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 voterfraud. 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 17 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. now on bbc news, newscast.

there is a bit of a slide war going on, war by powerpoint, at the top of government. a chart—off. a chart—off, yes! so, basically on saturday, we had chris being watched by m million people and whitty and vallance showing these slides that you just couldn't read. and then, chris, today the uk statistics authority kind of giving them a bit of a smack on the wrists, didn't they? they did, yeah. 16 million, by the way. just to give you a smack on the wrist! sorry! i should have been more accurate. yeah, i know. i was just saving you a rebuke next week. so, yeah, they did, and then there's that broader point, isn't there, which is when you have those "next slide, please" moments, and somebody off—screen clicking the clicker, you're just left, aren't you, as a viewer, just overwhelmed, really? particularly when you get those kind of colour scheme ones, like something you would get in a paint shop. when actually, you know, the old mantra, less is more, you know, they might be onto something with that. then simon stevens,

the chief exec of the nhs, swoops in and does his own smackdown at the downing street press conference. smackdown! like you, and i'm sure that the prime minister won't mind me saying so, i've watched a number of these press briefings, and sometimes the charts can be a bit hard to keep up with, so i've just got one chart today that indisputably sets out what we in the health service are seeing. and if we can have that, that one chart, please? what it shows is the number of patients that are being looked after in hospitals across england. vicki, you were doing the press conference. did the sass just emanate off the screen? well, it was funny because boris johnson was laughing when he talked about how the slides were all quite confusing. but then quite a lot of people have quite liked chris whitty‘s "next slide, please". it doesn't work if it's just one, does it? i mean, you don't have that excitement. although simon stevens there broke his own rule then, by showing another slide. he did, and that was all very confusing. when you're sitting there doing the press conference on zoom, i can't even see the slides anyway so i didn't know

what was going on. having said he had one, he then seemed to be talking about quite a few. and we've all watched hundreds of hours of american tv, so we are absolute experts on tv graphics now and we will discuss what those graphics mean, whether it's the american election or coronavirus in the uk, on this edition of newscast. hello. it's adam in the studio. and vicki also in the studio. and chris in my socially distant booth, down the corridor. and we are going to talk about the introduction of the english lockdown in a bit, and we'll also talk quite a lot about the return of the furlough scheme, which rishi sunak announced today. that's quite a big deal in terms of the government's handling of the pandemic. and we're also going to talk loads about the american election. and we have managed... last week, we spoke to george osborne. we've got somebody who's spent a lot of time arguing with him — ed balls, former shadow chancellor and strictly co ntesta nt a nd harvard university fellow and bit of an american politics

geek — am i right? and maker of programmes about donald trump for the bbc. indeed. and we're going to see some of the best bits of that documentary you've made in a minute. now, i hope somebody — if you are listening to this or watching it on iplayer in the future — you know the result of the american presidential election because we here now are still waiting. and chris, it seems to me that the story is biden is closing in on the 270 electoral college votes. trump is challenging in as many states as he can. but we're still basically waiting for some of the key ones to just declare, and then this bit of the process will be over? yeah, and ijust keep bumping into people who look absolutely rough as anything because they didn't get any sleep whatsoever over the past 48 hours, and they are beginning to wonder whether it was worthwhile, given we are still in the "mmm" territory. but it was all very exciting and lots of american anchors getting very excited in front of colourful maps of their country. ed, how did you feel staying up late on tuesday night as the first bit of

the story unfolded ? well, four years ago, i went to sleep about 2:00 and hillary clinton was going to be the american president. and i woke up again at 6:00 and donald trump was on course to win. and the same thing happened with the remain vote in 2016 as well. there's been so much uncertainty. so i stayed up as long as i could to make sure that i didn't think anything was going to happen that night, until about 2:30am, but at 6:00, when i woke up again, it felt like trump was really gaining ground, so early in the morning, biden looked in trouble. it improved over the course of the day, but it was rocky, if you are a biden supporter, at 7am. what have you managed to divine about the state of the united states from the result as we know it at the moment? well, i think it's hugely divided. and if you look at the exit polls and what they say about their belief in their

candidate and their view of the other, that they are diametrically opposed. there's not a huge amount of centre ground happening between the democrats and the republicans. you know, it feels to me as though joe biden's going to win, but it also feels as though the next four years of politics in america is already being shaped, and it's going to be more antagonistic, more divisive. if you think of what trump's up to at the moment, it may be he thinks he can still win. it may be he thinks his legal challenges can work. but regardless of that, what he is determined to do is to start the narrative now that he was robbed, that the republicans were robbed, that his voters were robbed, the election was stolen from them by them — the establishment — and, you know, it feels to me as though, whether it's donald or another trump family member, there are already starting now, trump 2024, and in opposition

for four years, they're going to give joe biden a very, very hard time. joe biden dealing with the aftermath of the pandemic and without the support of the united congress. so it feels as though this is the start of what could be the nastiest, most dangerous and divisive period in american politics any of us can remember ‘ worse, worse than the last four years. well, you mentioned trump supporters and what they are trying to do to challenge the results and compare and contrast this — this is the scene in arizona where they are saying count all the votes... all chant: count the votes! count the votes! ..and then you hop over to detroit and the trump supporters there are shouting the total opposite. all chant: stop the count! stop the count! so, you have trump supporters in phoenix and arizona calling for the votes to be counted, because trump is behind there and they think that uncounted votes might top him

up a bit, and then in detroit, they are doing at the other way around because trump was narrowly ahead and they were worried that biden votes were overtaking him. ed, just reflecting on what you were saying a moment or two ago, i suppose given how unorthodox his presidency has been, we should expect whatever comes next to be unorthodox. ijust wonder, given the documentaries you've done, talking to trump supporters, given that, were you surprised or not by how well he did? given the opinion polls, or some of them, suggested this could be a landslide for biden, it clearly wasn't that, and more people voting for donald trump this time than last time? i think a year ago, i thought trump was going to win. he managed to be the opposition and the outsider, standing up —— he managed to be the opposition outsider, standing up for people who felt they hadn't been listened to. it's important to understand, he always had two different messages ‘ for younger americans who voted for trump, it was about the economy and jobs and to older americans, it was about fear and he

would protect them from things which were dangerous for them. if you look in the exit polls amongst the trump supporters, their biggest issue wasn't the pandemic or racial division, it was the economy. and trump managed to persuade people through this election, an election where — let's be honest — joe biden didn't really have an economic message ‘ he persuaded people that he was the best person to get the american economy through and with jobs and prosperity going forward. but then on the fear point, i think we were all taken by the idea that maybe those older suburban voters were going to be afraid of trump and his handling of the pandemic. there was clearly some of that and that may be the reason why he's lost the election, but he also did quite a good job of persuading people they should be afraid of riots in the streets, that whole focus on what was happening in portland, in other cities.

i think it did move the threat from external, migrants, foreigners coming in, to, as we kept hearing from voters in florida, these socialists who wanted to storm the barricades. yeah, and you mentioned the documentary made of your travels in trumpland and there was that quite dramatic moment when you went out with the gun guys. so, ed, you ever fired a rifle before? i have never. ..in my life. are you ready to be a man today? laughter. well, yes. i say, television, i'm about to fire. the british are coming, the british are coming! laughter. you guys! here goes! boom! done it. love the slight tension in your voice when you say "you guys!" but does that clip not show that actually you are probably one of the few outside observers who kind of understands trump voters

and trump supporters because lots of observers of the uk obviously don't and lots of the mainstream media in the united states clearly don't. the thing about those guys was they were not racist at all. in fact, one of them came from a mixed heritage family. what they wanted was a better deal, and they felt they had a tax cut from a president who was on their side and listening. when i said but the rich got a bigger tax cut, they said, look, it will trickle down, but he's helping us, he's on our side. they believed that washington, the established politicians weren't for them. trump, they kept saying — and so many other people did — he is a business guy, he knows what he's doing. he's not in it for the money, he's already rich. he's on our side against them. of course there is an aspect of terrible racism going on in part of the trump vote but lots and lots of people who vote trump aren't racist, they aren't extreme, theyjust feel as though they've been ignored

and they want somebody to stand up to what they see as powerful forces who've held them back and trump is always managed, over four years, still to be the outsider. he's like the president who's also in opposition, it's the judges, it's congress, it's the chinese, it's the foreigners and now, if he loses, he's going back into opposition again. he's a formidable opposition politician. but, ed, do you think that the democrats may be last time and this time, still have underestimated that support for donald trump? that they don't understand, do they, where it's coming from? i mean, the polls obviously didn't help because they don't seem to have been particularly accurate, but do you think there is an element thatjoe biden was trying to get through just by not being donald trump and hoping that was enough? well, if, as i think is going to happen, biden wins, i mean this is — it's a huge achievement. so let's not run down what biden has done.

i actually think there's almost no other democrat candidate who could have won this from the primaries. he had to reach into the centre ground and have that sense of patriotism, which i think he embodies as a former vice president. it's not possible, i don't think, to beat trump from the right with left populism because in the end, that just alienates many of those people who you need to pull over to your side. if biden's done that, he's done it by actually making it a referendum on trump and, you know, trump has ended up — i mean, it's an astonishing result for trump compared to history, but maybe not big enough compared to what, for biden, is also a historic vote if he's going to win this election. now, vicki, at westminster, people are obsessed about american politics because of the west wing but they're are also obsessed about the politics because of what it means for the relationship with the united states, our biggest ally. what sort of stuff have you picked up about how the government ministers

are feeling about it? what's interesting here, isn't it, i think it depends on whether you think that relationship, that special relationship that we do go on about an awful lot, and i think probably is a bit more important to the uk side... i hate even saying it! ..than it probably maybe it is to the us, but is it about a personal rapport between two characters and personalities, or is it about the office? i think that's what it comes down to, isn't it? we saw theresa may with donald trump and it was just so awkward, it always looks awkward, and you just think "how could this happen?" then there were those leaks, weren't there, of the conversations that went on on the telephone and her rolling her eyes and all of that? him bullying her. yeah, so, and then that time when she clutched his hand, he clutched her hand, all of that. so it's whether the fact that donald trump says, yes, borisjohnson is my best mate, he's just like me. does that mean that that relationship works better or not? now i think of it is of course the case that borisjohnson

doesn't have a relationship withjoe biden but i suppose the point being whatever you think about donald trump, and even if borisjohnson does have that personal rapport, he is erratic. he's difficult to deal with. so in the longer term, it might be actually easier for the uk government with someone likejoe biden. ed, do you think sometimes we exaggerate all this stuff? i think about your old boss gordon brown and obama are said to have not had that good a relationship but they still managed to deal with the financial crisis and there was lots of foreign policy stuff that the uk and the us just had the same interests and actually, maybe itjust doesn't make that much difference to life in the uk and life for a british prime minister? i actually think it makes quite a lot of difference. not necessarily the personal chemistry. let's be honest, obama had political reasons why it helped him with his vote to appeal more to david cameron than to gordon brown in that particular period of history. but if you compare domestic politics, the leave vote, delivering brexit, what trump has done...

winning the support of older voters who don't like change, who are suspicious of westminster or brussels, clearly there is some parallel between borisjohnson and donald trump. maybe in some of the ways they've conducted their politics, think of boris johnson taking on the judges in the run—up to the brexit vote last year. to sum up then, eddie, are you suggesting that it might be harderfor the uk to get a trade deal with america under a biden administration, and so that makes it more important that they strike a deal with the eu? i actually think getting a trade deal with the trump administration that has any substance is very hard, and getting an actual trade deal with a biden administration will be even harder. i'm not sure that's the most important issue. i think next year the government is going to be as focused on the climate change talks, on finding ways to get the global economy moving, as happened after the financial crisis ten years ago. and biden, across that whole international agenda,

will be a much easier partner for britain to deal with. but if we are in an antagonistic relationship with our european union partners, and biden has to choose, i think he'll choose the rest of europe. so it's in our interests, i think, to try and get a deal which means that we can work in the g7 with our european partners on that broader international set of issues. if you make the biggest test of actual free trade agreements, well, you know, that is a pretty dangerous thing for the government to do, because i'm not sure they're going to get a good deal from either. yeah, because the american farmers‘ interests don't change depending on who the president is. let's look at purely british events today. vicki, we've got a downing street press conference. and simon stevens, the chief exec of the nhs in england, was alongside the prime minister. we talked earlier about his sassiness about the slides, but he also had a bit of sassiness aimed at people saying, "mm, do we really

need to worry so much? aren't these projections of coronavirus cases a bit over the top?" he had some facts of his own. just for comparison, the 11,000 coronavirus patients we've got in hospital compares with about 3,000 patients that we would typically have in hospital on any one day during a very bad winter flu season, for flu. it compares with about 7,000 patients who would be in hospital today being looked after for cancer. and so this is not really speculation, this is fact. and we know that in certain parts of the country the number the number of coronavirus patients hospitals are looking after is already significantly over the number that they were having to cope with during the april first peak. vicki, it's almost like simon stevens was there to kind of justify why the english lockdown was starting today.

yeah, that's right, and i think that's because they have been lots of questions about the other modellings, the other projections, the other scenarios. and lots of people doubting them, really, because they don't know what's being put in as the assumption, so the stuff that's coming out of the modelling, some people don't trust it and they want to know more about it, including the former prime minister, theresa may, talking about that yesterday. so what sir simon stevens was saying is, "look, this is nothing to do with modelling or projections — this is what's happening right now that my staff are having to deal with." and i thought what he did really well was to give that context, because you canjust put these figures up saying, "oh, my goodness, there's 11,000 people in hospital being treated for covid". what does that mean? what does that mean to people? unless you know how many people are normally in hospital at this time of year, what they are being treated for, it is a meaningless number. so he has got that and given it the context, which i think will make people look again and realise the pressure. and of course sir simon stevens is there to protect his own staff, and the worry that this will continue to get worse even though the lockdown

in england has now started, that as we know there's this lag and things will inevitably get worse in hospitals before they get better. yeah, and then he tried to show a slide about the timelines it takes for people to get very sick in hospital, which was actually slightly confusing... laughter which he admitted himself. then, of course, the big political news today. i mean, you would think england going into a second lockdown would be the biggest thing there was. but, no, there was something bigger. rishi sunak, the chancellor, saying, to parliament today, "the furlough scheme is staying, and it's staying until the end of march." political opponents have chosen to attack the government for trying to keep the economy functioning, and for making sure the support we provide encourages people to keep working. and they will now, no doubt, criticise the government on the basis we have had to change our approach. but to anyone in the real world, that's just the thing you have to do when the circumstances change. we all hope for the best but make sure we plan for any eventuality.

we can reintroduce the furlough now only because we kept the system on which it is based operational, because there was always the possibility that we would be back in this situation. guess what? anneliese dodds, the shadow chancellor, didjump straight in and criticise him. the prime minister said furlough would be extended for a month. five hours before that scheme was due to end. two days later, realising the self—employed had been forgotten, there was a last—minute change to the self—employed scheme. and now further changes. 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 is in front of the problems we face, not one who is always a step behind. so that was the political to—do in the commons. chris, just give us the updated numbers, and the facts

and figures and terms and conditions for the furlough scheme. yes, it's a massive about turn, isn't it, firstly? because rishi sunak's been making vouchers for months about how important it was too slowly wind down the furlough and then launch the new, less generous scheme, and here we are just days after furlough was about to stop at the start of this month, and it's back up again — 80% of wages up to £2500 a month, all the way through until the end of march, with a review in januaryjust in case things are looking up, things are on the upside. until then, 80% of profits for self—employed people up to £7,500 over the duration of the scheme. some people then making the point there are still people who fall through the cracks. pauljohnson of the institute for fiscal studies, who is usually invited on, isn't he, to mark the government's and the opposition's homework when it comes to economic numbers. he was saying effectively they are extending a scheme that was dreamt up on the hoof back in march, which is extraordinarily generous to some people, as he put it, but leaves other people getting next to nothing or nothing at all.

i suppose, though, adam, what rishi sunak's doing is casting the sort of blanket of help pretty broad in the hope that he doesn't face every single week lots of people all over the uk, dependant on their circumstances, saying, "well, what about me?" he's kind of extending that crutch, isn't he, all the way through to march, potentially? ed, you used to work in the treasury for a long, long time. do you think the people in the treasury are happy to just be shovelling all this huge amount of money out the door? i think they are going to be very concerned by the cost and the fiscal implications, but that's something to be dealt with later. this is a once or twice in a century event, and it's going to be very expensive and governments around the world are going to pay for it now and then deal with the consequences later because not to do so causes huge damage. but i don't know, fundamentally, why rishi sunak has handled things in the way he has, but i think after a really good first few months, where he moved very

fast and decisively, in a very clear way — pauljohnson's right, not perfect, but so fast and so effectively — i think he's had a pretty bad few weeks now. it feels all over the place. as anneliese dodds was saying, changing his mind again and again. i think, though, it goes back to, there's a link between what we saw from the chancellor and that press conference. a public health crisis is fundamentally about communication, confidence and trust. i think what's happened is, over a period of months, the government has lost that trust and they are worried now people aren't going to respond to the instructions for lockdown, and therefore they are trying to implore people by saying the nhs needs you to. but if you go back to the end ofjuly, august, it was borisjohnson and rishi sunak who was telling everybody, go on holiday,

go out to restaurants, who weren't willing to talk about the need to balance your behaviour against protecting the virus. it felt like we were through the worst and maybe, in the end, the treasury and rishi sunak were believing that in september and october. that may be why they felt... they seemed to be so behind the curve over the last few weeks. they've ended up in the right place, i think, but it's been a very, very messy period. ed, thank you for your political knowledge. i know you love the sound of music, you make your own costumes for the sound of music, that strikes me asafamily sound of music, that strikes me as a family who knows how to get through the second lockdown? it is different for us lockdown? it is different for us because last time we had two older kids here and now they are back at university. it's going to be a bit lonelier in the house. we are all looking forward to christmas though and on the one hand, i think boris

johnson has got to come up with a solution to christmas. if he tries to keep this going into christmas, that is a big problem for him. on the other hand, i felt watching the press conference today, but his focus on the second of december, his confidence he could relax, richey sooner because not set that day. he is now set that into the spring —— — rishi sunak. i'm not sure it is so wise for borisjohnson to say the second of september because people is pretty uncomfortable in the point of the press conference. ad, very interesting to have you join us. interesting to have you join us. thank you to chris and vicki and thank you for listening to this edition of newscast. we'll be back with another one, very soon.

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 and 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, a 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. i'm david eades with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. as attention focuses on a handful of closely fought states, donald trump again complains of electoral fraud without offering proof. 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 counting process is working properly and calls for calm and patience. he says he had no doubt he would be declared the winner. each ballot must be counted. we have no doubt that, when the count is finished, senator harris and i will be declared the winners. the counting continues in some of the key battleground states.