welcome to bbc news. i'm james reynolds. our top stories: donald trump again complains of electoral fraud in tuesday's presidential poll. he repeated his assertion — without evidence — that he won the vote. if you count the legal votes, i easily win. if you count the illegal votes, they can try to steal the election from us. joe biden insists the process is working properly and that every vote will be given the respect it deserves. each ballot must be counted. we have no doubt that, when in the count is finished, senator harris and i will be declared the winners. the counting continues in some of the key battleground states — georgia, arizona, nevada and pennsylvania are among those still to declare.

welcome to our viewers on pbs in america and around the globe. donald trump has again complained of electoral fraud in tuesday's presidential poll, as his lead in two key states — georgia and pennsylvania — continues to shrink as postal votes are counted. at a news conference at the white house he said the system was corrupt but offered no evidence to back up his claims. if you count the legal votes, i easily win. if you count the illegal votes, they can try to steal the election from us. if you count the votes that came in late — we're looking at them very strongly — but a lot of votes came in late.

i have already decisively won many critical states, including massive victories in florida, iowa, indiana, ohio, to name just a few. we won these and many other victories despite historic election interference from big media, big money and big tech. as everyone saw, we won by historic numbers, and the pollster got it knowingly wrong. they go it knowingly wrong. we had polls that were so ridiculous — and everybody knew it at the time — there was no blue wave that they predicted. let's speak to the bbc‘s ben wright in washington. do make sense of some of those claims for us. he sounded very despondent, not a president confident of imminent victory and he did make as lot of unfounded points. he tried to make a distinction between legal and illegal ballots in

person voting and mail—in voting that they are both legal forms of voting and if they are being counted right now. he claimed fraud but there is no evidence of widespread fraud and never has been when it comes to manning voting. he also talked about his tally of both miraculously going down in the two days since the election but there is nothing miraculous about it. what states are doing is accounting all postal ballots just as they were a lwa ys ballots just as they were always going to do and those postal ballots have lent quite strongly towards joe biden postal ballots have lent quite strongly towardsjoe biden and there is a simple reason, joe biden encourage democrats to vote by mail because they are in the middle of a pandemic. donald trump did the opposite and all the way through said it was a corrupt system. nothing

surprising at all about what is happening on the ground but donald trump making a series of unfounded claims. what are republican officials, if anything, saying? very little at the moment. one wonders if this is not the moment when senior republicans start to speak out about the tone of the president. he was standing at the white house, at a podium, while america waits to find out who the next occupant of the white house would be an was denigrating the electoral system. white house officials explained background that there are perfectly legitimate reasons why they want to try and fail lawsuits and ask questions about the count going on and the processes but they have not offered any hard evidence of wrongdoing. one wonders if senior members of the republican party might

speak about the tone of the president because we are after all, not only waiting to see who won but this is a polarised country and the words of the president matters. people in the country may think that it's a step in and try to calm the president's rhetoric down a bit. joe biden also addressed the media on thursday evening. he said he was confident that he would win but called for patience. we continue to feel, the senator and i, we continue to feel very good about where things stand. we have no doubt that, when the count is finished, senator harris and i would be declared the winners. so i ask everyone to stay calm, all the people to stay calm. the process is working, the count is being completed and we will know very soon so thank you all for your patience but we have to count the votes. god bless you all and may god protect our troops. thank you.

our correspondent barbara plett—usher is in delaware, joe biden‘s hq, with the latest. onthe one hand, i think he wants to show that he has respect for the integrity of the electoral process and probably wants to control himself to the kind of claims president trump was making just now and also he wants to tell his supporters that they are on track to win, even if they are not winning right away, to be patient, sort of keep the faith, even though he has not declared victory yet. the other thing is he wants to keep these statements coming because, in the democratic camp, they are aware of what happened in 2000 when al gore hung back when there was this issue of disputed votes and george w bush seized the moment and started acting like a president and i think that mr biden is preparing the grounds where he can act like a president if the news organisations decide he is president

elect mathematically even if there is no formal declaration so this is probably part of that. he comes out from time to time to reassure his supporters, to show respect for the integrity of the electoral system but also to position himself, i think, for making that declaration and i think he will when the news organisations call the states. it is a fascinating balance because he has to be careful on one hand not to claim victory because he wants every vote to be counted on the other he is now beginning to appear in public like a kind of president—elect, at least the beginning of a president—elect? his campaign has said, we're notjumping the gun here, we are waiting for the votes to be counted

and we keep saying we are confident we win but we are doing that on the basis of data and on votes being counted so that is how they explain it but, at the same time, he is preparing to speak to the nation as soon as he feels there is clear evidence that he has won the election and i think he has been hearing mr trump for several months now saying the kind of things he has now said. the challenging the vote, calling it voter fraud, stealing the election and so on and so he is primed in that way. he is also been putting out other statements, that sound presidential, talking about uniting and healing in the nation. he said, when and hip it becomes president he will be a president for all americans notjust the democrats. —— when and if he

becomes president. let's take a closer look at what each candidate needs to do to get into the white house. here's paul hawkins. if this is the electoral map of the united states. the states in red projected to win for donald trump. the ones in a blue forjoe biden. nevada, arizona, pennsylvania, north carolina and georgia, in great, other once we are interested in. this is alaska, only worth three electoral votes and possibly going to donald trump. his path to retaining the white house is much narrower thanjoe biden. joe biden only need 17 so biden. joe biden only need 17 so he has three routes into the

white house. let's look at the permutations that could be around. at the moment he is leading in arizona and nevada so leading in arizona and nevada so if he were to successfully come in, 11,000 ahead in nevada, 56,000 in arizona, he would get to the magic 270 mark. the other route he could ta ke mark. the other route he could take is if georgia were to come into play. at the moment he's only 2000 votes behind donald trump. counting still taking place in cities like atlanta and the south—east of the state. if he was to win georgia plus one of these two, he gets to 280 and gets him over the line. he only have to worry about pennsylvania and north carolina to take the white house stop the easiest route for him is if he were to simply when his home state of pennsylvania which takes him up

to 273 because it is worth 20 electoral college votes and thatis electoral college votes and that is why there is so much emphasis on that part of the rustbelt. donald trump has to win pennsylvania plus a combination of the other states in fees to maintain key to the white house. now i get it. thank you so much. i have been speaking to the bbc‘s james clayton who is in las vegas, nevada, who told me where we are with the ballot counts. it is so close, it is completely on a knife edge. if you think about nevada, think about las vegas and clark county in this county because three quarters of the population live here. we believe there are about 190,000 ballots left to be counted. they have been counted 50,000 today and they will announce tomorrow morning, pacific time, at about 10am, 6pm gmt, what the result is of those ballots so we will not more tomorrow morning.

at the moment it is razor thin. it is about 10,000 votes betweenjoe biden and donald trump. the winner of this state could very well become the next president and it is kind of weird, it looks like a warehouse in the middle of the desert but it could really decide the future of america. it is very surreal. i have done something today i should not have done, spending the day on social media. and i have picked up people saying why are things so slow in nevada but also why are so thorough? are they taking their time for a reason? they say they are just trying to be thorough. dot all the is, across all the ts. people are getting frustrated. there was a trump rallyjust over that was meant to be static 20 minutes ago

and people are angry. —— starting in. a similar rally last night and they were guns. you can imagine this turning in quite a nasty way in somewhere like nevada. it is a very, very close and if you speak to trump supporters they are all talking about stealing divide and voterfraud. they do not provide any evidence about a really believe it, they believe passionately that this election is trying to be stolen and they are angry. the bbc‘s michelle fleury is in philadelphia in pennsylvania — one of the states still to declare.

the latest update we have from top election officials in this state is that the majority of the ballots have now been counted but the race is still too close to call. donald trump has had a lead here in the keystone state, but it has narrowed even in the last few hours. it has shrunk. it was in some ways what people had been expecting. let me explain by what i mean by that. in—person votes tended to favour republicans. you may recall donald trump had urged his supporters to vote early. democrats tended to vote by mail. they‘ re accounting for about two—thirds of the postal votes going for biden. that's why you're seeing this late swing. they take longer to count. to reinforce the point we have been making, michelle, if the state is called forjoe biden, he is over that 270 number. so what almost everyone at home will be yelling at me to ask you is when, when, when? that is the million—dollar question. you know, earlier today there were about 100,000 postal votes left to count

in this building. that is enough to put biden in the lead in pennsylvania. you're talking about what is going on inside potentially deciding this race. but because it's so close, because as you say it essentially getsjoe biden to the magic number, officials here are being very cautious. i think you're going to see that both from the media not wanting to call things too early, but also as i say officials, given the significance of pennsylvania. the last big battleground state — those 20 electoral votes could decide the future direction of this country. what about any legal challenges from the president and his team? yes, i mean, we have seen a number of the trump team actually out here earlier today. pam bondi and corey lewandowski were here to tout one of the victories they had.

in that press conference that donald trump had, he talked about observers being blocked from seeing the votes counted. the judge here said that they could move closer, essentially. but then somewhere in the process the voting stopped in this building, as corey lewandowski and pam bondi and others tried to sort of go in and force their way in to observe. all all then we had the philadelphia board of elections trying to appeal to pennsylvania's highest court. that matter is still outstanding, but for now the counting goes on and on. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: much more coverage as the us and the world waits for the results of tuesday's presidential election. the israeli prime minister, yitzhak rabin, the architect of the middle east peace process, has been assassinated. a 27—year—old jewish man has been arrested, and an extremist jewish organisation has claimed responsibility for the killing.

at polling booths throughout the country, they voted on a historic day for australia. as the results came in, it was clear — the monarchy would survive. of the american hostages, there was no sign. they are being held somewhere inside the compound, and student leaders have threatened that, should the americans attempt to rescue, they will all die. this mission has surpassed all expectations. voyager one is now the most distant man—made object anywhere in the universe, and itjust seems to keep on going. tonight, we prove once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but the enduring power of our ideals. this is bbc news. the latest headlines:

in only his second public appearance since tuesday's presidential election, donald trump has again insisted that he was the winner, repeating unsubstantiated claims of voterfraud. joe biden has appealed for calm and says he expects that when all the votes are counted, he will have won. i'm joined now by robert ca haly, chief pollster for the trafalgar group. it is great to have you with us. it is great to have you with us. in one word, who do you predict will win the election? biden or trump? we predicted trump. we did give the caveat that we expected — our prediction was based on absentee ballots with verified signatures. if you predicted trump, it is biden who is coming out ahead, then, in the electoral college and also in the popular vote. did you get it wrong? well, we will see

what the final vote count is. but if you look at the state— by—state but if you look at the state—by—state poles, ours were the most accurate in every single state. we were the only firm in america to be within a three point margin of error in all of the battleground states. so there is obviously a different way of looking at this. those pollsters might say yes, they might have got biden‘s lead wrong, but potentially, when the vote is finished, they picked the right quy- finished, they picked the right guy. you are able to say you got the margin a little better. but in the end, if these trends continue, you picked the wrong quy- continue, you picked the wrong guy. know, that is not the way we measure it. we measure it state— by—state we measure it. we measure it state—by—state and it is amazing how those guys shift the goalposts. because in 2016, when i had the right prediction overall, they said some of the states were not as accurate. they keep changing the goalposts, but the fact is the nation has lost faith in what they do and not what i do. they

are talking about our poles as being the most accurate. you talk about goalposts, but for the public, the goalposts is very, very simple. who wins?|j think very, very simple. who wins?” think the goalpost is erased within a race, which is what we had. well, we don't know the final vote, there is a chance thatjoe biden might get above 300, but we will see. what are your polling methods? they have been much discussed. our polling methods cover the hidden vote. and if you look at each state, ours will be one which is the closest to the result in every single state. we came within1% of the state's winner in 62% of our predictions. no—one else has meant that the standard. thank you so much forjoining us. ronald hansen is national political reporter at the arizona republic. he is in phoenix.

ronald, thank you so much for joining us. arizona, a key state. what is going on? yes, right now it looks like donald trump has cut intojoe biden‘s lead a bit further in arizona. his margin remains still about 46,000 his margin remains still about 116,000 behind former vice presidentjoe biden and there are more votes to count here. we are reaching a point, though, where it looks like the democrats may see things kind of levelled off. there is something called the sharpie incident. can you explain what thatis incident. can you explain what that is and why the state's attorney general has seen fit to comment on it? yes, so there we re to comment on it? yes, so there were some reports of people being handed sharpies to fill out their ballots in arizona in maricopa county, the most populous county, in particular. there was some concern that the ink might lead through the ballot and disqualify some of these voters as they were casting their votes. the election folks here in maricopa

cou nty election folks here in maricopa county said this is ok. we have tested them, they are good. the state's attorney general came out with an opinion later this evening to say it has not really been of any consequence, thank you for bringing it to our attention. we have seen the secretary of state being pressed on tv about when we might know. the secretary of state said potentially friday evening. i noticed another reporter said it could be that weekend before we know. what is your best assessment? you know, iby your best assessment? you know, i by tomorrow we will have a much clearer sense of the shape of where the race stands, with a lot fewer votes to go. the folks who look at the way that these ballots have come in expected the president to do well the last two days but it is the ones that come basically starting tomorrow, where the president needs to continue to do well, but it seems in dispute whether he actually will. so there is that concern. the real question, i think, will. so there is that concern. the real question, ithink, is

whether it will even matter. if pennsylvania and georgia continue on the pace they are on, then it looks like arizona could become academic.” on, then it looks like arizona could become academic. i don't know if you have been able to get out and about in the last few days, what have you seen? you know, i have not been out a hollow, not nearly as much as i would but what we have seen is some excitement for democrats that has been tempered because of the pandemic, but there is a lot of focus on the trump side who have been out, vocal and really trying to make the case that they are concerned that somehow the votes will not be properly counted here. there we re properly counted here. there were some media outlets that called the state of arizona for joe biden relatively quickly in the process. what do you make of those early calls? it was by fox and the associated press. that's right, and both of them have relatively good reputations on these things, but clearly there were still 1 million votes to count. and it looks like however this turns out, it may not have been as

clear as it seemed when those calls were made. they are not taking them back, though. i see people keep on asking fox expert are you taking them back, and they keep on saying no. i wasn't party to that, i cannot tell you what went into their thinking, but i think they have been very cautious about sort of walking this back. we find ourselves where we are now where it is just a very close race. lets stand back a bit. the fact that i am talking to you about a close race in arizona is in itself news. the state now i think has two democrat senators, which hasn't had for a while. how is the state changing? you know, this is really the story of demographic change in arizona. we importa demographic change in arizona. we import a lot of people from other parts of the country, notably california. rustbelt in america. we also have a substantial hispanic population thatis substantial hispanic population that is very young and becoming of age to vote and they are becoming more politically engaged. we also had a little bit of secret sauce here that is unique to arizona in the

sense that donald trump co nsta ntly sense that donald trump constantly antagonised john mccain and his family, and that isa mccain and his family, and that is a sore point with a fair number of republicans in arizona still. in an election where he is down to his last few thousands of votes in arizona, he would probably like to have every mccain supporter he can get. thank you so much for joining he can get. thank you so much forjoining us. thank you. to remind you of our top story, in only his second public appearance since tuesday's presidential election, donald trump has again insisted that he was the winner, repeating unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud. and just to let you know exactly where we are, according to the projections that we are following at the moment, joe biden is on 253 electoral votes, mr trump is on 214. the magic number is 270, and there are major states yet to declare. pennsylvania, georgia, arizona, nevada. we are following counts in all of those states. see you later.

you can reach me on twitter. i'm @jamesbbcnews. hello there. it looks like the weather should even out a bit more, i think, for friday. certainly compared with thursday, where we had the wind blowing over the pennines, bringing some sunshine in durham and temperatures reaching 18 degrees. whereas across southern parts of england, when that fog formed, it lingered into the afternoon in some places and temperatures only eight or nine celsius. now, it's quite chilly early in the morning across more southern areas of the uk. where we have the clearer skies, a pinch of frost. further north, there is more cloud around. but where we have those clearer skies in england and wales, there's some mist and fog, particularly towards the west country and the south—east of wales in the morning. it'll lift fairly readily, mind you, as the breeze picks up and we get sunshine developing widely. and that cloud, quite low cloud, moving northwards across scotland and northern ireland and some sunshine

coming in here as well. the winds picking up in the south—west through the day. temperatures not quite as high as they were on thursday, notjust to the east of the pennines but also in the north—east of scotland. but over the weekend, we're going to find milder air gradually coming in from the south on a southerly breeze. and whilst it's dry for many, there could be a bit of rain around, especially on sunday. but we start the weekend this time with the colder air and the lower temperatures across more northern areas of the uk, with the clearer skies. that's going to lead to some fog, particularly across the vale of york and perhaps in the central belt. that could linger into the afternoon as well. otherwise, we get some sunshine in the north away from that fog. further south, through wales, the midlands, southern england, it could be quite grey and cloudy through the day. a bit of rain in the far south—west later. but temperatures are beginning to recover across southern areas. where we have the fog lingering further north, though, it will be quite chilly. second half of the weekend, we've got lowering pressure to the south—west of the uk, southerly breeze. these weather fronts — pretty weak, mind you —

are moving their way northwards. so it looks like there's a fair bit of cloud at least on sunday. there could be some patchy rain here and there, most of it i think running up through the irish sea towards northern ireland, and later on into the south—west of scotland. many places are still going to be dry and those temperatures making double figures through the central belt of scotland, and again 16 degrees towards the south—east of england. those temperatures remain at those sort of levels really, i think, through monday and tuesday into next week. we've got some wetter weather on monday. but it should be dry but still fairly cloudy, i think, on tuesday.

this is bbc news, the headlines: donald trump has again complained of electoral fraud in tuesday's presidential poll, as his lead in two key states — georgia and pennsylvania — continues to shrink as postal votes are counted. at a news conference at the white house he repeated unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud joe biden has insisted the vote counting process is working properly. he's called for calm and patience and said democracy was sometimes messy, but had no doubt he'd be declared the winner once counting was complete. he's seventeen electoral votes short of securing the presidency. votes are still be counted in several key states including pennsylvania, georgia, nevada and arizona. counting has been delayed largely because of the huge volume of postal ballots most of which are expected to be in favour of mr biden. overall turnout is projected to be the highest in 120 years.