this is bbc news. i'm lewis vaughan jones. our top stories: joe biden is expected to address the american people soon after pushing ahead of donald trump in two crucial states. mr biden is increasing his margin over the president in arizona. but a recount is announced in georgia, wherejoe biden‘s lead over donald trump isjust 4,000 votes. this is going to be a razor—thin margin and a recount will likely be in order and i do think it's appropriate, just to ensure the integrity of the election, but i am very confident that these results will stand. joe biden has built up a lead of nearly 20,000 votes over donald trump in the crucial vote count in pennsylvania. the city's mayor says trump must admit defeat. i think what the president

needs to do is, frankly, put his big boy pants on. he needs to acknowledge the fact that he lost and he needs to congratulate the winner. hello. welcome to our viewers on pbs in america, and around the globe. almost four days after voters went to the polls in the us, an official result has yet to be called. counting is continuing in several states, including pennsylvania and georgia. joe biden, has a slender lead over donald trump in both and appears to be on course to win the presidency. the former vice—president needs just 17 more electoral college votes in order to reach the magic number of 270, and mr biden is expected to make a televised address within the next few hours. in a tweet, donald trump said:

we will have more on but wait in the moment. —— we will have more on that tweet in the moment. 0ur north america editor jon sopel reports from washington. joe biden takes the lead in pennsylvania... donald trump is now trailing... joe biden has just taken the lead. joe biden is winning the overwhelming share... this mightjust be the moment, the whole ballgame. the seemingly overwhelming lead that donald trump had in pennsylvania the day after the election this morning finally evaporated and has become a biden lead. if the democratic challenger wins here, it's game over for the president. pretty soon, the hyphen will be gone from vice—president to president—electjoe biden. it's a happy day for our country. and the march of the maths has been played out in small government buildings and windowless offices in arizona, pennsylvania,

nevada and georgia. 1,000 votes here, a few hundred there, all the time chipping away at donald trump's grip on the white house. there will, though, be a recount in georgia, where margins are so tight. in pennsylvania today from the pro—joe biden supporters, the party has already started. there's growing confidence and yes, there will be dancing in the streets. donald trump, you have to give it up, man. it's over for you! but from donald trump supporters, increasing anxiety and lots of chants of usa! all chant: usa! and in las vegas, nevada, the trump supporters resorted to prayer. "please let our luck change" — not the first time that prayer has been offered in sin city. last night, a disconsolate president made a long, unhappy statement, again alleging without evidence that he was being robbed of a victory that was his. if you count the legal

votes, i easily win. if you count the illegal votes, they can try to steal the election from us. and we think we will win the election very easily. we think there's going to be a lot of litigation, because we have so much evidence, so much proof, and it's going to end up, perhaps, at the highest court in the land. astonishingly, all the main us networks pulled away before he'd finished. ok, here we are again in the unusual position of not only interrupting the president of the united states, but correcting the president of the united states. this morning, the president issued this statement:

but holed up in the white house, the president isn't enjoying that much support for his legal battle from his party. this is the republican senator from pennsylvania... the president's speech last night was very disturbing to me because he made very, very serious allegations without any evidence to support it. i am not aware of any significant fraud, any significant wrongdoing. if it's happened, then the evidence needs to come out, we need to go to court. ..and the democrat mayor of philadelphia has also weighed in colourfully. you know, i think what the president needs to do is, frankly, put his big boy pants on. he needs to acknowledge the fact that he lost and he needs to congratulate the winner — just asjimmy carter did, just as george hw bush did and, frankly, just as al gore did — and stop this and let us move forward as a country. horns blare. meanwhile, in wilmington, delaware, the stage was set for a declaration on election night. it did not happen then, but it might very soon. a declaration thatjoe biden

has won and that he is now the president—elect. he's marching to the drumbeat of america's long—established democratic traditions, determined to be unaffected by the noise coming from the white house. jon sopel, bbc news, washington. 0ur correspondent lebo diseko is in washington. let's start with this recent tweet from donald trump, saying that the big lead in all of the states on election night only to see these leads disappear. talk us through what he is referring to there. lewis, we have spoken so many times over the past couple of weeks about the past couple of weeks about the fact that donald trump is actively discouraging his voters from using mail—in voting and that he was saying time and time again things that undermined people's trust in it so undermined people's trust in it so in many states, you are seeing that when the postal votes started to be counted, thatis votes started to be counted, that is whenjoe biden is

pulling ahead and democrats are overwhelmingly part of those postal votes so that is what explains that, it is not like it is not difficult to kind of woke up the mystery there. so thatis woke up the mystery there. so that is what has happened. —— work out. donald trump is upset that this has happened but this is not votes that are from nowhere, those are postal votes that have come in and in the state of pennsylvania, a lot of those votes being counted now from heavily democratic parts of the state like philadelphia. yeah, and of course the trump campaign will be watching these votes, as we all are. what are we are getting out of the white house, the sense of the mood there? well, cbs, the us network, said that the white house and trump's mood was somewhere between hopeful and sullen so if that gives you some kind of idea... i think looking at his tweets, we certainly can see there is a sense of anxiety and frustration at this process and

i guess not being able to, i guess, declare the wind that he would like to see. it is not up to him, it is up to the states to him, it is up to the states to declare the outcomes of the vote in their particular states. so i guess that is a frustration for him at the moment. we are expecting joe biden to speak in about one hours' time and we will have to wait and see whether the president speaks after that. of course, we will bring you those speeches as and when they do happen. let's have a look, i mean, these handful of states left, lebo, so close, none closer than georgia, i recount happening there so explain that to us. —— a recount. happening there so explain that to us. -- a recount. so in georgia if the margin between them is below a certain level, 0.5%, then the recount is automatically triggered. but is also the case in pennsylvania as well. there are different rules in different states and in some states it is automatically triggered and in

other states it is something that can be applied for. but that can be applied for. but thatis that can be applied for. but that is the thing with the us, every state has its own rules and its own way of doing things but yes, certainly, in georgia it is very, very close and in pennsylvania joe biden currently 0.3% ahead of donald trump so we will have to see what happens there. thanks, lebo! she mentioned pennsylvania there. 0ur correspondent michelle fleury is in philadelphia in the state of pennsylvania and gave this update on the situation there. we have seenjoe biden‘s lead grow as the days, as the day has gone on and if you remember at 9am this morning, for the first time, joe biden took the lead from donald trump with about 5000 votes and now as things currently stand, his leaders about 20000 and in some ways it isn't too surprising because many of the outstanding postal votes that were left to be counted were in areas favourable to the democrats, talking about philadelphia, the surrounding suburbs and also

allegheny county come home to pittsburgh. ——, home to pittsburgh. ——, home to pittsburgh. there waiting for the race to be declared and many questions about why it is taking so long, in part because of the unprecedented nature of the fact that you saw pennsylvania and is in huge numbers voting by mail for the first time and those take longer to process, but there are other reasons, from military absentee ballots that are still coming in and have until november tend to come in and also provisional ballots which are onlyjust starting to be counted. those are ballots which there is some question about the eligibility of the vote. those take longer to process because they need to be double—checked. but they are also more likely to be subject to challenges and we understand there are about 100,000 of those outstanding. 0ur our thanks to michelle. scott bolden is a prominent dc lawyer and former democratic party chairman. he also runs a super pac with other african american lawyers in the country. he's in washington. as you can see, thank you for

coming on the programme. i think we can just come we will try to get the sound there, we did not quite hear you but i will ask a question and you a nswer will ask a question and you answer away and we will see how we get on. the legal challenge here, so donald trump is being very vocal that he will be challenging the legal process, the voting process in various states and of course, that is his right to do so, isn't it? it is his right to do that but ultimately, he has been reject by two courts in pennsylvania and secondly, he has got to have evidence, empirical data, 01’ have evidence, empirical data, or witness statements of some kind that will make a difference in him trying to stop account or increase the count or allege voter fraud and remember, the second prong is this doesn't make a difference if he is ahead or losing rather by 20,000 votes, 50,000 votes, evenif by 20,000 votes, 50,000 votes, even if he is able to get some votes thrown out, is it enough

to make a difference in the election count was not all the vote a ccou nt election count was not all the vote account in that particular state 7 vote account in that particular state? more often than not it will not be. ok, so if the shoe was on the other foot, would you expect to be making public the evidence behind search claim straightaway? —— such claims are straightaway? is that the usual practice? politically you would but ultimately evidence would be shown in court and those will be public proceedings and it would be an opportunity, whether you have witnesses or you have data or you have sworn statements, or you have evidence of voterfraud. statements, or you have evidence of voter fraud. here, will trump's biggest complaint seems to be that he believes that mail—in ballots are corrupt and should not be counted. but in at least nine states in the district of columbia, those mail—in ballots go to everyone and, by the way in michigan and wisconsin, which he has lost already, he got a lot of mail—in ballot support and even donald trump

usually votes via mail. let's leave the legal issues on his contesting the difference, various counts on different grounds aside one moment. where do you sit, their ndc, feeling the country is at the moment? —— there in dc. the country is at the moment? -- there in dc. the probability of biden being in place and being the president elect is very real. very disappointing to the republicans of course but you know, all trump outperformed all of the poles. he got white rural voters to come out and got his 40% to come out and got his 40% to come out and got his 40% to come out in droves and it was an incredible demonstration of democratic process of both sides, both parties voting —— polls. what we are feeling right now in washington is anxiety that it is taken too long, but most states started counting absentee ballots and mail—in ballots on election day versus before election day, and

then there was concern about a negative response or then there was concern about a negative response 01’ even then there was concern about a negative response or even a violent response from trump supporters because they have such cultlike love for him, despite the anger against him by democratic and independent voters and so, we are a little uneasy but, you know, this is a democracy that bends towards justice. it does not break. and we have to lock our arms, immigrants and republicans, all of us as americans, and move forward beyond this. it is the hallmark of our democracy, a peaceful tra nsfer of hallmark of our democracy, a peaceful transfer of power. and if that is to be the case, i am confident we can do it. great to have you on, scott. scott bolden there. thank you. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: we'll have a special report from the key state of pennsylvania to look at what this election has done to america. the israeli prime minister yitzhak rabin, the architect of the middle east peace process, has been assassinated. a 27—year—old jewish

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

this is bbc news, the latest headlines: joe biden is expected to address the american people soon, after pushing ahead of donald trump in two crucial states. mr biden is increasing his margin over the president in arizona, and a recount is announced in georgia wherejoe biden's lead over donald trump is more than four thousand votes. pollsters have come under criticism for getting the election wrong, but there is one professor who has been getting it right for a very long time. we spoke to allan lichtman a few weeks ago and asked him for his prediction. so how did he do? my my prediction is this time, donald trump will become the first sitting president since george h w bush in 1992 to lose a re—election bid. there you have it. allan lichtman is a presidential historian from the american

university in washington. he's in bethesda maryland. the first thing i should say as i remember speaking to you very clearly, very confident in saying joe biden would win. he hasn't won yet but how are you feeling? i am feeling pretty good, not for myself but for our country. look, our country is in deep trouble. donald trump exhibited the most shameful moment in the history of the us presidency when he went on national television and trashed our democracy and delegitimise our elections. we have never seen anything like that before. joe biden is no firebrand, no barack 0bama, no orator, but he is a nonthreatening, reconciling figure which is what america may need right now to heal and come together. it is not so much the american people that is polarised, it is donald trump who fancy flames of polarisation and hatred and

autocracy. despite everything you have just said, autocracy. despite everything you havejust said, many millions more people voted for donald trump this time it than they did last time. lots of the regular polling organisations just didn't get that. that's right. i will give some advice to my friends in the journalistic profession, never again publish a horse race pole. horse race poles are not predictors, they are snapshots and they change —— polls. and they are abused as polls. moreover, they are way off in the estimation of the so—called likely voters. they were often underestimating the trumpet as last time and more off in estimating the trumpet voters this time. but in truth, this is one of the best american elections we have ever had. forget about donald trump's false charges of fraud. as you point out, we have had a record turnout. we had joe biden winning a decisive mandate of more than 4 million popular votes a nd more than 4 million popular

votes and he is likely to win over 300,000 electoral college votes a nd over 300,000 electoral college votes and the election was conducted smoothly and fairly in the middle of the west pandemic anyone hundred years. the american people and the election administrators in the selfless volunteers need to be applauded. there is an interesting takeaway here. you have predicted 10 out of 10 of the last presidents with your unique prediction methods. 10 out of 10. there is one of anomaly in that. some would say only nine out of 10 because backin only nine out of 10 because back in 2000, you predict dead gore to win and it went to bush. it went to push after a court legal challenge. what donald trump is saying right now is that he will go to court and have a legal challenge, a potential parallel or not? zero parallel. i predicted gore would win the popular vote and

he did and the election was then stolen in florida as i proved in may 2000 and wonder report to the us commission of civil rights because of the suppression of tens of thousands of african—american votes. bush won by 537 votes. there was a necessary court battle because no—one knew because the vote count was only a couple of hundred votes account, who actually won in florida. that is why you have to have a court battle. there is absolutely no basis for that in any state in the nation, whether it is won by trumpet or won by abidin. there are no improprieties or results were the #70. there is no graphs of voterfraud, despite all the #70. there is no graphs of voter fraud, despite all donald trump's blustering. even publications by the republican national lawyers association and the conservative heritage foundation have found almost no evidence of fraud. you are about as likely to be hit by

lightning as someone is to commit voterfraud. lightning as someone is to commit voter fraud. what about the nature of how close some of these battles are in this state and how that as to the uncertainty? i don't think they are anywhere near as close in any are anywhere near as close in a ny state are anywhere near as close in any state as far as i know by a few hundred votes. the closest state is georgia which is a little over 4000. it will be many tens of thousands of votes in pennsylvania which would decide the election. it is 20,000 in wisconsin. it is over 100,000 in michigan. so there is no issue here about who really won the state and there is going to be a recount. and it has nothing to do it fraud, a recount simply means you have gone under the necessary trigger to have the votes recounted and they almost never change anything. they move votes in the low hundred range, not in the thousands range. that you have you on alan. if joe biden does win, you will get your 10 out of 10. congratulations and great to have you on. thank you so much,

great interview. the bbc‘s clive myrie has been reporting on the battle for the white house over the past two weeks travelling through some of the key states that are deciding who wins the presidency. he reports from pennsylvania and looks at what this election has done to america. birdsong it's morning again in america. past presidential elections here herald a sense of hope, a peaceful dawn. but this is now america... count every vote, count every vote! a land of ambient ugliness. divided, angry, frustrated. primed for trouble. there are many whose opinion we've canvassed in this disunited states of america in recent weeks. 0rdinary voters...

i looked to track my ballot, and it wasn't there. now wondering, can the nation meet this moment to heal? you can'tjust find hundreds of thousands of votes. bridge the chasm between red and blue? we first came across catherine and herfriend pam stumping for president trump in phoenix in arizona just before polling day. they endure the heat... we love trump! ..and very public disapproval. i feel sorry for you! car horns if we lose the election, we're going to lose our way of life. we won't be free. we came across chris smith at a trump rally in tucson last month.

and after touching down in philadelphia on election eve, we chatted with debbie smith, a democrat who voted forjoe biden. as the election draws to a close, she says america cannot tackle its most pressing problems without unity. our people need to get back to work, we need to heal this country. so, at the end of the day, it's going to come down to we need to recover from the coronavirus. people have lost sight of what's happening. for some republicans, the coronavirus isn't the main election issue. ask chris smith. you think it's fraud? i mean, guys, we don't go to bed at ten, 11, 12 o'clock at night, two in the morning with leading all the key swing states, and wake up at seven o'clock in the morning and suddenly they've found hundreds of thousands of votes and they all happen to be forjoe biden. hello, catherine, greetings from philadelphia, it's good to see you again. the last word goes to catherine.

do you think the two halves of america can unite now? perhaps in the future we can start to work on it, but right now, no. the wound is too open. sobering words, but if it's winter in america, can spring be far behind? clive myrie, bbc news, in philadelphia. that's almost it from me for this hour. joe biden is expecting to speak in the next couple of hours. we will take you life to wilmington delaware where you can see it is coming up where you can see it is coming up to 9:30pm. when he speaks, we will bring that to you. as always, lots more on our website. including who was ahead in the states still counting all of the numbers there. had to the website. you can reach me on twitter —

i'm @l vaughan jones. iam i am lewis vaughan—jones and this is bbc news, goodbye. hello there. after a couple of cold and frosty mornings with a bit of mist and fog around, we'll start to see some changes to the weather this weekend. that's because lower pressure will be moving in, bringing milder weather to all areas by the end of the weekend, but also outbreaks of rain mostly across southern and western areas. 0ur big area of high pressure which brought the settled weather will be dominating the scene this weekend across the near continent. this area of low pressure will start to push up into southern and western areas, and the breeze will be increasing as well. already a breezy start across the far south west. elsewhere, it's a chilly start to saturday with some mist and fog through central scotland, north east england, eastern wales and the midlands. the best of the sunshine will be across northern and western areas, and some sunshine also pushing into southern counties of england by the end of the day.

we'll also see some rain arriving across cornwall and devon, too, the first of a series of weather fronts. here, it will be windy. elsewhere, the winds light, but certainly stronger than they have been of late. so it will be a milder day across southern areas, 14—16 degrees. another chilly one further north. now, through saturday night, looks like it'll be chilly and dry to start with across northern areas, where that band of rain spreads its way northwards. and by the end of the night, it'll be lying across northern ireland, wales, the midlands and into the south east. here, it will be milder because of the rain. fairly chilly in the north for a while, but those temperatures will start to rise as we move into sunday morning. that band of rain moves northwards across the country on sunday, and this next one will arrive later on sunday into monday. so, it'll be much a cloudier day across the country. that band of rain across central and northern areas will push into scotland, turning lighter and patch year. behind it, we could start to see some sunshine developing across northern ireland, wales and the south west. but here, it will be breezier, and in fact further north the winds will be a little stronger than they have been of late. the milder air reaching as far north as northern ireland, so northern ireland up to northern england, southwards 14—16 degrees,

10—11 degrees across scotland. but the mild air reaches scotland as we move into monday. we'll see more weather fronts pushing into mainly southern and western areas to bring outbreaks of rain. some of it could be on the heavy side. but the theme as we move through the week is for higher pressure to keep eastern areas generally drier. the further west that you are, likely to see the influence of that area of low pressure, which will bring further spells of rain at times.

this is bbc news, the headlines: joe biden is expected to speak soon, after pushing ahead of donald trump in two crucial states. 0verall, mr biden needsjust 17 more electoral college votes in order to reach the magic number of 270. mr biden is increasing his margin over the president in arizona. but, a recount has been announced in georgia — where joe biden's lead over donald trump is just 4,000 votes. the mayor of atlanta has said she is positive that the results will stand. in pennsylvania, joe biden has built up a lead of nearly 20,000 votes over donald trump in the crucial count there. however, the city's mayor says trump must admit defeat. pennsylvania is of critical importance to both candidates as it's worth 20 electoral college votes.