has been jailed for six years for evading tax on earnings from his deal to take over the failed high street business. southwark crown court heard he didn't pay tax on £2.2 million of income. instead, he spent the money on a sports car, a yacht and a holiday in the bahamas. the premier league is likely to scrap its pay—per—view method for watching matches after this weekend. the £14.95 fee had led to significant protests among fan groups. and back to the race to become the next president of the united states, we're joined by our north america editorjon sopel. perhaps an impossible question, but when are we going to get a result? i'm glad you asked me that. not so much. it's impossible to say, sophie. if pennsylvania declares tonight, as we were hearing from michelle fleury a moment ago, and

declares forjoe biden, that's it — joe badger has reached the 270 mark that he needs to get. i would think in the next 2a hours, we would get a result, but it's worth talking about some of the other atmospherics that are going around at the moment. there is clear frustration in the white house that donald trump is not getting the support from the republican party that he thinks he should be getting over the legal action he has been taking. his lawyer, rudy giuliani, said, where is the republican party? our voters will never forget. donald trump's son eric has added, no, they won't. so there is frustration about that and it is striking that the leaders of the republican party, who are good at finding their way to a television camera, have stayed clear of them so far. the other thing we are getting from the trump campaign is that there isn't going to be a concession because there is no need to, because the votes have been stolen by fraud and the rest of it. but what we haven't had yet is any evidence to back that up. so are

these legal challenges just a delaying tactic, or do they really think they can alter the outcome of this election by pursuing a legal path? it does seem at the moment that the white house are not saying, let all the votes be counted because we are confident we are going to win. that seems to back upjoe biden‘s view, that if the votes are counted, he is going to be the next president of the united states. jon sopel with the latest from washington, thank you. that's it. now on bbc one, time for the news where you are. have a very good night.

let's cross live with the secretary of state is holding a press conference. this is in harrisburg pennsylvania. 20 electoral votes up for grabs let's listen in. have you and your staff ta ken for grabs let's listen in. have you and your staff taken any special safety precautions and should the cou nty safety precautions and should the county workers who are doing the accounting be concerned about their safety given the strong feelings? so by safety humane from the outside world or... physical safety, yeah. the counties are in the best position to assess. as you might imagine, we have a great commonwealth, a part of diversity from very rural counties to urban

counties. it's really not a 1—size—fits—all assessment. we certainly talk to the counties and issue guidance and directives on security of the voting systems and the locations and all of those things. but i think the physical security of the staff, i would defer to the counties on. what about you and your staff? any special precautions? yes. we have security. we make sure that we are safe and we make sure that we are, our operations are secure and safe. thank you. i was going to ask you about the late arriving ballots if you have any kind of idea of how many there are but based on the question i get a sense you don't know. you did tell cnn that it was anywhere from zero in some counties to hundreds in others. can you be any more specific? again, it's a significantly lower number than we

thought. i think we've heard from, i apologise i forget exactly how many counties. it's not a full picture yet. but it's a much less significant number. it's a fraction of what we saw in the primaries. i think we saw a 60,000 in the three days following the primary. it is not going to be anywhere near that. 0nce not going to be anywhere near that. once i have the, again i think i have two thirds of the counties. i wa nt to have two thirds of the counties. i want to make sure before i give. what i said was true. it's been some counties that got cereal and there are some counties that got in the hundreds. maybe 500. that is the range i have now. i don't want to give an overall picture until i make sure i have every county end. it really is smaller. ifi sure i have every county end. it really is smaller. if i could double back on mailings. uncounted mailings you setting your opening remarks there are several hundred thousand outstanding. we've heard some varying numbers on that. can you put

a point on that at all what kind of figure were looking at? go to the website and go to the dashboard. it's constantly changing. itjust seems like as soon as i give a number there are county results i get updated and it's different from what i said. it's eight moving target. what is the last number you are aware of? the 350,000 range. again, as soon as i say that you're going to go to the dashboard and is going to go to the dashboard and is going to go to the dashboard and is going to say is lower than that. on election night, results in lancaster cou nty we re election night, results in lancaster county were showing an amount well above the amount requested and then nearly doubled the amount returned. could you explain why that happened and if that was county specific? in lancaster county on election night specifically, it was showing results from mail in ballots that were well above the amount returned and the amount requested. can you explain how that happened?

amount requested. can you explain how that happened ?|j amount requested. can you explain how that happened? i can't remember lancaster county specifically. i can tell you, some of the counties, in lancaster it probably had to do... they are one of the two counties that have hard voting systems. some... each voting the way they translate the data has worked slightly differently for some as you know, this dashboard and even the website, it's the first year at that website, it's the first year at that we broke out provisional ballots, mail—in ballots and in person. so some of the reporting, if the counties filed physically, it might merge to the categories, it might put things in the wrong category. so we've been working on all those quirks. i know for example york was off for a little while but that is now corrected. that may have explained what was going on in lancaster. most of it has been to the county, the way they sent us the files the date it was just not in

the right place, basically. files the date it was just not in the right place, basicallylj files the date it was just not in the right place, basically. i heard it was handled and taken care of. the right place, basically. i heard it was handled and taken care ofm there way you can do that? it's fixed on the website. i think i said this prior you can always go to the cou nty this prior you can always go to the county website. it's an easy way to go and check. yes, dennis. between your tweets from a couple years ago your tweets from a couple years ago you were suggesting negative things about donald trump what do you say two things to people overseeing this that you have partisan views on the matter, what your response to that? my matter, what your response to that? my responses luck, this was for it yea rs my responses luck, this was for it years ago and at the time i was not in the administration, i was not in any position it was a personal twitter account. when i became secretary of state i took in a knot oath and i took an oath to defend

and protect the constitution of the commonwealth of pennsylvania and the united states. and partisan politics have no place in the pennsylvania department of state or any county elections office for that matter. we work for voting rights and for effective election administration. i could tell you that i will do everything in my power to make sure that every voter, every candidate and every party have access to a fair, free, safe and secure election. i don't care what their background is. and i don't care what my back runners. that's what we do at the department of state. thank you. a press conference from the front pennsylvania secretary of state. in harrisburg pennsylvania. pennsylvania extremely important because if mr biden were to take in sylva nia because if mr biden were to take in sylvania then he would reach those 270 electoral votes that he would

need to win the white house. the take—home there is the secretary of state was saying that the presidential race is close and it will take time to announce the winner. but they are not aware of any recent allegations of voter fraud. and the usual call for patients but they are expecting the majority of ballots will be counted by friday for the pennsylvania extremely important, extremely close at the moment. 0n 50.1 votes to the republicans 48.7 votes tojoe biden to the democrats. very, very close. let's talk about all of this, a former spokesperson to the us mission to un under president 0bama who worked in strategic communications and joins us from greenwich connecticut. give us an overview. with your oversight when it came to

working at the un you could give us a global perspective. when talking about them i knew sure of what is going on in pennsylvania. give us the big picture, how is the whole world watching the united states now? what does everyone think? well, first of all thank you for having me and for covering that is. it's been very fascinating watching how the world has been watching how the world has been watching with baited breath. and what's happening in the united states was up as a foreign policy expert myself i worked under both bush and 0bama for 12 years and foreign policy and communication. it makes sense because the us president and who that is and their policies have a significant effect on how things are abroad. for example, you've got russia wondering what kind of leader is going to be there and how they are going to approach president boudin in particular, china, are we going to be tough on china? each candidate is going to pursue that differently. iran is

wondering who's gonna come next and how that's gonna affect their dealings. it's definitely been an exciting time sitting here. and fascinating, i can't say that i was surprised that this would take a long time. a lot of us expected that the votes would take a while that things could be an tight. i understand that the whole world is also watching with anticipation. who has the most to gain and who is really anxious about the outcome? well, i would say americans 1st. 0ur most anxious. we alljoke here that it's a lot of drinking wine and eating chocolate and nail—biting over here. and with every day that passes it's coming down to these few states to see who wins, of course. but globally i would say the ones that were actively interfering in the election. you've got russia

who's interfering with the disinformation campaign in support of president trump. they have a lot of president trump. they have a lot of sta kes of president trump. they have a lot of stakes in this. i think that they are of stakes in this. i think that they a re really of stakes in this. i think that they are really curious to know who will win. if it will affect their behaviour a lot. and china, around because they've also been interfering with the election to support president biden. i think that's because they believe that president by and it will be more lenient with them. i argue personally that the allies, kantian student at canada, germany, australia, our tightest allies. student at canada, germany, australia, ourtightest allies. i think they're going to want to know is that going to be a president who's going to reestablish those ties and recognise that there is so much benefit that we derive from those alliances. inc. you so much. were talking about tiny details of it's always good to get the bigger pictures. thank you for your time. now it is time to have a look ahead and with the papers are bringing us tomorrow.

hello and welcome to our look ahead to what the the papers will be bringing us tomorrow. with me are lance price, political commentator and former labour party head of communications and lynn davidson, political commentator and adviser to the conservative party. tomorrow's front pages. starting with. the international edition of the new york times says race for the white house is still too close to call. the straits times says democratic candidate joe biden is strengthening his lead over donald trump. the japan times sastoe biden's disciplined approach to winning back northern industrial states — rather than getting distracted by democratic dreams of turning texasblue appears to be paying off. the international edition of the financial times relfects on donald trump calling for vote counting to be halted in several swing states as the us waited for results from a handful of battlegrounds that will decide the presidential election.