this is bbc news i'm simon mccoy. the headlines at two... the chancellor extends the furlough scheme until the end of march — the government will continue paying 80% of wages. the furlough scheme was designed and delivered by the government of the united kingdom on behalf of all the people of the united kingdom wherever they live. joe biden edges closer to victory in the us presidential election — all eyes on a handful of key battleground states. i'm not here to declare that we've won, but i am here to report, when the count is finished, we believe we will be the winners. a new four—week lockdown begins in england — with police saying they won't tolerate people breaking the rules. our offices and others will be out there and if people are not abiding by the rules we will engage,

we will explain, we will encourage, but if we have to we will enforce the law. and — as england goes into lockdown and gyms close — we meet the athlete who's inspiring others to keep fit at the end of his street. good afternoon. the government's furlough scheme is to be extended until the end of march. good afternoon, and welcome to bbc news. the government's wage support scheme for furloughed workers is to be

extended until the end of march. the chancellor revealed the plan in a statement in the house of commons, saying the government's priority remains the protection of lives and livelihoods. he also announced further help for the self—employed. he stressed that furlough would remain in place for all nations of the united kingdom — after criticism that it appeared to favour england. there was also support today from the bank of england — which is pumping a further £150 billion into the uk economy. our political correspondent jessica parker has the story. a new day, another phase in some parts of the economy across england. and with that something the chancellor said he didn't want to do. continuing on with fellow not just as he expected for months but... it will be extended until the end of march. the government will continue to pay people's wages up to 80% of the normal amount. all employers will have to pay for i was not worked as the cost of employer ni and pension contributions. the government had faced claims it had only finally extended furlough as england went back into lockdown. only finally extended furlough as england went back into lockdownlj also want to reassure the people of scotland, wales, northern ireland.

the furlough scheme was designed and delivered by the government of the united kingdom on behalf of all the people of the united kingdom wherever they live. that has been the case since march. it is the case now and will remain the case until next march. labour accused the chancellor of having ignored business pleasing to the last minute. the chancellor's fourth version of his winter economy plan injust six weeks. version of his winter economy plan in just six weeks. the chancellor can change his mind at the last minute, mr speaker, but businesses can't. we need a chancellor who is in front of the problems we face, not one who is always a step behind. today, shops and other venues shut again across england, and while welcoming the fellow extension for scotland, a warning here that the summit is simply too late. many

businesses and workers expected the existing furlough scheme to end at the end of october and i know people in this circumstance, we also all know people in the circumstance he make people redundant and also put businesses into liquidation because they didn't think furlough was going to be extended and i think that is deeply regrettable. we could have had the ongoing assurance of 80% fellow from the chancellor all along. the government hadn't intended to freeze the spending taps that it intended to freeze the spending taps thatitis intended to freeze the spending taps that it is now turning them on a lot more than planned for a longer time to try and stave off a long lasting chill on the economy. jessica parker, bbc news, westminster. a second national lockdown has come into force in england to try and slow the spread of the virus. while schools and universitites will remain open — for the next four weeks pubs and restaurants are now closed but takeaways can stay open. non essential shops and entertainment venues are also closed. people can't mix with other households in homes or gardens, but meeting one other person in a public space is allowed and you should stay at home unless you are going to work,

education, essentialshopping, exercise or for medical reasons. police are warning of tough action against anyone who breaks the rules. our special correspondent lucy manning reports. we go again. does lockdown get easier the second time? de the empty streets, closed shops, the anxiety, the loneliness for some, feel different or to stay the same? like last time, many businesses are shot, but this time, schools stay open. but will the closures be temporary ones? can they survive? at harvey's brewery in lewes, they fear that bn might once again be used to animal feed. i think we all felt after the initial lockdown period that we had come through and, yes, we would have to make adjustments and yes it would bea to make adjustments and yes it would be a very long time, but i think we

we re be a very long time, but i think we were looking to try and contain it as much as we could. i think, as this was breaking, we all... it wasn't even a sense of deja vu, we had been there before, but it seemed so had been there before, but it seemed so much more insurmountable. busy periods cut short. hairdressers now shut. in the last few days, they we re shut. in the last few days, they were overrun. shut. in the last few days, they were overrun . business shut. in the last few days, they were overrun. business wire is not good, obviously clients are not good. we are hoping it will be a month but to be honest i don't know ifi month but to be honest i don't know if i believe it willjust be a month, hence why this time we're trying to preplan. but it is the cancelled celebrations, the memory is not made that perhaps hurts the most. nurse lisa love and won't be wearing her wedding dress next weekend. we were just over 150, the first production took us down to 60 thenit first production took us down to 60 then it went down to 50, to 30, then then it went down to 50, to 30, then the guidance came to 15 so we went to the registry office in their

limit was six and we got down to a point of compromise which was five guests and as of saturdayjust non—it has been cancelled, we have got no wedding. it is been horrible and we have tried a loss of tears this weekend. it hasjust been a really long post in excess of watching it slip away really slowly. the quiet of today in stark contrast to lax night. streets is busy then as they are empty now. but will people stay at home? so think about your own responsibility with our offices and others will be out there and if people are not abiding by the rules that we will engage, we will explain, we will encourage but if we have to we will enforce the law. england now has its second lockdown, where we limit our lives and hope we will save others. lucy manning, bbc news. our political correspondent nick eardley is at westminster. i was going to say they have loosen the purse strings but they haven't,

they have just cut them up! yes, this is something that the government and rishi sunak didn't wa nt to government and rishi sunak didn't want to do. it was only six months ago that they were telling us all about the scheme that they felt would have a place fellow but i think it is a sign about how worried they are about the economic picture and the continued concern over the health picture that they felt this need to pump potentially billions of pounds back into the scheme, meaning it will run until the end of march. it gives a loss of employers, lots of people who are worried about theirjob is a bit of a lifeline it means that people who are made redundant after the 23rd of september can be brought back onto the furlough scheme and given a bit more breathing space as well, but, politically, it is quite a hard mood for the government actually because rishi sunak in the past has been really critical of some of those calling for fellows to be extended. we know the labour party, the snp, devolved governments were asking them to do this a few months ago now and it's only today that we finally

find out that it is going to ask that whole year period. difficult political decision but, as they say, it is when the ministers feel that they simply have to do because of they simply have to do because of the concerns about the economy. thank you very much. that is nick ea rdley thank you very much. that is nick eardley there. stay with us this afternoon on bbc news as later on we'll be answering your questions on the four week lockdown in england. we'll be joined by sian griffiths, emeritus professor at the chinese university of hong kong and michelle ovens, director of small business britain. do send us your questions by emailing yourquestions@bbc.co.uk or tweet them to the hash tag bbc your questions. that's coming up at 3.30 right here on bbc news. and at 5pm, borisjohnson is due to give a coronavirus briefing from downing street. the prime minister will be joined by sir simon stevens, the chief executive of nhs england. we'll have special coverage from 1l30pm here on bbc news. with no clear winner yet in the us presidential election — joe biden's campaign team are expressing increasing confidence that he'll win

the race for the white house after a projected victory in michigan and a likely win in wisconsin. with votes still being counted, mr biden currently has 215 electoral college votes — the number needed to win is 270 — while president trump has 214 votes. with seven states still to declare, the democratic party are also hopeful of capturing arizona — where mr biden has a lead. he's neck—and—neck with donald trump in nevada. the current tallies put the president ahead in georgia, north carolina and pennsylvania, but there are still many postal votes to be counted. in an election which saw the highest turnout in a century, joe biden has received more than 71 million votes, 50% of the total, while donald trump has so far received more than 68 million. mr trump has launched legal challenges to vote counts in the key states of wisconsin, georgia, pennsylvania and michigan. ben wright reports. we're not trying to break in, we'd just liked to watch you count the ballots. when a president criticises

the election process, people listen. chanting: all lives matter. outside a vote count in phoenix, arizona, pro—trump supporters showed how edgy this contest could become. i think the process itself can be corrupted and usurped by some of the, you know, ballots that have been coming in. itjust seems kind of shaky. we just want to make sure trump's being treated fairly. arizona is one of the handful of states that will decide this election. as officials counted ballots through the night, joe biden stayed slightly ahead there, but his lead narrowed. there are still millions of votes to count and this presidential race is not decided. in georgia, donald trump kept the narrowest of leads over joe biden as ballots were tallied. the president really needs to hold georgia to hang on to the white house. and at the moment it's joe biden sounding confident. he currently has more electoral college votes than his rival and chalked up vital wins in the midwest. here, the people rule.

power can't be taken or asserted. it flows from the people. and it's their will that determines who will be the president of the united states and their will alone. in nevada, the two candidates are neck and neck and the state will release more results later today. after president trump prematurely declared victory and erroneously claimed in a tweet to have one states he hadn't, republicans filed a string of lawsuits and complaints. we're going to win pennsylvania, but they're trying to cheat us out of it because they know it's their only path to victory. they know it's their only path to victory so we came here today with all our lawyers. we are going to file suit in pennsylvania. # god bless the usa #. donald trump wrapped up his battle ground tour on monday in wisconsin but it wasn't enough to hold the state. his response — to call for a recount. and after an attempt

by the trump campaign to stop the count in michigan, the state's chief election officer called the lawsuit meritless. we're focused on getting this right in a way that can withstand any court challenges. i'll also mention, we've seen this, not just in michigan but in other states. a lot of times court challenges or allegations are thrown around to further political agendas as opposed to actually legal claims. we could still be waiting a while to discover who the next president will be as an unprecedented volume of postal votes are counted. but it's the current occupant of the white house who is trying to catch up. ben wright, bbc news, washington. let's speak to our washington correspondent gary o'donoghue. he is outside the white house. gary, who has won! laughter yeah, thanks for that. at the moment, joe biden is ahead. he is on 233 projected votes and he needs another 27. now, where does he get

those 27 from. a lot of people are already giving him with guts concert on the bbc hasn't quite predicted that yet but a lot than it was had. that gives him ten votes. now, he needs another 17. the few states that are still counting where he is ahead, nevada six moats, and the zone 11, magically i7 ahead, nevada six moats, and the zone 11, magically 17 votes getting him to 270, though that is his easiest path to get there, having said that, things are tightening in arizona, particularly surprising around the phoenix area where donald trump is doing better than he did before, and it is close in nevada, other than panting in nevada that is largely around a county which is a predominately democratic area so the president is ahead in three states. pennsylvania, georgia, north carolina. things are tightening in pennsylvania although he is still a

long way ahead. they are very tight in georgia, just over 18,000 votes the last time i looked at the distance and still plenty to counts of the president hold on those places where he is ahead, we give him alaska which is still counting and its three votes, he is still only at 268 ifjoe biden takes this to others in the west so that is why you are seeing these legal scenarios being played out, lawyers going to these various places, because if it gets that close to 72, 68, but it really is your while calling for a recount, for example, in wisconsin which he is perfectly entitled to do, of the challenging votes being counted in places like pennsylvania and also potentially challenging some votes in arizona, which they are talking about now as well. some votes in arizona, which they are talking about now as wellm some votes in arizona, which they are talking about now as well. it is fairto are talking about now as well. it is fair to say that if donald trump loses this vote in the end, he is not going to go quietly. well, it's

interesting. i mean, iwas thinking about this just now. the president has been, since that extraordinary moment on election night where he gave a victory speech without a victory, a real moments, ithink, in american political history, a moment that course as opponents have been appalled by. since then, there's not been on the lot. that's been the odd tweet, he hasn't tweeted now for 13 hours, didn't say anything yesterday. it's really uncharacteristic, as you know, so i wonder what is going on, you know, inside there. obviously they are talking to him about the about the strategies, the legal strategies. we are told he is not that keen on the legal side of stuff, things it doesn't work very often, so it is difficult to discern exactly what they are thinking but they are keeping their options open which is not surprising and, again, perfectly legitimate. the concern, i think over the coming days as it drags on

and maybe these legal cases take some time is what will be the reaction on the streets? what will people, supporters of both sides make of it. we have already got some demonstrators, pity passive ones here this morning with there are moves around the country and i have been some tension than others owner, for example, and outside of most polling stations where there have been some nasty scene so this is what american is holding its breath m, what american is holding its breath in, to see whether or not this tra nsfer of in, to see whether or not this transfer of power, if it's to be a tra nsfer of transfer of power, if it's to be a transfer of power, if it's to be a transfer of power, is peaceful. we are all holding our breath, gary, believe me. thank you very much, see you soon. we can go to milwaukee in wisconsin, one of those key battleground states, where we're joined by yalda hakim. what's the situation where you are, yalda? some of the networks are already calling this but what is happening at the moment? they are indeed, simon. voterfraud, misinformation, this has been a central theme for

president trump throughout this campaign. in the past week i've been going to several of his valleys and he has really been talking about the idea of voterfraud, laying he has really been talking about the idea of voter fraud, laying the groundwork and it is something that his supporters were processing, they we re his supporters were processing, they were taking on, and now we're seeing memes on social media thing circulating talking about the number of ballots in wisconsin is greater than the number of registered voters and the election commission he has gone into overdrive, they're talking to the public, they are holding press c0 nfe re nces to the public, they are holding press conferences saying that the faces they have is meticulous, it's transparent, it's opened the public, it was live streamed people can watch that livestream so really we are now finding ourselves in a position where the election commission here in wisconsin and we are seeing across the country justifying itself, talking about the process that democracy takes place here in the united states. with me now is michael white know from the university of wisconsin madison to talk more about this process. michael, thank you so much for talking to us. it does appear, as my

skull simon was saying, thatjoe biden has won the state of wisconsin, and donald trump has now called for a recount. —— as my colleague simon was saying. does that surprise you? doesn't surprise me at all. the president has been telegraphing his unwillingness to acce pt telegraphing his unwillingness to accept the result of the election for several months. joe biden has woi'i for several months. joe biden has won wisconsin, he has a 20,000 plus vote egg advantage, the president is entitled to us for a recount because he was within1% of the vote. he has probably until around november 17 or make that request but he would have to pay for it which could cost three or $4 million so it is by no means settled that he would actually pursue the recount that he claims he is calling for. the president often makes bold claims and doesn't follow through. we'll know a lot more about outstanding swing states in the united states in the next three days and so there may not be recount here but they might. if it occurred, it would probably take a few days to

engage. michael, that hasn't stopped social media and the kind of conspiracy theories and misinformation circulating about the number of ballots in the number of registers voted in wisconsin. that's right, there are baseless, false conspiracy theories floating through social media about the number of voters in wisconsin. there's claims are using incorrect numbers. it is also the case that in wisconsin you can register to vote on the day of the election and so the number of registrants always increases on election day anyway, but the number of people who voted is smaller than the number of people have registered and so there is no worry about that particular conspiracy, it's for this. when the president, then, tweets about ballot dumping, what does he actually mean? it is difficult to know because there is no such thing. what happened in wisconsin, the thing that he is complaining about, is that there are

many, many, a record number of early votes cast via the mail and in wisconsin like you are not allowed to count those ballots until election day on in most places until wisconsin those male ballots are counted in the exact same place that the presidents the people would have gone to vote if they were voting in purpose. but in milwaukee, all those ballots are counted as a central location. as reported days before the election that they would count the election that they would count the state late at night and early in the state late at night and early in the morning which is greatly what they did and so if you want to believe a concerted theory about ballots in wisconsin you have to believe that this state of wisconsin telegraph that can swiftly be me and allow people to watch on livestream. michael magna, we will have to leave it there. that was michael waggoner from the university of wisconsin madison. whilst it appears thatjoe biden has won the state with less than 24,000 votes per sorry wisconsin doesn't end and we can see a legal battle it on for weeks, even

months. lebo diseko is in detroit michigan, one of the states where the president has launched legal action challenging the count. this is good news for lawyers! well, i would imagine so. we understand that that lawsuit that legal action has been passed, has been assigned toa has been passed, has been assigned to a judge. we are not quite sure what will happen next without because, of course, what the legal challenge was to try and do was to stop the ballot count yesterday and we heard from the michigan secretary of state, she is essentially the top official in the state he was kind of the face of the election here, saying that all valid ballots have been counted and she is pleased with what she has called a transparent and fair process. she is also interesting here in the elder talking about the misinformation, disinformation at play in wisconsin.

the secretary of state warning people about misinformation here and actually including donald trump's lawsuit as part of that, calling it frivolous and without merit. what is the mood of people? are they getting fed up of his everybody, like everyone, it seems to be, just holding their breath? well, it's so interesting. i think that there are very strong feelings on both sides. certainly when we were at the polling station and they were both democrats and republicans who were very angry about not being let in or not being able to get into the room particularly, banging on windows, wanting to see what was happening. there are strict numbers of regulations around the number of people that can poll watch and election officials told me that they had struck to those guidelines, but speaking to ordinary people in the street, just out and about in detroit, overall, they told me that

not only do they have faith in the process , not only do they have faith in the process, someone told me that she really sees the people overseeing this as patriots, she thanked the patriots in the room and she has faith in americans to come together after this as well. just looking at donald trump's twitter account, who in the last ten minutes has just tweeted stop the accounts. i'm just wondering, when you talk to people who, perhaps, have voted, is there a sense, as this goes longer and longer, that there is something going on behind—the—scenes and president trump may have a point? well, not the people that i've spoken to. i mean, a couple of people, it was asking about this yesterday said why would you be surprised at the vote count would ta ke surprised at the vote count would take a long time? we are in a pandemic, that is what happened. somebody else said to me, well, this is donald trump being donald trump. 0f is donald trump being donald trump. of course there are people, you know, i think those people who were at the polling station may see things differently, and perhaps on

the republican side, they will see the republican side, they will see the longer that this draws out, particularly across the country, as a sign of something else being afoot, but i think it is interesting, the kind of difference between people who are very invested in the actual process and ordinary michiganders who seem to be really taking this in their stride. and what if this legal action is taken to the next step, what happens? doing no? i wish i did know! we are still trying to work this out. i mean, this is all very new territory! i think what is very interesting is prior to election day we saw trump campaign really launching, putting on a number of legal challenges about how long people have to get their mail—in ballots in. now we're seeing a kind of change in strategy where they are challenging in a number of states, challenging in a number of states, challenging the actual votes, and

trying get vote counting stopped and also alleging fraud in some places as well. so, yeah, ithink also alleging fraud in some places as well. so, yeah, i think we are kind of in uncharted territory, all of us, so we have to kind of wait and see how this all plays out. and we have seen, particularly in washington, but there are those ready to process, a loss of boarded—up shops and things. that's a sense of fear that is creeping across the nation? is that something that you have witnessed there? across the nation? is that something that you have witnessed there ?m across the nation? is that something that you have witnessed there? it is really interesting. when i left washington, i mean, no shops were boarded up. they have been preparing for days. and i do know are certainly in a loss of other key swing states like ohio, also wisconsin, and pennsylvania, police we re wisconsin, and pennsylvania, police were on high alert in case of violence or anything that might have happened. there was also talk about militias being ready as well, so there was concern, but certainly here in detroit there aren't shops

boarded—up at all, people really do seem to be going about their normal business, so it is interesting saying that different state to state. it is great to talk to you. thank you very much for bringing us that update. laurita blewitt, from ballina in ireland, is a cousin ofjoe biden's and she first met him in 2016 when he visited ireland in his role as us vice president. shejoins me now. yes, him and his family all came to visitors in ballina here in mayo and it was a really lovely expense. just explain how close family is he? yeah, i know, american presidents a lwa ys yeah, i know, american presidents always find the irish link put himself or my dad a third cousin so not too far down the line. when we last in with him? ijust actually was a touch of the team about an hour ago so looking good so far as the message and they are all feeling

positive. hopefully now by neighbour this afternoon we might have is a given for me so much indication of how things are going in anna's own and put this into bed eventually. and they working on arizona is the crunch when, as a? i think they are very hopeful with pennsylvania as well so that is going up the camp. i think they are pretty optimistic that they will turn pennsylvania around as well. they hopefully won't need it but if they can it will be great and obviously nevada is kind of on great and obviously nevada is kind ofona great and obviously nevada is kind of on a knife edge as well.|j great and obviously nevada is kind of on a knife edge as well. i know you went to the white house is thinking 2017 when he was vice president. just talk us through how that was. yes, i was there with my brother and my brother—in—law. we visited just a about a week before they left office, himself and barack obama. they were getting ready for the inauguration of donald trump at that stage. we were bear the day he got the medal of freedom from barack obama so it was a lovely surprise for him and for us to be there as well. it was a really special day.

and what are the feelings about donald trump at the moment we the camp? i didn't get into that too much with them. i'm sure the less we talk about donald trump the better. he seems to be throwing his toys up of the plan at this stage. despite throwing his toys out of the pram at this stage. from a personal point of view, what sort of man or president would he make? well, job biden is a thoroughly decent human being and i work from the hospice here where we built ourfirst ever work from the hospice here where we built our first ever hospice from fundraising alone and it is thousand and ii when he left office he came over here on his own bat, paid for his own flights and accommodation, and came in turn to see the mayo hospice. it was a really special thing thing to do. his son died in 2015 from brain cancer in his name will be forever attached with the male hospice. you can see every time joe speaks how full of emphasis the

he is, he has got such dignity and respect for the so i think it would make a very good president. respect for the so i think it would make a very good presidentlj respect for the so i think it would make a very good president. i will let you get back to the present or television. thank you very much. thanks to talk to you. that's find out what is happening in america and join our colleagues at bbc world. little bit the counting of votes continues here in the united states to see who will be the next president. we will have the latest numbers and projections for you. as we watch a georgia, arizona, wisconsin and pennsylvania, joe biden says he is on course to take the white house. i'm not here to declare that we have one but i am here to report when the count is finished we believe we will be the winners. trump campaign launches legal action to try to stop the counting in some

states and once a recount in wisconsin. in phoenix, and trump supporters gather outside claiming the votes are not being properly counted. and we will take a look at how the us election is being viewed in russia. who would russia like to see inside the white house? all eyes are on the crucial battleground states that are yet to declare a result. let's take a look at how those states are doing. in georgia the president's lead over joe biden continues to narrow. there is less 4% of the vote to count. joe biden now holding 49.2% of the vote so he's not far behind donald trump who has 49.6%. mr biden is ahead in

arizona with 86% of the vote counted but the race there is extremely tight. the president gain votes overnight. again a close race in pennsylvania. president donald trump isa pennsylvania. president donald trump is a slight majority of 50.7%. biden is a slight majority of 50.7%. biden is in the lead in nevada. we are expecting a final result from wisconsin's soon, 99% of the vote has been counted there. the democratic candidate looking on track to win the state which brings him to 253 electoral votes. most us media outlets have declared it for the democrats but the bbc still considers these too early to project. whoever wins the presidential election the relationship with russia will be one of the key issues for the united states. let's get more on this and we can speak to maria lipman who is a russia expert. thank you very much

for joining a russia expert. thank you very much forjoining us. with moscow looking in who with their preferred candidate b in this election?“ moscow has a preference in this election, they would not tell us, not yet. the kremlin has been quite restrained, not demonstrating any preferences. there have been precious few statements from high—ranking officials and yesterday, putin's pressman said it's too early to make any comments because the outcome is not clear. if we look at the coverage of this campaign by russian state—controlled television whose line is well—adjusted to the kremlin's interest, there we do not see any preferences. the focus of the cove rage preferences. the focus of the coverage is on the turmoil on potential lawsuits, potential riots and one of the headlines of russian

daily was expectations of a class war. so really focusing on the chaotic and certain element of this election. what does that do in terms of the media hype around this for us- of the media hype around this for us— russia relations? do they want it to be a chaotic election? well, again it is very hard to say. what the russian establishment once. again the highest circulation media in russia are in tune with the kremlin's interests. it's hard to imagine that whoever is the next president, whether president robert is re—elected or whether joe president, whether president robert is re—elected or whetherjoe biden is re—elected or whetherjoe biden is in the white house, it is hard to imagine the russian—american relations will be improved. if this is the case, i think a chaotic

situation for the weekend united states serves rusher's interest. a president who is good for russia and who is —— leadership in russian—american relations will improve, let's have the adversary weaker rather than stronger. this is probably the perception these days. when we look at the last five years of the trump administration, how have relations between russia and america have been? four years ago in 2016i think there was no doubt which outcome russia so as worse. i'm not sure we can talk about better but certainly the prospect of hillary clinton as president of the united states was apparent in moscow that was pretty clear at that time. i guess moscow tried to do what it could to weaken hillary clinton thinking that she is going to be the

next president. the outcome i think was a surprise to everyone in the united states in the world and in russia itself. trump's presidency, even trump himself has demonstrated some friendliness with russia, has been marked by a decline of the russian—american relations to an all—time low since probably the collapse of the soviet union, even the decade before that. i don't think anybody in the kremlin, anybody among decision—makers in moscow would envisage continued presidency of donald trump is beneficial for russia. thank you so much for sharing your thoughts. laura, as we were saying, international reaction on this really key to how america is going to move forward after this election and he was going to be president. absolutely and on that topic i am

i°y absolutely and on that topic i am joy now from washington by election law specialist mark braden. he worked as principal lawyer in previous recount in ohio, pennsylvania and other states so you area pennsylvania and other states so you are a veteran of these lawsuits. we are a veteran of these lawsuits. we are hearing the trump campaign will lodge another lawsuit in nevada, alleging fraud. is this going to be the playbook for other states also? for a short period of time. the reality as to whether these lawsuits are going anywhere is dependent upon what the results that we see today and in the next day. if the numbers spread out and joe biden wins by significant numbers in various states, then the lawsuits will probably die. lawsuits are usually only meaningful in states where the numbers are extremely close and

extremely close is usually some number less than 1000. if we look at pennsylvania where the trump campaign has launched a lawsuit claiming that democratic election officials are hiding the ballot counting, do you see that one going anywhere? the reality is that pennsylvania law as in every state provides for observers for each side. i don't know the details as to whether there is an actual observing problem in any area but in the end, there is lawsuits don't end up affecting who wins and loses. he was going to win and who is going to lose in pennsylvania isn't driven by lawsuits, it will be driven by counting the ballots and who got the most votes. when you heard the president say in the early hours of wednesday he was going to head to the supreme court and he wanted to stop the voting, how did that make you feel? well, i found the

comments... i have to characterise them as bizarre. i don't see any reason to believe the supreme court is planning on stopping any account anywhere, i don't see any litigation stopping the count. if we get to a situation where the difference between the candidates is small then litigation becomes meaningful because it can affect retail numbers of votes, but if we are talking about differences of tens of thousands of votes, the litigation in the end isn't going to be meaning. white mark braden, thank you so much for that analysis. the hispanic vote was decisive in a number of states in the presidential election, including texas and florida with a majority voting for

president trump so what is the appealfor president trump so what is the appeal for those voters and how did the biden campaign appeared to somewhat underperform in some states with the hispanic vote? joining us now for more on this story we have a guest who is there in florida for us. she is a national spokesperson for the libre initiative. tell us what happened there in florida where president wright outperformed expectations in miami and blew it out of the water. thank you for having me. it's important to understand the diversity of the hispanic community here in florida and across the country. this diversity translates into a diversity translates into a diversity of opinion and a diversity of priorities but when it comes to theissues of priorities but when it comes to the issues that latinos all florida ca re the issues that latinos all florida care about, if you look at south florida, the issue and the topic of far left policies, some may

described as socialist was one of the key areas where trump invested time in. it's also important to note that they focused on the economy. one of the number one issues for hispanics across the state, the trump campaign would host round ta bles trump campaign would host round tables with entrepreneurs, they hosted events specifically with latinos, people from venezuela. the cuban latinos, people from venezuela. the cu ba n vote latinos, people from venezuela. the cu ban vote is latinos, people from venezuela. the cuban vote is very popular here but when you look at the demographics, colombians, porter beacons and other demographics that are non—cubans are really propelled trump to an early win in florida, something that can be attributed to that investment, showing up and talking about those diverse issues that latinos care about. that is something the pollsters completely missed. but if we look at arizona and at nevada

states where it is very, very razor—thin where the trump campaign is claiming they can have a victory, what role can the hispanic vote play there? that is what is so fascinating. when you go to those states it's very different than florida. one, the background of most of those latinos is a mexican—american background and while they really do care about the economy, education and health care, immigration plays a little bit of a different role, it's a subject that hits closer to home. many individuals are either immigrants themselves will have strong ties who are immigrants, so while the trump message of the economy might be something that quite resonated, his sta nce something that quite resonated, his stance on immigration is one that i believe created a wall between try and let you know voters in that area. just like the way latinos gave

trumpa area. just like the way latinos gave trump a lifeline in florida, latinos in nevada and new mexico and arizona really gave joe in nevada and new mexico and arizona really gavejoe biden a lifeline. right now that might propel him to the presidency. you and i spoke a few weeks ago about this crucial vote and it's turning out to be very much what you said it would be, but i'm wondering how you can break out what that let you know vote is all about because we are talking about a number of different groups here under that umbrella, under that labour of latinos. 10096. some of the key demographics to look at is puerto rican voters. they have historically been in new york. because of hurricane maria and lack of economic opportunity on the island, we saw and exodus from porto rico and florida is a huge swing state. this demographic has played a key role in the 2016 election and

right now in 2020. surprisingly trump did not win the vote but surprisingly he did increase that votes from 2016, he won approximately 30% of puerto rican voters. another demographic is venezuelans. then you people have left the island, left venezuela and have come to southern florida which has created this culture against socialism, in favour of free markets and capitalism and that has triggered other demographics like colombians, people from nicaraguan and that is what makes florida unique about the same thing in nevada and arizona, the mexican community, some of these individuals have been here for generations and don't speak spanish but identify with the community. they really care about the issues that donald trump was unable to speak about.

fascinating hearing about how that vote really does break up into those diverse communities. thank you so much forjoining us. always good to see you. i am here in london with laura in washington state. this is our main news this hour with all the developments coming from the united states of america. the headlines on bbc news: the chancellor extends the furlough scheme until the end of march — the government will continue paying 80% of wages. joe biden edges closer to victory in the us presidential election — all eyes on a handful of key battleground states. a new four—week lockdown begins in england — with police saying they won't tolerate people breaking the rules. so as we've been reporting — the chancellor rishi sunak has confirmed that the governments furlough scheme will be extended until the end of march. that scheme will pay for up to 80

per cent of a person's wage up to two thousand five hundred pounds a month. our business presenter, sima kotecha, has been investigating the impact of all of this on businesses large and small. absolutely. as you say the chancellor has said the furloughs scheme will be extended until the end of march. meaning that it will have been in place for a year and the government says it will reassess the government says it will reassess the economic situation here in the uk injanuary to see if the scheme can continue, if it needs to continue what the situation is like for businesses that have been forced to close down as a result of these restrictions. businesses today are asking questions as to how long these restrictions are going to be in place because the fact the chancellor has said the furloughs scheme will go on until the end of march has made people think, are these restrictions going to be in place until then? yesterday the prime minister told the cbi that

that would not be the case, that the restrictions would only stay in place until december two and that is something rishi sunak reiterated in the commons today. as you say the self—employed have also had some news today. there has been criticism in the past that the self—employed haven't had as much support, financial support. today the chancellor announced that through a grant, they will get up to 80% of their profits from november to january, so a grant covering those three months. he also announced that ware would be more funding for the devolved administrations, £2 billion worth of funding taking that funding up worth of funding taking that funding up to 16 billion and this all comes as the bank of england tells us it is injecting more money and it is sort of like printing money, not in

a literal sense but putting more money into the economy to try and stimulate it and it does that through buying government bonds. so it lends money to the government so that the government can then finance things like furlough. we heard that an announcement from the bank of england this morning. if few hours later saying the chancellor sang the furloughs scheme is going to be extended. i'm joined now by rain newton—smith, chief economist of the confederation of british industry. the announcement from the chancellor, was that met with a sigh of relief? absolutely. i think we are facing a bit of a bleak midwinter as we go into a national lockdown and i think businesses have been saying and what people have been saying and what people have been asking for is let's make sure the furloughs scheme is in place for longer so that as we face a tough few weeks ahead, we know that that support scheme, which is tried and

tested, has supported over 9 million jobs up until now, it is estimated there are still 2.5 million people on fellow at the moment. it's not a time for that scheme to come to an end so knowing that it will be therefore march should businesses needed is so vital in these coming weeks. even as the economy opens back up again, it takes a while for demand to come back. we've got to give time for businesses and people who rely on those jobs to get back on theirfeet as who rely on those jobs to get back on their feet as the economy opens up. that said we've gone into another period of lockdown today in england. exactly and so that is why it is so important to note the economic support will be available nationwide, including to the devolved nations regardless of which restrictions we will all be facing. the furloughs scheme will be available there for businesses to news and that is so important. it

will give people confidence that they will have the incomes they need to support them through these tough winter months ahead. but i don't think this isjob done winter months ahead. but i don't think this is job done for the chancellor. we are still worried about the pressure on certain sectors, around aviation, our sporting industry, so the supply chain that feed into our pubs, restau ra nts, chain that feed into our pubs, restaurants, cafe ‘s, so he absolutely needs to use this time well to look at some of the wider support to business. but it's so important the chancellor has agreed to act alongside the bank of england to act alongside the bank of england to help us through these tough months ahead. whilst the chancellor says he is planning for the worst and hoping for the best, the clear message is we are in for the long haul on this. i think we do know we are inforthe haul on this. i think we do know we are in for the long haul. i do believe what the pm was saying that he expects us to come out of the tighter restrictions in england on the 2nd of december but we have been

talking with the treasury and making the argument is that even if we do come out of those restrictions, it does take awhile for demand to come back and businesses now need to plan beyond december and into january. it's just worth having those schemes in place that are tried and tested so that businesses know they can use it if they needed. i don't think businesses will use these schemes if they don't need it, it's just so important these schemes will be there available for those who need them. let's hope comejanuary our economy is back up and open. we have managed to tackle these infections but at least this is a fail—safe and we need a bit more time for the economy to open up and for us to tackle this virus and get our economy firing on all cinders. it's nice to hear someone talk about the light at the end of the tunnel.

whilst we talk about the financial impact, what about the mental impact on people who for the last eight months have worried 20 47 about whether they have a business. absolutely. the pressure on businesses and the pressure on the individuals, there are many on furlough, they are watching these announcements, they know it was going to run until the end of december but for those individuals to know that this is available to their business and will be there until the end of march is a huge sigh of relief and that's why i think it is so important and it's worth, is also important the chancellor has said he will review this in january, chancellor has said he will review this injanuary, that's absolutely sensible but i think us all having the assurance that those schemes will be in place, supporting household incomes, it's important to the wider economy. we need to be confident we have the support in place so we can all get through this

together. the latest coronavirus figures and a further 236 people who tested positive have died in hospital in england and that brings the total of confirmed deaths to 33,873. nhs england saying that patients were aged between 27 and 99 and all except 18 were aged between 48 and 96 and had known underlying health conditions. this covers the period between october 23 and november four, yesterday. a further 236 deaths from coronavirus reported in england. often we look to sport for examples of resilience never more so than now. greg silvester, like so many athletes with a disability, lost his access to sport when covid began.

but he improvised — and used his street. now — as millions go into lockdown again, and sports facilities close once more — he's hoping to keep going. joe wilson reports. if you can't go to the sport bring the sport to you. when covid stopped greg's at regular indoor sessions he started coaching on his street, safe and distant. we filmed him on november the 3rd a familiar sight in this corner of wolverhampton. i've been doing it for the first time in march, the very first lockdown and we all seem to enjoy it. we get an atmosphere going and it's nice that we do it in the neighbourhood. greg sylvester excelled in the special olympics as a gymnast when he qualified as a mainstream coach, he made history. recently named an unsung hero, the volunteering

sector, he represent himself and the 1.5 million people in britain with an intellectual disability. greg is phenomenal. and not because he's got down syndrome but for the man he is. he isa down syndrome but for the man he is. he is a driven man. he is passionate about inclusion, he is passionate about inclusion, he is passionate about special olympics, he has put 30 years of his life and he puts his heart and soul into everything he does. we know that people with an intellectual disability have been disproportionately affected right through the pandemic, whether its underlying health conditions, problems accessing information or facilities, those issues are not going away. but neither is greg. these sessions are his, no charity, nobody else organises them. by chance with their great‘s birthday. if he can, there is a way, he will still be doing something like this at christmas.

now it's time for a look at the weather with chris fawkes. hello there. we've got a real mixture of weather to take us through the rest of this afternoon. for england and wales we did see a few mist and fog patches dotted around this morning. most of those were not particularly thick, so tending to clear and lift out of the way to give way to some sunny skies, and some across the south have already seen lots of sunshine this morning. across the central swathe of the uk, a lot of cloud, thick enough to give a spot of drizzle in northern england. into scotland the cloud is breaking across the north—east and in aboyne, aberdeenshire, it's become quite warm for the time of year. we've already seen temperatures reach 15 degrees and we could see highs around 15 or 16. the air is warmer across northern scotland because at the start of the month it actually was sitting across the bahamas, whereas the air across england and wales at the start of the month was over in the canada. so that's why its warm across the north in the uk and we've got those cooler conditions in the south. looking at the weather picture as we go through this evening and overnight,

again we are expecting some mist and fog patches to form, particularly across england and wales. maybe one or two further north but by and large, the air is going to continue to be a little bit mild across scotland, northern ireland and the far north of england. still the chance of seeing some frost patches further south. for friday, high pressure is still with us but it is starting to slip away. the wind is starting to strengthen and turn more to a south—easterly direction, and that will probably mean the fog patches tend to clear pretty quickly across south—east england but may well clear and lift into low cloud which could lingerfor a time before that in turn breaks up. probably quite cloudy in scotland but the best of the sunshine as we go through the day further south across england and wales, temperatures between ten and 13 degrees, so notice it will be turning that bit fresher and cooler in scotland. looking at the weather picture into the weekend, it's going to become generally pretty cloudy and there will be some rain at times this weekend. eventually it will turn milderfrom the south. on saturday we will probably see

the milder air arrive across a good part of england and wales with temperatures peaking around 16 degrees, but notice it's quite cool across parts of scotland, highs of 7 degrees or so in glasgow. looks like there will be some rain at times this weekend, probably the wettest weather around on sunday, but there is some uncertainty about exactly where the heaviest rain will be. there will be a lot of cloud, those temperatures begin to edge upwards a litle bit further north. highs again of16.

this is bbc news. i'm simon mccoy. the headlines... the chancellor extends the furlough scheme until the end of march — the government will continue paying 80% of wages. the furlough scheme was designed and delivered by the government of the united kingdom on behalf of all the people of the united kingdom wherever they live. a new four—week lockdown begins in england — with police saying they won't tolerate people breaking the rules. our offices and others will be out there and if people are not abiding by the rules we will engage, we will explain, we will encourage, but if we have to we will enforce the law. joe biden edges closer to victory in the us presidential election — all eyes on a handful of key battleground states. i'm not here to declare that we've won, but i am here to report, when the count is finished,

we believe we will be the winners. and this is the scene as counting continues in key states... we'll bring you all the latest from the us presidential election. good afternoon, and welcome to bbc news. the government's wage support scheme for furloughed workers is to be extended until the end of march. the chancellor revealed the plan in a statement in the house of commons, saying the government's priority remains the protection of lives and livelihoods. he also announced further help for the self—employed. he stressed that furlough would remain in place for all nations of the united kingdom — after criticism that it appeared to favour england. there was also support today from the bank of england — which is pumping

a further £150 billion into the uk economy. our political correspondent jessica parker has the story. a new day, new national restrictions. another freeze on some parts of society across england. and, with that, something the chancellor previously said he didn't want to do. continuing on with furlough not just, as expected, for a month, but... it will be extended until the end of march. the government will continue to help pay people's wages up to 80% of the normal amount. all employers will have to pay for hours not worked is the cost of employer nics and pension contributions. a huge announcement, made, he said, against a worsening economic backdrop. the government had faced claims it had only finally extended furlough as england went back into lockdown.

i also want to reassure the people of scotland, wales and northern ireland. the furlough scheme was designed and delivered by the government of the united kingdom on behalf of all the people of the united kingdom, wherever they live. that has been the case since march. it is the case now and will remain the case until next march. labour accused the chancellor of having ignored business pleas until the last minute. the chancellor's fourth version of his winter economy plan in just six weeks. the chancellor can change his mind at the last minute, mr speaker, but businesses can't. we need a chancellor who's in front of the problems we face,

not one who is always a step behind. today, shops and other venues shut again across england, and while welcoming the furlough extension for scotland, a warning here that for some, it's simply too late. many businesses and workers expected the existing furlough scheme to end at the end of october, and i know people in this circumstance, we'll all know people in the circumstance, who made people redundant. i know people who put businesses into liquidation because they didn't think furlough was going to be extended, and i think that is deeply regrettable. we should've had the ongoing assurance of 80% furlough from the chancellor all along. the government hadn't intended to freeze the spending taps, but it is now turning them on a lot more than planned for a longer time, to try and stave off a long—lasting chill on the economy. jessica parker, bbc news, westminster. a second national lockdown has come into force in england to try and slow the spread of the virus. while schools and universitites will remain open — for the next four weeks. pubs and restaurants are now closed but takeaways can stay open.

non—essential shops and entertainment venues are also closed. people can't mix with other households in homes or gardens but meeting one other person in a public space is allowed, and you should stay at home unless you are going to work, education, essentialshopping, exercise or for medical reasons. police are warning of tough action against anyone who breaks the rules. our political correspondent nick eardley is at westminster. rishi sunak has punch the arguments of the previous few days with the devolved governments in english regions with a statement today. yes, i think that is right, simon, but rishi sunak has been under pressure for quite awhile on the furlough scheme and has always until the weekend insisted that it needed to be replaced with something that was a bit more long—term, that took account of a changing economy, so i think this is quite a significant climb—down from the government today. yes, they are saying that the picture has changed, yes they are worried about health and economic challenges of the second wave of the virus, but, remember, it wasjust

six weeks ago that vcc and ack was telling us the details of the scheme that was supposed to replace fellow so politically this is quite a tough moment for the government, to basically admit that that scheme wasn't going to work so they need to return to the furlough scheme that we saw earlier this work. it does a nswer we saw earlier this work. it does answer a couple of the questions the ministers were being asked. there area ministers were being asked. there are a lot of questions coming from the north of england from places like greater manchester over full support for people that were out of a job because of restrictions. similarly, scotland, wales, northern ireland, all saying look, if over the winter things get a lot worse and we feel like we have to shut down big buts of the economy, is the same support going to be available that was put in place for the duration of the four lockdown that begins today in england? so, answering some questions but i think, politically, taking some flak as well, and, frankly, to a certain extent, rishi sunak has lost the argument on this and is now having

to do something the government and he in particularjust didn't want to do. yes, it underlines the fact that we are in for the long haul on this and we all knew that. but what does it mean that the restrictions that we re it mean that the restrictions that were supposed to come out in england on the 2nd of december? will this announcement today make it easier for the devolved government and then back to the english regions to do their own thing? it does. it makes it easier to have, well it gives a bit of a cushion for the economic impact, potentially, ofa bit of a cushion for the economic impact, potentially, of a longer shut down. i mean, rishi sunak was quite clear when he spoke in the commons that this didn't change the government's plan for the england wide lockdown to end in four weeks on the 2nd of december, but it is worth bearing in mind that when that end is we don't suddenly go back to know restrictions, the government's plan sends its move into the tiered restrictions and if you're into year three that means a significant shutdown of parts of the economy,

things like hospitality having to close under the t3 restrictions. likewise, in tier 2, close under the t3 restrictions. likewise, in tier2, a close under the t3 restrictions. likewise, in tier 2, a lot of businesses have decided itjust doesn't work it. on the inside of pubs, if you look around a lot of the parts of the country that have beenin the parts of the country that have been in tier 2 are quiet because people can only go in with their household and, in some cases, people like to go to the pub to get away from the household, so i am told! the key thing here is that the government has created that cushion. it is not saying that these restrictions are definitely going to go on until the end of march but it makes us a lot easier to do now, not just in england but across the uk and, you know, we're hearing from the prime minister around about o'clock in a press conference and i think that is one of the questions that he will be asked. as the calculation now both in health terms and economic terms the impact of this is going to be until at least the end of march? yes, i like the story told, bit of that. looking ahead to what borisjohnson is going to say it is quite interesting that

he was sitting next to rishi sunak in the commons this afternoon and the argument, no doubt, from boris johnson and the government is this is to help business, this is to keep business going, we giving them some certainty. yeah, absolutely, and, as you say, i think it does create a bit more certainty for businesses over the next four months. it is worth pointing out, by the way, that when the alternative scheme was introduced, or the details of that we re introduced, or the details of that were published, that was the 23rd of september. if anyone's been made redundant between that period and then they will unfollow for, the government has created a clause in this new scheme where you can basically go back onto fellow, get yourjob back and go straight on to fellow, potentially, potentially until the end of march, so this is supposed to give a bit more clarity, bit more certainty, that cushion over the winter months, but political opponents are sitting there today, be that labour, be that there today, be that labour, be that the scottish government in the form of the snp leader nicola sturgeon, they are saying we have been calling

for this for weeks. the welsh government, when it went into circuit breaker a couple of weeks ago, didn't know if when it came out the furlough scheme was still going to be in place. they were concerned and they asked if that was going to be the case and weren't given a firm commitment by the uk government, so i think the government is also going to ta ke i think the government is also going to take a bit of flak on this for not doing it sooner, and a lot of people saying, if this had been cleared up a few weeks ago, a loss of the stress and a lot of economic uncertainty that we've seen —— a los of the stress and loss of economic uncertainty that we had seen of the last few weeks would have been avoided. the government is saying it is giving the quality of the next four months and so that excess. nick, thank you very much. knitterrdly there. stay with us this afternoon on bbc news as later on we'll be answering your questions on the four week lockdown in england. we'll be joined by sian griffiths, emeritus professor at the chinese university of hong kong and michelle ovens, director of small business britain. do send us your questions

by emailing yourquestions@bbc.co.uk or tweet them to the hashtag bbc your questions. that's coming up at 3.30 right here on bbc news. and at 5pm, borisjohnson is due to give a coronavirus briefing from downing street. the prime minister will bejoined by sir simon stevens, the chief executive of nhs england. we'll have special coverage from 4.30pm here on bbc news. til who knows when, but scheduled for 5 o' clock. with no clear winner yet in the us presidential election — joe biden's campaign team are expressing increasing confidence that he'll win the race for the white house after a projected victory in michigan and a likely win in wisconsin. with votes still being counted, mr biden currently has 243 electoral college votes — the number needed to win is 270 — while president trump has 214 votes. with seven states still to declare, the democratic party are also hopeful of capturing arizona — where mr biden has a lead. he's neck—and—neck with

donald trump in nevada. the current tallies put the president ahead in georgia, north carolina and pennsylvania , but there are still many postal votes to be counted. in an election which saw the highest turnout in a century, joe biden has received more than 71 million votes, 50% of the total, while donald trump has so far received more than 68 million. mr trump has launched legal challenges to vote counts in the key states of wisconsin, georgia, pennsylvania and michigan. ben wright reports. we're not trying to break in, we'd just liked to watch you count the ballots. when a president criticises the election process, people listen. chanting: all lives matter. outside a vote count in phoenix, arizona, pro—trump supporters showed how edgy this contest could become. i think the process itself can be corrupted and usurped

by some of the, you know, ballots that have been coming in. itjust seems kind of shaky. we just want to make sure trump's being treated fairly. arizona is one of the handful of states that will decide this election. as officials counted ballots through the night, joe biden stayed slightly ahead there, but his lead narrowed. there are still millions of votes to count and this presidential race is not decided. in georgia, donald trump kept the narrowest of leads over joe biden as ballots were tallied. the president really needs to hold georgia to hang on to the white house. and at the moment it's joe biden sounding confident. he currently has more electoral college votes than his rival and chalked up vital wins in the midwest. here, the people rule. power can't be taken or asserted. it flows from the people. and it's their will that determines who will be the president of the united states and their will alone. in nevada, the two candidates are neck and neck and the state will release more results later today. after president trump prematurely declared victory and erroneously claimed in a tweet to have won

states he hadn't, republicans filed a string of lawsuits and complaints. we're going to win pennsylvania, but they're trying to cheat us out of it because they know it's their only path to victory. they know it's their only path to victory so we came here today, we met with all our lawyers. we are going to file suit in pennsylvania. # god bless the usa #. donald trump wrapped up his battle ground tour on monday in wisconsin but it wasn't enough to hold the state. his response — to call for a recount. and after an attempt by the trump campaign to stop the count in michigan, the state's chief election officer called the lawsuit meritless. we're focused on getting this right in a way that can withstand any court challenges. i'll also mention, we've seen this, not just in michigan

but in other states. a lot of times court challenges or allegations are thrown around to further political agendas as opposed to actually legal claims. we could still be waiting a while to discover who the next president will be as an unprecedented volume of postal votes are counted. but it's the current occupant of the white house who is trying to catch up. ben wright, bbc news, washington. our north america correspondent, michelle fleury, is following the pennsylvania count from philadelphia. that is the billion dollar question. he was actually holding the case the white house. we were told to expect something possibly on friday but then last night the secretary of state in pennsylvania said that the counting had been going faster than she expected. it would still take time but that has raised suggestions that perhaps it might come a little bit sooner. it is too hard to tell. two of the most populous counties have already counted all of the ballots received by a pm on election day. here in philadelphia they are still working through. they have got a third left of postal votes to count. in the meantime, we are

waiting for a press conference from the trump campaign here in pennsylvania in the next few minutes or so. perhaps they will outline their legal thinking behind some of their legal thinking behind some of the challenges they are bringing within the keystone state. the background to all of this is that trump currently holds a narrow lead but it is string or shrinking. clearly the president keen to hold onto that and he is raising the question about how postal ballots are being monitored, about the delays to the deadline for when they can be received, a number of fronts, so we're just waiting to see what is going to happen next. indeed we are. we are in the middle of a pandemic and there are an awful lot of votes to count. it is simple as that isn't it when people say why is it taking so long? yes, and the other thing you have to remember here in pennsylvania as this is the first time they have allowed this kind of postal votes where you don't need an excuse to cast one ahead of the election day. before that, most of

it was done in person. it's more complicated to process a postal vote, there are envelopes, the signatures to check, the piece of paper has to be splattered and so it can go through the scanner before it is ready to be counted. that is why the process itself take so long. add to that a pandemic, which meant that more people felt less comfortable going to the polls in person. now, the context of why people have been looking at the trump lead here and thinking it could potentially flip in favour ofjoe biden is that in—person voting is seen as favouring republicans, postal vote is seen as favouring democrat so thatis is seen as favouring democrat so that is why all eyes on the swing state with the largest amount of outstanding electoral votes up for grabs. still got plans for the weekend, have you? laughter i was going to say i've played the calendarfor i was going to say i've played the calendar for the i was going to say i've played the calendarfor the month! i was going to say i've played the calendar for the month! that is probably the smartest move. thank you very much, that is our correspondent michelle.

we can go to milwaukee in wisconsin, one of those key battleground states, where we're joined by yalda hakim. what's the situation where you are, yalda? everybody just holding everybodyjust holding their breath? very much so, and here is in much the country i can tell you that i went to several of the donald trump is not valid throughout the week, he came here at least four times in the lead up to election day and that was a rally as he was laying the groundwork for the idea that there would be voter fraud and misinformation so obviously we are now seeing that circulating on social media, where people are putting out memes saying that there we re putting out memes saying that there were more ballots than there were registered voters here in the state of wisconsin, so they are demanding a recount, as is donald trump. he has just tweeted in the last few minutes that any vote counted after the election day would not be included. now, here in wisconsin, 1.9 million people voted either by mail in the official seal, the election commission, the clerks, they were counting those votes until

they were counting those votes until the early hours in the morning and as michelle was saying there, the process is complicated. people get the votes in, they have to straighten the papers out and then they have to say who the person voted for and that goes into a machine so the process takes a long time and so the fact that they were even able to count all those votes in the early hours of the morning, given the volume, was quite extraordinary in itself, and a state of... the state of wisconsin doesn't allow a ny of... the state of wisconsin doesn't allow any kind of camp to take place before election day, so it really had to start at 7am does make any kind of count to take place before election day. throw in a pandemic to the middle of the night and that will create all sorts of other complications but now that there is saying that any kind of boat that came in after election day wouldn't be accepted. the story here in wisconsin certainly doesn't end, just like the rest of the country. thank you very much for that. lebo diseko is in detroit michigan, one of the states where the president has launched legal action challenging the count.

so, the only motoring going on there is amongst the lawyers. yes, it is very interesting hearing yelda talk about the misinformation and disinformation going on in wisconsin and warnings about that. the secretary of state here in michigan who is essentially the state official who has been put up to be the base of the election warning about the same thing and putting donald trump's legal action in the same box, saying that it is without any merit and calling it false and saying that it is really an attempt to undermine the process here. certainly, as far as we know, the legal action was to stop the count. we have now finished ballot counting in the state. we are now on to a different parts of the process. that lawsuit has gone too, been assigned toa lawsuit has gone too, been assigned to a judge. we are not entirely sure what happens next without but certainly officials here are very confident in the process being free and fair. just talk me through the

timing. what's the best guess as to when we will get a clear idea what the next move is going to be?” when we will get a clear idea what the next move is going to be? i wish i knew! ithink the next move is going to be? i wish i knew! i think we all kind of nervously what saying and going what next? what next? but certainly i think the eyes of the whole country are on the rest of those very key states, pennsylvania, wisconsin as well, arizona, nevada, to see what happens there, and, yes, in michigan we will be watching to see what happens next without legal process. it is one of several lawsuits at the trump campaign has launched across the country challenging both how people voted and trying to get a certain ballots knocked out before the election. they launched many legal challenges about how long people would have to get there is ballots in so, as yelda said, he kind of laid the groundwork, i guess, for the action that is being

taken out. we are all feeling your pain. i'm just wondering when the last time you became hysterical and i was. laughter 0h laughter oh god, laughter 0h god,| laughter oh god, i think it isjust the last few days there have been several moments of me chuckling to myself and not knowing, saying, like, what do we know? i think that is part of the election process, really. it does take a long time to count these things and people do want to make sure that it is done fairly. i suppose it is an indication ofjust how invested everybody is in the results are both around the world and in the uk and people have as well, there is a loss at stake —— a lot at stake. this has been such an extraordinary presidency and we have over the last year or so seen almost tribal to buy, divide in terms of where americans stand, very, very divided country and so this is just an indication of that, really.|j admire your spirit

an indication of that, really.|j admire yourspiritand an indication of that, really.|j admire your spirit and look forward to seeing you again. thank you very much. well i've been speaking to one ofjoe biden's relatives in ireland — here's laurita blewitt explaining her link to the presidential candidate. himself and my daughter a third cousin so not too far down the links. when we last in touch with him? i wasjust actually in touch with the team about an hour ago so looking good so far is the message and they are all feeling positive. hopefully now by this afternoon we might have a clear indication of how things are going in arizona and put this into bed eventually. they are working on arizona is the crunch one, are they? no, ithink they working on arizona is the crunch one, are they? no, i think they are very helpful with pennsylvania as well so this is going out of the camp. they are pretty optimistic that they will turn pennsylvania around as well. they hopefully won't need it but if they can it will be gate and obviously nevada is kind of a knife edge as well. obviously went

to the white house taking in 2017 when he was white or vice president. just talk us through how that was. yes, it was there with my brother and my brother—in—law. we visited just about a week before he left office, himself and barack obama. they were getting ready for the inauguration of donald trump at that stage. we were there the day he got the medal of freedom from about barack obama so it was a lovely surprise for him and for us to be there as well. it was a really special day. one of the what other feelings about donald trump at the moment in the cramped?” feelings about donald trump at the moment in the cramped? i didn't talk about that too much. the less we talk about donald trump i think the better. he seems to be throwing his toys out of the pram at this stage. what sort of man, what is president what he may? joe biden is a thoroughly decent human being. i work for the hospice here where we

burst her first ever hospice on fundraising, as well. in 2011 after he left office and this will give you an indication of what a good man he is, he came over here of his own back, paid for his own flights, his own accommodation, and came in turn to see is at the male hospice was a really special him then claim today. that was a cousin of one of the candidates, joe biden. pennsylvania that pennsylvania they are still counting and this is the scene in the street outside. protests, something of the norm now, and people just holding their breath waiting for accounts. pennsylvania, by the way, 92% count is the latest we're hearing there. 48% of the biden, 50% for tom, and we are looking at philadelphia right now as people awake there was results. ——

50% fault trump. 92% counted there. before i give the impression of what is knowing where i was talking about, you're absolutely right, but we will establish some better locations later on and i will know what i'm talking about maybe later. in the meantime, i haven't been to our washington correspondent gary o'donoghue. he gave us the latest on those all numbers. at the moment, joe biden is ahead. he is on 243 projected votes and he needs another 27. why does he get the 27 from? a lot of people already giving him wisconsin. the bbc hasn't quite projected that yet but a lot of the networks have stock that getting ten votes which gets into 253. now he needs another 17. this two states which are still counting where he is ahead in the spada, six votes, arizona 11, magically 17 votes, arizona 11, magically 17 votes, getting him to 270. so that

is his easiest path to get there. the schmuck nevada, six votes. having said that, things are tightening in arizona, particularly around the phoenix area where donald trump is doing better than he did before and it is close in nevada, other the county nevada that is still to be done is likely around what is called clark county which is the las vegas area which is a predominantly democratic area so the president is ahead in three states, pennsylvania, georgia and north carolina. things are tightening in pennsylvania, although he is still a long way ahead. they are very tight in georgia, just over, i think, around 18,000 votes last time i got the difference is still plenty to count, so the president holds on to those places where he is ahead, when we get in alaska which is still counting and it's free votes, he is still only at 268. ifjoe biden ta kes still only at 268. ifjoe biden takes this to others in the west. that is why you are seeing all these legal scenarios being played out. lawyers going to these various

places, because if it gets that close to 70, 268, then it really is worth your while calling for a recount, in wisconsin, for example, which she is perfectly entitled to do, offer challenging votes being counted in places like pennsylvania and also potentially challenging some votes in arizona which they're talking about now as well. that was gary o'donoghue. i want to take you back to philadelphia because the trunk campaign group adjusting the news conference. let's justjoin them. well, that was fabulous timing. that was the end of that briefing. what they're doing is questioning the count in pennsylvania and suggesting, as we have been hearing all through afternoon, that the lead that their man, donald trump had, has been narrowing, with 90% of ballots counted. trump was ahead by

164,414 votes but there were concerns amongst their camp that that number is dwindling. 50% donald trump in pennsylvania at the moment and that is after 92% of the votes being counted withjoe biden on 48%. obviously, one of the key states that are being watched. we will keep an eye on all those key states that could hold the key to the white house. don't forget, we will be joining our colleagues at bbc world a little later on this afternoon with the latest on what is happening. vote counting continuing injust happening. vote counting continuing in just that handful of key states now. which will determine the outcome of the election. final result hinges on the state of georgia, wisconsin, nevada, and pennsylvania. the trunk campaign in the meantime has been launching legal bids to stop the counts in pennsylvania which is what they were

just talking about there in wisconsin which has already been called by some media outlets in america forjoe biden in georgia and in michigan. so, as i say, we will nowjoin our colleagues at bbc world for the latest in the us presidential election. that is one of the challenges being brought by the try campaign —— trump campaign. it is fascinating. this is bbc world news today from washington and london. the counting continues to see who will be the next president. let's ta ke see who will be the next president. let's take a look at how those states are doing. injordan the president's lead continues to narrow

stop —— georgia. mr biden is ahead in arizona with 86% of the vote counted but the race there is extremely tight. and as we were saying, a close race in pennsylvania. at the moment president donald trump has a slight majority with 50.4% of the vote counted. joe biden is in the lead in nevada, he's got 49.3% of the vote there so far. we are expecting a fine result from wisconsin's soon, 99% of the vote has been counted there with the democratic candidate looking on track to win the state which would bring him to 253 electoral college votes. most us media outlets have declared that state of wisconsin for the democrats about the bbc still considers it too early to project. the president has

been relatively quiet until this tweet which came through a short time ago. he said simply, stop the count! he followed that up with another saying, any vote that came in after election day would not be counted. that was soon followed up with a warning from twitter which disputed mr trump's claim and as we have been hearing this comes as his tea m have been hearing this comes as his team mounts legal challenges in key battleground states. you are watching bbc world news today. whoever wins the us presidential election, the relationship with russia will be one of the key issues for the us so for moscow who would be their preferred candidate to become the next president? earlier i spoke to maria lipman, a russian expert in moscow and she gave me her assessment of who the kremlin would like to see when. if moscow, the

kremlin has a preference in this election, they would not tell us, not yet. the kremlin has been quite restrained, not demonstrating any preferences. there have been precious to statements from a high and yesterday, putin's press men said it's too early to make any comments because the outcome is not clear. if we look at the coverage of this campaign, this election by russian state—controlled television whose line is usually well—adjusted to the kremlin's interests, there all so we don't see any preferences. the focus is on the terminal of the potential lawsuits, potential riots and one of the headlines of the highest run russian daily was expectations of a class war. really

focusing on the chaotic and certain elements of this election. what does that do in terms of the media hype around this for us russian relations? do they want it to be a chaotic election? again, it's very ha rd chaotic election? again, it's very hard to say. it's hard to say what the russian establishment wants. the highest circulation media are in tune with the kremlin's interests. it's hard to imagine that whoever is the next president, whether president trump is re—elected or whether joe president trump is re—elected or whetherjoe biden president trump is re—elected or whether joe biden is, president trump is re—elected or whetherjoe biden is, it's hard to imagine the russian—american relations will be improved in the future. if this is the case i think a chaotic situation for the weakened united states serves russia's interests. if not, a president who

is good for russia in russian—american relations will improve, let's have the adversarial weaker rather than stronger. i think this is probably the perception these days. when we look at the last four years, what is your assessment of relations between america and russia? four years ago it 2016 there was no doubt which outcome russia so as worse. i'm not sure we can talk about better but certainly the prospect of hillary clinton as president of the united states was apparent in moscow and that was pretty clear at that time. i guess moscow tried to do what it could to weaken hillary clinton, thinking that she is going to be the next president. the outcome i think was a surprise to everyone in the united states, in the world and in russia

itself. trump's presidency has been marked by a decline of russian—american relations since perhaps the collapse of the soviet union. i don't think anybody in the kremlin, among decision makers would envisage continued presidency of donald trump as beneficial. that is maria lipman. the trump campaign is launching legal challenges all over the country as these votes are being cast. election specialist mark braden is a former chief counsel for the republican national committee. he also worked on previous recounts. speaking to me he gave me his view on the likelihood that donald

trump's lawsuits with six seas. the reality as to whether these lawsuits are going anywhere is dependent on the results we see today and the next day. if the numbers spread out and joe biden wins by significant numbers in various states, then the lawsuits will probably die. lawsuits are probably only meaningful in states where the numbers are extremely close and extremely close is usually some number less than a thousand. if we look at pennsylvania where the trump campaign has launched a suit claiming that democratic election officials are hiding at the ballot counting, do you see that one going anywhere? the reality is that pennsylvania law as in every state provides for observers on each side. i don't know the details as to whether there is an observing problem in any area but

those types of lawsuits don't end up effecting who wins and loses. he was going to win and who's going to lose in pennsylvania isn't driven by lawsuits, it will be driven by counting the ballots and who got the most votes. when you have the president say in the early hours of wednesday morning that he was going to head to the supreme court and he wa nted to head to the supreme court and he wanted to stop the voting, how did that you feel? i found the comments, i guess i have to characterise them as bizarre. i don't see any reason to believe the supreme court is planning on stopping an account anywhere. i don't see the litigation anywhere. i don't see the litigation anywhere stopping the count. it doesn't mean the litigation couldn't affect the election. if we get to a situation where the decisive state the difference between the candidates is very small like it was in florida between george bush and al gore, then litigation becomes

meaningful because litigation can affect retail numbers of votes. but if we talk about differences of tens of thousands of votes, the litigation in the end isn't going to be meaningful. mark braden's assessment. what do trump supporters make up the way the election is panning out. julie anne thomson is one of them. shejoins us now. when the president tweets, stop the count, what is your response? thank you for having me. this is undoubtedly an extremely important election, it's extremely tight, we don't know how it's going to turn out yet. there is a path to victory for both the president and joe biden, so we are going to have to be patient and see what happens. we are seeing that in arizona, trump supporters are chanting, count the vote and in philadelphia they are chanting stop account. you can't

haveit chanting stop account. you can't have it both ways. is it your view that all the count should be voted and see where the chips fall? it's my view that every legal vote should be counted, absolutely and i think here we have the freedom of speech and people who are protesting peacefully should be respected to be able to do so and with regard to counting all the votes, absolutely every legally cast a vote should be counted and sometimes that takes a little bit of time especially depending on the state. we are still waiting on final counts. in georgia it looks incredibly close. this is a state that president trump won in 2016 by five points and now it looks like it's heading to a recount. how do you explain the president losing ground there? the demographics in georgia have changed considerably over the past four years. there has been a lot more of a campaign to

register new votes, there are a lot of new votes that were not registered last election so we have a change of dynamics in georgia and it's a rapidly changing state so it's a rapidly changing state so it's not a surprise there is a lot more interest in this particular election. thank you so much for that. we will leave you and go to a press co nfe re nce that. we will leave you and go to a press conference that is happening in georgia where the secretary of state, brad reference burger, talking about the vote. make sure they have uploaded everything. with that we had a new tranche of votes come in and i give you what we have with every caveat in the world to complete the best numbers now for the state, knowing there is going to be a handful of

ballots in small counties here and there that will be slowly aggregated into the system over time. these can affect the outcome is overall and some of you might have seen some of these already. we are working to get these already. we are working to get these done today if possible and we are working the counties who might be having questions about how to do this properly because the main thing we wa nt this properly because the main thing we want to do, fast is right but we might appreciate accuracy. that is the bedrock of this election. accuracy is vital and is the key to all of our processes and i want to make sure this is the first time georgia has used paper ballots in 20 yea rs. we georgia has used paper ballots in 20 years. we are told people can expect some results on election night and we got a lot of them out there. we are down to about 60,000 today so we

will go through what we know we have right now. brian county, 3027. but county, 494. chatham county 17,157. clayton county 7408. floyd county 682. forsyth county 4713. fulton cou nty 682. forsyth county 4713. fulton county 11,200. gwinnett county 7300. harris county 3641. lawrence county 1797. putnam county 1552. taylor cou nty 456. 1797. putnam county 1552. taylor county 456. for a total right now of approximately just over county 456. for a total right now of approximatelyjust over 60,000 votes. the anticipation we will continue to go through the process

throughout the day and into the evening if necessary. there are large counties of this state that stayed overnight, fulton county being one of those, process these. we being getting through this process today. chatham take longer because they have a unique system. they handle different sides of the absentee ballot and the reporting process. i anticipate getting the majority of the 17,000 in today. i wa nt to majority of the 17,000 in today. i want to thank you all for being here andi want to thank you all for being here and i will answer any questions. can you explain why that number seems to be such a moving target with the numberof be such a moving target with the number of absentee ballots? as i said earlier all the ballots that come in by 7pm on election day had to be logged in. at the same time they are making reports on the other side so they are drawing from, say

10,000, they report 2000, add 1000 so that's why the number of potential votes will change. that number stopped growing which is why we are down to 60,000 today. with it taking so long can you talk about some of the security that you have in place to make sure that the counties are counting everything properly and? the main thing is we have paper ballots so they will be a record of what has occurred here and if there are questions you can do an audit. everything is open to the public. we have poll watchers. in fulton county we have in place a monitor. it's frustrating. time when

eve ryo ne monitor. it's frustrating. time when everyone else is done, florida has more to count than we do about the margin is wider so it doesn't matter as much. we have a much smaller margin and the county election officials feel that pressure, they understand, they are working hard and my hat goes off to them. they are all doing extremely well. these are all doing extremely well. these are 159 election directors and employees who are here to do the job in protecting democracy. they think about that, they think about the votes of every person in this room and around the country. these are people not involved in voter fraud. these people are not involved in voter suppression. they are doing theirjobs every day. it is hard and we are thankful to them for it and we are thankful to them for it and we will make sure every legal, lawful ballot is counted. can you tell us the criteria for the

decision... the decision hasn't been made yet. the exact criteria is defined in the election state board rule. it will be decided probably after we get the county certification but not long before. will it be the closest race though? look to the rules. i will not answer that. inaudible.. their legal counsel will give them the advice they need. i can't hear anything with that. after the 60,000... inaudible.

we are working with the counties to get a full understanding about what provisions are available. the election is not overjust in the absentee ballots. there absentee ballots from our overseas voters. they are provisional ballots that need to be verified by friday and if you have an absentee ballot with an issue like a missing signature, you have until friday to cure those. did you anticipate this process would ta ke you anticipate this process would take as long as it is taking? we said it would be wednesday or thursday before we knew the answer, so yes. inaudible.

any report we get of any irregularity are investigated and for validity of that report ascertained. i can't say for certain right now, we have reports around several things, it's a question to try and get a specific answer. we have not heard anything about a crop scanner in the county. i have no information about that. the numberof no information about that. the number of absentee ballots, is that the final number? there is a possibility that some counties might not have hit upload yet, they might have had a random one here or there but as far as the general outline,

we anticipate the absentee ballots that are there and with the extra security where we know the number of requests, the most outlining ability of anything that can be done. yes, we feel comfortable with that number. what about the possibility ofa number. what about the possibility of a recount? georgia law provides for that and it looks like the presidential rate is moving into that origin. there is a possibility of that. georgia calls it within half a percent. then the losing candidate could call for a recount and that would be a state—wide recount. one of the things we did in our new voting system is we provided knowing the state's general political situations after 2018 we provided high—capacity scanners to every cou nty provided high—capacity scanners to every county in the state so they could conduct a recount if it became necessary. we also the provisional's

would be on top of that, correct? you would know the answer to that already. we are working with the counties to get a final number on that. would you certify the results... that wouldn't be possible. the adjudication process, we hope to do it faster because we need to be able to move into the audit phase, then we will certify the election. will we get any information as to what happened this morning? on election day... you're watching bbc news, listening to the voting system implementation manager

there in atlanta, georgia. gabrielle stirling, talking there, the counting continuing. georgia responsible for 16 electoral votes. the vote taking longer than expected due to the mail in votes. laura, we we re due to the mail in votes. laura, we were talking about georgia, very much talking about how in a number of states this is not about a race but about a marathon and weighing our expectation because it will take some time, isn't it? absolutely. the key information we got there is there a 61,000 votes that are outstanding. let's go to our correspondence in atlanta, georgia. stop the president leading, 61,000 still to be counted, where are those votes still to be counted? some are to be counted right here, fulton county, the largest in georgia. in

that press conference we had 11,000 remain outstanding and what you can see behind me, these are postal ballots that were posted on election day and what they are doing is opening them up, verifying and then sending them off for scanning. they have been working 24 hours, we were here until 2am last night and they we re here until 2am last night and they were still going. just trying to make sure all this attention that is on georgia, they are trying to get it done but officials there are more interested in accuracy than in being fast. larry, it's very, very close there in georgia. a state that president try one uncomfortably before. is it possible we had to a recount or even that joe before. is it possible we had to a recount or even thatjoe biden stinks ahead? right now with the lead that president trump has here which is less than a percentage

point, that is a possibility. but it could still mean that either president try will extend his lead orjoe biden president try will extend his lead or joe biden could president try will extend his lead orjoe biden could somehow turn it around and end up winning this state. there is one legal battle already in one small county because the trump campaign claims more ballots were added after the cut—off time. there is a possibility of some kind of challenge when the final is known. larry, thank you. there you have it, it is so close. there you have it, it is so close. there you have that key state, the peach state of georgia. 16 electoral college votes. the president won it in 2016 and nowjoe biden coming very close to him. a fascinating race. we still don't know who has one. indeed and we also had that there is litigation from the trump team with nevada also

contested. stay with us with our special coverage on the us presidential election here on bbc news. for england and wales we saw mist and fog patches dotted around this morning. turning to clear and giving way to sunny skies. across the south lots of sunshine this morning. across the uk, a lot of cloud to give drizzle for northern england. scotla nd give drizzle for northern england. scotland the clouds breaking across the north—east and in aberdeenshire it is quite one for the time of year. temperatures reach 50 degrees and we could see highs of 15 or 16. the air is warm across scotland because at the start of the month it was sitting across the bahamas. where the air across england and wales was over in canada. that is

why it is warm across the north and cooler conditions in the south. looking at the weather picture this evening and overnight, some mist and fog patches to form, particularly across england and wales but by and large the air will continue to be a mother across scotland, northern ireland and the far north. still the chance of frost further south. for friday high pressure is still with us but it is starting to slip away, they wind is starting to strengthen and turn to a south—easterly direction and that will mean the fog patches turn to clear up pretty quickly across the south but may well clear and lift into low cloud which could linger before that wakes up. quite cloudy in scotland but the best of the sunshine as we go through the day further south across england and wales. temperatures between ten and 13 degrees, turning fresher and cooler in scotland. the weather picture for the weekend, it will become generally cloudy and

there will be rain at times. eventually it will turn milder from the south. on saturday we will see the south. on saturday we will see the milder air rifle across a good pa rt the milder air rifle across a good part of england and wales with temperatures around 16 degrees but quite cool across parts of scotland, highs of 7 degrees or so in glasgow. it looks like there will be some rain at times this weekend, probably the wettest weather around on sunday but uncertainty about where it will be. a lot of cloud, temperatures edging upwards further north, highs again of 16.

this is bbc news live from washington and london. the counting of votes continues here in the united states, to see who will be the next president. in the last hour, donald trump has fallen foul of twitter again by saying any votes which came in after tuesday will be ruled out. we're live in the key battleground states, which will decide this election. all eyes on georgia, arizona, navada, wisconsin and pennsylvania — joe biden says he's on course to take the white house. i'm not here to declare that we've won, but i am here to report, when the count is finished, we believe we will be the winners. the trump campaign launches multiple lawsuits, they want a recount in wisconsin — and the president's message is clear.

and i am live from the battleground state of wisconsin where the election commission has dismissed allegations of voter fraud. tensions spill over in phoenix, arizona — armed trump supporters, gathered outside an election centre claiming that votes aren't being properly counted. we've have correspondents at all the key counts — we'll also have the latest global reaction as the world watches and waits for a result. the british chancellor extends the furlough scheme until the end of march. the government will continue paying 80% of wages. the four week lockdown continues in england. we the prime minister is due to give a speech shortly from downing street. hello, and welcome from

washington and london — and as you join us, we expect more legal challenges to be lodged by the trump campaign, as the battle for the white house continues. with no clear winner yet in the us presidential election — joe biden's campaign team are expressing increasing confidence that he'll win the race, after a victory in michigan and a projected win in wisconsin. donald trump has tweeted in the last hour, "stop the count". with votes still being counted, mr biden currently has 243 electoral college votes — the number needed to win is 270 — while president trump has 214 votes. with seven states still to declare, the democratic party are also hopeful of capturing arizona, where mr biden has a lead. he's neck—and—neck with donald trump in nevada. the current tallies put the president ahead in georgia, north carolina and pennsylvania, but there are still many postal votes to be counted. in an election which saw the highest turnout in a century, joe biden has received more than 71 million votes, 50% of the total,

while donald trump has so far received more than 68 million. the president had been relatively quiet this morning until this tweet came through a short time ago — he said simply "stop the count!". he followed that up with another tweet saying: that tweet was followed up with a warning from twitter which disputed mr trump's claim saying it might be misleading. mr trump has launched legal challenges to vote counts in the key states of wisconsin, georgia, pennsylvania and michigan — we're expecting nevada to be added to that list. we begin our special coverage with this report from the bbc‘s ben wright in washington. we're not trying to break in, we'd just liked to watch you count the ballots. when a president criticises the election process, people listen. chanting: all lives matter. outside a vote count in phoenix, arizona, pro—trump supporters showed how

edgy this contest could become. i think the process itself can be corrupted and usurped by some of the, you know, ballots that have been coming in. itjust seems kind of shaky. we just want to make sure trump's being treated fairly. arizona is one of the handful of states that will decide this election. as officials counted ballots through the night, joe biden stayed slightly ahead there, but his lead narrowed. there are still millions of votes to count and this presidential race is not decided. in georgia, donald trump kept the narrowest of leads overjoe biden as ballots were tallied. the president really needs to hold georgia to hang on to the white house. and at the moment it's joe biden sounding confident. he currently has more electoral college votes than his rival and chalked up vital wins in the midwest. here, the people rule. power can't be ta ken or asserted. it flows from the people. and it's their will that

determines who will be the president of the united states and their will alone. in nevada, the two candidates are neck and neck and the state will release more results later today. after president trump prematurely declared victory and erroneously claimed in a tweet to have won states he hadn't, republicans filed a string of lawsuits and complaints. we're going to win pennsylvania, but they're trying to cheat us out of it because they know it's their only path to victory. they know it's the only path to victory so we came here today with all our lawyers. we are going to file a suit in pennsylvania. # god bless the usa #. donald trump wrapped up his battle ground tour on monday in wisconsin but it wasn't enough to hold the state. his response — to call for a recount. and after an attempt by the trump campaign to stop the count in michigan, the state's chief election officer called the lawsuit meritless. we're focused on getting this right in a way that can

withstand any court challenges. i'll also mention, we've seen this, notjust in michigan but in other states. a lot of times court challenges or allegations are thrown around to further political agendas as opposed to actually legal claims. we could still be waiting a while to discover who the next president will be as an unprecedented volume of postal votes are counted. but it's the current occupant of the white house who is trying to catch up. ben wright, bbc news, washington. let's go to washington and speak to gary o'donoghue. so, the president has tweeted, stop the count. he is currently ahead of course in that key state of pennsylvania with its 20 electoral couege pennsylvania with its 20 electoral college votes but ifjoe biden were to win that state, would you be the next president? you have to do a whole bunch of different maths to work that out. at the moment, joe biden is on 243 on the bbc‘s county,

pennsylvania would get him up to 263, then he would only have to pick up 263, then he would only have to pick up arizona, that would get him over the top, nevada doesn't quite get him over the top. that gets him to 269. there are a whole different number of permutations. at the moment the most straightforward route is forjoe biden to continue to win the states he is ahead in, thatis to win the states he is ahead in, that is to say arizona and nevada, and if you add wisconsin into that, you get to do hundred and 70 for some things are tightening in arizona and nevada and there is expected a legal challenge by the 10,000 votes that the republicans are suggesting may have been cast by people who didn't live in nevada. on georgia, we have a press conference with the secretary of state down there to say that they still have around 61,000 votes to count in there and at the moment imagine has donald trump ahead by 18,000. a lot

of the still the counter in the ata la nta of the still the counter in the atalanta area, fulton county, which has favoured joe biden pretty heavily so it is a nailbiter down there also. we have been reporting that democrats will not take control of the senate patel is a map what is happening in georgia where we could be heading for a run—off different senate seats. there was i was going to be an election in georgia but also a special election in georgia, one that wasn't due to take place as pa rt one that wasn't due to take place as part of the calendar. the rules in georgia mean you have to get 50% of the vote to get elected in the senate races. at the moment david perdue the current incumbent senator is about on 50 but there are still votes to count. if he drops below 50 then they have to have a run off for his seat as well so you could see to

—— two running for the seat. and because of the nature of the other senate races around, ifjoe biden we re senate races around, ifjoe biden were to win the white house, and awful lot of money would be spent down there because that could be the potential way for the democrats to get too 50—50 in the senate with a vice presidential breaking or deciding vote. thank you. let me bring you the latest from writers, the war of words, the campaigning and to get the narrative established, that is going on. president trump's campaign manager telling reporters on a conference call that donald trump was alive and well in terms of his presidential race and his campaign, saying that they were planning those additional legal actions in pennsylvania and also nevada. are expecting the

nevada call to come in this hour. that the latest from president trump's campaign adviser saying the campaign is alive and well with regard to the presidential race. let's head to one of the key seats, wisconsin. presumably bus—loads of lawyers heading your way! very much so. as soon as that result was released and various network started to pull the state of wisconsin for joe biden, from's camp came out to demand a recount. they are our neighbours —ish and where they can because as we know, joe biden, if he has won wisconsin has won with a less tha n has won wisconsin has won with a less than 21,000 votes in the way you can request a recount is if it isa margin you can request a recount is if it is a margin of 1% or less. so donald trump is absolutely in his right to do so. but there is a lot of

misinformation going around. there is social media, rife with misinformation and accusations of voter fraud misinformation and accusations of voterfraud which misinformation and accusations of voter fraud which the election commission has dismissed, it says the process is transparent, open to the process is transparent, open to the public, live streamed and very meticulous so they have scoffed at the idea that the process was in any way misleading or there was voter fraud involved. i had a congressman with me. thank you very much for joining us. when you see the president to eat these sorts of things about the votes not being counted, shouldn't be counted after election day and saying there has been fraud, what is your reaction? there has clearly over time been more absentee ballots where people fill them out and you don't know if anyone is helping then and that is one reason why anyone is helping then and that is one reason why some anyone is helping then and that is one reason why some of us don't like people filling our ballots at home. you fill them out in the voting booth you know that you are not

getting assistance. but this is a process that america has been undertaking far... it has changed dramatically over the last 20 years. if you look 25 years ago, percentage—wise many more people voted in person with the privacy of the ballot and over time we have shifted to many more people voting at home. we don't know if someone is coaching them. the president has been laying the groundwork of accusations of fraud for some time now, i have been going to his rallies and this is all he has been talking about. i think we have to realise what is at stake in the election. there are to migrate differences between the parties that will affect america. ifjoe biden gets in, there will be a deluge of people crossing our southern border, vice president biden has promised free health care for people coming from other countries, so it will

result in a big change, i think vice president biden is also much more in favour of public benefits for people who are trying to work. so there is an increase in what we would call the welfare and increase of people coming here that we have not necessarily picton that is my donald trump and some of his supporters are so emotional, they feel there will bea so emotional, they feel there will be a permanent change in the way the usa exists. talking about ballot dumping, voter fraud, this usa exists. talking about ballot dumping, voterfraud, this does not make america look very good internationally. somebody who thought the idea that we would have a significant number of ballots filled in at home we don't know if they are your girlfriend or boyfriend coaching you or aggressive couege boyfriend coaching you or aggressive college roommate is coaching. i think it is bad. i don't know how they do it in britain, but when i was first involved in politics, the vast majority of americans would fill out their ballots in person and nobody was seeing how they filled it

out. but the election commission has said the process is transparent, it is not just said the process is transparent, it is notjust that said the process is transparent, it is not just that a said the process is transparent, it is notjust that a ballad is handed to someone and it comes back. there are many hoops they have to jump through to make sure there is a transparent process here. but it is a concern over time of a lot of people, that when you fill out that ballot somewhere than at the polling place, other people may see how you are voting or a coach you and particularly in an emotional election like this, you could have a boyfriend or girlfriend... the point is1.9 boyfriend or girlfriend... the point is 1.9 million people have voted this way. probably, yes, and that is unfortunate. it is unfortunate that we no longer have people voting with the privacy themselves and it concerns me and other people as well. i think americans are sure to discuss whether this is the type of election they want in the future in which somebody else can be looking over your shoulder and say, i want to make sure you are voting far

donald trump or joe to make sure you are voting far donald trump orjoe biden. and you hear stories of emotional people who are coaching people or they find people that don't care and they are voting to get somebody off their back. the point is this is a very divided nation now and the next five months we will see rather than a peaceful tra nsfer of months we will see rather than a peaceful transfer of power, we will see lawsuits across the country. again, iwill see lawsuits across the country. again, i will emphasise the big change in america, will happen next year ifjoe change in america, will happen next year if joe biden change in america, will happen next year ifjoe biden does what he claims to do and that is one free health care for illegal immigrants. that will be a huge change for america and i am not sure people realise what they were voting for. i think most americans if donald trump, who wrote a —— he did a better campaign... weather comes over the bar better campaign... weather comes overthe barand we better campaign... weather comes over the bar and we have a president advertising free health care, we will get a lot of people we don't

necessarily want here. we will have to leave it there. thank you very much. the situation here in wisconsin across the country remains divided but at the moment from what we can see, wisconsin has been won byjoe biden, that is what it appears to be but donald trump will continue to demand a recount and that will not happen until the 1st of december when the vote is actually certified. thank you very much for now. our north america correspondent, michelle fleury, is following the pennsylvania count from philadelphia. we know the legal action planned that there. what are the grounds that there. what are the grounds that republicans and the trump campaign are bringing that the legal action? there are several cases being bad, perhaps the one that at least connects to the supreme court involves ballots being received after election day, but before the end of this week on friday. that is

the one that involves the suncream car which the trump campaign has asked tojoin. in the car which the trump campaign has asked to join. in the last hour, it is worth pointing out the trump campaign has secured one victory, a judge has said their efforts are to be allowed to observe a more closely ballot cou nt be allowed to observe a more closely ballot count has been approved and soa ballot count has been approved and so a short while ago members of the trump campaign say they can now observe the counting, not from 30 feet away, not from a feet away but from six feet away. one victory in one of the many legal challenges in a state that is considered the larger wing battleground state with 20 electoral votes on the line. before i ask you the next question, let me bring you the latest because the line is coming in all the time from so many different parts of the usa. ajoe from so many different parts of the usa. a joe biden's from so many different parts of the usa. ajoe biden's campaign manager saying donald trump a's response to the election results is, quote,

desperate. that assessment from the biden camp that all of the multitude of actions and legal lawsuits and what donald trump has said so far, their conclusion is that that is desperate tactics from the president. bringing michelle back in because in your state, give me a rough idea of how many votes as still to be counted? we understand about 91% of the estimated vote have been counted so there is a small amount left. trump still holds a narrow lead, but what people have been talking about here is a blue shift. in person votes counted early seems to with favour the republican and there was an assumption that postal ballots would have favoured the democrats. so people have been waiting to see whether or not that would lead to what we appear to be seeing which is an early lead by donald trump followed by a shift

back towards joe biden. donald trump followed by a shift back towardsjoe biden. you are starting to see in the suburbs around philadelphia, montgomerie, also chester county, there biden winning. help that in some ways see the concerted effort from the trump campaign in legal challenges to ensure their man maintains his lead. he said in terms ofjust one leg of the legal challenge, that is being decided, but ultimately many people's assessment is one or other of the legal challenges will get to the supreme court. what is the timeline on that? the most likely one, that is why people keep going back to pennsylvania as the state to watch, versus some of the other legal challenges, is the one initially barred by local republicans about a decision to

extend the deadline to receive postal ballots that have the postmark of election day. those can still be counted. so, three days period of grace for those to a arrive by mail and to be counted. that is something local republicans have challenged and the trump campaign has asked tojoin have challenged and the trump campaign has asked to join that lawsuit and that is the one that is most likely to proceed to the supreme court of the fastest. whether or not they will prevail, it is hard to tell. an initial ruling, the supreme court upheld a decision of pennsylvania's supreme court to allow the votes to be counted on a four to farjudgment. allow the votes to be counted on a four to far judgment. then allow the votes to be counted on a four to farjudgment. then when republicans but it back up again to the supreme court, they said they would take a wait and see approach thatis would take a wait and see approach that is the case most likely to make it towards the supreme court, which we know since the appointment of amy coney barrett now has more

conservative justice, leans coney barrett now has more conservativejustice, leans more conservative. thank you very much for the latest one where you are. that is a critical state and we have heard of the legal action is going on there. we are expecting we think in the next 15 minutes for the trump campaign to launch the leading proceedings in nevada. we will get that leg of the story. some of the latest lines now because hejoe biden campaign team currently doing a news conference was that i think i can show you some of the pictures from there, they are using the maps and graphics to explain where they are but i gave you one of the lines earlier that day described what we heard from donald trump as desperate. there is a little clearer to the white house, with the states that have been called and he states that have been called and he states that are on the brink of being

called and a much clearer path that they can see to the white house and president trump. let's bring lara in. the briefings from both sides going on, that when i mentioned a little earlier news from the trump campaign, isuppose little earlier news from the trump campaign, i suppose the lesson that both camps have learned from the disputed campaign and election back in 2000 with bosch as you have to do establish the narrative early. that is right but remember at this moment in the election, with michigan and wisconsin projected by us media that joe biden, he only needs to win one more estate, pennsylvania, in the upper midwest to re—establish the blue while that hillary clinton last in 2016 to become president, which is why the focus is on pennsylvania, as our correspondent was telling us. as the votes are counted, the gap is

narrowing, president trump is ahead at the moment, but the gap is narrowing so this is where you see the president tweeting, stop the count. it is interesting because if the count was stopped now, joe biden is ahead, so there are so many different ways of interpreting what is currently going on on the ground. let me bring in... as you look at all of these lawsuits, which do you looks these lawsuits, which do you looks the strongest? none of them. i have looked and the complaints in these suits and really when you actually look at what is being filed and what is being written, they are basically no facts that apply in these circumstances and the legal theories are kind of broad constitutional arguments that have no precedent. it

is really not surprising with donald trump. but i suspect in the next 25 to 48 hours that the election will probably be called for vice president biden. but presumably the trump campaign will not give up on the other 30 president talking about another way to the supreme court. if that was the route that the campaign pushed far, how long could that delay things, do you think? there is really nothing that they can go to the supreme court with at this point. in pennsylvania for example, they are saying stop the count, stop counting all of these votes. there is no basis for doing that. these we re is no basis for doing that. these were votes validly cast, nailed in through the mail in process, every voter has put the vote in the

envelope and then in the larger envelope and then in the larger envelope and then in the larger envelope and signed on the outside there are no technicalities that can be used to throw out a more than 1000 -- 100,000 be used to throw out a more than 1000 "100,000 votes be used to throw out a more than 1000 ——100,000 votes which looks like joe biden will be leading by. there are some potentially on the margins they could say, they are late, but that is such a small numberof late, but that is such a small number of votes that it doesn't even matter. we are just edging to the end of this particular edition of our programme. sorry it was so brief and thank you forjoining us. lara, we will be back in the next few minutes, important developments coming from nevada, all of that counting, we have not really touched on the counting going on in the key states will be back there with our correspondence getting all the latest lines, we will keep you right up latest lines, we will keep you right up to date with the political situation that is moving at quite a

pace on the ground in the united states. we a re pace on the ground in the united states. we are back in a moment. hello there. we've got a real mixture of weather to take us through the rest of this afternoon. for england and wales we did see a few mist and fog patches dotted around this morning. most of those were not particularly thick, so tending to clear and lift out of the way to give way to some sunny skies, and some across the south have already seen lots of sunshine this morning. across the central swathe of the uk, a lot of cloud, thick enough to give a spot of drizzle in northern england. into scotland, the cloud is breaking across the north—east and in aboyne, aberdeenshire, it's become quite warm for the time of year. we've already seen temperatures reach 15 degrees and we could see highs around 15 or 16. the air is warmer across northern scotland because at the start of the month it actually was sitting across the bahamas, whereas the air across england and wales at the start of the month was over in the canada. so that's why its warm across the north in the uk and we've got those cooler conditions

in the south. looking at the weather picture as we go through this evening and overnight, again we are expecting some mist and fog patches to form, particularly across england and wales. maybe one or two further north but by and large, the air is going to continue to be a little bit mild across scotland, northern ireland and the far north of england. still the chance of seeing some frost patches further south. for friday, high pressure is still with us but it is starting to slip away. the wind is starting to strengthen and turn more to a south—easterly direction, and that will probably mean the fog patches tend to clear pretty quickly across south—east england but may well clear and lift into low cloud which could lingerfor a time before that in turn breaks up. probably quite cloudy in scotland but the best of the sunshine as we go through the day further south across england and wales, temperatures between ten and 13 degrees, so notice it will be turning that bit fresher and cooler in scotland. looking at the weather picture into the weekend, it's going to become generally pretty cloudy and there will be some rain at times this weekend.

eventually it will turn milderfrom the south. on saturday we will probably see the milder air arrive across a good part of england and wales with temperatures peaking around 16 degrees, but notice it's quite cool across parts of scotland, highs of seven degrees or so in glasgow. looks like there will be some rain at times this weekend, probably the wettest weather around on sunday, but there is some uncertainty about exactly where the heaviest rain will be. there will be a lot of cloud, those temperatures begin to edge upwards a litle bit further north. highs again of16.

this is bbc news, building up to the latest coronavirus briefing from the government. the headlines: the chancellor extends the furlough scheme until the end of march — the government will continue paying 80% of workers' wages. the furlough scheme was designed and delivered by the government of the united kingdom on behalf of all the people of the united kingdom, wherever they live. a new four—week lockdown begins in england — with police saying they won't tolerate people breaking the rules. our officers and others will be out there, and if people are not abiding by the rules then we will engage, we will explain, we will encourage, but if we have to, we will enforce the law.