrow. fully booked. the fun has been off the hook. cancellations. people have been walking in. panic on most.

people want their hair cut. big retailers have extended their opening hours. everyone is trying to get in their shopping because you done a hell of it is going to last. many traders are worried they will not be able to sell the stock when they were only just feeling confident enough to buy in but for now they are making the most of the mini search. i have worked in the industry 30 years. in retail. this i5 industry 30 years. in retail. this is the busiest i have known. even at christmas time, black friday, everyday is like black friday. christmas time, black friday, everyday is like black fridaym christmas time, black friday, everyday is like black friday. it is helpful but small comfort for companies who have invested heavily

in making premises covid 5ay. companies who have invested heavily in making premises covid say. the treasury says it has extended financial support including business gra nts financial support including business grants and the furlough scheme. tomorrow it is likely these streets will be deserted again and businesses will be their fingers. we could get more from our political correspondent in downing street. are they likely to get the support they need? i think it is highly unlikely the vote is not going to pass today in parliament because label have said they would back the plans albeit it has come too late. what is striking i5 albeit it has come too late. what is striking is there will be a vote this time round. in spring the government used emergency powers to bring it in them. there have been concerns on the tory backbenches about parliament getting a say and so this time there are and there are a number of tory mp5 who have said

they will vote against the measures. there are not enough of them to make an impact but what is striking i5 the variety of their concern. some oppose on principle and ideological grounds on the creeping reach of the state while others say the economy needs to be prioritise more and others question the data that drives government decisions. although they do not have the numbers to make an impact, i think it will not be that good news for borisjohnson that he has a wide range of concerns on his own backbenchers. he will seek to reassure the house when he stands up later ahead of the vote that he does not want to bring in the measures but he is doing so because the nhs risk being overwhelmed. there is some way to go for this debate at the end of the lockdown at the beginning of december and these issues will not go away. how confident i5 issues will not go away. how confident is the government things will be different? the government seems to be relying on the issue of mass testing to really get them out

of being in this predicament again. another thing worrying tory mp5 is a potential endless cycle in their view of lockdowns. borisjohnson has talked about a mass rapid testing, so basically getting the testing and taste tracing —— tracing up to scratch, that seems to be a weak link in the system. and buying more time for a potential vaccine to come on course. we are only a matter of weeks away. the lockdown due to last only four weeks so all of these issues will very much be live at the beginning of december. thank you. police in vienna continue to search for potential suspects after four people were killed in an attack on monday. 14 people were arrested following a series of raids. we arejoined by our europe correspondence. what is the latest?

vienna i5 observing three days of official mourning. yesterday evening, a service was held at the main cathedral, st stephen's cathedral, which was attended by political and religious leaders, including from thejewish and muslim communities. this morning, the city i5 communities. this morning, the city is slowly trying to get back to some sort of normal life again. businesses and schools will be opening today. at the moment, the authorities say they do believe it was a single man, government operating alone, but they are still going through video footage that has been sent in by witnesses. there have been more than a dozen arrests, including two in switzerland. and many people here grappling with the fa ct many people here grappling with the fact that their city, which for so long has been spared the large—scale attacks we have seen in paris, berlin and london, has also joined the ranks of those cities with these

violent, extremist attacks. yesterday, austria's chancellor told the bbc that violent extremism was the bbc that violent extremism was the enemy. thank you. the funeral of a metropolitan police sergeant shot in a south london custody suite is being held later this morning. the service for the sergeant will be streamed online for his family and friends and colleagues. here is our home affairs correspondent. the shooting of the sergeant, apparently bya shooting of the sergeant, apparently by a prisoner arriving in his custody suite, was a shocking moment for the metropolitan police. almost 5ix for the metropolitan police. almost six weeks later, the force cannot give him the usual service funeral but helped to arrange a small funeral outside london and has promised a big memorial service at a later date. the funeral will be attended by his partner, friends from his rugby club and close colleagues, as well as the head of

his force. he was a lovely man and lead a purposeful life. packed an awful lot in. he was loved in the met and by the public that we work with. but there were so many other sides to him that people will know little about, beyond his policing life. but he was a truly skilled, very professional, very capable police officer. and it is a huge loss. the sergeant's funeral will be livestreamed to his family overseas and two police stations across london so that as much as possible, those who would want to be there and watch. a young watch. ayoung girl watch. a young girl rescued from a collapsed building four days after an earthquake in turkey is recovering in hospital. the four—year—old was found yesterday after search crews heard her crying beneath the rubble. another young girland

beneath the rubble. another young girl and teenager were rescued. more than 100 have died since last week was my earthquake. diego maradona i5 recovering from surgery to remove a blood clot on the brain. medics say the operation was a success but he will remain under observation at a private clinic in buenos aires. the world cup winner was admitted to hospital on monday suffering from dehydration. and to catch up on the weather. carroll, it is cold out there. good morning. some of us are seeing frost with temperatures hovering around freezing orjust above or below. particularly across parts of southern england. for the rest of this week, the weather will be drier and more calm than at the beginning of the week but we are looking at fog in the mornings, which is around particularly in the south—west and south midlands for example and heading into northern england. high pressure coming in will settle things down. isobars

across the north of scotland. it is still a breezy day. here we have showers, ju5t still a breezy day. here we have showers, just one or two dotted elsewhere. a5 showers, just one or two dotted elsewhere. as the weather front approaches, cloud will build. cloud building in northern ireland. in england and wales, generally speaking, drying, sunshine and temperatures 9—12. not feeling quite as cold as it did yesterday. through this evening and overnight, the weather front sync south taking cloud and rain with it. getting into northern ireland and england. south of that we expect some fog, widespread fog at that. some of it will be dense, some of it freezing. push further north where we have the cloud and rain. it will not be as cold and night. tomorrow starting with fog, some of it slow to live. some of it could linger most of the day but sunshine around and again further north, more in the way of

cloud. it will be warmer in the north and the south. that is good news. we will be back in an hour. we can return now to andrew neil and katty kay for the us election result special. this is the bbc special coverage of the us election of 2020. to bring you up to date on the latest, let's go to christian fraser at the bbc touch—screen. go to christian fraser at the bbc touch-screen. andrew was just telling you about this little result of that came in here in nebraska. one congressional district that are lauded one electoral college votes tojoe biden. lauded one electoral college votes to joe biden. that lauded one electoral college votes tojoe biden. that was hugely significant. here is why. i'm going to plug in on our map those states leaning towardsjoe to plug in on our map those states leaning towards joe biden, to plug in on our map those states leaning towardsjoe biden, arizona and nevada. ap has already called minnesota forjoe and nevada. ap has already called

minnesota for joe biden. and nevada. ap has already called minnesota forjoe biden. if i plug in wisconsin and michigan, 0k? and we put in place might. it has not been called yet. —— maine. we also plug—in... iam been called yet. —— maine. we also plug—in... i am going to put in alaska, sorry, forjill biden —— joe biden. and hawaii for the republicans. actually, iwas biden. and hawaii for the republicans. actually, i was trying to rememberand my republicans. actually, i was trying to remember and my producer hasjust reminded me, that is the other way around. that gives 271 to joe reminded me, that is the other way around. that gives 271tojoe biden without pennsylvania, without north carolina and without georgia. in the la st carolina and without georgia. in the last few minutes george has been getting tighter. i want to show you and compare those three midwestern states, pennsylvania, michigan and wisconsin. somebody tweeted me and

asked why i was calling these estates forjoe biden when donald trump is leading in all of them. this is why. the swing points towards the democrats. these are completed count tos in counties where they have completed 95% of the counter. this is a comparison, like with like, remember what donald trump did in the states in 2016. he took wisconsin, michigan and pennsylvania. an upswing in the votes that have been counted without talking about the absentee ballots, which is still to be counted. the absentee ballot in both michigan and wisconsin is 54% of the vote. it cleans 18 points towards joe wisconsin is 54% of the vote. it cleans 18 points towardsjoe biden in michigan and cleans 16 points towards joe in michigan and cleans 16 points towardsjoe biden in michigan and cleans 16 points towards joe biden in in michigan and cleans 16 points towardsjoe biden in wisconsin. if i am sitting in joe towardsjoe biden in wisconsin. if i am sitting injoe biden's hq right now i like the look of these numbers. yeah, it is what i am hearing from people on the biden campaign side. they are still

confident about the blue wall holding. can we go back to georgia though? georgia has become very interesting in the last half an hour. it looked like donald trump was comfortably ahead in georgia. then we heard a load of pole counters, voter counters, had been sent on for the night in the county that includes atlanta, a big mature district, which is younger, more diverse, leans more democratic. now i'm looking at georgia with 90% of the votes counted and donald trump's only 118 votes ahead. could georgia still go back and be put injill biden's column, is that undoable? -- joe biden. the new york times came out with the probability ofjoe biden taking georgia. we are scratching our heads, because that lead donald trump had was over 200,000. it is now down to 118,000. there are still over 500,000 votes to count. and of course some of that

is this. we don't know what proportion of that is this. but they are camping in the atlanta suburbs, which tends to lean more democrat. you can see the absentee ballot skews towards joe biden. you can see the absentee ballot skews towardsjoe biden. georgia has already told us that this wouldn't go into the canning machines at the beginning. it might take them two days to count the absentee ballot. that is why the democrats are feeling better about georgia. it is still on a knife edge. it could go either way. but there is a good reason to think that those votes still to count lean more democrat than republican. 0k, christian. let's go to georgia and mark strassmann, a cbs reporter. he is in atla nta. strassmann, a cbs reporter. he is in atlanta. mark, iwant strassmann, a cbs reporter. he is in atlanta. mark, i want to ask you given what christian has just been saying, have you been watching the results during the course of the evening around georgia and kind of scratching your head, wondering what was going on? it looked like it might be possible for the biden

campaign, then it looked firmly in the trump column and now it is drifting back towards the middle again. how have you made sense of what you have been seeing during the evening? lots of twists and turns. we talked several hours ago and this car park was full of hundreds of people watching the returns come in. those people have gone home. they made the right call because there wasn't going to be a winner announced tonight. it looks as though they won't be a winner announced until the morning of the very earliest. fulton county, atla nta, very earliest. fulton county, atlanta, the most populous county in georgia, with the most number of registered voters, the poll workers very laboriously have been working here processing and tabulating votes since six o'clock this morning. at some point they were sent home with hundreds of thousands of votes still to be counted. until those votes are counted, and this is a democratic leaning county, very, very potentially voter rates for the biden campaign, we are not really going to get a true sense of who has

won this race because clearly the biden campaign, which had been behind most of the night here, by several hundred thousand votes, as you mentioned, is clearly leading, relying, hoping for these votes to come in and out of fulton county except there is nobody here to count them. so it's very frustrating for a numberof them. so it's very frustrating for a number of folks. you could count the ballots yourself. clearly you need something to do. i can't believe it. it seems to be bunkers they have left overnight in a critical state when the races that close. they could have an overnight shift, couldn't they? yeah. this state has a very chequered history with elections and issues with elections. as you know in the us there is no uniform approach to elections and two tabulations. it goes state— by—state. georgia has two tabulations. it goes state—by—state. georgia has been in the mix as far as states that have had issues and allegations of suppression. that is not what we are talking about here. what we are

talking about here. what we are talking about here apparently as a bunch of tired workers who were sent home. why they didn't stagger them in shifts, as you suggested, or come up in shifts, as you suggested, or come up with another plan, i don't know. it is not the only state going through this but it is clearly frustrating if you are standing here in georgia trying to figure out which way the state went. it is a critical state. it is not usually a democrat state. it has been a reliably republican state. everybody knew it was going to be close. there was a record turnout for their early voting. the trump campaign was hoping for a heavy turnout on election day. the majority of biden folks voted early. here we are and we are just like come on, what is going on here? your frustration as everyone's frustration. i wish i had a definitive answer for you but i don't! even more frustrating for a reporter, there's nobody there you can speak to. thank you very much for staying up. we hope in those

pole counters get back they can get on with it speedily and gave us that result in georgia. we opened this programme by talking about the demographic shifts in the united states, that the country is becoming better educated, more urban in particular. more diverse. you look ata particular. more diverse. you look at a city area like atlanta, which has added a 63,000 people to the city of atlanta alone in the course of the past year. it is still trending democratic. donald trump may win real action today but what we are hearing from both our public ina we are hearing from both our public in a democratic tribute —— were my contributors i5 in a democratic tribute —— were my contributors is he is dealing with a smaller share of the electorate and those demographic shifts are what is making georgia so tired tonight. it i5 making georgia so tired tonight. it is what is shrinking the lead of the republicans are step—by—step in a state like texas. it is going to be interesting to see how, if donald trump wins real action, what does the republican party do for the next four years to prepare itself for that democratic shift? georgia is

clearly the democratic problem for the republicans. it is a pretty big can't see how much of a problem it really is by the votes being counted. 90% have been counted but they decided not to bother counting they decided not to bother counting the rest. they just they decided not to bother counting the rest. theyjust stopped. we will leave the other 10%. who knows when we will get back? america is an economic superpower, a military superpower, not quite a superpower when it comes to election. we could nip down and do it for them. it won't take long. let's show you some places where we can project the result. minnesota we are projecting forjoe biden. that was a place where the trump campaign hoped it would go their way. it was never really a possibility. it stays firmly in the biden can. hillary clinton won by a smaller amount. mr biden has won it by a convincing amount. it stays democratic. florida was the big state early in the

evening. we projected florida for trump. 29 electoral college. the significance of this was that it kept donald trump in the race and made it clear that itjoe biden's route to the white house may be not as smooth as convincing a5 route to the white house may be not as smooth as convincing as many people had thought. that was why we concentrated so much on florida going to donald trump. actually a swing from 2016 from democrat to republican. let's go to miami, florida, were normally cabal is. andrew, i think it's fair to say that this has been a blow out for donald trump. he is carrying the state of florida or holding the state of florida or holding the state of florida by 3.5 percentage points. it is a huge amount. as you said there, he has actually built on that narrow lead which he won

against hillary in 2016. look, i don't think the democrats really thought that they would win florida. i think they hoped they would win it. they were always very nervous about the state. but i would imagine the democratic party and joe biden will really look long and hard at what went wrong here. and i think here in miami—dade, this is a democratic stronghold. biden fell short. hillary clinton did better here in 2016. but i think one of the clues lies in the cuban—american population. it makes up nearly half of the population here in miami—dade. i have spent time speaking to many of them. a lot of them do like donald trump. they do believe in this message that he has been trying to ram home aboutjoe biden and the democrats being a socialist party. that sparked fears of communism. that is why they have flocked towards donald trump. but florida delivered. there were lots of concerns that florida might not

deliver. we know about the historical problems of florida. donald trump will certainly be happy about that. thank you very much. 0k, let's go from the nice sunshine state up north and go somewhere chillier, see if it is going to be a chillier, see if it is going to be a chillier place for the democrats. i am joined by the professor of law at marquette university in milwaukee, wisconsin. professor, thank you for joining the programme. we are not going to get a result from wisconsin until when? it is critical, of course, that we now when we are going to know because it could well decide the election? yes. apparently as we are speaking places like you're in milwaukee county are still counting the ballots. there was a

massive amount of mail—in voting here. the county clerks office working to counter those votes. those results probably won't come before four in the morning central time here. then those results will be compiled with others across this state and then we'll hopefully get closer to a result. as a law professor to me this is a normal pa rt of professor to me this is a normal part of the process, projecting things within the amount of time that state law requires is sort of standard here. it's frustrating. i am very frustrated. in some ways it is normal and it is in accordance with the law. it is part of the democratic process, especially at a time of covid. one of the perhaps the democrats, if you look at

tonight, certainly if donald trump wins the white house, but even if there is less of a turn that they might have expected for the democrats, i am sure that we will hear democrats talking about issues around voter suppression, access to polling booths, that kind of thing. you are in milwaukee. there is a large african—american community in milwaukee. have you seen incidences of voter suppression taking place in the city? well, i haven't seen them personally but i have certainly heard about, you know, everything from long lines and delays, to the changing around of polling places and the inability to get polling places available that would ordinarily be available. some of thatis ordinarily be available. some of that is to do with covid. because certainly a lot of elections in the precinct level are run by people who would, such as the elderly, who would, such as the elderly, who would be vulnerable. that has had an

effect. but some of it too has been the choices made by, you know, election administrators and the endless... in terms of how to run these elections. and in some ways this is endemic of patterns that we see across the united states. that there is a crunch on resources in order to run elections properly, and that has led to, in some senses, incidental voter suppression, but on the other hand reports have, in the united states the federal courts in particular, have been reluctant to make accommodations work. and so that plays into it as well. i'm thinking about the deadlines in that regard. we are showing next to a picture from the white house, a live feed from the white house. the east

room of the white house. the president is expected to come up onto the state and make a statement shortly. we are getting that from our correspondence. if president trump comes out tonight and says that he feels the election is being stolen and he has already won, what would you expect democrats to do in response? there is no basis for that statement. i would ask for the facts that support that. not withstanding the pressures. they have worked hard to make this election happened despite covid and the challenges. i would expect democrats to defend against lawsuits. professor, i am sorry to jump in. against lawsuits. professor, i am sorry tojump in. i am going tojump in because we are going to go to the white house. apologies for the

interruption but we are going to the white house to listen to what is going on in the east room of the white house, where he does have this subdued, by the standards of most american election party is going on. covid limits the number in the room but he has gathered, clearly we can see them in the crowd, a feud dozen. he will come out and make a statement and it will be interesting to hear what he has to say. whether he comes out and tells the country we have to wait and we have to wait until these votes are counted. whether he says he will start contesting. a couple of days ago he said when the polls have closed in pennsylvania he will flood the zone with lawyers. it will be interesting to listen to the tone he gives us. the tweet he sent out an hour or so ago gives some indication. i am not sure he has enough american flags

there. we could do with a few more! andrew, you have not been over to the states often enough. that is small fry. i am in no doubt he will amplify the tweet which is that they, they unspecified, are trying to steal this election. and you cannot cast votes after the polls have closed, which i think he means count polls have closed, which i think he mea ns cou nt votes, polls have closed, which i think he means count votes, but we will see. i think he is going to imply he has won the election and that there is fraud and mail—ins and other problems that will cheat him out of winning the election and in doing so... winning the election and in doing so...i winning the election and in doing so... i might be wrong and we will know in a couple of minutes but what we are about to see is a very significant step for america down the road into a constitutional crisis if this election remains as

closely contested a5 crisis if this election remains as closely contested as it looks. it is interesting that mr trump, even though he has done better than most people thought still feels he has to say people are stealing this election or trying to steal the election or trying to steal the election from him. joe biden cannot ju5t election from him. joe biden cannot just say we have to wait until all the votes are counted, if he does, he will have to say you cannot claim victory, you cannot say this election has been stolen. you have no evidence of that. i think that is exactly what you will hearjoe biden 5ay. i think that is exactly what you will hearjoe biden say. i imagine he will have a war of words as well as he will have a war of words as well a5 lawyers and a war of counting going on in these states because the democrats have made it clear they are not going to do what al gore did last time. when he spoke tojesse jackson the civil rights leader and said take your people of the streets, we don't want demonstrations, we don't want protest. and george bush, on their

side they set their people into the streets and to some extent, these disputes are won in the courtroom and counting room, but also in the court of public opinion and try to control the message. donald trump will come out now and try to control message which will then mean the democrats coming back on the big influential morning shows in america. i am sure the democrats will want to flood those zones to say the count has to continue. it is a significant moment in american history we are about to see. president trump i5 history we are about to see. president trump is going to go down this road. no sitting president in modern times, or indeed challenger, has said the election has been stolen. president nixon always feared it had been, way back in 1960, because he feltjohn f kennedy's father had fixed things in west virginia and cook county. lb johnson had fixed things in texas,

but in the end he pulled back and did not say but in the end he pulled back and did not 5ayjfk had stolen the election, even though did not 5ayjfk had stolen the election, even thouthfk won by only a sliver and al gore pulled backin only a sliver and al gore pulled back in 2000. it is interesting, even though it has been a good night for the president, better than most of america thought. better than. he feels it necessary to say the election has been stolen. but that is donald trump ‘5 modus operandi, it is to fight. they like the idea they finally have a fighter for conservative causes, a fighter in the white house who will take on liberals, who will take on democrats in the way they feel george w bush didn't, paradoxically. he won a contested election but conservatives

we re contested election but conservatives were never happy that he was conservative enough for them. what donald trump supporters love about him is exactly this. he will come out and fight and his words will be it was stolen, it is fraud, we will contest it and that will be the rallying cry to his supporters. you are right. it is an important moment in american history and an extremely important moment in this election process because it sets the tone for the legal battle that might take place over the next days and that is the tone that will dominate the conversation as the poll counters, when they get back to work in georgia, wisconsin, michigan and pennsylvania, they are still counting the ballots, this is the shadow that will hang over them. a normal president in normal times would say, i have done a lot better than you thought i would do. it is

still too close to call but i am confident i will be on a let see the result when all the votes are counted. a5 result when all the votes are counted. as we know, mr trump i5 result when all the votes are counted. as we know, mr trump is not a normal president. and whereas the closely contested elections of 1960, nixon and kennedy, the year 2000, al gore and bush, they happened in normal times. there was not massive u nrest normal times. there was not massive unrest in the streets. no deeply divided america the way it is now. it was just politics as normal. this i5 it was just politics as normal. this is very different. this is not politics in normal times. it is politics in normal times. it is politics in normal times. it is politics in a pandemic and politics during a very divisive time in america. unrest on the streets, people feeling more divided than ever before, as this result is showing. a deeply divided country. that's what makes what we think the

president is about to see, in his own words, that is what makes it more dangerous than 1960 or the year 2000. as i said before, the danger, you have to go way back to 1876, the aftermath of the civil war with a seriously contested election that took three months to resolve. the country was then deeply divided and at one stage the outgoing president, ulysses grant, a civil war hero, thought of mobilising the army because he feared that militia were marching on washington. you have to go back a long way in american history to get to where we are this morning of the 4th of november, 2020. and back in 1876, guess what democrats called that election? the fraud of the century. time changes but sometimes the word stay the same. interesting we might hear similar words from the president tonight this is the fraud of the

century. i am watching there is fox news playing on the white house in the east room and donald trump will come out saying he did not approve of the way they called states like arizona. that is what is playing. it i5 arizona. that is what is playing. it is still the network of choice in the president's white house. to get back to something i think i said earlier in the programme, this was independent, nonpartisan research poll, that showed the difference between 2000 and 2020. in 2000, only about half of democrats and republicans felt it really mattered who won the white house during that election period, post—election period. you look at 2020, 80 5% of democrats, 86% of republicans think the outcome really matters. people are so the outcome really matters. people are so tribal in this country, so dedicated to their team and there is

so dedicated to their team and there is so much hatred on both sides. democrats really hate donald trump. republicans really hate the people who hate donald trump. and we are in this moment where that leads to a fragility in the system. i remember talking to a former defence secretary who said america has three enemies, china, russia and itself, and he meant the polarisation in this country and we will see that play out over the next few days. gary o'donoghue i5 play out over the next few days. gary o'donoghue is outside the white house. four give us if we have to jump house. four give us if we have to jump in because it will be because we have an eye on the white house and whether the president will speak. any heads up on what he will 5ay? nothing at all from the campaign or from the white house staff about exactly what he might say. we have a flavour, an hour and a half ago, when he tweeted saying they are trying to steal the election. if you wait for these

words, it will set the tone for the coming days and possibly longer than that because there is a hint, i think, in that tweet, may be a plain statement in that tweet about ballots being cast after polls have closed and that is a clear reference to the three—day window pennsylvania has to count, to receive those new votes that come in by mail. that i think is an indication of the legal strategy you will see. the tone i think has been set by that tweet. i would be amazed if the president moves away would be amazed if the president moves away from that says let's see how it goes, let's count the vote, etc. i think we are looking at that kind of next few days, which a lot of people potentially feared about a conflict, conflict, underpinned by political questioning, if you like, of the whole legitimacy of the

election process, which the president has set before, so we should not be a surprise. we should clarify the three—day window we were talking about in pennsylvania, none of the ballots that will be counted in that three—day window are ballots that are cast after the polls close. they have to be postmarked up to election day and on election day, otherwise they will not be counted. they are not ballots cast after election day. gary? that is exactly right but that i5 gary? that is exactly right but that is what he is trying to i think say, votes that are coming in and counted after the polls have closed and i think that is the nature of the argument we will probably see from the lawyers, despite the fact this has been through the courts and all the way up to the supreme court. but that will be the contested element of this and there may be other challenges. who knows? the interesting thing is the maths at this stage. we are looking at

arizona a5 this stage. we are looking at arizona as an interesting state for the democrats at the moment. that would not be enough on its own. there is even extraordinary maths that can get you to a 269 draw, not com pletely that can get you to a 269 draw, not completely out of the realms of possibility at this stage. we are moving into uncharted territory in modern times. we do not know what forces will be unleashed after this statement. it might not be as historic a5 after this statement. it might not be as historic as i am predicting it will be. i think we move into territory that we do not know where it will lead. i refer way back in history to the last time there was such a hugely contested election backin such a hugely contested election back in 1876. that was resolved after three months and at a great price. it was resolved in something called the compromise of 1877 in which the democrats, although they one the popular vote, agreed

republican could become president. what did they get in return? the withdrawal of all federal troops, post—civil war, from the south and the reinstatement ofjim crow laws, of the lynchings and basically of the suppression of black people in the suppression of black people in the south, even though they had been free in the civil war. after 1876 there was not a free election in the southern states, if you were not white, until 1968. that is southern states, if you were not white, until 1968. that i5100 years almost of a price that had to be paid by big segment of the american population to resolve that election. i'm not saying anything like that will happen this time but when you go down this kind of road, you do not know where it will lead. the other thing i will say is that around the world, we live in an age, david miliband mentioned it earlier, whereas the 21st century was meant to be the ultimate and final triumph

of democracy, it has actually been a century so far of the rise of authoritarianism. you see more of it in china and in russia, saudi arabia, turkey, and so on. the philippines. you have seen the authoritarians get into their stride and take the initiative. they are looking at the selection now and they will tell their people as they have over covid, look how useless democracies are. they cannot deal with a pandemic, they cannot count their elections properly. it is an historic moment of global importance as we wait for the president to appear. the tone of what the president says will say a lot of the —— around the world. it is because of the style and the town and the manner and the persona of donald trump. it is less

to do with his policies. less to do with his global policies that they where he has talked to foreign leaders, the way that he talks in public about his own people. i think if you see donald trump, out now as the fighting donald trump who says the fighting donald trump who says the american election has been stolen, even when there is no evidence that it has been stolen, or he says these male envelopes are subject to fraud, even when there is no evidence there is anything other than tiny bits of fraud in the american electoral process, really none at all, then i think that increases the perception around the world that faces a president of the united states who cannot necessarily relied on by america's allies and he doesn't respect the laws of democracy. democracy is —— democracy i5 democracy. democracy is —— democracy is partly laws. it is also partly laws and tradition. this is a president who has constantly ridden roughshod over laws and traditions. it is exactly what his supporters

wanting to do. he wasn't sent to washington to play nice. that is what he was sent here to do. to throw things up in the air and ruffle the feathers of the establishment because they were so many people in this country who felt they hadn't got things done. ron, if you were in the white house now, you used to be an adviser to george w bush, if you are back in the white house now, what would you be trying to do to make sure that the president's message was as constructive to the process and to the united states as possible?|j would the united states as possible?” would be blocking the door from the oval office heading over to the east room and seeing if the president would listen! this is not the time for divisive rhetoric. there are several people who might move you out. this is true. this is a time in american history and posterity, and the last thing the country needs, whether you are only trump team or

the biden team, is divisive rhetoric coming from the president. one thing i find baffling here as i got a fundraising e—mail allegedly from vice president mike pence at 1:41am. it said, it is only a matter of time before the democrats try to steal the election and the results. there you have it at 1:41am the trump campaign is asking people to donate for money to try to avoid an election a scenario where it is going to be stolen. the president needs to be presidential. as hard as it is him —— for him to protect the right tone, he needs to dial this time. we don't need to get the red shirts, depletion —— the blue shirts on the streets battling each other. i suppose we shouldn't be surprised by what has happened here. the president did warn a5 by what has happened here. the president did warn as this was what he was going to do. if the election was in any way contested. if there

wasn't a clear—cut result. he was going to contest the result. the only thing that makes me slightly concerned, ron, iwill only thing that makes me slightly concerned, ron, i will put this to you, he has done better than a lot of republicans thought he would do. it is still possible he could hold on to the white house and serve a second term. it is 50—50 at the moment whether it is mr biden or mr trump. yet he still me it feels the need to go down this road. why? because as katty said, he is a fighter. he wants to be seen as fighting, fighting for his team, fighting, fighting for his team, fighting for his base. what he needs to do is fight for american democracy and to fight for civility. katty asked a few moments ago if we we re katty asked a few moments ago if we were going to have the red shirts and of the blue shirts fighting in the street. i don't think it will come to that. i think the american people are much better than that. but we should have a better tone and we deserve better from the president

of the united states that he would put us in this position where we're having very conversation.” put us in this position where we're having very conversation. i think amanda is still with us too. i would suggest, amanda, given mrtrump amanda is still with us too. i would suggest, amanda, given mr trump a's performance in this election, which i5 performance in this election, which is better than a lot of people thought it would be, he hasn't won yet, but it is certainly better than a lot of people thought, he could still lose it, if it hadn't been for covid and the us economy had continued to create jobs and continued to create jobs and continue to grow, not as fast as he thought it was, but 2% to 3%, he wouldn't have won this election, wouldn't have won this election, would he not? amanda, i'm going to stop you. i'm going tojump in because i think we have just had all of the trump family coming in. we have got if anchor, we got donald junior, we've got eric trump, all of the trump entourage coming into the east room suggesting the president

i5 east room suggesting the president is not far behind and he will be addressing the country at any moment. let's listen in. so we are getting hill to the chief as well. cheering. thank you very much. thank you. this i5 thank you very much. thank you. this is without question the latest news conference i've ever had! we love you! i want to thank the american people for their tremendous support. millions and millions of people voted for us today. and a

very sad group of people is trying to disenfranchise that group of people. and we won't stand for it. we will not stand for it. cheering. i want to thank the first lady, my entire family and vice president p, mrs pounds for being with us all through this. —— mike pence. we are getting ready for a big celebration. we are getting ready, i mean literally we were just all set to get outside and just celebrate something that was so beautiful, so good. such a vote. such a success. the citizens of this country have come out in record numbers. this is a record. there's never been anything like it. to support our

incredible movement. we won state we weren't expected to win. florida, we didn't win it, we won it by a lot. cheering. we won the great state of ohio. we won taxes. —— texas. we won at texas by 700,000 votes. and they don't even included in the tabulations. it i5 even included in the tabulations. it is also clear that we have won georgia. we are up by 2.5%, or 117,000 votes with only 17% left. they are never going to catch us. likewise, we have clearly won north carolina. we are up 1.4%, or 77,000

votes, with only approximately 5% left. they can't catch us. we also, if you look at uc, in arizona we have a lot of life in that. and somebody said, somebody declared it was a victory for them. maybe it will be. it's possible. but certainly there were a lot of votes out there that we could get because we are now just out there that we could get because we are nowjust coming into what they call trump territory, i don't know what you call it, but the sour friendly trump voters. that could be overturned. the gentleman that called it, i watched tonight, overturned. the gentleman that called it, iwatched tonight, he said, we think it's very unlikely he could catch fairly unlikely? we don't even need it. we don't need that. that was just a state if we had gotten it would have been nice. arizona. but there is a possibility, maybe even a good possibility, in fa ct, maybe even a good possibility, in fact, since i saw that originally it has been changed and three numbers

have substantially come down just in a small amount of votes. so we want that obviously to stay in play. but most importantly, we are winning pennsylvania by a tremendous amount. cheering. we're up at 600... think of this. we are up 690,000 votes in pennsylvania. these aren't even close. this is not like, oh, its close. this is not like, oh, its close. with 64% of the vote in, it's going to be almost impossible to

catch. and we are coming into good pennsylvania areas where they happen to like your president. so we will probably expand that. we are winning michigan. i'll tell you, ilooked probably expand that. we are winning michigan. i'll tell you, i looked at the numbers. i said, wow, that's a lot. by almost 300,000 volt. and 65% of the vote is in. and we are winning wisconsin. we don't need all of them. because when you add texas m, of them. because when you add texas in, which wasn't added, i spoke with the really wonderful governor of texas a little while ago, greg abbott, and he said congratulations. he called me to congratulate me on winning taxes. i don't think they finished the tabulation. it was almost complete. but he congratulated me. he said, by the way, what is going on? i've never

seen way, what is going on? i've never seen anything like this will stop cani seen anything like this will stop can i tell you what? nobody has. we won by 107,000 votes with 81% of the vote. michigan. so when you take those three states in particular, and you take all of the others, i mean we have so and you take all of the others, i mean we have so many, we and you take all of the others, i mean we have so many, we had such a big night, you just take a look at all of these states that we have won tonight and you take a look at the kind of margins we have won them by, and all ofa kind of margins we have won them by, and all of a sudden it's not like we are up12 and all of a sudden it's not like we are up 12 volts and 60% left, we won states and all of a sudden, i said, what happened to the election? it's off. we have these announcers are saying, what happened? then they say, oh... you know what happened? they knew they couldn't win 50 they said, let's go to court. did i predict this? i have been saying this from the day i heard they were

going to send out tens of millions of ballots. because either they were going to win, or if they didn't win they would take us to court. so florida was a tremendous victory. 377. texas, as we said. ohio, think of this, ohio, a tremendous state, a big state, i love ohio, we won by 8.1%. north carolina, big victory. and so we won there. we lead by 76,000 voters with is nothing left. and all of a sudden everything just stopped. this is a fraud on the american public. this is an embarrassment to our country. we we re embarrassment to our country. we were getting ready to win this

election. frankly, we did win this election. cheering. so our goal now is to ensure the integrity for the good of this nation. this is a very big moment. this is a majorfraud on our nation. we wa nt this is a majorfraud on our nation. we want the law to be used in a proper manner, so we we want the law to be used in a proper manner, so we will be going to the us supreme court. we want all voting to stop. we don't want them to find any ballots at four o'clock in the morning and add them to the li5t. in the morning and add them to the list. 0k? it's in the morning and add them to the li5t. ok? it's a very sad... it's a very sad moment. to me this is a very sad moment. to me this is a very sad moment and we will win this and a5 very sad moment and we will win this and as far very sad moment and we will win this and a5 faras very sad moment and we will win this and as far as i'm concerned we already have won it. so iju5t want to thank you. and i want to thank all of our support. i want to thank

all of our support. i want to thank all of our support. i want to thank all of the people that worked with us all of the people that worked with us and mrvice all of the people that worked with us and mr vice president, say a few words, please. cheering thank you, mr president, i want to join you in thanking more than 60 million americans who have already cast their vote for four more years for president donald trump in the white house. while the votes continue to be counted, we are going to remain vigilant, as the president said, the right to vote has been at the centre of our democracy since the founding of our democracy since the founding of the nation and we will protect the integrity of the vote. but i believe with all my heart with the extraordinary margins mr president

you have inspired, and the way you launch this movement across the country to make america great again, i truly do believe, as you do, we are on the road to victory and we will make america great again again. thank you, mr president. thank you very much. studio: there we have president trump coming out and speaking to supporters in the room, speaking to the american public. speaking to the world and saying, frankly, we did win this election. that is not true. the president has not been declared the winner but he says a great fraud has been committed on the american public and now that he will go to the united states supreme court. what we were speaking about earlier,

what ron christie, a former adviser to bush was laying out is a fear of his, andrew, seems to be what we had with the president, claiming victory while legitimate votes are still being counted. the president said he was the winner and ran through a list of states he said he has won that have not been called. the fact he says it does not make him the winner of the election and votes are still being counted. it was the most remarkable statement by an incumbent president on an election night in america's history. normally, in fact always, presidents do not claim victory until the results are in. and if they have lost, they concede. but, often, they concede even when the results are not in but it is clear they have lost. it is not clear that president trump has lost but it is not clear president trump has won either. yet he says they have definitely won in

georgia, north carolina. arizona is still in contention, they are going to in pennsylvania. interesting that he said, we did win, this is a fraud on the american people, people are trying to disenfranchise u5. on the american people, people are trying to disenfranchise us. as the counting i5 trying to disenfranchise us. as the counting is going on and remains incomplete. then he added the crucial words, he wanted the voting to stop. by that, what he means is he wants the mail—ins and earlier votes to stop being counted, and essentially for the election to be charged on those who voted on the day, because he believes that is much more republican than democrat. he said they were ready for a big celebration. and we had hail to the chief, a5 celebration. and we had hail to the chief, as he came in. which is the music that always welcomes the president when he comes into the room. this was victory music, this was to

set the signal this was a victory. this was a victory celebration. that i5 this was a victory celebration. that is what he was trying to get across. absolutely, the whole thing was designed to say, we were planning a victory, it was stolen, we were ready to go, and we will take it to the supreme court. the supreme court thatis the supreme court. the supreme court that is six conservative justices and three democratic leaning justices. if it ends up there, which i5 justices. if it ends up there, which is where donald trump signal tonight, telling us this is where he wa nts tonight, telling us this is where he wants it to end up. he cannot take it to the supreme court, we would have to have the voting. the voting still being counted in wisconsin, michigan, pennsylvania. in georgia, we spoke to reporter and the cou nters we spoke to reporter and the counters have yet to come back to counters have yet to come back to count several hundreds of thousands of votes. these are not ballots, to be clear, that were cast after the polls were shut, they were mailed m, polls were shut, they were mailed in, which is a legitimate form of

voting and they were cast early, before the election, and now it will before the election, and now it will be interesting to see how the democrats respond to this. the president coming out so defiantly we did win this election. the onus is on everybody reporting on this to make it clear the president has not won the election. he may do so but he has not yet won and joe biden has not yet won, they cannot claim that. one has declared it. one has declared it! let's speak to liam fox, former defence secretary. you area big fox, former defence secretary. you are a big supporter of mr trump, trump's america, do you accept he has no right to say he has won the election? no, because the votes have not been counted. i think it is coming down to four states and was always likely to four states and was always likely to come down to a small number.

arizona where votes are being counted. it is tightening a5 arizona where votes are being counted. it is tightening as we get towards a result. and michigan, wisconsin, pennsylvania, where this election will be decided. i think the trend in the polls, many people are saying sell your shares in pollsters, but if you look at the trend of a lot of the polls in later days, it was clear there was a trend towards donald trump in florida, georgia, north carolina and we have seen georgia, north carolina and we have seen those trends carried through, so seen those trends carried through, so little difference from 2016. i think what we are seeing is political positioning, in case... it comes down to the wire. everybody remembers the hanging chads in florida with the election. but it's a long way. it may be days before we get results. by what right does the president have had to say he has won? the president still has every

chance of winning. i am not denying that. both joe biden chance of winning. i am not denying that. bothjoe biden and mr trump have every chance of winning, depending on where these states fall. and they have still to declare. you could cut it either way, if you were so inclined to see mr biden win all mr trump. but by what possible justification in these circumstances can mr trump claim already to have won? and that people are trying to disenfranchise the united states? you cannot claim to have won when some of the bigger electoral votes have still to come, arizona with 11, pennsylvania, 20. you have got wisconsin and michigan with large numbers. can we agree the fraudulent bit here is to claim you have won when you have not won?” think it is wishful thinking. that i5 fraudulent? you cannot claim you have won until all the votes have

been counted. the pennsylvania attorney general, his advice should be heeded, all the votes have been cast, all have been counted, have patience. that is what has to happen. should your party, your government be as close to a man who makes fraudulent claims about an election? i think that the uk government has to be close to whatever american government we have. it's quite clear, i think, congress is going to be split and the democrats will hold the house andi the democrats will hold the house and i think. the relationship between the uk united states i5 and i think. the relationship between the uk united states is too important for it to be owned by any particular parties or by any particular parties or by any particular personalities. the lesson of history is the uk government and us government, of whatever political make up, have to work together because it is in our mutual interest and in the interests of the wider

world to do so. it is understandable, with the heat and tension of an election, but we will have to wait until these final states count before we know who the winner is. you say this was wishful thinking on behalf of the president. let me quote you what he said, frankly, we did win this election. that is not wishful thinking. that is the president of the united states saying he has won an election he has not won. is it not in the interests of all democratic leaders around the world, if we think democracy is the best system, to stand up and say thatis best system, to stand up and say that is not good for democracy, what the president hasjust that is not good for democracy, what the president has just said? ultimately democracy chimes because the votes will be counted. if he does not mean those states, he cannot claim victory. it has been obvious for some time, if you look at what has happened in the polls,

there is a tightening race. the turnout i think also represents the fa ct turnout i think also represents the fact this has been an extremely tense election with very strong views on either side. but it is incumbent upon us all in politics, i think, to have the humility to wait until the voters' voice has been heard before our political voices are heard and we will see the results in the coming days and it may be some days and i think what we are seeing is the election battle continuing after the polls have closed. not something we would be used to seeing in the uk, but this i5 used to seeing in the uk, but this is not a normal american election and it is not a normal american president. you follow america closely and no america. you are a friend of america. you are a friend of america. use a democracy is being served, but you know the situation

in america at the moment is incendiary. you know the divisions are deep, there is unrest, there has been violence. incendiary i5 are deep, there is unrest, there has been violence. incendiary is not a bad word. in what way has democracy been served by the president throwing a match onto an incendiary situation? i think it is quite clear that until the votes are counted, nobody can claim victory. somebody has, somebody called the president. i think that is true, and i think that patients has to be the name of the game and i think that in any way, to try to second—guess what the voters in key states of michigan and pennsylvania and wisconsin are going to do is unhelpful. i think everybody... american elections take such a long time, they spend so much money and passions are inflamed so much. but i think everyone including the president would be wise to wait

until the votes are counted. nobody can tell who has won this election until the voice of the voters in key states, which have yet to be counted, are heard. perhaps you could pick up the phone and offer those wise words of advice to the white house this evening because thatis white house this evening because that is not the message from the president. how is what is happening, not just the statement, president. how is what is happening, notjust the statement, but during the course of these hours overnight and potentially the next few days, how does it make america look to other countries around the world?” do not think anyone will be surprised, given the tone of the election. the deep almost tribal divisions in american politics. john mccain, who was a good friend of mine, and who used to say that there we re mine, and who used to say that there were people on both sides of the aisle who would rather see america fail than see their opponent

succeed. something i think was a source of great sadness to him. i think there is a tribalism that has crept into us politics in recent years. which is quite troubling. i think that idea that you don't want your opponents to succeed at any costis your opponents to succeed at any cost is quite an un—american view, or would have been at the pass. and i think we will see a congress split despite the result. we saw lindsey graham back in south carolina, a key target for the democrats. we have seen target for the democrats. we have seen the senator back iowa. you are likely to see that continue to division and whoever wins the presidential race is going to have a congress that is still split, 50 that will be a continuing problem. i do not think many people will be

surprised outside the united states. the markets certainly have been rallying a little because, i think, the performance of the republicans has been better than some of the polls were saying. but a lot of seasoned political observers, to them it will not be as much of a surprise. liam fox, thanks for joining us on this election special. the thing i do not quite understand, the president says he has won an election in which votes are still being counted. when these votes are counted, he could well have won the election. he says he is going to the supreme court. on what possible basis could he go to the supreme court? i think he will try to contest that law in pennsylvania that allows them to carry on voting, counting votes that were sent in postmarked on election day. that law

has already been to the supreme court and the supreme court ruled in the favour of allowing for this extension but one of the justices said that he ruled that the court had ruled that way because there was not enough time for them to come up with another ruling and so you could see that particular case could well be where the president would say every single ballot that was received after election day in that three—day window, wednesday to friday, here in the us, those of the ballots he will contest and will send his lawyers to pennsylvania, a5 indicated, and hope it ends up in the supreme court. he hasjust appointed a supreme courtjustice that makes the supreme court 6—3 in his favour and hopes has the same win al gore had... george bush had backin win al gore had... george bush had back in florida in 2000. you can see the pathway he is trying to map out, and you can see the state he hopes

it will start in, which is pennsylvania. for democrats, that is the nightmare scenario they were trying to avoid and they say they are better prepared to fight it than in 2000. and we will see whether thatis in 2000. and we will see whether that is where it ends up on whether pennsylvania is the linchpin and whether the election is decided in the supreme court as in 2000. gary o'donoghue are still outside the white house. the town of president trump i5 the white house. the town of president trump is not surprising to you and me. nonetheless, to hear an american president laid down the gau ntlet american president laid down the gauntlet like that and say, frankly we did win this election and a fraud has been committed on the american people, it is still striking to hear that from the podium at the white house when it is not the case, when it is not true? i think that's right. it is one of those moments where you have to remind yourself that the new normal is something that the new normal is something that has to be challenged at times.

this was a victory speech without a victory. this was a man who had claimed to have prevailed under the rules when he hasn't yet prevailed under the rules. i rules when he hasn't yet prevailed underthe rules. ithink rules when he hasn't yet prevailed under the rules. i think your point is an interesting one about the legal possibilities, because, as you said, these issues, particularly in pennsylvania and indeed in wisconsin, have already been set out, challenged and adjudicated. the supreme court has shown a certain amount of deference in individual state laws on elections. as we know, the states run the laws, evening the laws governing the election of presidents. they are in charge of how that is conducted. the supreme court has shown some deference to the states on how they do that. they will have to find some ground, some new grounds i suspect, to take that to the highest court in the land. i thought the other interesting thing, actually, just as a side bar, was the slightly different tone from the vice president there. he did say

they had to be vigilant while the re st of they had to be vigilant while the rest of the votes continue to be counted. that is a very different emphasis to one of the president himself said. ijust wonder what is going on in terms of that slight difference in town? 0k, difference in town? ok, gary o'donoghue outside of the white house. for the moment, thank you. let's go back to barbara plett usher in wilmington, delaware, the headquarters for team biden. barbara, have we had a reaction get to the president's statement from the democrats? not an official reaction, no. but this is a scenario they were expecting because, of course, president trump previewed it. he had been saying quite regularly there would be massive fraud and the election would be contested and end up in front of the supreme court, which is what he is laying out there now in his own way. although as we have been saying, there is no evidence of fraud and he has not credibly won the election

yet. so they are prepared for it. they were hoping they wouldn't have to go down this route. they were hoping they would have a blow out victory, an overwhelming victory which would then mean this wouldn't happen. but they have a legal team in place. i mean, yesterday, election day, we avoided direct questions about this or direct answers to questions about this scenario. instead they signalled they had a good grasp of the data in terms of the way people were vaulting, how the votes were counted, when and where they were being counted and so they could monitor what was going on very closely. they were also asked, have you had a conversation with the other side about the logistics of concession by either party? they basically said, we will let those logistics play out as they do. possibly because i didn't expect president trump to concede in any case, but also, because they are remembering what happened in 2000 when al gore succeeded —— and cedar.

they very much learned their lesson in 2000 from the legal tactics used by the republicans that since then they had upped their game on this. i was told they have a huge legal team that has already been operating obviously, preparing for the scenarios after election day of the best and brightest to contest this time ina best and brightest to contest this time in a real way. they are expecting that this will happen in pennsylvania, that mr trump's florida, so to speak, will be pennsylvania, as florida was to george bush, pennsylvania to mr trump. we will see how it plays out. as katty was saying, before we find out what the legal procedures will be, there will be words, a war of words also, that we will see democratic officials come out strongly saying that in a democracy the votes must be counted, these are all legitimate votes, they must be counted. barbara, thank you very

much in wilmington, a developing story. we will be back to you as we get reaction from the bike camp. cathy... yes, let's join get reaction from the bike camp. cathy... yes, let'sjoin a get reaction from the bike camp. cathy... yes, let's join a former political director for hillary clinton plasma campaign. she is in california. this is the nightmare scenario for democrats, that the president would come out, that the result would not be decided, that the president would come out and effectively declare, say he had won the election, throwing a kind of match into the fire and now leaving it to the democrats to respond. what doesjill biden it to the democrats to respond. what does jill biden do it to the democrats to respond. what doesjill biden do now? it to the democrats to respond. what does jill biden do now? -- joe biden. here is the thing. there was a whole team ready for this moment. this is not a total surprise. i think nobody wanted to hear obviously. the campaign has been building an infrastructure for lawyers, ready for this. they have been battling it all the way through. so now you put that into action. i think there is a key part here though. it is notjust a legal

strategy. it is important to have a communications plan as well. that is where i think we need biden mike to lean in more. not only in the morning but are continuously throughout this process. that part isa throughout this process. that part is a strategy they have to put in place. what would that dude? how does it change the outcome, jill biden coming out saying, nobody has won this election, we have to wait, reiterate patients? how does that change things? it's important to actually put some confidence into the system right now. obviously trump did the opposite tonight, which we are used to. he usually undermines government institutions and now it is time for biden mike to come out and say, this is how it works, educate the public at large and make sure to put out a plan so people know what we are waiting for, exactly what he is fighting for. this is an important moment not only for the democratic party but for

vice president biden to put out a statement saying, this is what we are going to do. this was the strategy they put into place. a lot of these votes are in democratic heavy districts or cities like milwaukee, like philadelphia, like detroit, and it's incredibly important to show right now that he is going to wake up in the morning and we are going to keep fighting for every single vote to be counted. amanda, is it now a race against time? the president is going to race on his bid to get to the supreme court as quickly as possible and the democrats need to have a race to get these votes counted in wisconsin, michigan and pennsylvania? sure, you've got to have your legal team and you have to work with the states to get the votes counted. but you cannot stop showing confidence in the institutions, showing a plan and communication strategy all the way through. you have to do two things at once. and certainly i know this is what the biden team has been setting up for. earlier this morning not only was the campaign manager

giving an update on the line, but also the legal team was giving an update as well, knowing that we could very well be here tonight where we are. and so now it's time to execute on that plan. 0k, amanda, thank you. it is going to be a tense few hours and a tense few days either way. it certainly is. the president's statement has thrown a huge spanner in the works of american democracy. let's go back to christian at the bbc touch screen, because there are still a number of states in play. so both mr biden and mrtrump states in play. so both mr biden and mr trump could still win this contest. let's go through how the cards make full to see which one is likely to win by going through the states. there is an awful lot of votes still to count. these are the battle ground states still in grey. we will start in north carolina.

donald trump is right, he has a fairly healthy lead in north carolina of 76,000 votes. but there are still 220,000 votes to count. we don't know what proportion of this is still to be counted. the absentee ballot, i am going to show you this in every state, because you will see in every state, because you will see in every state, because you will see in every state it leans towards the democrats. these are the votes that the president does not want to be counted. he does want the vote to be counted. he does want the vote to be counted in arizona. i will show you the picture in arizona. he is 130,000 votes in front, jill biden, at the moment. —— joe biden. there are around 537,000 votes still to count. the absentee ballot has gone in first in arizona. but there is quite a long way for donald trump to make up in arizona, and yet he says he wants all of these votes counted but he doesn't want all of the votes we re

but he doesn't want all of the votes were counted in pennsylvania. let's talk about georgia. they have had some problems with the count. he has a lead of 117,000 in georgia right now. there are 510,000 votes to count. i said a little earlier in the evening the new york times is predicting biden will win georgia, a 67% probability that he will win georgia, and that is because they are looking at this, which is still to be counted. georgia said ahead of the polls closing it would take them a couple of days to count the absentee ballots. look how big it is and took out it skews towards the democrats. they have still to counter suburbs in atlanta as well. that is why democrats want to continue with the vote count in georgia. it is by no means over and thatis georgia. it is by no means over and that is on a knife edge. then i want to compare for your these three midwestern states, pennsylvania, michigan and wisconsin. the president is right. he has a leading all of them. but look how much of the vote has been counted. there are 4 million ballots still to be

counted across the midwest. and have a look at the swing. so when you talk about the swing... sorry, let me go back to that. i want to show you why the democrats feel pretty good about these three states. when you look at the swing these are accounts that have been completed in counties compared to how they voted in 2016. this is enough swing in these states for the democrats to ta ke these states for the democrats to take wisconsin, michigan and pennsylvania. and i want to go to michigan first of all and show you the absentee ballot. come on. it is playing up. it is more tired than i am. let's go to michigan and i will show you the absentee ballot. 0k? it is 54%. it is heavily skewed towards the democrats. 18 points towards the democrats in michigan. if we go into wisconsin you will see a similar picture. 0k? the absentee ballot, there it is. 54%. 16 points it is

leaning towardsjoe there it is. 54%. 16 points it is leaning towards joe biden. there it is. 54%. 16 points it is leaning towardsjoe biden. in these states, michigan, wisconsin and pennsylvania, we have been told it will take several days, it could ta ke will take several days, it could take on full friday to counter these ballots. let's quickly look at pennsylvania. there is no history of absentee voting and pennsylvania. donald trump has a lead, 673,000. but again, there is a very healthy voter lead in the absentee ballot. there is still 1.7 million votes to count in pennsylvania. that is an awful large part of the vote share in pennsylvania still to be counted. thank you for that. katty. .. let's go straight to dominic raab, the uk foreign secretary, in westminster. foreign secretary, in westminster. foreign secretary, in westminster. foreign secretary, thank you for joining us this morning. it's extremely tense here in the united

states. the president of the united states. the president of the united states has just made it more tense by declaring himself the winner of an election that he has not yet won. is it time for you, for your government, to call him out on that? should you be distancing yourself right now from donald trump and what he said? look, it's a very close election. we are watching with great interest. it is for the american people to decide. ultimately, whatever the election night comments from either side of the campaign, i am confident and have full faith in the us institutions and the checks and balances in the us system that will produce a definitive result. we will produce a definitive result. we will watch with interest but forgive me if! will watch with interest but forgive me if i don't comment on the commentary. i'm not asking you to commentary. i'm not asking you to comment on the commentary. i'm asking you to comment on something the president of the united states has said. that is not commentary. he has said. that is not commentary. he has said. that is not commentary. he has said there is fraud on the american public and rightly we did win this election. is he right or is he not right? you are asking me to

comment on the campaign commentary from both sides, forgive me, iwill refrain from doing it. it is a very close election. it is uncertain. we may not know the definitive result for hours if not days. as i said, i'm fully confident of the us system, with all its checks and balances, will produce a definitive result and we will come as a close friend of america, watch and see how it turns out. a5a as a close friend of america, this i5 as a close friend of america, this is not campaign commentary, this is the president of the united states inverting democracy. a5 the president of the united states inverting democracy. as a close, wouldn't it be good to call your close friend out? i think you are now engaging in the campaign rather thanjust now engaging in the campaign rather than just reporting but now engaging in the campaign rather thanjust reporting but the truth is what is really important now is we wait and see how this uncertainty unfolds. there are clearly important races and results to come through particularly if you look at the mid we st particularly if you look at the mid west as your commentators were

saying, but we are not going to get involved in the election night or the morning after commentary or postmortem, that is for the american people and pundits and pollsters to do. it's clearly much closer than was expected and i think in those circumstances, it will be tense and a lot of biting fingernails depending on which side you are in the us but we will wait for the definitive result and we have full faith in the american system to produce 1.2 it might take days rather than ours so we might have be more patient and we will be there willing and able and enthusiastic to work with our american friends and partners irrespective of the outcome. foreign secretary, how good are your lines into team biden? as you know, andrew, there was a bar on contact between the biden campaign and foreign governments and we respect that and equally, when i'm

in washington, took two members on both sides of congress —— i talk. since i have been foreign secretary, i have had at least three meetings with which he nay that make ritchie neill with which he nay that make ritchie neil i told him before 2019 when there was no business about brexit, and since when we have given reassurance , spoken and since when we have given reassurance, spoken to nancy closely but also good contact with republicans on the hill which is bread—and—butter for any foreign secretary. it doesn't sound like you have that great contacts?” secretary. it doesn't sound like you have that great contacts? i just explained the situation, we have very good across the political aisle support we have respected the biden campaign's ban on campaign officials talking to foreign governments, we think that is the right thing to do asa think that is the right thing to do as a matter of professional integrity to respect what they have asked for. joe biden was against brexit. most of the people around

him were against it. joe biden and most of his senior advisers regard borisjohnson a5 most of his senior advisers regard borisjohnson as something of a trumpian figure, you have a lot of hurdles to overcome to build relations with the biden administration. i am confident based on all the conversations i have had talking to leading democrats, as i did last time i was in washington, the uk and us relationship is in great shape and will go to greater heights in the months and years ahead. based on our core values and what we have in common, like trade of course but also security cooperation, shared values. the biden administration is not going to bend over backwards to give you a free trade deal, is it? it is more interested in repairing relations with the eu. you will be at the back of the queue again. i have heard

some of the commentary and this, that and the other, i have had the conversations i have discussed with you with leading democratic figures on the hill and i'm very confident. regardless of whether it is a republican or democrat win, the us british relationship is in great shape. if you want to give me a commentator's view, that's fine but i have spoken to people in congress and the democratic side who have explained how impressed they are with what we did, for example, on climate change. i had a good conversation with nancy pelosi and we did talk about northern ireland but also the action in the uk and us have ta ken but also the action in the uk and us have taken on hong kong. there is much more to this than some of the snippets that come out in tweets or immediate reporting. the bedrock of the values their shared interest, security cooperation and trade, outlook on the world i think is in great shape. we want to respect the

election process particularly when it is so close and we might not know the result for days. my questions we re the result for days. my questions were not based on what pundits have said but on what people close to mr biden have been saying who will probably be in his administration but we will leave it there. forgive me if! but we will leave it there. forgive me if i don't take a pundits's if on what the pundits say. you're getting lost in pundits now! i didn't base my question on pundits point out let's leave it there, you can't a nswer every let's leave it there, you can't answer every question by saying that i5 answer every question by saying that is just what pundits 5ay. answer every question by saying that is just what pundits say. i was quoting people who will be in the biden administration. you will have to deal with them. we will see how that works out. andrew, you don't know who is going to be in the biden administration so there is a false assumption and of course we have good contacts, because we got discrete given the restrictions on talking to people in the democrat campaign. asi talking to people in the democrat campaign. as i explained, we are very confident on values and interests and the links we have got

that the uk us relationship will be in good shape but of course the election is still too early to call. thank you. let's get the latest news. the us presidential election is hanging in the balance. in the last half—hour, donald trump had said he has won, a claim which is not true because votes are still being counted. voting in key battle ground state has been very close and most of the swing states have not been called for either candidate. eyes are turning to the midwestern states including michigan, wisconsin and pennsylvania. donald trump has defied pre—election polls to do better than expected, projected to win florida, ohio and texas and it i5 neck and neck in north carolina but the biggest prize of the night, california, has gone tojoe biden as expected. he also appears to be on course to take arizona, previously held by trump. the president also

claims, without evidence, that election fraud has occurred and millions of voters are being what he called disenfranchised. he said he planned to go to the supreme court. here is ben wright with the latest. i want to thank the american people for their tremendous support, millions and millions of people voted for us. and a very sad group of people is trying to disenfranchise that group of people, and we won't stand for it, we won't stand for it. we were getting ready for a big celebration. we were winning everything and all of a sevenit winning everything and all of a seven it was just called off. —— all ofa seven it was just called off. —— all of a sudden. in other news, the austrian capital vienna remains on high alert after monday's deadly terror attack. authorities said they are still reviewing video footage to determine if the gunmen they killed

was the sole perpetrator. on tuesday, more than a dozen suspects we re tuesday, more than a dozen suspects were arrested, two in switzerland to. the attacker was a jailed is sympathiser who had been released early from prison. hurricane etta has lashed nicaragua and honduras leaving widespread damage. with winds up to 225 kph, it has caused several buildings to collapse and there are warnings of life—threatening storm surges, flash flooding and landslides. that is the latest bbc news. welcome back to our special coverage of the us election, it is ten past three in the morning here in washington, ten past eight in

london. everyone is waking up to make sense of what has happened here in the united states, the fact that we do not have an election result, we do not have an election result, we are still waiting, a5 christian fraser has told us, for millions of votes to be counted. a quick update on where we are. the candidates need 270 electoral college votes, whoever gets that it will become the next president. joe biden has 220, donald trump has 213. after hours of being on air, since the polls closed here, we are still waiting for certainty battle ground states to be called and there is no winner yet but in the past half—hour the president has come out and said he has won the election and this is a fraud on the american people but the votes are still being counted. he might yet still being counted. he might yet still went but we can't say that yet. in a few moments i would like to go back to christian to go

through how the states, if we put certain states, for example arizona i5 certain states, for example arizona is now pretty clearly in the biden camp, the associated press have declared. if we go through the outstanding states, we can see what the chances are of mr biden or mr trump winning this election on some reasonable assumptions but before that, we can go to laura kuenssberg, our political editor who is in downing street. this is a real difficult situation for the british government, is it not? it certainly is an good morning. this is a very awkward moment for the uk government, no doubt about it. with a contested result potentially, and unclear results certainly it may be for days or even weeks, just how should they proceed in these vital hours ahead? certainly, as you were talking to the foreign secretary, we

could hear him oh so carefully trying to avoid saying anything that might provoke on either side and refusing point blank to be drawn into commenting on what president trump said from the white house in the last hour or so. definitely a very difficult moment for the government in terms of trying to absolutely keep their council and real challenges ahead for them whoever ends up as winner. just watching it from that side of the atla ntic watching it from that side of the atlantic a5 watching it from that side of the atlantic as you wake up to hear what has gone on overnight i will ask you the same question i asked dominic raab, how does it make america look from your side of the atlantic to see what is happening here?” from your side of the atlantic to see what is happening here? i think that for some time, and since the date that donald trump entered the white house, clearly the uk government has become used to dealing with an unpredictable partner across the pond and if you like that has been the

behind—the—scenes view in government of how this whole race might pan out. clearly there is a political affinity between donald trump and borisjohnson, they affinity between donald trump and boris johnson, they share a affinity between donald trump and borisjohnson, they share a love of provoking a crowd and there is a comparison that is sometimes made between them. we know that donald trump loves to shower praise on borisjohnson and trump loves to shower praise on boris johnson and he was very much a supporter of the whole brexit argument but when you look at the long term, clearly there are also people inside the uk government who worry about the predictability and reliability of that kind of white house and it was expressed to me by a former senior minister it was used to dealing with the white house undertrump who said to dealing with the white house under trump who said that basically it was clear in the short term that trump has an advantage with the uk because he is a political friend, a pro—uk ally who has made a priority to try to put forward that trade deal the uk wants. but in the long term, the british government wants a more predictable ally who believes in those international alliances that are so important to the uk and its role on the world stage in the

years to come. in terms of the events of the last 24 hours, certainly there has been a customer here are starting to look what happened in the white house overnight, you wake up in the morning wondering what donald trump has tweeted over night but for the government right now, their priority is to stay as they can but in the wider sense in is to stay as they can but in the widersense in our is to stay as they can but in the wider sense in our political landscape, there will be people who are really worried about what we have seen and heard in the last hour or so. have seen and heard in the last hour or so. 0k, laura kuenssberg, thank you. the world is waking up to find out that we have no new president here in the united states and we will have to wait another two or three days potentially to get their. we have a president who thinks he has won which is causing a5 we have a president who thinks he has won which is causing as much of a problem as not having a victor! going back to christian, on the board, this is where it is at with projections. is the magic figure is 270, mr biden has 220, mr trump has

213. let's give mr biden arizona because that looks like that is going to go democrat in this election. and nevada a5 going to go democrat in this election. and nevada as well, we don't know for sure about that. he is in front by 23,000 folks. that would be fair to give him that. there are 300,000 to count. to make sure fort viewers, we are not projecting, arizona we're pretty sure is for biden but we are projecting nevada. the same spirit, let's ta ke projecting nevada. the same spirit, let's take a guess and give georgia and north carolina to the president. 0k. it takes us back to the three great lakes states, the mid west states, talk u5 great lakes states, the mid west states, talk us through them. let's fill in maine, there is one congressional district that which is

still up for grabs so we will leave that in great you can see the totals, 240 against 244. let's put in alaska going red and hawaii blue, they are safe states. that is really where we are at, that is bubbly at the battle in a few hours, 244 against 247 —— probably the battle. pennsylvania, i am going to put that in red because i want to show you what the president still has to do. joe biden, if he wins wisconsin and michigan, and! joe biden, if he wins wisconsin and michigan, and i will show you in the graphics ina michigan, and i will show you in the graphics in a second how far he is ahead in the absentee ballot, that getsjoe biden ahead in the absentee ballot, that gets joe biden up ahead in the absentee ballot, that getsjoe biden up to ahead in the absentee ballot, that gets joe biden up to 270. ahead in the absentee ballot, that getsjoe biden up to 270. let me quickly show you wisconsin and how it looks at the moment. 85% of the

vote is counted, donald trump has a lead of 118,000, which is coming down. the absentee ballot looks like that. it is heavily skewed towards joe biden by 16 points. that will be counted in the next two days, tuesday and wednesday. wisconsin said that before the election started. these were votes that were mailed in several days before the ballot, some of them. all of those arrived before the polls closed this evening. the same case in michigan. let's quickly show you michigan. again you will see that donald trump is still ahead in michigan, 300,000 votes ahead at the moment. there is still quite a bit of the vote to come. look at the absentee ballot and again this will be counted in

the days to come. an 18 point difference. leaning heavily towards joe biden. it did take michigan back in 2016a joe biden. it did take michigan back in 2016 a couple of weeks to get a result. it took them quite a while to get a result in michigan, so that is one they will fight over. we will quickly show you pennsylvania, if you have time, then we know what we are talking about. 1.7 million votes still to count, and that looks really healthy for donald trump. pittsburgh and philadelphia still to come in the absentee vote, again they do not have a tradition of absentee voting in pennsylvania, but 16 points leans towards joe absentee voting in pennsylvania, but 16 points leans towardsjoe biden. it is this mailing vote, andrew, that donald trump does not want them to count because he knows where that absentee vote goes. pat, christian. katty, you have the knob. although at the moment donald trump i5 katty, you have the knob. although at the moment donald trump is well

ahead in these three crucial midwest states. the votes yet to come in could be heavily injoe biden in's favour. i guess that is a calculation that donald trump was met people have made and the name of the game is to try and stop as many of these from being counted and in that way donald trump holds the lead in the states to some extent. that way donald trump holds the lead in the states to some extentm that way donald trump holds the lead in the states to some extent. it is the nightmare scenario for democrats, but i would say it is the nightmare scenario for the country and for republicans a5 nightmare scenario for the country and for republicans as well. we are at the end of a very difficult year. you there in europe, as in the united states, coronavirus cases are spiking all over the country, we are heading into a long, lonely, difficult winter, and the last thing the country needs on top of that is the country needs on top of that is the uncertainty that comes from a contested election and the unrest that may follow. a5 contested election and the unrest that may follow. as i said when i started this programme, i came to

work past shops that were boarded up because shopkeepers are worried about violence on the streets in the aftermath of an election. that concern has to go up now that we are in the position we are in. if there had been a clear position one way or the other, the country could have moved forward and dealt with it. this kind of limbo i5 moved forward and dealt with it. this kind of limbo is very difficult to deal with. let's go to a political strategist. the president has said he has won this election and a fraud has been committed. we have said a lot of times on the programme it is not true, we have fa ct programme it is not true, we have fact checked that. what is the strategy for the democratic campaign? what is the strategy for the joe campaign? what is the strategy for thejoe biden campaign? what is the strategy for the joe biden campaign? it is very simple. count every vote, that is it. it is clear donald trump knows he is going to lose if every vote is counted. christian laid it out perfectly. all the outstanding balance are in urban areas for the

most part, in wisconsin, michigan, pennsylvania. if you put the map together that christian laid out it is one i did over the weekend with my final map, very conservative. if joe biden wins in nevada and arizona, which i believe he will, he only needs wisconsin and michigan because he has the two single electoral votes, in the basque —— the basque nebraska. alljoe biden needs to do, all the democrats need to do is to make sure every vote is counted and that is important. i know donald trump thinks he can get away with it and he is going to try everything and none of this is a surprise. when ruth bader ginsberg died he made clear that he nominated amy coney barrett to the supreme court because he expected them to decide the presidential election. that is what he said again tonight, so none that is what he said again tonight, so none of this is a surprise. it is enormously disappointing and it is a

coup before our very eyes, which is what he is trying to do. but i have great faith thatjoe what he is trying to do. but i have great faith that joe biden and the american people, and a number of republicans have come out and condemned what he has said. let's say condemned what he has said. let's 5ayjoe biden wins in wisconsin and michigan and he wins the presidency, it is not a massive mandate for him. it is not a massive repudiation of donald trump and what he stands for in american politics and it is not an outstanding victory for the democrats. does it hamper the way joe biden can govern, particularly if he does not get the senate? joe biden can govern, particularly if he does not get the senate7m america you win the presidency with 270 electoral votes, and of sentence. joe biden is committed to bringing the country together, to work with everybody, to work with republicans and democrats in congress. he has to do that, we have to repair this country. i think it

is shocking what one person has done in four years to our democracy, culture, society, to everything we hold dear and call ourselves americans. it will take at least four years to turn that around. but ido four years to turn that around. but i do thinkjoe biden is uniquely suited to do that and we have to. 0k thank you. nigel farage i5 leader of the brexit party, or he was leader of the brexit party, now that reform party, and he is a friend of donald trump and i5 campaigning for him and i5 trump and i5 campaigning for him and is in the trump hotel. nigel farage, donald trump says he has won this election. you might have won it, but we don't know, it is not true to say that he has won it. what is true to say is that this morning we had all the opinion polls say it was a slam dunk, it was a non—contest, joe biden had one, the media agreed and donald trump confounds the

pollsters. it looks like donald trump has won but it is not certain. it is not certain and i think his comments tonight are out of frustration and i am not surprised. to think that america and the 21st century is incapable of counting votes state by state and coming to a result, it is a pretty bad thing for america. the president said people are trying to disenfranchise the united states. what people? well, what he is talking about is the potential for voter fraud. what he was especially talking about was the idea of late votes coming in. that clearly should not be allowed. state— by—state clearly should not be allowed. state—by—state they have all done this differently. i am personally very anti—postal voting in totality, but i get it. during a pandemic that option had to be offered. should there be some rules that say that

states should count all the votes on the night? i would have thought that i5 the night? i would have thought that is something that could be agreed to. but there is not at the moment. what is the evidence of voter fraud? the evidence of fraud with postal voting is there for us all to see, we know ourselves. where is the evidence in the united states of fraud of postal votes? because it is so fraud of postal votes? because it is so new, it has not come to light. so there is no fraud? there is no evidence at this stage. the president has claimed it is a fraud on the american public. so if there i5 on the american public. so if there is no fraud, why is he claiming there is a fraud? he knows from our own miserable experience over 20 years with massively extended postal voting that not only is there a fraud, we have seen it again and again. i think you are seeing tonight after president that is frustrated that we have not got a

clear result. what we could be seeing is that a president who is worried when all the votes are counted he has not one. let's hope when they are all coated they are votes that were cast before the polls closed and not those that came in afterwards. but the supreme court was 4—4 on pennsylvania, for example, which meant the status quo applied, that pennsylvania could count male in the votes up to three days after november the 3rd, provided the postmark was on november the 3rd or before. that was ruled on by the pennsylvania supreme court and the supreme court, the us supreme court, decided in the way it ruled that the status quo would prevail. what is wrong with that?” think that for the biggest, strongest country in the western world not to be able to count votes on the day of an election is pretty

shocking, it does not send a good message to the world. the idea that that election should be contested and there should be a result on a night like tonight make sense. that might be an inefficiency, i understand that might not be the best way to run an election. i see no evidence, and so far you have not given as any, of fraud or of people being disenfranchised. we know that postal voting is open to fraud and crucially intimidation a5 postal voting is open to fraud and crucially intimidation as well. i understand it is different because of the pandemic. we do not have evidence of fraud yet because it is the first time it has been used on this scale. the president is claiming it is fraud, he is claiming he has won on the basis that the votes still to come in will be fraudulent and you know that is not true, nigel farage. i did not say it was true. i said, and true, nigel farage. i did not say it was true. isaid, and i true, nigel farage. i did not say it was true. i said, and i thought the president was expressing frustration

tonight that american states are incapable of counting votes. did you not do quite well in the brexit referendum out of postal votes? you are not particularly. i have seen the labour party particularly in britain harvest rates and i have seen britain harvest rates and i have seen the abuse of those votes amongst the ethnic minorities in our big cities. i would like the system com pletely big cities. i would like the system completely scrapped, i really would. he is the president of the united states. to express frustration on a whim, on something so fundamental as the basis of democracy seems a bit irresponsible, to say the least. the fa ct irresponsible, to say the least. the fact that america, a democratic country, is incapable on the night of the election of producing a result... but it actually often doesn't. michigan last time around did not produce a result for several weeks, so this is not totally unheard of. shameful, i could not agree more. they should be able to get this sorted to get a clear result. a5 get this sorted to get a clear result. as it is, this will drag on

for days, certainly three days, maybe longer. and presumably you agree it would be better if neither candidate during this time where we are still counting votes that have been legitimately cast came out and said they had one and other president of the united states? that would be better, wouldn't it? president of the united states? that would be better, wouldn't it7m they had been legitimately voted before the results and we will get a legitimate result. but i have no doubt that in the weeks and months to come we will find that because of a postal voting we have all sorts of problems because it is the same everywhere else. thank you for joining us. in the early hours of the morning in washington, dc, 50 we are grateful for your time. catchy, it looks like the next few hours when america wakes up in a couple of hours that it does not look like much will have changed. i don't think we will be getting any of the

states that are still to report, the crucial ones that fraser was talking about. it does not look like we will get them in the next couple of hours. we have still got georgia and north carolina hanging out there. they have not been called and we are still waiting for the good people of georgia to wake up and have coffee and cereal and start counting again, so and cereal and start counting again, so that will take a little while. it i5 so that will take a little while. it is not impossible ju5t so that will take a little while. it is not impossible just where we are at the moment that in a few hours at‘ time we have georgia and north carolina going to joe at‘ time we have georgia and north carolina going tojoe biden and he could potentially take all three of those west belt states and it looks like more of a convincing night for him. we will take awhile to get there, but do not discount the possibility that he could get a lot more of these because they are also tight and because we have this peculiar situation of waiting to have them mail—in ballots to be counted. we are 50—49 in north

carolina, georgia is not that far off and that has tightened recently. wisconsin and michigan have said they will try and get the results in they will try and get the results in the next day or two, so they will try and get the results in the next day or two, 50 wednesday or thursday, rather than having to wait until friday. pennsylvania, it may ta ke until friday. pennsylvania, it may take them another 48 hours. everybody go to bed, have a hot cup of coffee or a cup of cocoa on the side of the atlantic, go to bed and get some sleep and wake up when we have a clearer result. it is ok for you, you can go to sleep, we are up and about, it is breakfast here, we have to live with this without knowing what is going to happen next. you will be waiting for us. i promise you that whatever happens i will keep in touch over the next couple of days because we have not spoken forfour years, couple of days because we have not spoken forfouryears, but couple of days because we have not spoken for four years, but we will keepin spoken for four years, but we will keep in touch to see how this is going.

the us presidential election is hanging in the balance with the outcome dependent on a handful of battle ground states where the results might not be known for days. president trump has said that as far as he is concerned he has won the vote and any attempt to frustrate that victory would be taken to the supreme court. millions of folks are yet to be counted and the president cannot credibly claim to have one at this point —— at millions of votes. he defied pre—election polls to be better than predicted, projected to win florida, ohio and texas and its neck and neck in north carolina but the biggest prize of the night, california, has gone tojoe biden as expected. he also appears to be on course to take arizona, previously held by trump. this election remains a nailbiter and the result in key swing states are not yet known. went president trump spoke at the white house in the early hours, he claim the race would be his and then said this.

this is a fraud on the american public. this is an embarrassment to our country. he said he would take his fight to the supreme court. there is no evidence to support his claim of fraud and millions of ballots are still being counted as they should. it was joe ballots are still being counted as they should. it wasjoe biden who made the first appearance of the night, telling supporters to hold their nerve. i am here to tell you tonight, we believe we are on track tonight, we believe we are on track to win this election. until then, america had watched the night unfold with little drama. the two candidates clocked up a state they we re candidates clocked up a state they were expected to win. democrats and greens president from's path to the white house by winning florida but his vote there stayed strong democrat democrats dream to put up with millions of postal ballots to be counted can this be good, a protracted and contested slog. the united states has become the first country to officially withdraw from paris climate agreement.

although president trump announced the decision in 2017, un rules meant in the us had to wait until today to formally leave. 189 countries ratify the agreement which commits the will to keeping the rise in global temperatures well below two celsius this century. that is the latest, more in half an hour. it is the middle of the night and east coast of united states, brea kfast east coast of united states, breakfast here in the uk the american people are about to wake up the way british people in europe did not knowing the result of the 2020 american presidential election. there are still some key states to report but they seem to be in no rush to do so.

report but they seem to be in no rush to do 50. key states like wisconsin, michigan, pennsylvania and georgia have decided to stop counting for now and will start when they deem fit. some of the results we might not get for several days. meanwhile, we have a president who has claimed he has won and that other folks that might come in later now that the polls have closed our bubbly fraudulent —— other votes. he has said people are trying to disenfranchise the united states. america has entered that long dark passage many people feared a putative constitutional crisis because of a contested election in which one of the two candidates is already claiming to have won even though the votes are still being counted. we all knew it was possible, we knew that because of coronavirus this was going to be a different type of election and we

had all done our homework on these postal votes and when they would be counted and how long it might take to get a result and whether it would look like it was swinging one way and then another, we knew in zero but i have to say that now that it has happened, it comes as quite a shock still —— we knew it in theory. it causes a lot of uncertainty and a lot of stress in a country already pretty stressed by the coronavirus and all the events of this year. perhaps not more stressed than the financial markets might be if they don't get a result from the election sometime fairly soon! we can check in with that with sally who has the latest on the market and they seemed calmer earlier but how are they now? i'm afraid to say that any calmness or sitting on the sidelines and waiting and watching nervously has turned into an increase in volatility in the last couple of hours into the european trading day

has begun and when markets opened just over half an hour ago across europe we saw a swift slide on most of the key equity markets in europe. in paris and london and germany. you can see, this is the european bloc which is trading right now and they are all red but actually things have re cove red are all red but actually things have recovered from the initial drop as the market opened, this is the ftse 100 and we can get that chart up on how it is going. we can get three days here to have a sense of how it is doing, it will come up in a second, this is today, a swift drop from the close last night and it is going upa from the close last night and it is going up a little bit. it was down 196 going up a little bit. it was down 1% and it is now down 0.2% on the close yesterday. it is all the issues that you and andrew were talking about, the fact that there is no clear answer on who will be

the next president of the united states and also, there is the issue of whoever wins, will he have a split congress which means that it would be very difficult to deliver on key issues that markets want to see. markets globally have been desperate for an agreement in the us on fiscal stimulus for the world to's biggest economy. they wanted that agreed on before this election and it has not happened. we have had steve mnuchin and nancy pelosi arguing and it looks like withjoe biden not getting in quickly with a big majority and a big yes vote, it means he will not be able to pass that fiscal stimulus quickly either. all we know is we don't know anything and for financial markets globally, that is the worst case scenario. and how long will this ta ke scenario. and how long will this take and i'll be looking at a legal battle as well with that extraordinary rest conference —— are we looking at a legal battle? that

was where the president claimed victory and talked about supreme court intervention and stop counting votes etc and immediately we saw the dollar wobbling, investors on social media exclaiming their shock. markets are very nervous, traders are nervous in europe and we could see that sentiment continuing and of course the longer this takes, the worse it will get for investors as they simply don't know what will be going on inside politics and the world's biggest economy, which of course set the tone for the global economy at a critical time when we are dealing with a global pandemic. the hopes have been dashed of a clear result which could mean a boost for the us economy in the new year, with billions of dollars being poured into the world's biggest

economy. for now it is unclear and very volatile and european markets are seeing a sea of red. sally, thank you very much. perhaps we put the pennies under the mattress at the pennies under the mattress at the moment? somehow the markets will survive, they thrive on uncertainty! that is how traders make money and there isn't that much volatility at all, people arejust there isn't that much volatility at all, people are just holding their breath waiting to find out. one of the things we are waiting to find out is how nevada has gone, the state in the far west which used be very republican, now more democrat in recent years. joe biden was expected to take it although mr trump thought he had an outside chance of getting it opened at the moment, 78% of votes have been counted, mr biden is two percentage points ahead but there is still a lot to be counted and we can go to james clayton in las vegas for an update. trump would love to win

this. hillary clinton won it in 2016 but it's very close, it appears to be linked to the democrats but it is still too close to call. with me is courtney holland who is a trump activist and try proud nevada in front of you watched that speech, some extra ordinary statements, or did you make of it? i think it's absolutely necessary for him to do after joe absolutely necessary for him to do afterjoe biden absolutely necessary for him to do after joe biden came absolutely necessary for him to do afterjoe biden came out and made his speech as well. i think president trump came out as very calm and cool and collected, with a lot of numbers and really laying down facts that he is still absolutely 100% in this fight which is not surprising. as we all know, he isa is not surprising. as we all know, he is a warrior and has been like that since day one but that he really showed that tonight. trump said some pretty extraordinary things, that this was a fraud on the american public. do you really believe that? absolutely and i think

a lot of his supporters do absolutely believe that there is a lot of potential for voter fraud in this election. you are talking about potential fraud, he said there was fraud now and this was a fraudulent election. of course i'm not on the ground in the war with the campaign with what is going on with the legal team —— in the war room. but with some of these measures put into place due to the coronavirus pandemic and with the mail—in voting, for example here in nevada, signature matching is at 40%, pennsylvania, the supreme court there ruled that with the postmarks on ballots... to be clear, do you think electoral fraud has happened in nevada? specifically for this election? i cannot say, i do not know at this time. you're saying there is potentially fraud but not

necessarily? as of right now, the race is very close here but i cannot say. and quickly about nevada, what have been the big issues here? the numberone have been the big issues here? the number one issue has been the economy here. nevada has one of the lowest unemployment rates within the country due to our main economy resource being the hospitality and tourism industry, the las vegas strip has been a ghost town for months and a lot of people are out of work. that is it from us. back to the studio. thank you, james. lets check on where we are, still some lets check on where we are, still some state we don't have it yet so nobody is at 270 which is what the problem is. we are at 220 forjoe biden in blue and 213 for donald trump in republican red and still waiting for some key states, for

pennsylvania, michigan, wisconsin. those are the democratic wall states, the ones that democrats feel most confident about but we still don't have results from georgia and north carolina, all of these ballots being counted. they were mailed in and got there before the polls closed and can still be counted and when they are we will have a result. welcome back to this bbc special coverage of the us election. we would like to bring you a result, we cannot bring you a result. it is still open, either donald trump could be re—elected for a second term in the white house, orjoe biden could be the 46th president of the united states. there are still key states that have not yet

reported, so we are unable to project a winner. these key states have stopped counting for now which has left some of us quite baffled that america could actuallyjust get on with counting this election on the night when a particularly egregious case is georgia where there are only 10% of the votes left to count, but they still decided to go home stop a bit like britain in the 19705. go home stop a bit like britain in the 1970s. that follows on from them having a water main pipe burst. indeed, they got flooded. it has been another extraordinary election. if you are not able to follow in real time, i if you are not able to follow in realtime, lam if you are not able to follow in real time, i am taking you through it step—by—step and show you the pivotal moments. we start at nine o'clock east coast time and things look pretty routine. the deep south states are filling in red and new york in the blue column with 29 electoral college votes going tojoe biden. let's move the clock on. our first battle ground states turns

blue, new hampshire, where the president had campaigned, goes heavily forjoe biden, four electoral college votes in the blue cow. move on again and ohio is pointing u5 cow. move on again and ohio is pointing us in the direction the night is going. 14 times in consecutive collections, the last 14 times, ohio has called it right, going all the way back to president nixon. will they call it right tonight? we have been watching florida, it was on a knife edge all night. at half past midnight east coast time they finally called it for donald trump. there is evidence he got out the latinos vote. there i5 he got out the latinos vote. there is evidence the democrats did not manage to get out their base in places like miami bay. we move the clock on again and it is now ten to one, east coast time. iowa went to donald trump by ten points in 2016 safely in the red column. in a huge sigh of relief at republican hq a5 texas goes red. not in the same sort

of way that it went red in 2016, but enough for donald trump, and an extraordinary story of the night was the turnout, 2.7 million extra votes on those that voted in 2016. we move the clock on again and it is now half past one and minnesota. the story of 2016 was that minnesota only went for hillary clinton by 44,000 votes. it went blue much more heavily. was that the george floyd story and what persuaded the democrats to come out? also, little forgotten nebraska a5 democrats to come out? also, little forgotten nebraska as well. the congressional district has won electoral college vote, 50 congressional district has won electoral college vote, so important in this race. you will have to consider that because if joe in this race. you will have to consider that because ifjoe biden wins arizona and hold on to nevada, it means he only needs wisconsin and michigan. it does not need pennsylvania, north carolina or georgia because he has that one

electoral college vote in nebraska which will get him in to 270. thank you very much. let's speak to a historian specialising in right—wing media and politics. she is in new york. nicole, thank you very much for joining york. nicole, thank you very much forjoining u5. york. nicole, thank you very much forjoining us. as an historian and someone forjoining us. as an historian and someone who studies american history, i want your take on where we are now on what we have seen in the last couple of hours. it has beena the last couple of hours. it has been a remarkable night. a lot of this was something we could have predicted a few weeks or months ago, but the election itself has been battered by all sorts. the pandemic has really altered the way in which both candidates have been able to campaign. we are also seeing an historic realignment possibly happening. there are so many states in play in a way and we don't know which way they will go this year. i think looking forward we are seeing

something shifting in politics in the us. we have seen contested elections before in the united states. andrew was telling us earlier about the one in 1876. i lived here through the one of 2000. are you concerned, given the way the country is so are you concerned, given the way the country is 50 divided, that this one could lead to unrest in the country? to violence potentially with all the shops are boarded up? are you worried about where we are?” shops are boarded up? are you worried about where we are? i am worried about where we are? i am worried about where we are? i am worried about where we are. unlike the election in 1876 or 2000, here you have the same president who is trying to intervene in the vote counting. that itself is unprecedented in us history and is pretty gruesome. not only do we have this deep concern about the person in the white house, but there has beena in the white house, but there has been a considerable amount of political violence in the us over the past four years. there is no

reason to think that. in this election climate. the 2000 election was decided at the supreme court. donald trump says he wants to take this one to the supreme court. are you saying what donald trump i5 doing this evening is different substantially from what happened in 2000 and what george w bush did? absolutely. in the case of the george bush campaign, they were working their way through state courts and federal courts. in this case donald trump is proposing to do something he cannot do, which is just go to the supreme court and stop counting votes. it is a very different situation. nicole, thank you forjoining u5. different situation. nicole, thank you forjoining us. peter westmacott, ambassador to the uk, our ambassadorfrom westmacott, ambassador to the uk, our ambassador from 2012 to 2016, i5 this an embarrassment for america's

international reputation?” this an embarrassment for america's international reputation? i don't think it is an embarrassment for america that they are continuing to count the votes, as the president said. looking at what is going on and looking at what the president said in the white house about a virtual rally not that long ago, it is an embarrassment for america's friends and allies around the world and for those who have always looked at america as to how to make democracy and freedom of speech work. it is unfortunate he decided to call this selection and use that language lobby for the votes had been counted. it is it i5a it is a potential embarrassment for all american allies and they are probably our most important ally and we are there so do we have to keep our head down until it's resolved? it's difficult to know how to handle a president who says he has won when clearly he hasn't yet and votes are

still being counted?” clearly he hasn't yet and votes are still being counted? i saw dominic raab on your programme earlier who was clearly keeping his head down and declined to comment saying it was all from the american people and for their system to work out and thatis for their system to work out and that is right, america has its own electoral system. if you were inventing it now, it would not have the electoral college, something more to do with one man, one vote, but there is the history which is wrapped up with the rules and each state has its different rules as to when it can start counting and whether mail—in votes are allowed or not which you understand well. but i suspect for the moment, not least because of the last two british governments have made it their business to get on very well with the trump administration, nobody in the trump administration, nobody in the uk is going to want to say anything that would be regarded as this obliging in the event that trump wins. and of course he might yet and so white he had to do it early and in the process, in my view, call into question the

legitimacy of what might yet be a legitimate victory, i'm a bit puzzled by that. you will know that authoritarians are on the rise all over the place, they think they run economy is better, trying to become the biggest one, they think they have handled covid better and from erdogan to putin to xi, they will be saying, look at democracy, what a shambles, people claiming they have won and they haven't even counted the votes. it's not good. not good for democracy, democracy has had a bad run. this is not unexpected from president trump, he has broken the mould and the rules a lot over the la st mould and the rules a lot over the last few years and even done a few odd things like proroguing parliament and breaking the law in the uk with some of us think is unfortunate. but i think you are right, it means the rest of us don't really have a moral leg to stand on ifi really have a moral leg to stand on if i can put it like that in calling out others who are suppressing the

rights of expression and putting journalists injail and rights of expression and putting journalists in jail and terrorising minorities in their own countries and saying this is not the way you behave in a civilised world. we are beginning to give up on a moral right and from an american point of view, the leader of the free world sure doesn't feel like that at the moment to a lot of other countries. would like them to be exactly that. thank you forjoining u5 would like them to be exactly that. thank you forjoining us this morning. we are almost at the end of this special coverage although not the end of the story at all. we said from the start it was an extraordinary campaign and was going to be an extraordinary night but we did not realise how extraordinary it would be, particularly when the president appeared at the white house to say he had won while the votes were still being counted. house to say he had won while the votes were still being countedm started out as a referendum on donald trump, this might, and that i5 donald trump, this might, and that is what this election has been but it has ended up as a referendum on american democracy itself. that will cause a lot of consternation around the world as well as here in the us

as people wake up to the result. it has been an extraordinary night and it looks like there will be drama for days to come. our thanks to all our panellists for being with us through the last turbulent hours. in a few minutes, we will be carrying on the coverage with the outcome of this election is still far from certain. for now, we are finished. cathy, christian will all be covering events —— katty. and from me, a special goodbye and thank you to the bbc and for all of you who watched. i. i, donald john trump who solidly swear that i will faithfully execute the office of president of the united states so help me god. we must restore integrity and the rule of law at our borders.

where are you from? bbc. another beauty! the united states will withdraw... from the paris climate accord. you look at both sides, i think there is blame on both sides. rocket man is on a suicide mission for himself. it the largest tax cut in the history of our country. space force, we have air force, space force, i don't know if anybody wants to hear that. it's great to be with you.

i'm a very stable genius. the united states will not be a refugee holding facility. we have won against isis. al—baghdadi we have won against isis. al— baghdadi is dead. we have won against isis. al—baghdadi is dead. no collusion, no obstruction, everybody knows it, it's all a big hoax, no obstruction, everybody knows it, it's alla big hoax, i no obstruction, everybody knows it, it's all a big hoax, i call it a witchhunt. they call him britton trump! boris is going to do a good job. it's a perfect call, they brought me to the final stages of impeachment. but now we have that gorgeous word i never thought it would sound so good, total acquittal. the economy is booming, wages are rising, property is plummeting, crime is falling and america is the envy of the entire world.

the virus looks like by april, when it gets a little warmer it miraculously goes away. i see isee them, i see them, is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside. person, woman, man, camera, tv. i have a mask right here, i put it on when i think i need it. i think this was a blessing from god that i caught it. the radical left... will you shut up? i will kiss the guys and their beautiful women and everybody, give you a big fat kiss. tens of millions of americans have gone to the polls to vote in this election. i'm hearing the rust belt states might not get a result until thursday or friday. it's not my place or donald trump's place to declare who has won this election, that is the decision of

the american people. this is a fraud on the american public. this is an embarrassment to our country.

the us presidential election hangs in the balance with no clear winner yet. both sides are talking about victory in very different ways. joe biden urges patience while donald trump claims he has won and says he i5 trump claims he has won and says he is going to the supreme court. speaking to his supporters at the white house, president trump had said he had secured a win even though millions of votes have yet to be counted and he claimed only fraud could rob him of trying. we will be going to the us supreme court. we wa nt going to the us supreme court. we want all voting to stop. we don't wa nt want all voting to stop. we don't want them to find any ballots at four o'clock in the morning. 0k? his