this is bbc news. we are in and in london. joe biden is building momentum in the battleground states. we have had a this is bbc news, live from washington and london. as the us presidential crucial news from pennsylvania in the last few minutes. i'm in the election reaches a climax, joe biden builds momentum in key battleground states. battleground state of pennsylvania the margins are narrow, where joe biden is in front by 5500 but the trend of the ballot count favours the democrat. votes. joe biden also leads in a recount is announced in georgia — wherejoe biden hasjust taken georgia for the first time since the lead with a razor—thin margin. counting started. i'm in atlanta in the final tally in georgia at this point has huge duplications georgia wherejoe for the entire country. counting started. i'm in atlanta in georgia where joe biden counting started. i'm in atlanta in georgia wherejoe biden ‘s lead is facing resistance with republicans planning contest it. as to the

candidates, joe biden calls for calm —— implications. joe biden has also overtaken donald trump in the crucial vote and patience. he says the process is count in pennsylvania — a prize that would hand him the white house. working properly and he is confident he has done enough to win. each ballot must be counted. we have no philadelphia, the city of brotherly doubt that when the accounting has love, helps givejoe biden the lead finished, senator harris and myself will be declared the winners. donald trump makes accusations of electoral fraud but offers no evidence. trump makes accusations of electoral fraud but offers no evidencem trump makes accusations of electoral fraud but offers no evidence. if you count the legal votes, i easily win. if you count the illegal votes, they can try to steal the election. protesters pressed on the streets as millions of dollars are raised to mount a legal challenge is in a number of states. with joe mount a legal challenge is in a number of states. withjoe biden edging ahead in georgia and pennsylvania, we will look at how the numbers increasingly suggest that donald trump's start meat chances of staying in the white house are gradually receding. ——

donald trump's chances of staying in the white house are gradually receding. welcome from washington and london. joe biden has pulled ahead in the state of pennsylvania. in the last few hours he has also pulled ahead in the historically republican state of georgia and there are just over 8000 votes separating the candidates in the georgia count and 99% of which have now been counted. georgia is worth 16 electoral college votes. georgia would leave him one short of victory and it would also mean donald trump would have to win every other state just to draw level. this would lead to an unprecedented draw.

which estates have yet to declare and what —— which states have yet to declare and what are the potential routes to victory for both candidates? let's have a look at what is looking slightly more likely at the moment. it looks as if donald trump's chances of hanging on in the white house are looking increasingly slim. simply given the numbers. this is the map. it is the five or six states in grey which are still to deliver a result. all eyes on pennsylvania. i beg your pardon. i'll try that again. back to the main screen. there we go. we have had 97% of the votes counted and barely anything in it. but we do now note thatjoe biden leads donald trump by 5587 votes.

things are moving quite quickly here. they have 2% of the votes still to count but many of the votes remaining come from philadelphia, a heavily democratic leaning city. we know 80%, from philadelphia, so far counted, have forjoe biden. the democrats probably have a strong reason to feel confident about pennsylvania. georgia, we knowjoe biden has edged in front. he has a tiny lead of 1097 votes. 99% of the votes counted. if they were to fit that state that would be quite result for the democrats because they have won georgia since 1992. so let's have a look at the numbers.

i'm going to use my blue pen. let's assumejoe i'm going to use my blue pen. let's assume joe biden gets i'm going to use my blue pen. let's assumejoe biden gets georgia, that leaves him one short of winning the presidency and at this stage donald trump cannot because of the numbers get to that magic 270, or that he can achieve is a draw withjoe biden. —— all. if the democrats turn pennsylvania blue, that is it, joe biden has done it, and he gets over the magic line. thanks forjoining us. the bbc‘s yalda hakim joins us from philadelphia, pennsylvania. lovely to see you. we have heard how important pennsylvania is. the pressure there right now must be unbelievable. unbelievable, as you say. we have seen a lot of surprises in this election but if there's one

thing that the pundits and campaigners got right, it was the significance of pennsylvania. we have heard about pennsylvania from the beginning of this campaign and joe biden began his campaign here and ended his campaign here. this is where he was born, his birthplace, and we are just hearing he now leads donald trump here in pennsylvania by roughly 5500 votes and that is hugely significant because there is 20 electoral college votes up for grabs here. to give you a wider picture, on wednesday, we saw donald trump ahead by about 600,000 votes. inaudible many of the votes left to be counted in the democratic stronghold of philadelphia, and many of those were

mail in and many of those who use that method are likely to be voting for the democrats. the president told people to be wary of the mail in process and to vote on the election day, so what we are seeing 110w election day, so what we are seeing now in the votes we are now seeing counted are those that are coming in by absentee, and this is a significant moment. four days after the election, we are now seeing joe biden in front here in pennsylvania. because all eyes are on pennsylvania there are a lot of lawyers there, as well? what about the attempts of the trump campaign to legally challenge what is happening in pennsylvania? there are armies of lawyers crawling all over pennsylvania and in various different counties. the trump

campaign was able to halt vote counting for a couple of hours but that will resume here today. you will remember that the pennsylvania supreme court had ruled that after the democrats had put a motion forward , the democrats had put a motion forward, had ruled that any votes coming in after the 3rd of november, between the 3rd of november and the 5th of november, as long as it was postmarked on the 3rd of november, it would be counted. donald trump and the republicans are trying to overturn that, with the supreme court, so there is a lot of action going on, a lot of litigation, and we are watching those very closely as things move and develop but they have an manage to stop the actual count which continues —— they haven't managed to stop. thanks for joining us. our correspondent, larry madowo is in atlanta, georgia.

biden in front by 1097, how many more votes are out there? yes, that is the lead, which happened this morning, we have a few thousand, we think. the provisional and military ballots, that is what the georgia have told us, and they say all that is left to count our overseas ballots a nd is left to count our overseas ballots and military ballots and provisional ballots where it is not sure someone was provisional ballots where it is not sure someone was allowed to vote and that they met the requirements, but then they allowed them to vote. we are expecting an update in about maybe an hour, they will say whether it is done and what happens next. very likely we are hearing from one election insider that this will go into a recount. a recount can be ordered in the state of georgia if the margin between the winner at the next candidate is less than 0.5% of the total vote. 5 million people

voted in the state of georgia and they would need about 20000 and it is well within that margin, so there might bea is well within that margin, so there might be a recount here. so brace yourself if it gets to that. president trump has said about many of the states which are angering him right now, it is corruption and fraud, but in georgia republicans pretty much hold all the levers of power? the argument from president trump is falling apart in georgia because this is a deeply red state and it is a republican run state in many ways. supervising a lot of the process a re many ways. supervising a lot of the process are many republicans commence when he says last—minute ballots are added to the cat, that doesn't hold water —— many republicans, so when he says last—minute ballots are added to the count, that doesn't hold water. clutching at straws it seems at this

point. thanks forjoining us. the adrenaline is going to keep flowing for larry, i think. jane, you have been out and about during this campaign, and the emotions running very deep. people feel viscerally for or against their guy. this has been the surprise of this election, the fact that this was always billed asa the fact that this was always billed as a referendum on donald trump and there was an expectation that a lot of his support would move away from him and into thejoe biden camp, but he increased his voter turnout. he has expanded his support by 3 million votes. donald trump win or lose is not going away. we should actually take a look at some of the legal action because that is where he is making his presence felt at the moment. in several states, over what he calls voting irregularities. despite providing absolutely no

evidence so far. on thursday he lost two court rulings in georgia and michigan and has vowed to sue nevada where joe michigan and has vowed to sue nevada wherejoe biden michigan and has vowed to sue nevada where joe biden has michigan and has vowed to sue nevada wherejoe biden has been leading by around 12,000 votes. bernard fraga is an associate professor political science at emory university and joins me now from atlanta, georgia — where trump lost a legal battle claiming late ballots were mixed in with on—time ballots. professor, i want to start with a very broad question, can any of these legal challenges actually alter the course of this election right now? the short answer is no, and thanks for having me on. as president trump says, he wants to stop the count, but if it stopped right now, joe biden would be the winner. if the account stopped yesterday, joe biden would still be the winner. there are no more options left for donald trump to hold on to the presidency. what then

is the purpose of the legal challenges and the lawsuits going on in the individual states? in some states there is a chance that after a recount, for example in georgia, president trump will ask what a recount, there is a chance the result might flip but overall that won't impact on who wins the presidency but it is also about a show of force. ego story for the president where he wants to claim there is fraud and have his supporters believe there is fraud and continue the protracted legal battle may be for months, perhaps for the rest of his presidency in order to assert to his supporters that something was going on, even though there is no evidence of systematic fraud anywhere in the united states. what do you think the effect of this litigation is going to have? lawsuits in america are nothing new, and there are always lawsuits, but the broader question again is what impact is this having

on people watching this around the world when they see these lawsuits coming in? what can it lead them to believe? it does a couple of things, it casts doubt on the legitimacy of the electoral process in the us. we are no stranger to lawsuits here, especially when it comes to elections, especially when it comes to very close elections, that is normal, but it also casts doubt on president trump's ability to lead for the next two months, it means they will be a lot of surprises, before inauguration day, beforejoe biden takes power, donald trump will have much control, including a majority in the senate, where he can pass many laws and he can enact many changes that americans and the rest of the world might not like to see. very briefly, donald trump keeps saying that the supreme court is going to get involved does the supreme courtjust get involved and what does it do if it does? it is

not clear what they could do at this point, we can use the example of florida, george bush and al gore, where they didn't stop a count in florida and they stopped continuing to count ballots which were questionable, and at that moment george w bush was the leader in forehead and that is how he won the presidency, —— was the leader in florida. but if the accounting stop today, joe biden would still be the winner, so it is not clear what the supreme court could do —— if the counting stopped today. thanks for joining us. let's go to washington and speak to gary o'donoghue who is outside the white house. what is the mood in the white house at the moment with pennsylvania now looking to be going tojoe biden? the options are narrowing and

narrowing for the president. with that news thatjoe biden has taken the lead in pennsylvania, really there is no way back. the challenges will increase, of course, and the president has to get some things stopped or reversed to get back into any kind of contention, but as it stands joe biden is any kind of contention, but as it standsjoe biden is notjust heading for a narrow victory but actually a fairly comfortable victory on the basis of what we know at the moment. they will be discussing the legal options, but the difficulty of course is that no evidence has been produced. the president referred to fraud last night, stealing votes, but there is no evidence that is happening whatsoever. in places like georgia, where he is now behind, the whole election process is run by republicans because the state is run

by republicans. it is interesting, the thing about postal votes, the president seems to think anything that arrived by post, anything that arrived by post after election day, even though it was postmarked on election day, is an illegal vote, and should not be counted, but bear in mind some of those states counted the postal votes first, so you saw things like ohio and florida where joe biden was ahead to start with, but it is not surprising given the skew in the nature of postal votes to on the day voting that he is now starting to lose these leads. some of these parts of philadelphia are voting 85% forjoe biden in the postal vote. gary, at voting 85% forjoe biden in the postalvote. gary, at the voting 85% forjoe biden in the postal vote. gary, at the white house, thanks for joining postal vote. gary, at the white house, thanks forjoining us. withjoe biden so close to that 270 mark, all eyes

remain on donald trump and whether he will concede the election and allow for a smooth transition of power, should he lose. let's take a look back at three important concession speeches from recent us history. first, george hw bush was the last incumbent to be defeated when he lost to bill clinton in 1992. his speech specfically mentioned that transition. we respect the majesty of the democratic system. i just called governor clinton over in little rock and offered my congratulations. he did run a strong campaign. i wish him well in the white house, and i want the country to know that our entire administration will work closely with his team to ensure the smooth transition of power. there is important work to be done and america must always come first, so we will get behind this new president and wish him well. cheering in 2008 senatorjohn mccain

lost to barack obama. mccain stopped his crowd booing the new president—elect, and offered his support going forward. i had the honour of calling senator ba rack obama to congratulate him... booing please. to congratulate him on being elected the next president of the country that we both love. jeering senator obama and i have had and argued our differences and he has prevailed. no doubt many of those differences remain. these are difficult times for our country. and i pledged to him tonight to do all in my power to help him lead us through the many challenges we face. and even most recently, in 2016 after losing to donald trump, hillary clinton told supporters

they should "cherish" the peaceful transition of power. i still believe in america and i always will. and if you do, then we must accept this result and then look to the future. donald trump is going to be our president. we owe him an open mind and the chance to lead. our constitutional democracy enshrines the peaceful transfer of power. and we don'tjust respect that, we cherish it. i'm joined now by hw brands — he's professor of history at texas university. he's written numerous biogrpahies of us presdients and met barack obama to advise him about us history. your thoughts will give a concession your thoughts as to whether donald

trump will give a concession speech like what we have just seen? he might do, but i would also not be surprised if he goes to the end of his administration without conceding defeat. it is a very long transition in the us, until the 20th of january, and if there wasn't a formal concession and a graceful handover, in real terms, formal concession and a graceful handover, in realterms, practical terms, what difference could that make? assuming that the rest of the republican party accepts a biden victory, if it comes to that, then president trump will have very little he can do, and his authority as president will run out at noon on the 20th of january next year and he will no longer be president. if he makes a stink about leaving and locating the premises, who knows what will happen, but by then he will realise he's not going to be president any more —— vacated the premises. he would have to come to terms with it, however he chooses to

do it. it seems unlikely that he would want to go quietly and he has very strong feelings about the way the united states should be governed and his supporters feel strongly that he is right. the key is, what his supporters will do, as i alluded to what the rest of the republican party does come in if the officials in the republican party accepts the result, it will essentially be a closed story, but donald trump's supporters may protest in one way or another, but it will have to gain traction amongst other republican officials or conceivably in the courts but i'm not sure what the courts but i'm not sure what the courts can do. in the 2000 election, the courts, the supreme court stopped a recount in florida in which george w bush was ahead but donald trump is behind in enough places now that if everything stops joe biden would win. if biden wins

and the biden camp is taking its time and talking about staying calm and not rushing things, remind viewers of the situation you get in the us, because in essence you end up the us, because in essence you end up having two administrations up and running, one gearing up while the other winds down? it is possible for the outgoing administration, given the outgoing administration, given the three months between now and the inauguration, to do considerable mischief, if they choose to do that, and the democrats in the house of representatives will be able to slow things down but if there were openings in the federaljudiciary, president trump could nominate people and the senate could prove them, even though the president will have been rejected by voters. it is a curious and sometimes sobering feature of the american political system. thanks forjoining us.

ijust finished his i just finished his biography ijust finished his biography on andrew jackson, ijust finished his biography on andrewjackson, a ijust finished his biography on andrew jackson, a president ijust finished his biography on andrewjackson, a president who has been likened to donald trump, many times over, excellent biography, and i don't know if this is part —— partisan, but it is well worth reading. one thing he said which was interesting, what will donald trump supporters do? what will the republican party do? just this morning we have had senator mitch mcconnell, the leader of the senate majority, saying on twitter, this is how this must work in our great country, every legal vote should be counted, any illegal submitted ballots should not, that is how americans decide the result. very different in tone to the very defensive and defiant rhetoric we've

been hearing from president trump himself and i think that gives a clue as to how the republican party is already reacting to this election. there must be conversations going on behind closed doors and you wonder when we might hear from, doors and you wonder when we might hearfrom, say, former president george w bush com elder statesman, i suppose, of the republican party, and how they are trying to put pressure on donald trump and his family behind the scenes. there is a question of, is donald trump open to persuasion? there will be people talking to him, saying, if you lose come in this situation, think about your legacy, but his instinct is to say he hasn't lost and he will keep fighting, nobody can stop infighting. don't forget, many of his supporters want him to fight. this is what he has built his reputation on, being a fighter, and they think this litigation is justified and they will want him to continue. we will continue in just a moment, but jane,

continue. we will continue in just a moment, butjane, in washington, we are staying across all of these key accou nts are staying across all of these key accounts and the bigger picture here on bbc world news. —— counts. hello. a bit of clout at times, patchy rain and drizzle in scotland, but most will be dry. more sunshine over northern ireland compared with yesterday, blue skies for many, but quite a breeze blowing to the south—west. lighter winds elsewhere, and still feeling cool. a cooler day in scotland compared with yesterday. here we could see mist and fog developing tonight. and foggy weather will develop more widely in the south. we could see some frost around into tomorrow morning. tomorrow, fog through the central

belt of scotland, slowly shifting, fog which will only be on the heels for some it will expand more widely into an area of low cloud, parts of eastern wales and the midlands, and a few showers towards the south—west but most dry and turning milder. this is bbc news. joe biden is edging closer to the white house. president trump remains adamant that the democrats are trying to steal victory. here, mass covid testing has begun across liverpool. the army is helping with a pilot project to try and find out how far the virus is spread. if it helps get us back to normal life i am happy. i think it is quite pointless because you can invalidate a test ten minutes later. depending

on where you go and who you come into contact with. a family in south wales has lost a grandmother and her two sons to coronavirus within days of each other. and, a different feel to remembrance day. the royal british legion urges us to pay tribute to the armed forces this yearin tribute to the armed forces this year in alternative ways. more to come on many of the stories. sport now, and for a full round up, from the bbc sport centre. i'm olly foster at the bbc sport centre. ole gunnar solskjaer says speculation about his position is just part of being the manager at manchester united. solskjaer was questioned about his future following the team's defeat in the champions league this week. they also lost at home to arsenal in the league last weekend, leaving them 15th in the table. they play everton tomorrow lunchtime. sources at the club have denied that they have been courting mauricio pochettino

as a possible replacement. you have to be mentally strong, you have to be, of course, there are demands on a manchester united player and coach and manager. there is also an expectation, because you don't expect to have anything but criticism then, it is just how you deal with that setback and, from we are the best and biggest in the world. what i have seen from the boys, they have been very focused since we came back, ready to give a response. there's another international break coming up next week. gareth bale is back in the wales squad for their three games. he's still building up his fitness and has been used sparingly at tottenham since re—joining them. jose mourinho says he hopes the wales coaching staff take note, but has his concerns because one of them, albert stuivenberg, is also an arsenal coach. the fact that one of the coaches is

an arsenal coach doesn't make me very comfortable, honestly, it doesn't make me very comfortable. i think national team matches, they should have coaches that work exclusively for them and not coaches that work for other clubs. some football fans in scotland will be allowed back into matches from this evening. clubs located in tier1 areas, such as the highlands, can let in up to 300 supporters. that will include ross county's premiership match against livingston tonight. it's too early to have any sort of real significance financially, but what it does is give everybody a bit of hope and something to hang on to regarding getting back out and watching football. we obviously have a small band of loyal supporters here in the highlands and what we want to do is give them value for money in their season ticket and the money they have put into the football club. the only way we can do

that is by letting them watch live football. thankfully, we have an opportunity to do that. nigel clough is back in football. he's the new manager at league 2 mansfield town. clough stood down from his position at burton albion in may to help ease the financial pressures at the club following the pandemic. he has signed a contract until 2023. his brother simon willjoin him at as head of recruitment. they are third bottom of the table and his first match in charge will be away at sunderland in the fa cup tomorrow. afc wimbledon's tie at barrow has been postponed. the dons have returned a number of positive tests for covid—19. the whole of the first team squad are having to isolate. all players and staff are being re—tested. their next scheduled match is against wigan in league one next weekend. a covid outbreak at the pro14 dragons has seen the region shut down for 2 weeks. seven positive results were returned as part of the wru's weekly testing programme. their matches against connacht and glasgow warriors

have been postponed. they lost to munster last weekend at rodney parade, the irish team have returned a full list of negative results. that's all the sport for now. thank you very much. all the latest sport there. good afternoon. you are watching bbc news and i'm jane sport there. good afternoon. you are watching bbc news and i'mjane hill to ta ke watching bbc news and i'mjane hill to take you through much of the afternoon's developments. we will have more from our colleagues in washington to come as you would expect, but there is plenty to talk about here in relation to coronavirus. let's talk a bit more about that. a mass testing scheme for coronavirus has begun in liverpool. people who live or work in the city are being asked to come forward regardless of whether they have symptoms, to try to establish a clearer picture of how far the virus has spread. six new centres have been set up for the pilot, and hundreds of soldiers have been

deployed to help. it's hoped mass testing of a population could make repeated lockdowns less likely. dan johnson reports. here's what's needed to get a testing programme like this off the ground. 2,000 soldiers to organise enough capacity to offer tests to everyone in this city, regardless of age, occupation or symptoms. it is asymptomatic as well as symptomatic, anybody who wants to have a test can have access to a test. one of the things is going to be we will find more cases, and that means our infection rate will go up in the short—term. at this site, the car park is going to be set up as a drive—through centre with the swab tests, the sort of thing we've seen across the country through most of this year, the tests that give a result within 2a hours, although they're hoping here it will be possible on the same day. and then here at the tennis centre, this will be a walk—in where the really rapid result tests are available, and the hope is they will give an answer

within 20 minutes or half an hour. there have been questions over the reliability of those tests. officials here are confident, but will people come forward? i'm not saying i wouldn't get it done. obviously i'd like to know a bit more about it. but if it helps get us back to a normal life, then i'm happy for anything like that, really. ijust think it's quite pointless, because you can invalidate the test ten minutes later depending on where you go and who you come in contact with, so i don't really see what the point is. i think we should go ahead with the testing, because i think it would help everybody else to see if we can do the rapid tests, you know, to see if it works, to do the test, to see if we can get quick results back. i think it's good. why not? people are complaining before there were not enough test, not enough testing. well, there's tests now. if you want to exercise your option to do it, why not? case numbers in the city are still high. 330 per 100,000 people. that's double the average across england, and growing pressure on local hospitals is the reason liverpool was chosen for this mass testing pilot.

the idea here is to break hidden transmission chains. these are the asymptomatic phase of transmission which is now recognised to be a lot more important in the amplification and spread of disease. the soldiers are staying at a holiday parkjust up the coast, and they're all being tested. this is a major logistics challenge, initially for the next fortnight. the key is all about synchronising things and getting the right logistics in place, so the soldiers have got to set up these test sites. we've got to advertise that to the people of liverpool. we've got to connect in with the nhs clinicians and our civilian team—mates, and integrating all of that little lot is the absolute prize. this is a large—scale pilot, open to half a million people. it will be watched closely to see how many come forward, how quickly the results

are delivered and whether it can help us all control the spread of the virus. danjohnson, bbc news, liverpool. the government has defended data used in a presentation to justify the lockdown in england. a graphic shown at the downing street news conference on saturday suggested that up to 1,500 people could die with coronavirus every day by early december — but that figure has now been revised down. our political correspondent iain watson is at westminster. explain more about this ian. well, what has happened on saturday is a whole range of graphics and statistics presented at the downing street press conference to justify taking a one—month action that we are now into day two of. the national lockdown in england. but it turns out that two of those graphs we re turns out that two of those graphs were then subsequently revised.

covid deaths have gone down from... being projected at the beginning of next month if no action were taken and they are now dealt looking at hospital admissions, which has also been revised down by around a third. i think the difficulty for the government in doing this isn't so much about the underlying picture, it is the fact that there are so many people on borisjohnson's own side of the house of commons who expressed doubt about the data as recently as wednesday. there was a debate, two former conservative leaders, rita mae and iain duncan smith, questioning the basis of the lockdown and whether the statistics have been overstated and it plays in the arguments of those that have said all along that borisjohnson is rushing into this, he should have given the regional restrictions longer to work, but from the government's point of view, they are pushing back against this very strongly. this was raised in a briefing for journalists with

downing street's official spokesperson and he said, look, there may well have been a mistake but there is no error in the underlying analysis and this was then really forced by the cabinet minister michael gove who said that people can deny statistics if they like, but the number of hospital admissions is rising remorselessly, so admissions is rising remorselessly, so the trend of projection has been set out on saturday, the government is sticking with that and suggesting that even in the revised figures, they still had to act and act decisively and that's why we have a month long lockdown here in england. ian, thank you very much. new coronavirus infections in england have stabilised at about 50,000 a day, according to the office for national statistics. its latest survey suggests the steep rise in cases had started to level off at the end of last month. so what effect could the new lockdown have? our health correspondent james gallagher has this assessment. lockdown is the measure

that nobody wanted. but now the government has decided it is the one we need. the aim is simple — to avoid hospitals buckling under the weight of coronavirus and to stop people dying. the number of covid patients in hospital is already rising. without a lockdown, there are fears about the nhs's ability to cope with covid and the impact it would have on other patients as well. remember, this virus can spread easily. at the start of the pandemic, the number of people each infected person passed the virus on to, known as the r number, was three. now this is explosive growth. the changes we all made to our lives did make a difference. on the eve of lockdown, the r number was around 1.2 and just look, you can see the difference it makes to the way the virus is spreading. it is far slower. but cases were still growing. the idea of lockdown is that it should make the virus harder to spread and so cases actually fall. but, we don't know how well

it is going to work. there are around 50,000 people being infected every day. that's the dotted grey line. some estimates suggest there may still be a brief rise in the coming days followed by a fall of nearly two thirds in cases by the end of lockdown. but in a worst—case, four weeks of paint might lead four weeks of pain might lead to just a 10% or 20% drop. that would still leave us in a sticky situation. this huge uncertainty comes partly from schools. millions of children will still be in the classroom this time and we don't know what that means. it will take around two weeks before we can tell how well lockdown is working. the worry, though, is that as soon as we lift restrictions, cases could start to rise again. some scientists think we could face yet more waves of covid that need to be controlled with yet more lockdowns. the hope is this one will buy time to research a vaccine, to improve the testing programme, or at least get us close to spring,

when the warmer weather will make it harder for the virus to spread. james gallagher there. the time is 90 minutes to three and we will return our focus to the situation in the us. as we been reporting, joe biden has inched ahead of donald trump ina biden has inched ahead of donald trump in a crucial state which could decide the next us president. the democratic candidate has 5500 more votes tha n democratic candidate has 5500 more votes than donald trump in pennsylvania, putting him in the lead there for the first time. pennsylvania carries with it 20 votes in the electoral college. defeat would cost donald trump the presidency and he is likely to ask for a recount if that is the way it goes. the race remains incredibly close elsewhere. let's think about how the markets are reacting to this. let's get our

business correspondent in new york and we are waiting, we are waiting and we are waiting, we are waiting and we are waiting, we are waiting and we know markets and businesses do not like uncertainty. that's true. frankly, investors on wall street are also waiting and waiting and waiting to find out the outcome of the us presidential election. but if you look at the way markets have been trading over this last week, they have been on an absolute tear. in fact, the gains that we have seen in this last week have been some of the best games ever seen in a post—election environment. it goes to show that market watchers and investors, rather, it had really priced in this kind of uncertainty, that they weren't really going to know who the ultimate candidate would be. and now, what investors are taking from this is that, look, it is possible that we are going to see a biden presidency, but control of congress is not going to go

democrat and that really means, for investors, who are worried about this wave of more left—leaning legislation, that is ultimately probably not going to happen and thatis probably not going to happen and that is what is giving investors a big boost. i thought about why all of this is important, because it can feel abstract in people's lives, but when we talk about the markets and can include things like pension funds. this affects a large proportion of people. this affects so proportion of people. this affects so many people and more than people would understand. if you have any kind of investment, pension, any kind of investment, pension, any kind of investment, pension, any kind of mutual funds, kind of investment, pension, any kind of mutualfunds, anything like that, how markets react actually makes a big difference to you. and to your future. so that's why we talk about markets so much because it really has an important impact on every single individual. and i

thought about the brexit word, if i dare. depending on who ultimately went through on this, it is a big focus for people here in the uk and we are thinking about trade deals, what sort of trade deals this country could broker with other nations. what do the sort of people you talk to in the business world that say about whichever candidate gets in and what it might mean for trade deals. look, there is no question that donald trump has a lwa ys question that donald trump has always made putting trade deals top of his agenda. so this kind of style of his agenda. so this kind of style of negotiation with just one country is something that he has really liked doing. so in that way, he would say that perhaps a trump presidency would mean something pretty good for the uk in terms of trying to negotiate a new trade deal. there are concerns that vice president biden is sort of a more unknown quantity. also, just in terms of priorities, getting a trade

deal with the uk may not be top of mind. there are a lot of things happening right now in the united states that are probably going to ta ke states that are probably going to take precedence over any kind of trade deal. 0k, thank you very much. samira hussain following all of that for as samira hussain following all of that foras in samira hussain following all of that for as in new york and a waiting reaction as we for as in new york and a waiting reaction 3s we are for as in new york and a waiting reaction as we are all awaiting a result. we will keep you up—to—date if we get any more glimmers of the news there from pennsylvania, from georgia or other key states, not too many of them now, but it is pennsylvania george in particular that we have focused on here today in the uk, because we may get something out of those states. i say may. before i talk to my next guest, let's just remind you of the tally so let's just remind you of the tally so far. joe biden for the democrats, 253, donald trump for the republicans 214. those are the figures as they stand. you probably

don't need reminding right now but it is 270 that is the crucial number, so that is how it looks right now and we wait to hear from if you mow states. let's talk about what the coming hours and days might bring. mitch robinsonjoins me who isa bring. mitch robinsonjoins me who is a fellow at the rather mere institute at the university of oxford. good afternoon. good to talk to you, it's hard to keep up frankly, isn't it. but we have been reporting just in the past half an hour or so that there is a real battle going on in pennsylvania. what do you read into that? incredible to watch because president trump started out on election night is 400,000 votes ahead and that has just slowly, slowly been dipping. we should point out, it was entirely suspected. we a lwa ys out, it was entirely suspected. we always knew that the votes on election day would favour president trump and the vote early and male votes would favour vice president

biden. —— postal votes. votes would favour vice president biden. —— postalvotes. it has votes would favour vice president biden. —— postal votes. it has been on the cusp for two and a half days. it feels it has been that long is well since president trump came out and started casting aspersions on the electoral process, on the validity of all of this. do you believe that that was a deliberate campaign on the part of his team and that that was always his strategy? he was always going to do that, however the first initial poll results locked. 10096. however the first initial poll results locked. 100%. he however the first initial poll results locked. 10096. he is flagged this for several months. let's not forget, when it looked like he was going to lose in 2016 he was already going to lose in 2016 he was already going out and saying it was a sham. the polls for the campaigns are both shown that vice president biden was likely to win and that's why we have seen likely to win and that's why we have seen president trump throw down on the election results and that has only accelerated in the past 36 hours of seeing him give these two speeches that have just been

unprecedented really. i mean, they we re unprecedented really. i mean, they were shown on the national networks in america and they pulled them last night because they thought it was irresponsible to have a president of the united states just spewing these lies about the electoral process. so we really are in uncharted waters letting a president do that. so, getting into the world of legal processes and legal challenges in certain states, we all know how the legal system can get gummed up, it can takea legal system can get gummed up, it can take a long time to resolve. do we know, and a practical level, where that leaves things? if you have one candidate, whoever it is, with the magic number over 270 and the other candidate saying well, no, i'm taking this through the courts. can this go on for months and months? i mean, in theory it can. it won't be until the 21st of january until a new president is meant to be inaugurated but i think what we will see is that it is very close in a

lot of states but i think they will all end up favouring joe biden and that means that the republicans can't get bogged down in one state, because it won't, if pennsylvania put him over the line, it will put him over 270. i don't think the republican party can fight the war on five fronts. in 2000, it was all centred on florida. ijust don't think they can run these campaigns in pennsylvania, nevada, georgia, because they can't run the table. i'm interested in yourfeelings about the strength of someone's holds on the office. the legitimacy, if you like, if it does degenerate into some almighty battle. we don't know it isjoe biden yet, i stress that, we simply don't know, but if we ta ke that, we simply don't know, but if we take that for example, and it has been wafer thin and there are legal challenges and there is controversy, does that do something to his

legitimacy in office. ? ithink it does. you are seeing in real time the polarised nature of american democracy. because if you turn on cnn you are getting one story and if you turn on fox news you are getting rudy giuliani and a very different story. you are seeing this on twitter, these things come to life, so twitter, these things come to life, so people do generally believe, —— genuinely believe, despite there being no evidence, people do believe it that there is voter fraud. and they believe it because that narrative has been put out there and talked about over and over for a period of some months? because the president said it. it's hard not to think a little while ago that a president used to be someone who was respected, made good judgment and people looked up to. you see this come through in the biden campaign when he talks about the use of a mask. he said it is your patriot a

duty to wear a mask, it is not a president'sjob to be duty to wear a mask, it is not a president's job to be divisive and thatis president's job to be divisive and that is the opposite of president trump's approach. but he is in a fight for his life and he will do anything which is what we have seen over the past four years, he will throw everything in the kitchen sink at it if it means staying in power. mitch robertson, good to talk to you. probably not for the last time. that was mitch robertson who is a fellow at the rather mere american institute. so, another look at the numbers, could donald trump still stopjoe numbers, could donald trump still stop joe biden? let's numbers, could donald trump still stopjoe biden? let's take a look at the latest electoral map. jane, this is the situation as it stands on 253 and donald trump and 214. you may look at this map and think, i have looked at this for a few hours, nothing is changed, there isa few hours, nothing is changed, there is a lot going on behind some of

these colours. it is the five or six grey coloured states that are still to declare and all eyes at the moment on georgia and on pennsylvania, where joe biden moment on georgia and on pennsylvania, wherejoe biden has now eased ahead. i beg your pardon, that has gone to ohio, take it back to the map, i'm trying to get you pennsylvania. as you can see, barely anything in it between the two candidates, but what has happened in just the past couple of hours is thatjoe biden has overturned an 18,000 vote majority that president trump had and he is presently on 5587 votes ahead. so that is the lead thatjoe biden has here in pennsylvania. i want to show you one more thing on this screen. this is the proportion of people who voted absentee, so this is people who sent in postal votes or turned up early in person to vote. as you can see,

40%, two in five people, sent their votes in early. itjust so happens that there votes are counted at the end even though they didn't vote late. that is important, because, oh dear, a little trouble with the screen right now. let's get it back to pennsylvania. this is important because as you can see, with 98% of the votes counted, some of those votes still to be counted, are in philadelphia, which is very strongly trending democratic. it has always been a democrat city and of those votes counted there, over 80% have been forjoe biden, so one would expect to see the numbers again. looking good forjoe biden, the democrats are talking very confidently about it. let me get back the state of play and i would like to be one more thing which is to colouring for you with my blue pen what might happen ifjoe biden does take pennsylvania. there you

go. it gets into 273 electoral couege go. it gets into 273 electoral college votes, he's over the line, he becomes president of the united states. i just want to fill in a few more of these dates. if he does succeed in flipping georgia, which would be a great victory for the democrats, they haven't had georgia since 1992, if he in retaining nevada, that was won by hillary clinton in 2016 and if he does flip arizona, there is a very tight race going on in arizona, that takesjoe biden to 306 electoral college votes and with deep irony, if that were to happen, that is the same number that president trump got when he won four yea rs president trump got when he won four years ago. thank you very much. we are very much keeping an eye on that, we will have much more from the united states at the top of the hour. but i want to bring you another story this afternoon. the actor geoffrey palmer has died at the age of 93.

in a career spanning more than 60 years, he was the star of a number of popular comedies on bbc television, including as time goes by, alongside judi dench, and butterflies. david sillito looks back at his life ria! i made less noise than that when i was in labour. could you explain this to me? what? this. this stuff on my plate. it's your dinner. i know it's my dinner, but could you identify the various heaps? in butterflies, he was a slightly world—weary dentist. those are potatoes, and that's a chop. i forget what those green things are. well, who brought the breakfast? who found it? in fawlty towers, a doctor trying to make sense of some kipper—related chaos. what's that? that's a bit of it. a bit of what? a bit of the breakfast.

is there any more tea in that pot? and in as time goes by, a second lieutenant who never quite understood the opposite sex. i really shouldn't have asked that question. you set me up! even at the start of his screen career, he played figures of authority. well, keep her going, she may blow her way through it. all right. a property agent in cathy come home. £100. £100 would barely cover the legal costs involved. i can't go to the ministry of defence and request regular army support for you on the basis of a wild tale about monsters in caves. a slightly sinister civil servant in doctor who. drink, jimmy? ten past three? almost tea time. whiskey, please. and in the fall and rise of reginald perrin, the hopeless military plotterjimmy. geoffrey palmer had himself served in the marines, and worked in an accountant‘s office before taking up acting. i never want to hear from you again, is that clear?

his face and background perfect for characters that were slightly stuffy, very british and often a bit ridiculous. but your underpants on your head and stick two pencils up your nose. outside of acting, his passion was fly fishing. i still enjoy working as an actor, but i'd rather go fishing. it seemed to sum him up. whatever the chaos, geoffrey palmer would be the one to be there in the midst of it. the calm, middle—class everyman, grumpy, baffled and making us laugh. tea? i'll turn the radio down. the actor geoffrey palmer who has died at the age of 93. live in the us at the top of the hour but now it's the weather.

quiet day with lots of sunshine coming through. through this evening, we could see the return of more fog once again. starting off across parts of south wales into the midlands, maybe through the vale of york and the scottish borders as well. here it will be a chilly start to saturday morning with low single figures. compare that to 10 degrees to the south—west. on saturday, it looks likely that some of that fog will lift and sit as low cloud and if that happens, temperatures will struggle, but hopefully we will see some sunny struggle, but hopefully we will see some sunny spells across the south coast, a few scattered showers here and plenty of sunshine further north as well. highest value through the afternoon of 15 or 16 degrees, elsewhere looking at nine to 12 celsius. weather fronts start to show their hand down into the south—west and they are going to bring some outbreaks of light rain for sunday. the best of the dry brighter weather further east.

this is bbc news live from washington and london — as the us presidential election reaches a climax. joe biden builds momentum in key remaining battleground states. the margins are narrow but the trend of the ballot count favours the former vice president. he's overtaken donald trump in the crucial vote count in pennsylvania — one of the greatest prizes in the election. i'm yalda hakim in philadelphia, watching that count. right now —joe biden now leads donald trump by 6,700 votes. joe biden also leads in georgia for the first time since counting started. i'm larry madowo with the latest from georgia — a state donald trump needs to win to have any

hope of victory. the trump campaign is already signalling they will contest the outcome and order a recount. as for the candidates themselves, biden calls for calm and patience. he says the process is working properly and is confident he's done enough to win. each ballot must be counted. we have no doubt that when the count is finished, senator harris and i will be declared the winners. donald trump — however — once again makes accusations of electoral fraud but offers no evidence. his campaign just put a statement saying "the election is not over". if you count the legal votes, i easily win. if you count the illegal votes, they can try to steal the election from us. meanwhile, his supporters protest on the streets as millions of dollars are raised to mount legal challenges in a number of states. asjoe biden as joe biden edges asjoe biden edges ahead in

pennsylvania and georgia, the mathematical likelihood is now that donald trump's chances of staying in the white house are increasingly slim. hello and welcome from washington and london. we are coming down to the wire. in the past hour, joe biden has pulled ahead in the state of pennsylvavia. and in the last few hours joe biden has pulled ahead in the historically republican state of georgia. there are just over 1,000 votes separating the candidates in the georgia count, 99% of the votes now counted. georgia's secretary of state is due to give a press conference in around 30 minutes' time. we'll bring that to you live. the state is worth 16 electoral college votes, joe biden needs 17 more votes to reach

the magic number of 270, so georgia would leave him one short of victory, but it'd also mean donald trump would need to win every other state to draw level with joe biden — that would leave both men with 269 electoral college votes and lead to an unprecedented draw. so, which states have yet to declare and what potential routes remain for each candidate to win? my colleague reeta chakrabarti in london has the numbers. paths to the presidency forjoe biden? this is the state of play at the moment, a map everyone is very familiar with by now. the grey states are the ones where we don't have a result but so much focus at the moment on georgia and pennsylvania. let's have a closer look at pennsylvania. 98% of the votes counted. barely anything between joe votes counted. barely anything betweenjoe biden votes counted. barely anything between joe biden and votes counted. barely anything betweenjoe biden and donald trump

but as we now know, joe biden has a very narrow lead of 6737 votes. the reason we are getting excited by this is the trajectory of the votes, if you like, having not moved very much for quite a while, with president trump having an 18,000 majority in terms of the votes for many hours, the movement now does seem many hours, the movement now does seem to be towardsjoe biden. with 98% of the vote counted i want to show you something else which is the percentage of absentee voting. 40% of people voted either by post or early in person and these are the votes that are being counted now. that is important, because there is a major skewing towards the democrats in these votes. philadelphia is one to watch. sorry, we don't want michigan. there you

go. joe biden on 253, donald trump 214. let's see whatjoe biden has to do. we are going to use the blue pen. we are all looking at pennsylvania. that hasn't gone the way i wanted it to go. let's use the blue pen. let's assume pennsylvania goes blue and democrat, which takes joe biden over the magic line to 273 and he has won the presidency at that point. let's assume he also ta kes pla ce that point. let's assume he also takes place on where he has a very narrow lead at the moment. —— let's assume he also takes georgia. and that he keeps nevada and he flips arizona, which hangs in the balance. that takes him to 306 which is the same number that donald trump got four years ago when he won the presidency. thanks forjoining us. i

think the batteries are running down on your chart! the bbc‘s yalda hakim joins us now from philadelphia, pennsylvania. everybody is watching philadelphia at the moment. try and give a sense of the timings of this, how long do they continue counting? the reason we are getting some excitement here is because things are starting to move is because things are starting to m ove very is because things are starting to move very quickly. in the last hour i reported that joe move very quickly. in the last hour i reported thatjoe biden was in front by 5500 votes and i can now report that he is ahead by 6700, which is so narrow, and the vote counting continues. just under 20,000 votes to be counted here in philadelphia. over140,000 20,000 votes to be counted here in philadelphia. over 140,000 votes which need to be counted in the

state of pennsylvania, so nail—biting moments as joe state of pennsylvania, so nail—biting moments asjoe biden slowly starts to edge ahead. overnight we saw donald trump's leader start to dwindle. this is a picture of what happened on wednesday. donald trump was in front by just over wednesday. donald trump was in front byjust over half a million votes and by thursday that went down to about 80,000 and overnight that went down to about 18,000, so less than 20,000 votes separating them, and this morning the separation between them, 6700, but nowjoe biden is leading. nail—biting moment. we are still waiting to hear from the election commission, the officials, andi election commission, the officials, and i want to show you what is happening. we are outside the convention centre. trevor will pan overfor convention centre. trevor will pan over for you. the officials are counting inside this centre and there is about 100 of them and they have been going about doing eight hour shifts, and they are really

city officials from both sides of the aisle, democrats and republicans. donald trump requested some observers and the observers we re some observers and the observers were able to go in there, the courts allow that to happen, but they had to keep a distance. don't forget, these people have been working round these people have been working round the clock since tuesday, trying to get the counting of those in a time of pandemic. having to have fewer people in there, and socially distance, and then on top of that, having a request by the trump campaign to have observers in there, so campaign to have observers in there, soa campaign to have observers in there, so a lot of movement happening. suddenly this morning, the pace of the count increased and a lot of development. that is great. thanks for joining development. that is great. thanks forjoining us. development. that is great. thanks for joining us. thanks development. that is great. thanks forjoining us. thanks forjoining us forjoining us. thanks forjoining us from the crucial state of pennsylvania. our correspondent, larry madowo, is in atlanta, georgia. it is not over for donald trump in

georgia but not looking good? not looking good. just 1000 votes separating him from joe biden who is now leading here, and we understand from the secretary of state's office that they are about —— there are about 8190 votes left to count, and they were also expecting to count what was left, the provisional ballots a nd what was left, the provisional ballots and the military balance, but the trump campaign put out a statement saying that they expect a recount in georgia, and that they will most definitely find ballots that were improperly harvested, that is the word they are using. it is a stunning statement from the campaign, essentially because their argument has been that these other states are finding new ballots because they are run by democrats but in georgia it is run by republicans, the governor, the secretary of state, local officials, they are all from his party, but he

still appears to be losing. we might be hearing from georgia into the new year i would imagine. georgia is on my mind and on the mind of everybody else, because if this recount happens we are going to be here for a while, to see what is the outcome of that. georgia is important for another reason, the state of the senate and whether the democrats have control of it, will also be determined by georgia and it looks like the senate seats up for grabs, held by republicans, will go into a run—off in january, and held by republicans, will go into a run—off injanuary, and if the democrats pick up those seats and joe biden wins, they will have control of the senate. this is the state you need to get familiar with them at the food and culture and the names we might hear a lot from it in the months to come. that is astonishing in itself because georgia has been a deep red state, a republican state, for so long. the last person to win georgia was a

young man called bill clinton in 1992. it has been a long time since a democrat thought about winning here but it became competitive and now it looks like it has been flipped. people are thinking this is a big deal but they don't want to celebrate too soon. it looks like it is within reach for the democrats and if it happens it will be a devastating loss for president trump who really hinged his hopes on georgia and that is why you see the statement essentially claiming, donald trump junior told the statement essentially claiming, donald trumpjunior told the troops here yesterday, we are going to fight for you. bill clinton was a southern boy, of course, whichjoe biden is most definitely not. things are moving very fast indeed, how close do you think we aren't too knowing who has won the presidential election? we are inching there, and

between what is happening in pennsylvania and what is happening in georgia in the last hour or so, every confidence in the biden campaign this morning that they will be able to make some sort of declaration, but i'm watching what is happening out of the white house and what is happening in republican circles. the degree to which you have on social media within the last few minutes supporters of the president, media supporters of the president, media supporters of the president, coming out and saying, if it looks like it is going as it is, the president needs to do the gracious thing and move aside in the interests of democracy. that suggests they see the writing on the wall in terms of the way this is going but of course the networks wa nt to going but of course the networks want to be very careful, as well, to make sure the premature projections are not made. everybody remembers 2000 and no one wants to be in that position again. people being rightly

careful and cautious in calling this definitively but from the moment we sawjoe biden getting more of a security detail, he is now getting a security detail, he is now getting a security detail, he is now getting a security detail in delaware, and we have learned this morning, all of the trappings of the presidency alike, it seems to be moving to delaware and away from washington. with all the confusion over legal challenges and the slow pace of some of these critical counts, how does america actually know when that result is called ? america actually know when that result is called? how does it get decided? it gets decided when it is mathematically impossible. there is the legal track which could delay the legal track which could delay the calling of any of the states and that will happen on the merits of the individual legal challenges in

pennsylvania, wisconsin, michigan, nevada, as well. several legal challenges. good any one of those legal challenges potentially overturn a state, swing it back from joe biden to donald trump? could it delay the result and the release of a result from that state because of a result from that state because of a recount, for example, that is under way? and then you have got the actual counts of the votes, when it becomes numerically no longer possible, given how few votes are left to be counted, for president trump to overturnjoe biden's lead and those are two separate things going on. my conversations with lawyers in the last 24 and was, lawyers in the last 24 and was, lawyers have suggested, who are looking at this, that they don't think that this is an election that ends up in the courts because none of the cases that donald trump is bringing would be enough to swing a

critical state back into his column. the case that is happening in pennsylvania, for example, the one people think has the most chance of possibly delaying a result because of those separated out ballots that are still arriving today, wednesday, thursday, friday. the question is, are there enough of those separated ballots in their entirety to wipe out what would be joe biden's lead with votes that have been received before or on election day? frightfully complex but that is my understanding of where we are at the moment. the legal situation is very different to the political situation. even if the lawsuits have no real impact at the end of the day on the result of the election, how president trump and howjoe biden handled themselves in the next few

hours, possibly, certainly days to come, is key, and we have had a tweet from the trump campaign, declaring the election is not over. a lot of his supporters will want president trump to continue fighting. he's not going away. so what do you see, knowing america as well as you do, how do you think the trump supporters are going to handle this when the outcome is known, when it is confirmed ? this when the outcome is known, when it is confirmed? we are all choosing our words very carefully, and we all wa nt to our words very carefully, and we all want to be careful and we all want to be cautious about how this is handled because it is a precarious moment. a precarious moment legally and we want to make sure that those legal challenges whether they have any credence or not, we take those into account because they could if nothing else delay the release of a result and may be that is part of

the aim of them, that you want from the aim of them, that you want from the trump campaign, i suspect, they wa nt to the trump campaign, i suspect, they want to delay as long as possible the ability ofjoe biden to stand on that stage in wilmington, delaware, and say, i'm your president, i have won the 2020 election, because they feel so long as he doesn't say that, they have some wiggle room, but once he has said that, it is harder to change that narrative. at that point you have the television networks running joe biden saying i'm the president elect of the usa, and that clip is and replayed constantly on cable television and that narrative sta rts cable television and that narrative starts to take hold. the white house is aware of that and the trump campaign is aware of that and may be pa rt campaign is aware of that and may be part of the reason for these lawsuits, which lawyers i've spoken to, they don't think there is a huge amount of merit in these lawsuits, or that they will have the ability, it is perfectly legitimate to call

for a recount, no one disputes that, but they are not sure there is anything in them that will overturn anything in them that will overturn a state enough because generally when you have a recount you change may be hundreds of votes are not thousands of votes which donald trump would need to change, so maybe it is partly trying to delay the moment untiljoe biden can stand up there, because the moment he stands up there, because the moment he stands up there and says in wilmington, delaware, we have 270 electoral couege delaware, we have 270 electoral college votes, and the president elect, everything starts to change. we saw that in 2000 when george w bush's campaign managed to take control of the narrative, that is a powerful moment for a candidate in an election campaign and i think thatis an election campaign and i think that is what the strategy is for the white house, delay the moment and try to have some legal wiggle room. joe biden has been very careful but very confident, saying they do believe they are winning, and even all through election night when it was looking bad forjoe biden, i was getting text messages from people

close to the biden campaign saying, we do believe we are winning, we have confidence in pennsylvania and we have confidence in the rust belt states, so their message has not changed and i suggest we will hear more of that from joe biden, but he will be careful until he feels he can declare it, and once he declares it, whatever donald trump says, the story starts to change and moves towards wilmington and joe biden. story starts to change and moves towards wilmington and joe bidenm does indeed. thanks forjoining us. just to let you know what is coming up, we just to let you know what is coming up, we are just to let you know what is coming up, we are expecting a news conference from the secretary of state in georgia, one of the key states we are watching. but i want to go back to what you were hearing. the statement from the trump campaign, from their lawyer, matt morgan. it says...

i want to bring our north america editor. what do you make of what is coming out from the trump campaign, the strategy that you can work out here? i thought it was a slightly mealy—mouthed statement, a holding statement, and it was a quibble here and a quibble there about the election, but if you are going to overturn what seems to becoming, which is potentially a biden victory in pennsylvania, nevada, georgia, possibly arizona, although that will be much tighter, then surely you need to prove that there has been systematic fraud on a wide scale that has affected the outcome of the election, not to say that may be a few people voted illegally here and there and we were not able to get observers close enough in philadelphia, that does not seem to

me to be the full throated defence that you might have anticipated. it plays into what we just said, there are constitutional lawyers who are struggling to see the merit of the trump case, and i got contacted on text messages and i put a tweet out and someone said to me, i read at the same way, this feels like the lawyers know that there is no great merit to this particular case, and they are going through the motions. the other important thing to note about where we are at the moment, you can't over exaggerate the extent of ptsd, post—traumatic stress disorder, suffered by democrats after what happened in 2000 in florida, when there was a feeling that they were too quiet and acquiescent and they let george w bush dictate the narrative, that he was just waiting to be

bush dictate the narrative, that he wasjust waiting to be president, it is all very formal, and eventually al gore conceded after a long battle, but he conceded very graciously. democrats this time felt they needed to be out in front, all they needed to be out in front, all the time, so i was surprised on election night, when it seemed that joe biden wasn't doing very well, he comes out and says, we are on course, everything is fine. just keep the faith. he did the same the next day and he did the same yesterday and sure enough it is looking like that. the moment he gets to 270 e is going to act as if this is a done deal, full steam ahead, iwant this is a done deal, full steam ahead, i want the security briefings andi ahead, i want the security briefings and i want to be au fait with everything that is happening, and whatever donald trump is doing, i think he going to treat as distracting noise. joe biden is going to present himself to the american people as their president and that this is a done deal. that must be unbearable for donald trump who loves above all to make the political weather and has been really excellent at doing so over

the last four years. yes, the old phrase of the bully pulpit, that you can dictate what the terms of debate art, you can hold a news conference ata art, you can hold a news conference at a moments notice —— debate are. you know your comments are going to be carried by other networks. donald trump must sense that some of that is slipping away and i think the other thing, at the moment, that you can notice, is that in the past when donald trump has stood up, he has looked around and everyone has been there, they haven't dared not be there, they haven't dared not be there, but maybe not that many people have spoken out against the president although notably if few have, but what is striking is the silence that is coming from some quarters. to the evident frustration of the president's personal lawyer rudy giuliani, who since the release of the borat film has a few reputational issues to sort out, and

also rudy giuliani system awaits the republican party, why are you not standing with the president? —— rudy giuliani saying, where is the republican party? eric trump has said the same. you might be thinking that the republican party are wondering if they are going to go over a cliff on legal actions in these states when it doesn't look like that much happened that was wrong. it was just the way they counted and the rules they had for counting postal ballots as opposed to ballots that were cast on the day. whether it is going over a cliff or pursuing a path to power, the trump family says that donald trump junior has been the trump family says that donald trumpjunior has been down there and i've heard him be talked about as a potential candidate next time around. the trump family are all in.

mike pence is all in, jared kushner as well. you have a tight coterie of people. rudy giuliani is all in. there are the cheerleaders for donald trump who are still there but there are other people, and if we we re there are other people, and if we were talking in british political terms, where a prime minister is in trouble, you have the moment where what we used to refer to as the men in grey suits, they go to see the prime minister, and they say, do the decent thing, old boy. the trouble is, it is hard to see anyone able to say that to donald trump, and so you have a tight coterie, fiercely loyal, who will die in the last ditch, and other people who are just putting a bit more distance between themselves and the president. fascinating times. thank you for giving the benefit of your wisdom about white house politics and

beyond. that is really fascinating. the comments about the wayjoe biden has been behaving over the last few days, he has already been getting his coronavirus briefings, he has already been making statements to the nation, not just already been making statements to the nation, notjust to his party, and to his supporters, urging people to be calm, really adopting the ma ntle to be calm, really adopting the mantle already as president elect, which a lot of trump supporters and a lot of americans themselves may think it is perhaps a bit premature, given the knife edge that we are on at the moment, but it is a fact that the optics of this and the tone going forward are going to be just as crucial in setting the stage for the next presidency as the legal battles that are still being resolved. jane, i guessjoe biden

can resolved. jane, i guessjoe biden ca n afford resolved. jane, i guessjoe biden can afford to play the long game, he has been in power, he has been in political office now 47 years, he has run for president several times, and this is a moment where it legitimacy will matter to him above all. it is indeed. he knows the political system intimately, he has been around almost five decades, which in itself is an extraordinary thing to say. given the number of young people who turned out to vote in this election. he is 78 years old. he will be... he has the experience but he has also got the baggage and the tradition. i think that's one of the reasons why the party were so keen to have him as their nominee, as the democratic presidential candidate, because he represents a tradition and an era that many people would find quite

soothing, let's say, afterfour yea rs of soothing, let's say, afterfour years of donald trump. and his ability to blow things up. joe biden, for many people, including some republicans, represents a return, if that is possible, to what is often called in this country at the moment, normalcy. and yet, even though i absolutely hear what you are saying, also, should joe biden win the presidency, kamala harris becomes so important, potentially the tie—breaking vote in the senate, as well, and in pole position to be the party's as well, and in pole position to be the pa rty‘s candidate as well, and in pole position to be the party's candidate the next time around. that is a blessing and a curse, because a lot of voters, especially on the conservative site, they are worried about what she represents, that she will pull the party too much to the left, whereas a lot of democrats are very pleased to see that happen which is another

reason why the democratic party has been trying to balance the tradition with the newcomer with the new generation. we can now go down the road to gary who is outside the white house. can you tell me what is the mood inside that house, as best as you can discern it? they are not saying much, in fact they are not saying much, in fact they are not saying anything, really. i can tell you that you can't see it in this particular shot but behind where my cameraman is standing is the oval office and there is no rain in dress uniform standing outside the west wing lobby, which tells you that the president is not inside the oval office. he is probably in the residence by now. we don't know what they are thinking. they obviously need to plan for precisely what they'd do if pennsylvania is called and that takes joe they'd do if pennsylvania is called and that takesjoe biden over the 270 mark. interesting statement from

the biden campaign, saying that the us government is perfectly capable of removing trespassers from the white house estate and that is in response to those reports that donald trump would not concede. that isa donald trump would not concede. that is a rather ominous statement, i would say. in this coming few weeks we will see those legal challenges, i'm sure, we will see those perfectly legitimate recounts, but we also may see a president who still has executive powers. he is still has executive powers. he is still the president. until the 20th of january that could mean all sorts of january that could mean all sorts of things. and also, of course, the focus will start to move, perhaps, once the election numbers are settled, and the court cases are settled, and the court cases are settled, to that crucial position in georgia, with those two senate seats, and the sheer amount of money

thatis seats, and the sheer amount of money that is going to go into those races because that again could be crucial, and that could potentially get the democrats into a 50—50 position in the senate and if you control the white house you have the vice president with a casting vote. important point. donald trump, regardless of the election outcome, he is still the president until the 20th of january, he doesn't have to suddenly vacate the white house because joe suddenly vacate the white house becausejoe biden suddenly vacate the white house because joe biden may suddenly vacate the white house becausejoe biden may become the next president. but how much power will he actually have in the next few months? he has executive powers, so few months? he has executive powers, so he has the ability to do certain things with a stroke of a pen, we have seen plenty of presidents do that. the thing about executive powers, they can be undone with the stroke of a pen, as well, so you would question to what extent he can

do damage but there are relations with foreign powers and other issues, and remember, in the period when barack obama continued to be president after donald trump won the election last time, he had a massive encounter with the russians where he expeued encounter with the russians where he expelled dozens and dozens of russian diplomats. that could easily have had a huge impact on foreign policy for a long time to come, and that was all wound up and bound up with what happened with national security... we are going to go to ata la nta, security... we are going to go to atalanta, georgia, where we have an update on the counting process. atalanta, georgia, where we have an update on the counting processm addition, 8890 military ballots outstanding that will be counted if they were returned... inaudible

the focus for the office and for the cou nty the focus for the office and for the county election officials for now remains on making sure that every legal vote is counted and recorded accurately. as we are closing in on accurately. as we are closing in on a final count, we can begin to look towards our next steps. with a margin that small, there will be a recount. here in georgia. interest in our election goes far beyond our borders. the final tally in georgia at this point has huge implications for the entire country. the stakes are high, and emotions are high, on all sides. we will not let those debates distract us from our work. we will get it right. we will defend the integrity of our elections. in some states there are complaints about monitor is not being allowed to watch the count, but in georgia

this process is and will remain open and transparent to monitors, and if any member of the public raises legitimate concerns we will investigate those, and we are committed to doing anything and everything to maintaining trust in our election process for every georgian, regardless of the parties and preference. thank you very much. —— regardless of partizan preference. they have been some changes overnight and even a time since we walked out of the office today. good to see everybody here again this morning as we close in on again this morning as we close in on a final tally. so, the secretary just announced a particular set of numbers, so our just announced a particular set of numbers, so our new just announced a particular set of numbers, so our new total that we are aware of right now is 4169 and they are in a handful of counties

will stop in cherokee county there are 150 will stop in cherokee county there a re 150 ballots will stop in cherokee county there are 150 ballots that they did not upload, so they have re—scanned and uploaded those today. there are 75 now and cobb county. 444 in floyd county. approximately 3500 in gwinnett county, the reconciliation process of what they have already reported versus what they have left a scan and i think that is it. a couple of things, laurens county, 1769 votes that we had yesterday where are basing those in the absentee ballot differences and when they looked and did their reconciliation process on it, they discover that they had accidentally uploaded those into their election day totals and the totals will not change, but the type will change when they make that change today. so outside of that, we don't have any other numbers that we are aware of, but i want to remind everybody that we have ballot curing processes through to dave absentee ballots,

verification process for provisional ballots a nd verification process for provisional ballots and we can still get any military ballots in by close of business today. if they were postmarked on tuesday. so there are still an unknowable amount of ballots that will be available to be counted at some point. they are in the hands of the election officials now. i can assure the hands of the election officials now. i can assure you the hands of the election officials now. i can assure you that there are teams of twentysomethings around the state to our republicans and democrats finding those people with those absentee ballots to cure and they are going through the process of cou nty they are going through the process of county by county, ones and twos, and a pre—emptive question that i know will come up, if we are seeing any widespread fraud, we are not seeing any widespread irregularities, we are not seeing anything widespread, we are investigating any credible accusation with any real evidence behind it. let me tell you one thing. when you have a narrow margin, little small things make a difference. so everything is going to have to be investigated to protect the integrity of the vote.

our office intends to do that and like i said, if you have a wide margin, it doesn't matter as much. a narrow margin, it does. we are looking at a margin of less than a large high school. we understand that in the state, the county officials are aware of that, our officials are aware of that, our officials are aware of that, it's an important thing to protect the integrity of this election from all sides. yes. with the margin that we have and the certainty of a recount, are we going to know about the presidency in georgia by the end of november. with the timeline we have laid out, let's go through it again. we should be able to know by the end of november because remember we had a mid—december deadline. so the one thing that is always going to be unknowable, we are a country and nation of laws, if a judge tells us to do something a certain way, we will do it. but in the laws we have now and the situation and posture

that we are in today, today is the last day to cure those absentee ballots, get the military oversee... that gets you your outer bounders. then you have a situation where the counties need to certify their election. so they take that, the reconciliations, they make sure they have everything right and trust me, these people work very hard at it and they are all very tired, we work with them very diligently to get them in as fast as we can because state certification can come only after we do our risk limiting audit. that will be the first time the state is doing it as part of hb 316. so that happens. then we will have the state certification. the outward bound of that is november 20. our hope and intent is to move that earlier. at that point, whoever comes in second, whether it be residence trumbull vice president biden, either one of them he was everin biden, either one of them he was

ever in second place... but he won't doa ever in second place... but he won't do a recount until after the audit and certification? with an interpretation of the law right now, recount cannot be requested until the election is certified. and that will take about five days? we don't know right now, we have never done a recount with a new system so we hope it will be a week but we don't know at this point. that poll workers are doing theirjob properly. what do you say about how poll workers and election officials are doing to make sure that everything is fair and accurate ? make sure that everything is fair and accurate? we have 159 election directors,

thousands of poll workers, hundreds of volu nteers thousands of poll workers, hundreds of volunteers and adjudication panels. they are all in as a secretary noted. this is a public process. you can watch everything thatis process. you can watch everything that is happening. they have paperwork, there certification is, reconciliations, there is paperwork on top of paperwork in many cases we know how many ballots there are. one of the things we know from wednesday night on the basic amount of ballots we re night on the basic amount of ballots were there. the target of the military coming in, the absentee ballots are being cured. those are all essentially unknowable at the end of the night on tuesday. people ask, why don't you know how many you have? it is impossible because the law allows for these things to be done to protect the ballots of those that we really want to make sure get the vote. in general and specifically, this office has worked very hard, for hb 316, which allows notifications to be sent out for ballots received towards the end of the process, that need to be cured. people talk about it being a three—day cure process on this and thatis three—day cure process on this and that is not the case... if you send your ballots early, they can be a month long cure process. but our

office and the counties have many safeguards built up over many years to ensure the integrity of the vote. inaudible. i'm not going to talk about an ongoing investigation at this time. but harvesting boats for a recount would be difficult. inaudible. can you clarify to people watching... i'm not going to try and get into the president's mind set on that because they're republicans who are involved, democrats involve at different levels. there are republican election directors, democrat election directors. obviously, the secretary wrappings i

have had a lot of people look at my twitter feed on linkedin have had a lot of people look at my twitterfeed on linkedin obviously we have partisan beliefs but it is thejob to we have partisan beliefs but it is the job to count every legal vote is counted. inaudible. we have no way of knowing. one people they met one thing they ask me is how many? i tell you one thing, it will be more than zero, less than 8900. inaudible. we can't know, they are in the post office. it will be more than zero, less than 8900. inaudible. well, we've been watching a press co nfe re nce inaudible. well, we've been watching a press conference by the secretary of state from the state of georgia.

just want to pick up with reminding viewers of that statement that has come out from joe biden's campaign. very strongly worded as we said on the 19th ofjuly. very strongly worded as we said on the 19th of july. the very strongly worded as we said on the 19th ofjuly. the american people will decide this election and the us government is perfectly capable of escorting trespassers out of the white house. yes. it shows you how tense the situation is as these counts come through agonisingly slowly will stop a real headline maker there in a state of georgia saying that there will now bea georgia saying that there will now be a recount in georgia. the margins are so narrow. be a recount in georgia. the margins are so narrow. which means that we're not going to know the result in georgia for some time but philip, it could be irrelevant. becausejoe biden is inching ahead in pennsylvania and if pennsylvania declares forjoe biden, then that is the end of donald trump's path to

the end of donald trump's path to the white house. he asked in pennsylvania, so i think a lot of moving parts here now. we have barbara plett usher who is in delaware where joe barbara plett usher who is in delaware wherejoe biden is at the moment. what is the move there? we understand that they are ecstatic as they are looking at the results in pennsylvania, which she just mentioned. the governor of pennsylvania spoke a while ago and said that the results were skewing now, 60 to 40 in mr biden's weber. in some places, 90 to ten in some other places, thinking that that might end up being 6—figure digits and so this is something that is extremely exciting for the camp here. this has been the focus of biden's campaign. he visited pennsylvania something like 19 times. he was certainly more than

any other place. it will be the last outstanding state of the so—called blue wall, wisconsin, michigan, pennsylvania, the ones that present trump flipped in the last election and won by flipping them, so the focus of the campaign has been on recovering them. if there are, pennsylvania, that is the prize because then as you mentioned, they have enough electoral votes to put them over the top. there is a lot of excitement about that here. as we we re excitement about that here. as we were coming in, ijust sawa number of biden fans, only a handful, holding up biden and harris signs. i asked them what they were doing and they said they didn't know, they just want to be part of the victory or excitement. i think we'll be seeing a lot more of that is a day goes by if those results in pennsylvania are as promising as they sound. you do get a sense so that they are already taking on the trappings of president elect. both by the tone ofjoe biden is speeches

addressing the nation rather than just his supporters. and the fact that airspace has now been restricted around the area where he is. yes, very much so. there are two things with that with mr biden's interventions, i think on the one hand, they want to draw a strong contrast with donald trump. they wa nt contrast with donald trump. they want to say that they are following the date, they are watching the boats come in, they are making projections based on the facts or data, they are giving the process time to play out, they are saying very much that the process will work. you can believe it, it's legitimate, that's one thing. they are laying the groundwork for what they believe will be a victory but also so that people will see it as a legitimate victory. that is on the one hand. on the other hand, yes, they have learnt their lesson from 2000, the contest between george w bush and al gore, the feeling in the democratic camp is that al gore hung back for too long and while it was

doing that, george w bush acted like a president and picked up the momentum and the idea is very much that if the news organisations call for that if the news organisations call foer biden, if that if the news organisations call for mr biden, if the numbers look like they are calling for mr biden, then he is going to start acting like a president. there will be an event to celebrate and he is going to address the nation as its leader, basically. he's going to speak to the nation, not to the party we will see how things play out, this is a bit premature at the moment but i think the thinking also is that if these numbers are strong and they certainly don't expect donald trump to concede given the approach he has taken to concede given the approach he has ta ken you to concede given the approach he has taken you might even see in the coming weeks, mr biden making some transition steps as well, even if thatis transition steps as well, even if that is not formally certified he is prepared to do that. barbara plett usher, joining us from delaware.

0f ijoe biden does get pennsylvania put him over the number 270. it put him to pennsylvania has 20 electoral couege him to pennsylvania has 20 electoral college votes to offer but this is a nail—biting moment here. we are waiting on tenterhooks, it's incredibly tense. things were moving quite slowly overnight. we were sitting on about 80,000 votes separating the two men with donald trump in the lead. this morning, that had narrowed to about 18,000 votes a nd that had narrowed to about 18,000 votes and then in the last couple of hours, i reported you that suddenly, joe biden has taken the lead by 5500

votes. this hour, he is ahead by 6800 votes so things are suddenly starting to move very quickly, we are expecting the election commission to give a statement, a press co nfe re nce commission to give a statement, a press conference at some point today, we will be bringing that to you, we are expecting some kind of update from them, there is about 20,000 votes still to be counted. philadelphia is a democratic stronghold and we are expecting those to be going towardsjoe biden, those to be going towardsjoe biden, those postal ballots. they are likely to be democratic where the ones counted on election day are likely to be for the republican party don't forget. donald trump encouraged his supporters throughout the campaign to turnout on election day and not to trust the absentee process. there is still a total of 140,000 votes to be counted in

philadelphia... maybe there is something about the power of the home state, becausejoe biden made a lot of coming from pennsylvania, where is donald trump is now a florida man. very much. he was born here. this is his birthplace. he started his campaign here, he ended his campaign here. as barbara said, he visited here total of 19 times. key states like wisconsin that he went to twice and he managed to win wisconsin, whereas i havejust come from. but pennsylvania was key for joe biden and the hope of the democratic party, by putting joe biden forward was to get the blue wall back, get wisconsin, michigan and pennsylvania back, which is what donald trump had won in 2016. he played that up. he talked about being the son of this state, he went

out to the factories and spoke about understanding the blue—collar worker. don't forget, those blue—collar workers, such a huge pa rt blue—collar workers, such a huge part of pennsylvania, they've found drunk‘s message appealing four years ago and it seems this time round —— that they found president trump's message appealing four years ago. breaking news from georgia. the key battleground states, they have said the margin is so thin they are going toa the margin is so thin they are going to a recount. larry is in atlanta. larry, what is a situation now? the situation is that now the secretary of state in georgia is telling us they will be a recount because the margin is too close to call. as you know right now, the difference between joe know right now, the difference betweenjoe biden know right now, the difference between joe biden leading know right now, the difference betweenjoe biden leading and donald trump is just slightly over 1000 votes a nd trump is just slightly over 1000 votes and they say that means when they certify the election, which is

they certify the election, which is the 20th of november, there will be a recount. he also said something else, that they have not seen any widespread irregularities or widespread irregularities or widespread fraud. however, they are investigating every claim, but that seems to further undercut president trump and his campaign's premise that there are so many late edition ballots being added to the count and keepin ballots being added to the count and keep in mind that raffensperger, the secretary of state running the election here in georgia is a republican. larry, thank you might very much for the update. we will be giving all eyes on georgia but also all eyes on pennsylvania which now increases in importance. so, let's remind you about which states remain to declare. my colleague rita here with me in london has the numbers. this is a state of play at the moment and this is a familiar scene now, in the last two hours we have

seen now, in the last two hours we have seen the states and grey better understand it and will determine... georgia, pennsylvania, arizona and nevada. joe biden is ahead, we know there will be a recount in georgia, but things are tight in pennsylvania. i want to show you the electoral maths. i will use my blue pen here. joe bidenjust edging ahead. if we assume that he picked that up and flips it blue, he has done it, he has gone over that line of 270. he then becomes the new president. if one were to assume that after the recount, he does get georgia, retains nevada the democrats and flips arizona, he gets to 306, which is one of those ironic moments. if that were to happen, that's the same score that president trump got in 2016. i want to show

you one more screen which is really interesting. this is the national popular vote. this is not how the us election is decided, but a very interesting set of figures nonetheless because they are so huge. joe biden is three percentage points up ahead of donald trump. but it is the figures underneath that the raw numbers of people who had voted for him. he has got 73,846,000 votes. that is a full 11 million more than hillary clinton got last time round. so a staggering number of votes. but donald trump as well, he has thousand, a good 8 million more than he got last time. anyone hoping this election might hope to bea hoping this election might hope to be a repudiation of the trump project, looking at these figures, doesn't like it is. thank you very much for giving us that overview

with the figures. jane, in the last half hour we've had some developments. the biden campaign raising the temperature just a bit saying the united states government is capable of escorting trespassers out of the white house. a sharpening of tone there. i'm not sure what to make of that because we are not in the realm of escorting anybody out of the white house at the moment. donald trump is still the president for the next three months at least, because we don't know who has won the election, it is looking increasingly good forjoe biden. but donald trump remains the president untiljanuary. donald trump remains the president until january. however, donald trump remains the president untiljanuary. however, he is increasingly defiant as we know. he is threatening even more legal action, there is a big debate going on in the republican party over how to handle that, still everything to play for philippa. we are on a knife edge here. we are. do stay with us

on bbc news for all the latest developments. quiet weather can bring fog. that's what we've seen for some of us this morning and it has been slow to lift away. others started with sunshine, away. others started with sunshine, a beautiful morning in parts of aberdeenshire but it's not going to be as one today. as it was yesterday. you can see from the satellite picture just how much sunshine we've got, so a reasonable day. to the far north—west of scotla nd day. to the far north—west of scotland the cloud is thick enough, the odd spot or two of drizzle here, but elsewhere are fine, settled day for many. a bit more of a fresh breeze down into the south—west as well, temperature is fairly widespread into the low teens. looking at highs of around ten to 13 degrees. as we go through the

overnight period, again with light winds across the country, we are likely to see some fog forming. particularly close to scottish borders, down through the vale of york and once again, across central and southern parts of wales. this may be slow to clear first thing. low single figures into the far north, chilly start here but elsewhere we will see milder air starting to pushing to the south—west. so as we go through saturday, some of that fog will lift away but it may well lift a low cloud. a bit more of a breeze, showers across the south—west, more sunshine across the south coast, 15 or16 sunshine across the south coast, 15 or 16 degrees, further north we are looking at nine to 30 celsius. moving out of saturday, sunday looks likely to see a change. we are seeing weather fronts try to push on from the west, it will drive in milderair from the west, it will drive in milder air with it but u nfortu nately, milder air with it but unfortunately, it will bring some rain, notfor unfortunately, it will bring some rain, not for all others, nothing too significant, mostly affecting

southern and central areas for a time as it moves its way through northern ireland and into parts of scotland. a lot more in the way of cloud around for the second half of the weekend, there will be outbreaks of rain particularly the further west you are, but a tad milder with it with high more of the same to come as we move into monday with a series of fronts trying to pushing from, not too much in the way of significant rainfall that it will bring with it a bit more of a west east divide. outbreaks of rain on monday, a bit quieter as we go into tuesday.

—— regardless of partizan preference. this is bbc news live from washington and london — as the us presidential election reaches a climax, joe biden builds momentum in key battleground states. the margins are narrow but the trend of the ballot count favours the democrat. a recount is announced in georgia — wherejoe biden has just taken the lead with a razor—thin margin. the final tally in georgia has huge implications for the entire country. joe biden has also overtaken donald trump in the crucial vote count in pennsylvania — a prize that would hand him the white house. i'm yalda hakim live in philadelphia watching

that count — right now — joe biden now leads donald trump by 6,800 votes. as for the candidates themselves — biden calls for calm and patience — he says the process is working properly and is confident he's done enough to win. each ballot must be counted. we have no doubt that when the count is finished, senator harris and i will be declared the winners. donald trump — however — once again makes accusations of electoral fraud but offers no evidence. his campaign hasjust put out a statement saying "the election is not over". if you count the legal votes, i easily win. if you count the illegal votes, they can try to steal the election from us. meanwhile, his supporters protest on the streets as millions of dollars are raised to mount legal challenges in a number of states. with joe withjoe biden

with joe biden edging withjoe biden edging ahead in pennsylvania, the electoral arithmetic looks increasingly bleak for donald trump. hello and welcome to bbc world news. i'm jane o'brien in washington and philippa thomas is in london. in the last half hour, election officials in georgia announced a recount, due to the razor—thin margin there which sees joe biden in the lead — just. the democratic contender has also pulled ahead in pennsylvania. the state is of critical importance to both candidates as it's worth 20 electoral college votes. joe biden needsjust 17 more to reach the magic number of 270. so, which states have yet to declare and what potential routes remain for each candidate to win? my colleague reeta chakrabarti in london has the numbers.

paths for the presidency forjoe biden? this is the map as it looks at the moment. the grey states are still to be projected for either candidate. we know there will be a recount in georgia because things are very tight. a lot of attention now on pennsylvania which earlier today donald trump held with a lead of about 18,000 votes butjoe biden has gone ahead. the raw figures but hardly anything between them but the latest is thatjoe biden is 6826 votes in front of trump. i want to show you this pop up, the absentee voting, this is important because you can see 40%, two in five people voted either early in person or by postal votes and that skews heavily towards the democrats. these are the

votes that are now being counted in pennsylvania. quite a few of them in philadelphia, about 20,000 still to be counted in philadelphia and that isa be counted in philadelphia and that is a heavily democratic leaning city and that is why the democrats are feeling confident about pennsylvania. looking at the state of play at the moment, this is what happens if we put some of these states in a blue paint meaning they turn democrat, so this is an assumption at the moment but we can assume for this example thatjoe biden takes pennsylvania, that will put him over the magic mark of 270 and that means he is the next president of the united states, but let's assume after the recount that he does manage to flip base which would be a big victory for the democrats and that he retains nevada and also flips arizona where there

isa and also flips arizona where there is a very tight race going on, that would take him to 306 electoral couege would take him to 306 electoral college votes which is the same number as donald trump got in 2016. thanks forjoining us. we will keep coming back to you to find out exactly where things stand. the recount has been announced for georgia. this is what election officials had to say. georgia remains too close to call and after 5 million votes cast we will have a margin ofa 5 million votes cast we will have a margin of a thousand and the focus for the office and the county election officials for now remains on making sure that every legal vote is counted and recorded accurately. as we are closing in on a final count, we can begin to look towards our next steps. with a margin that

small, there will be a recount. here in georgia. that was the georgia secretary of state talking about the recount which has just been announced. our correspondent larry madowo is in atlanta, georgia. what does the recount mean, more delays? as he spoke the sound was me banging my head on the concrete repeatedly because we might be here for a while and especially because with the lead joe biden has ofjust over a thousand votes, they have about 8819 also military ballots to count and the rest of them, mail in 4000 ballots, so just count and the rest of them, mail in 4000 ballots, sojust over 13,000, and that is razor—thin so they can't tell exactly who won the election. under state law in georgia if the difference between a winner and the

next candidate is less than 1%, there can be a recount, that is why we will be talking about georgia for the foreseeable future. you better be ready! i'm always ready, larry. this recount is not because anything is wrong with the count because there have been legal challenges and rumours and questions swirling. officials here went out of their way to say they have not seen any widespread irregularities and they have not seen any widespread voter fraud, even though they are investigating anything because of how critical this is to the national attention, and so this is something that directly response to what president trump has been alleging as recently as this morning, he said they were likely to find a lot of improperly harvested ballots in georgia, but the secretary of state here said no such things happen. president trump said he was winning

georgia by a lot but the numbers don't support it. all the republican officials running the count here look to be contradicting what president trump is sane, extraordinary coming from the estate which should have been a traditional easy win for the republicans and which they have not lost since 1992 —— contradicting what the president is saying. where do you think the support forjoe biden has come from? some of the more racially diverse much more democratic leaning counties. around the more diverse areas where the more blue leaning counties, they seem to have done it for him, why did this happen? why was president trump leading initially and then joe was president trump leading initially and thenjoe biden took over? one thing could be because president trump told his voters not

to vote by mail, butjoe biden encouraged democratic voters to vote early and vote by mail if they could. larry, i hope you have extended your hotel. i'm sure we will be returning to georgia in the coming weeks. we have heard from nancy pelosi the speaker of the house of representatives in the last few minutes. this is what she has had to say. i wish we weren't wearing masks so we could see how exciting it is to come before you today with joe biden exciting it is to come before you today withjoe biden having the tremendous mandate that he has, and pretty soon the— will be gone from vice president to president elect. it is eight happy day for our country because joe it is eight happy day for our country becausejoe biden is a unifier and he is determined to bring people together —— it is a happy day. he respects all points of view and as he has said, he ran as a democrat but he will govern as

president for all the people whether they voted for him or not. i am so officially pleased with the outcome thatis officially pleased with the outcome that is imminent and also personally delighted because of the quality and calibre of leadership thatjoe biden will provide. this morning it is clear that the biden harris ticket will win the white house. the bbc‘s yalda hakim joins us from philadelphia, pennsylvania. you are in the state that could make the difference, which could putjoe biden over the top. indeed. all eyes now on pennsylvania. haven't we come such a long way from wednesday where donald trump was leading by 690,000 votes ? donald trump was leading by 690,000 votes? yesterday it was about 80,000 votes? yesterday it was about 80,000 votes that separated the two men and

this morning it was about 18,000 that separated them but now it is less tha n that separated them but now it is less than 7000 votes and that is not with donald trump in front but with joe biden. a few hours ago we reported joe biden had taken the lead by 5500 votes and that has moved to about 6800 votes so really it isa moved to about 6800 votes so really it is a nail—biting moment as we wait to see what happens next. you saw georgia calling for a recount and that can actually happen here, as well, in pennsylvania, where an automatic recount can be called by the secretary of state of pennsylvania. that is if the margin of 0.5% or less. if we go on the trajectory we are going on and it remains as narrow as it does, there can be an official recount, so we have got to wait and see what happens. if it is very tight and lawsuits are flying, pennsylvania could be one of the places where the

lawsuit is focused because it is not that long that the deadline for getting votes in was extended. —— not that long ago that. the pennsylvania supreme court ruled that any votes that come in between the 3rd of november at the 5th of november by mail would be accepted. donald trump and the campaign disputed this and they said it needs to go to the supreme court, and it did go to the supreme court, the supreme court left a door open on that and said, we will reassess this after the election, so these lawsuits could continue, but as it stands any lawsuits could continue, but as it sta nds a ny votes lawsuits could continue, but as it stands any votes that come in until five o'clock today we'll still be accepted in the state of pennsylvania, and there have been lawsuits across the states in different counties taking place with the trump campaign stopping the counting for a couple of hours in certain counties but that has all continued here. we have 140,000 votes to still get through in the

commonwealth of pennsylvania, 20,000 of those in philadelphia, which is a democratic stronghold, we are expecting that this state, this particular county, will go to joe biden. the bulk of those 20,000 votes that still need to be counted will be for the democratic party which will givejoe biden a greater lead. i'm thinking about the pressure on the people physically counting the votes, they know the world is watching, and they can't get it wrong, but they mustjust be exhausted. they have been going since november three, and don't forget, they can actually count the vote before that. there was an attempt to get counselling under way before the november three election day —— to get counselling under way. the rule was 7am on the 3rd of november, that is when counting

would begin. some did not begin until november four. my cameraman would begin. some did not begin until novemberfour. my cameraman is going to pan around because i want to show you the convention centre and what is going on here because these officials have been counting around the clock since november the 3rd. 100 people around the clock since november the 3rd.100 people in theirfrom around the clock since november the 3rd. 100 people in theirfrom both the republican side and the democratic side. donald trump requested observers to be in there. 30 or so requested observers to be in there. 30 orso trump requested observers to be in there. 30 or so trump campaign observers who are overlooking what is going on and watching the officials do the counting. it is quite labour intensive, and while there are machines counting the actual vote, it is very much manual. they need to ta ke it is very much manual. they need to take the actual ballot out and straighten it up because sometimes if it is not straight to the machine won't be able to counted and sometimes if it is scrunched up they have got to transcribe it manually again. the process does take a long

time. with pennsylvania not used to this volume of mail in votes, 3 million people registered for mail in or absentee votes, 2.6 million of them were returned, so this is a huge volume. and a record number of people voting here in pennsylvania. a huge state or commonwealth, with over 6.5 million people voting. really this is a huge task and they have been going round—the—clock. thank you. i love that point she was making, such a massive exercise in democracy, and i know we are talking about and accusations, but record turnout, as well, something to be celebrated as well. —— we are talking about bitterness and accusations. indeed. both men have achieved record turnout from their supporters and joe biden has reached... i'm looking for my

figures. so many figures on my desk, but well over 70 million, and donald trump approaching 70 million himself. both have broadened their support and this has been a record turnout. so, yes, there are clients for democracy in this situation —— triumphs. let's go to washington and speak to gary o'donoghue who is outside the white house. larry card note the chief economic adviser for the president has said in the last few minutes that there will be a peaceful transfer of power —— cudlow. he says they will abide by the rule of law and so will be president, which is a different tone to the president himself. it is a different tone, but you would be wrong to read into that that he was

saying anything about the outcome of this election. i was there when reporters were talking to him and he was very, reporters were talking to him and he was very, very circumspect about getting involved in any of the discussion around whether or not there would be legal challenges and what about what the president said la st what about what the president said last night and the result being stolen, and the illegal votes, he would not get into it, but he wanted to talk about the economy and unemployment rate. yes, he said they would abide by the rules and the rule of law, but the question is, there is a blurred thing here in terms of the transfer of power, because normally it happens by one side conceding and if that side is inside the white house the transfer and transition can take place in a smooth way, but what we have heard though is that the president is not prepared to concede, even if the projections make it impossible for him to win the electoral college.

the biden camp this morning have said the us government has ways of removing people who are trespassing which is a very ominous sounding statement in the current circumstances. gary, thanks for joining us. president trump has been taking legal action against several states over what it calls "voting irregularities". on thursday he lost two court rulings in the closely contested states of georgia and michigan, and has vowed to sue nevada, where biden has been leading by around 12,000 votes. jerry dickinson is an associate professor of law at the university of pittsburgh. you are in pennsylvania, of course, one of the keenly contested states! what about the merits of some of the cases that are being launched here? it isa cases that are being launched here? it is a flurry of litigation going on in pennsylvania, it is an

aggressive effort by the trump campaign to call into question the accou nts campaign to call into question the a ccou nts of campaign to call into question the accounts of the votes, and a number of those cases involve relatively minor procedural regularities. things like trying to discount voters who were disqualified but they were able to go by provisional mail or they have tried to stop the counting of votes that were secured by voters, and if a voter has a broken ballot, they can fix it, but the drop campaign is trying to stop those, as well. —— the trump campaign. these are minor in litigation tactics and most of these cases do not have merit whatsoever and we are seeing that across the board where state courtjudges and federaljudges are dismissing these lawsuits relatively easily. what about recounts? the secretary of

state and georgia said they would have a state—wide recount, do these ever make a difference? historically they don't make much of a difference at all, really ever does the recount change the trajectory of an insight connection, and there have been recou nts connection, and there have been recounts in the past that have only provided for additional hundreds or so provided for additional hundreds or so votes for a candidate —— of an entire projection. but by law in some states it is required by law if the margin is so small and that is what we are seeing at the moment. in pennsylvania, joe biden has taken a relatively decent lead right now, in the election, and i don't see how any recount is going to help whatsoever. another potential strategy for the trump campaign, what about the supreme court? could donald trump get the matter seen by the supreme court? remembering 2000

where the florida vote went to george w bush after intervention from the lands top justices? george w bush after intervention from the land's topjustices? very few avenues for the trump campaign to go directly to the supreme court and typically you have got to file a lawsuit in a state and then appeal up lawsuit in a state and then appeal up to the supreme court but we don't have much time for that. there is one case before the supreme court and that was a case regarding the supreme court's decision in pennsylvania to extend the deadline by which ballots could be received, so by which ballots could be received, so if you are a voter and it is postmarked by 8pm on election day and received within three days later it can be counted, but the trump campaign has said that is in violation of state and federal law and that the supreme court should overturn the decision. the supreme court said they would not take up the case because it was too close to the case because it was too close to the election, but the justice the case because it was too close to the election, but thejustice said they would reserve the right to

actually review this case if it became an issue during the election and what is interesting about this, the theory that some of the conservative justices have taken, it is the absolute power of state legislators to make the rules for elections and that if the county board of elections or the state supreme court overrules the state legislature that is in violation of the state and that is something that can be overawed, it is a unique theory, and the fact we have some justices on the supreme court who have entertained that theory could bea have entertained that theory could be a cause for concern but right now in pennsylvania joe biden has taken a lead and to be honest the trump campaign probably doesn't want to stop the cat right now because he's behind. he wants to allow more votes to continue to try and catch up with joe biden so the trump campaign is ina bind joe biden so the trump campaign is in a bind right now. another thing to consider, the volume of

litigation, it is so aggressive, so in many ways it looks like the trump campaign may be attempting to sow doubt into the integrity of the election and that is very concerning. that is a whole other issue about the views of the election and what is being said online and the theories that are flying. but thanks very much. what are you hearing from the campaigns as it comes down to the wire? i've heard from a senior adviser on the trump campaign who says morale is low on the campaign but they don't intend for the president to concede yet. they still feel they have a narrow path to victory, a very difficult path, they are saying, that the hand recounts in several states, they believe, can

go ahead, and they know there is only a slim probability of those recou nts only a slim probability of those recounts actually producing success but they feel they owe it to their voters to at least try. they still say they don't believe they lost the legal vote count, so that is from the campaign itself. somebody who was formally associated with the trump campaign said they do feel that the president should concede, it is the right thing to do, because joe biden looks like he is on the path to about 306 electoral college votes. there are some differences from what i'm hearing from those close to the trump campaign but those closest to him and hope that he doesn't concede yet and they will carry on with the legal route even though they realise it is a difficult route and doesn't have that much chance of success but they say they owe it to the voters. thanks forjoining us. thinking

about the statements that are coming out and not just from the about the statements that are coming out and notjust from the biden and trump campaigns, looking at what nancy pelosi has had to say in the last few minutes, talking about an historic election, a life or death fight for the future of our democracy, this is the kind of language thatjoe biden has adopted from the beginning. indeed. it draws the contrast between what the president has always been criticised for not doing, which is behaving in an un—presidential fashion, and joe biden clearly trying to already shift the tone to a far more traditional conciliatory message. so, ithink traditional conciliatory message. so, i think it is a very strong contrast, isn't it? we will keep bringing you the statements, going

live to the key events and we will keep doing the maths for you. stay with us here on bbc news. quite where they can also bring with it fog and that is what we have seen for some of us this morning and it has been slow to lift way. others started with sunshine, a beautiful morning in parts of aberdeenshire, but it won't be as warm today. you can see from the satellite picture how much sunshine we have got across the country, reasonable day, the far north—west of scotland, cloud is thick enough for some drizzle but elsewhere a fine and subtle day for many. a bit more of a fresh breeze in the south—west, temperatures are fairly widespread into the low teens, so we are looking at highs of around 10—13. through the overnight

period, like winds across the country, some fog for me, especially close to scottish borders, down through the vale of york, and once again across central and southern parts of wales. this may be slow to clear first thing. low single figures into the far north and a cold start here but elsewhere at some milder air starting to push in down to the south—west. as we go through saturday, some of the fog will lift away but it may lift the low cloud over central and southern england and we could suppress the temperature is a little bit. more and a risk of a few showers over the south—west but more sunshine along the south coast and temperatures starting to improve here, 15—16, further north, 9—13. moving out of saturday, sunday looks likely to see a change, where the fronts trying to push in from the west, it will drive in milderair but push in from the west, it will drive in milder air but unfortunately it will bring some rain, nothing too significant, mostly affecting central and southern areas for a

time, as it moves through northern ireland and into parts of scotland. more in the way a cloud around for the second half of the weekend and there will be outbreaks of rain, especially further west, but a bit milder with it with the highest temperatures around 16. more of the same to come as we move into monday with a series of weather fronts pushing in. not much significant rainfall but it will bring more of a west east divide. outbreaks of rain on monday, a bit quieter as we go into tuesday.

this is bbc news live from washington and london. as the us presidential election reaches a climax, joe biden builds momentum in key battleground states. the margins are narrow, but the trend of the ballot count favours the democrat. a recount is announced in georgia, wherejoe biden hasjust taken the lead with a razor—thin margin. the final tally in georgia at this point has huge duplications point has huge implications for the entire country. joe biden has also overtaken donald trump in the crucial vote count in pennsylvania, a prize that would hand him the white house. as for the candidates themselves, biden calls for calm and patience. he says the process is working properly and is confident he's done enough to win.

donald trump, however, once again makes accusations of electoral fraud but offers no evidence. his campaign hasjust put out a statement saying "the election is not over". meanwhile, his supporters protest on the streets as millions of dollars are raised to mount legal challenges in a number of states. hello and welcome, i'm jane o'brien in washington and philippa thomas is in london. in the last hour, election official in georgia announced a recount, due to the razor—thin margin there which seesjoe biden in the lead — just. the democratic contender has also pulled ahead in pennsylvania. the state is of critical importance to both candidates as it's worth 20 electoral college votes. joe biden needsjust 17 more

to reach the magic number of 270. so, which states have yet to declare and what potential routes remain for each candidate to win? my colleague reeta chakrabarti in london has the numbers. reeta, in london has the numbers. what is the result of a georgia reeta, what is the result of a georgia recount for both men? well, jane, this is the state of play at the moment. the grey states as people have probably come to understand other places where we don't yet have a result. georgia is going to go for that recount because things are so close but they are also tight races in arizona, nevada and pennsylvania. in four of these states, we know thatjoe biden at the moment is ahead. pennsylvania is the moment is ahead. pennsylvania is the one that everybody is looking out at the moment. a state where

earlier in the day, a few hours ago, mrtrump had an18,000 earlier in the day, a few hours ago, mr trump had an 18,000 vote lead. that has changed and joe biden now has a 9027 vote lead they are still counting there in pennsylvania. let's ta ke counting there in pennsylvania. let's take a look at potential path to the white house thatjoe biden. i'm going to use the blue pen here and assume that the democratic optimism here is well placed. that ta kes optimism here is well placed. that takes him over the line and he is the next president of the united states. he has the votes he needs, 270 at least, to become president. let's do a flip here. let's assume he gets georgia, lets assume he gets arizona, and hangs on to nevada because that's what hillary clinton won in 2016. that gets up to 306 electoral college votes. the same as

what president trump got in 2016 let's see if he to achieve that or not. i want to show you something else which is the national popular vote. i beg your pardon, that was not meant to come up. there we go, that's what i wanted to see. these are the raw numbers of votes that people have cast, they are not used to determine the outcome of the election but they are interesting nonetheless because base time round they are so huge. joe biden has 73,899,000 votes. that is over 11 million more than hillary clinton got the democrats four years ago. a huge vote forjoe biden, but look also at numbers the president trump. 69,700, i also at numbers the president trump.

69,700, | beg also at numbers the president trump. 69,700, i beg your pardon 69 million 782000 and that is over 8 million more votes than donald trump secured in 2016. that is really interesting, because if there are people looking at the way this election is going, thinking increasingly that perhaps we are coming to the end of the trump area, thinking perhaps maybe this is a repudiation of the trump project, i think looking at these figures, you can't say necessarily that this is a rejection of donald trump's politics. thank you, reeta. barbara plett—usher is in delaware. are they assuming the heirs of the tea m are they assuming the heirs of the team for the president—elect? are they assuming the heirs of the team for the president-elect? at this very moment, i think they are laser focused on what is happening in pennsylvania. they are focused on that shift that they are hearing about where joe biden that shift that they are hearing about wherejoe biden is now in the lead there. this is going to be a

dream come true for them, if in fact it happens, because this is the state that will give them back that blue wall in the midwest, in pennsylvania, michigan and wisconsin that flipped the president trump in 2016 and in which they had poured all of their energy or a lot of their energy, to recovering. pennsylvania was always the outlier but it was always the one that would really put them over the top with all of its electoral votes, so if in fa ct, all of its electoral votes, so if in fact, this trend continues, and the belief here is that it will, they are very belief here is that it will, they are very excited. this is very good news for them this morning. but yes, they have been, over the past days anyway, assuming a presidential tone and a presidential demeanour. you had these regular briefings where they had put up their narratives about what they believe, the results are showing, guiding people through the pathways, through the data. co nsta ntly the pathways, through the data. constantly saying that they believe they were on a path to victory, explaining the ups and downs and

trying to keep in front of the message. mr biden himself has made several statements in which he has addressed the american people. talking to them already about his theme of unity and healing in the matter that he has done throughout the campaign really. that is a big pa rt the campaign really. that is a big part of his campaign. but we would expect him, if the election, if the networks call the election, call the states forjoe biden, that he will address the american people as the next leader of the united states, even though the campaign does not believe that mr trump will concede and he has given them no reason to think that he would. barbara platt a share there in delaware. thank you very much forjoining me. i'm joined now by bryan lanza, the former communications director for the trump transition team. if pennsylvania declares the biden,

joe should the president concede. if pennsylvania declares the biden, joe should the president concedelj would joe should the president concede.” would say yes. at that point he has run out of electoral options. not that he should concede the race, he has the right to a legal review, but after they are exhausted they should concede. but he is entitled to the options right now. give me a sense of what conversations are probably going on inside the white house right now. the case they want to make is that a lot of the electoral law is changed because of covid, so i think that is the sort of legal argument they are trying to put themselves on, that the election that took place in november that they changed the laws, president trump was damaged by those changes, they were changed unilaterally by they were changed unilaterally by the governor, it should have been a legislative act. they may have a strong case, they may ultimately win that case but i think the challenge of invalidating the election just

becomes too high at this point. joe biden will hit 306 electoral college votes. right, as you know, but for the benefit of our audience is overseas, both campaigns have transition teams. they both have to behave as if they are going to win and be prepared for that eventuality. but what do you make of joe biden's clear attitude that he has one and the fact that nancy pelosi, the speaker of the house, is already celebrating. is that premature? listen, ithink we already celebrating. is that premature? listen, i think we found out in 2000 when the democrats prematurely celebrated bill clinton's third term, it's premature. we should let the vote finish, see if there are any legal remedy is to get through this process , remedy is to get through this process, it is a high hurdle, it is more than one state. but the legal

process gives in that exercise and that opportunity. only then could the act. by the way, if you want to throw a wrench into this process, if it gets too far along, the slate legislatures can ultimately appoint electors. now we are in a real constitutional crisis, a real slippery slope, but pennsylvania. that legislature is republican. if that legislature feels that the executive act, come contrary to... they have a legal remedy to do that. that's a new proposition. lets sincerely hope we don't actually have to go there. bryan, very briefly, why is it that republicans, senior republicans, are being so quiet at the moment. the president is defiant, he has criticised republicans for not backing him, why aren't they? politicians always

cover their own backsides first and they want to see how this plays out first before they make any decisions. politicians are risk averse, they probably see sounding the president trump at this point particularly risky, given the 306 electoral college votes that are, they are staring down. i'm not surprised by their behaviour, they are politicians. bryan, thank you for joining are politicians. bryan, thank you forjoining us. now, what will the outcome of the election mean for the trade war? aaron is here with more. there's been a better trade war for a while now where they have imposed billions of dollars of tariffs on each other‘s goods. what's in store? let'sjump each other‘s goods. what's in store? let's jump to washington and join ourfriend craig, he is president of the us, china business council which represents 200 of the biggest companies that do business with

china. we are pressed for time. if joe biden was to win the presidency, are we going to see a big change, do you think? in the trade walk, given that both democrats and republicans have been on the same page?” that both democrats and republicans have been on the same page? i think there will be discontinuity and continuity both. in terms of the different approach, or the discontinuity, i think there will be a much stronger reliance on allies. there will be more appetite for some cooperation with the chinese, particularly vis—a—vis climate change and covid. but on the fundamental trade issues, they will remain, buti fundamental trade issues, they will remain, but i suspect that we will be dealing with them differently. we will be dealing with them more through the context of international institutions and with our allies. probably what will not change is the competition around technology.

certainly, the geopolitics of the us china will not change. there will be a mix of continuity and discontinuity, should vice president biden become president—elect biden. we know the big gripe from many of your members who operate in china is unfair competition. of course, intellectual property theft if you will, is it realistic, do you think, that beijing may make a move? the structural reforms that everybody is asking for under president biden, given xijinping is comments yesterday is saying, this country is open for business. we want to buy lots of stuff over the next decade? i think that there is definitely an opportunity to engage in phase two discussions with the chinese. i think your point is very important. the chinese have a vote here in

terms of how do they wish to engage with a new administration and do they wish to carry on the structural reforms that not only the united states but all of the members of the wto have been asking for? so, indeed, we should be hopeful for a positive chinese response to the next administration, be it a second trump administration or the biden administration. and just briefly if we can, we also know between the two sides, they are at loggerheads over who will be the new boss at the world trade organisation. we know this president trump he has pretty much disables the dispute resolution body. will we see big changes in the wto if, again, biden was to become president? the us would be back on board? there is a lot of debate

about this question within the democratic party and i don't think there is a consensus yet. most important indicator will who is chosen as the new united states trade representative, if president, vice president biden were to be elected. that is a decision but i think would be made in about two or three weeks and something certainly that they have already looked at but again, it has not been announced and lam not again, it has not been announced and i am not sure whether or not there isa firm i am not sure whether or not there is a firm consensus there. within the democratic party there would be a strong labour constituency strong progressive constituency and a strong, more traditional institutional list constituency. so, there will be a great deal of debate about this in the near term. craig, the president of the us china business council, thank you very much for your time, mate. wheel is

appreciated. philippa, that's it. i am done for the week. have a lovely weekend. you as well, thank you very much. well, with the biden, trump fight for the white has still to be decided, join me now from california is veteran democratic strategist and lawyer. i want to put you thatjust asjoe biden lawyer. i want to put you thatjust as joe biden is lawyer. i want to put you thatjust asjoe biden is entitled to have a legal votes counted, so donald trump is entitled to legal review. yes, absolutely. we have a very complex system in the states. it is hard to explain electoral college, i teach in usc, it is difficult to explain to my friends in other places. we have a couple of close friends... we know more about it then we did a week ago though,.m will have to play itself out. that is the answer. we have a system that is the answer. we have a system that is complex, we have to work through it. joe biden understands that,

donald trump arguably does not.” suppose given there is such a long transition, if there was going to be a transition, there is time for say a transition, there is time for say a recount in georgia to take place. absolutely, we live in an era of instantaneous gratification, want to know everything right away, and the electoral college system does not... because of the way we vote now. because of the way we vote now. because we vote by post over an extended period, this will drag out and that is to be expected. you are and that is to be expected. you are a democratic strategist, we know your political colour butjust thinking about it from donald trump is my point of view, just delete that when you think he has a valid reason to be concerned?” that when you think he has a valid reason to be concerned? i don't think he has any valid reason to be concerned. i'm saying that as a lawyer not a democrat. i think he is making stuff up. fundamentally, donald trump is gone through his

entire life being very disruptive. he views the legal system as a mechanism for keeping everything off balance. he has the right to do that, but he will have to work his way through. there is another potential legal question which is, what if there is unrest? if the president is talking about the election being stolen, is he morally or even legally culpable in some way. i wish you wouldn't do it. culturally, he is culpable for sure. that is not what happens in the states, the great virtue of the political system is that for a couple of centuries, with the exception of a civil war, we always resolve our differences peacefully, that's why we have this. so i hope he doesn't go there, but we also have the first amendment free speech, he is going to do what is going to do. deri, whoever is making the inaugural speech in january,

they are presiding over a really deeply divided america. donald trump's victory four years ago it was not a flash in the pan. know it's not. i could get very cosmic on your next ten seconds. we are living ina time your next ten seconds. we are living in a time of incredible disruption, moving from the industrial age of the technological age. all of our lives are changing in every way. people are scared, they don't have jobs, a lot of people have lost their jobs, jobs, a lot of people have lost theirjobs, they jobs, a lot of people have lost their jobs, they have jobs, a lot of people have lost theirjobs, they have no hope, as we are ina theirjobs, they have no hope, as we are in a very difficult time. irrespective of whether the president is trump or biden, we are ina very president is trump or biden, we are in a very tough time. we are going to have to work through it. preferably, we will work through it peacefully and by eventually collaborating, but it won't be simple whoever is president. given that need you describe cut their be a calming effect offence at being joe biden in the white house and republicans running the senate?‘

joe biden in the white house and republicans running the senate? a la system is designed to accommodate that, there is no expectation that everybody in elective office, certainly in federal elements, will agree on everything that the system is designed to allow those differences to be worked out. again, peacefully, that's the critical thing. whatever it is, the cards have been dealt and joe biden, he has been in office for many years, he knows how to be collaborative, thatis he knows how to be collaborative, that is what he has had to do his entire professional life. the difference is that the incumbent presidentjust has a whole different personality and a different set of sensitivities and he can be very confrontational and disruptive. what we need now in this country is somebody who will be sure that people who are unhappy and scared about the future, that their needs will be acknowledged to start off with an ultimately addressed. that's what is not happening. it would be nice if ronald reagan came back, maybe that's whatjoe biden will be,

reassuring parentalfigure because we desperately need that kind of, not just stylistic reassurance, we desperately need that kind of, notjust stylistic reassurance, but genuine reassurance that we will figure out how to live in this new era. not easy. derry sragow, thank you very much. while all eyes are focused on who will be occupying the white house, another important race rages on. the race for the senate and like the presidential race, it is proving very tight this year. the result could have great implications for whoever wins the presidency. andrew, lovely to see you. we have just had news that mark kelly, a democrat in arizona is projected to win the former seat ofjohn mccain who is of course an icon of the

republican party beating martha mcsally. why is it important? they need to have a net gain of at least three seats in order to take the majority in the senate and this was seen as one majority in the senate and this was seen as one of their easiest challenge is to flip. obviously, joe biden was on track to win arizona but also getting a senate seat now in arizona is another feather in the democrats cap here and it was a seat that they expected to flip, but it isa that they expected to flip, but it is a significant victory for them as it gives them another net gain in addition to the state of colorado, . .. addition to the state of colorado,... explain why the senate is so important. well, it's one of the two chambers in... is a chamber of only 100 people, small state of wyoming gets as much representation

asa wyoming gets as much representation as a large state like california, for example. it is known as the firewall against what a majority would say, which is what the house of representatives is, it is a majority of rules chamber, where is the senate is more of the 60 votes type of chamber. democrats, if they had taken type of chamber. democrats, if they had ta ken control of type of chamber. democrats, if they had taken control of the chamber might want to change that down to 50, in order to get many of their policy priorities through, but it is looking less and less likely that democrats will actually take control of the senate. two of the seats being contested are in georgia. georgia has been troublesome today, recount in the presidential election and we could have run offs in the two senate seats there. again, why is that? what is it about georgia that makes these contests so tight? it is the only state that has the law in place that requires a run—off if no candidate reaches the required

50% of the vote. that's important because in both of the senate races this year in georgia, neither candidate is projected, you need a raise, nobody is projected to get that 50% requisite threshold. so therefore, it will take two months before we learn who wins those seats in georgia and potentially, two months before we know who controls the senate. obviously, georgia is trending injoe the senate. obviously, georgia is trending in joe biden's the senate. obviously, georgia is trending injoe biden's direction, which is helpful for trending injoe biden's direction, which is helpfulfor democrats running in these run—off campaigns but run—offs typically see historically low turnout rates which could hurt democrats if we are looking at this on the 5th of january, when the run—off is scheduled to take place. andrew desiderio, thank you very much indeed forjoining me. to see. thank you. these races, philippa, you forget because we are all looking at a pennsylvania right now, you forget that there is also so much going on in the country that, when you go

into a voting booth or you vote by post, the ballots are enormous. they are like restaurant menus, and you have to pick your presidential candidate, your senators, your local council candidates. it really can be quite confusing which also accounts for why so many of these races are taking so long to count. yes, and the kind of voting that is being done is also bringing us the next generation of politicians. as you see, for example, members of congress being elected, look at the but just to congress being elected, look at the butjust to remind you all watching us butjust to remind you all watching us here on bbc news, it is 270 to win. the electoral college vote is what gets you to the white house, not the popular vote, wherejoe biden is clearly ahead. 270 to win and we will also be telling you what happens in the key states, pennsylvania, georgia, and arizona, nevada. we will bring you the

analysis from the ground. thanks for watching bbc news. hello there. our quiet where the story continues but at this time of year, quiet weather can bring with it fog. that's what we've seen for some of us this morning and it has been slow to lift away. others started with sunshine, beautiful morning in parts of aberdeenshire but it's not going to be as one today. as it was yesterday. you can see from the satellite picture just how much sunshine we've got across the country. it's a reasonable day. to the far north—west of scotland, that cloud is thick enough for a spot or two of drizzle, but elsewhere, a fine settle day for many. little bit more of a fresh breeze down into the south—west as well. temperatures there widespread. highs of ten to 30 degrees. through

the overnight period, again with light winds across the country we are likely to see some fog, particularly close to the scottish borders, down through the vale of york and once again across central and southern parts of wales. now, this may be slow to clear the first thing. low single figures into the far north, a chilly start here but elsewhere, some milder air starting to pushing down to the south—west. as we go through saturday, some of that fog will lift quite readily away, but it may well lift to low cloud across central and southern england and if that happens, it could suppress the temperature is a little. more of a breeze, the risk ofa little. more of a breeze, the risk of a few showers across the south—west, more sunshine across the south—west, more sunshine across the south coast and temperatures are starting to improve here, 15 or 16 degrees, up north, looking at nine to 13 to celsius. a change, saturday, when a front pushing in from the west, driving milder air with it but bringing some rain, not for all of those, nothing too significant, mostly affecting central and southern areas for a

time as it moves its way from northern ireland and into parts of scotland. a lot more in a way of cloud around the second half of the weekend, there will be outbreaks of rain, particularly the further west you are, but a tad milder with it, highs of 16 degrees, that 61 fahrenheit. more of the same to come as we move into monday with a series of fronts trying to push on from the south—west, again, not expecting too much ina south—west, again, not expecting too much in a way of significant rainfall but it will ring with it a bit more of a west east divide. outbreaks of rain on monday, a bit 02:58:32,219 --> 4294966103:13:29,430 quieter as we go into tuesday.