shortly, but we to speak to you shortly, but we will just pause to speak to you shortly, but we willjust pause to remind you thatjoe biden has just willjust pause to remind you thatjoe biden hasjust spoken to say that we are going to win this race. welcome to our viewers in the uk and right around the world. we have just been hearing from joe biden. he hasjust addressed the american people, saying that he will win the presidential race. now we can speak to our correspondent who is there. what did you make of what he was saying? it was pretty much what i expected. he talked about how the voting was going and how it was giving him a broad mandate. he said there had been a very large popular vote, 7a million votes, for himself, but he also said he was proud of the range across the country where he was getting support, whether

democrats were getting support, mentioning winning back the rustbelt, in his word, pennsylvania, she and wisconsin, but also be competitive in states like arizona and georgia which have been republican for a long time. so he talked a lot about people's right to vote, how every vote must be protected, saying he would make sure that that happened. and it could ta ke that happened. and it could take as long as it needed to take. and then he talked finally about his agenda. he has a very ambitious agenda to deal with the crisis facing the country, in particular, the pandemic itself, he noted that the numbers of cases were about the numbers of cases were about the highest they had been so far in the past couple of days and the number of deaths were high and also the economic recovery that he had a plan for the economic recovery because of the impact of the pandemic. he basically reached out to the american people, said he had

quite a lot of support, said he would be a president for eve ryo ne would be a president for everyone and put forward his agenda saying he would get to work on day one once the race had been called and also, let mejust add finally, had been called and also, let me just add finally, he repeated his theme which is what has been his theme throughout the campaign, that he was to bring people together, he again said we are opponents, maybe, but we should be enemies was that we need to put away the vitriol, we need civility, we need to work together. an optimistic message, he has an optimistic message, he has an optimistic message, obviously, if he does become president, they will be many difficulties given the nature of the parties and divides in the country —— part —— partisan divides. divides in the country —— part -- partisan divides. what do you think of the balance he needed to strike? he and his tea m needed to strike? he and his team would have liked clearly a few more states in his favour coming through so that he would

be much closer to that margin 270 number. —— magic 270 number four that he is not the president, he is not the president—elect yet but he was clearly trying to sound presidential. you know, i think people might be impatient because they had expected the votes to be counted faster and the race to be called sooner that i don't think there is any doubt in the campaign and with mr biden at once the votes are counted he will be president and soi counted he will be president and so i don't think it is a significant issue, i think he wa nts to, significant issue, i think he wants to, he has all along said that the democratic that, that they were working, and that is they were working, and that is the message he gave today. if he has to work —— wait till tomorrow or the day after to have the right amount of votes counted in the most careful way then that is what the campaign will do. sure, they would have liked to have had a victory party tonight and i have to say, the vo counting hasn't

stopped. we may get over the threshold at some point in which people feel comfortable to make that call, even tonight, but it doesn't seem to be happening tonight. i think mr biden, he has waited decades for this. one of his childhood ambitions was to be president. this is his third presidential run. the closest he has ever got to the white house, i think he is pretty prepared to wait 24 he is pretty prepared to wait 2a hours more before he gets the results. the issue is that he really believes that the trajectory is he will get there. yes and certainly the trajectory of the numbers look that way and he is inching ever closer. the challenge, though, that he laid out to himself and as you were drawing out there quite explicitly, this idea of ringing the country together, unity. and there is a danger, actually, the earlier that you assume that presidential role and give speeches as if you are the president—elect, the more you alienate those people who voted for the other candidate.

i think he has been very careful about that. bearing in mind also that once the numbers show that it is safe to call him as the president—elect, if thatis him as the president—elect, if that is the case, he also doesn't expect the current president to concede and so he is setting out markers, but i don't think that is going to be the main issue, the timing of this is so much was not the issueis this is so much was not the issue is that the country is divided and this is what the election has shown. more so than what the democrats expected, i think. than what the democrats expected, ithink. they than what the democrats expected, i think. they were hoping to get a blowout victory. they were hoping this election to be rich you —— repudiation of trump's policies and style and philosophies and that hasn't been the case and soi that hasn't been the case and so i think the stark reality is that the country, there is better partisan divides. mr biden might be one of the people better place to deal with that. he is a very centrist politician, he has a reputation as a kind of genial

politician who is able to work across the aisle quite co mforta bly. across the aisle quite comfortably. he has done that in the past. things have changed since he did that with ease so we will see if that is still possible but if there is somebody who might be able to do it, he would be the one. though he is —— so he is better placed to get things done but the country is divided. the biggest issue also is that the democrats were hoping to gain control of congress, to flip the senate from republican to democratic control and that hinges on a few races still but they did not do as well as they thought they would and so if it does turn out that the senate stays in republican hands then mr biden will have a much more difficult road ahead of him and also he will have a much greater difficulty getting support for the very ambitious plans that he has to deal with the pandemic and the economy so he might not be the kind of

transformational president that he had in the last months began to express hope he could be. just before i let you go, we just want to touch a little more widely. remind us of the states we are looking at, the states we are looking at, the states that the biden camp have that their eyes on and are hoping will tip them over the action? state they have their eye most closely on is pennsylvania because if they get that state, that is 20 electoral college votes and that will put them over the top and they will claim victory. the vote counting continues there. esther biden is nearly 30,000 votes ahead of president trump at the moment so he is getting into the range where you might have news organisations begin to call the race for him there. that is where they are looking most closely. the two other states that are republican that the democrats feel fairly confident they can flip, georgia where mr biden is in the lead, but the

margin is very narrow. it is so close that there will be a recount there. so we're not getting final results there for a while. arizona, some news organisations had called arizona for mr biden but as the counting continued, mr trump started to gain on mr biden. he is still in the lead there but we are waiting to see what the final results of that will be. the nevada is the other state that the biden campaign expects to win and he is tens of thousands of votes ahead there as well. that was a states that the democrats that mrs clinton won in 2016 so the democrats are fairly confident they will be able to keep it although president trump did give them a run for their money there. that hasn't been called either. barbara, we will leave it there, great to have your analysis, thank you. in just the last few minutesjoe biden addressed the nation from his hometown of wilmington, delaware. once again he urged patience in terms of the vote counting and was confident that he would

ultimately win the election. we don't have a final declaration of victory yet but the numbers tell us it's clear, it tells a clear and convincing story. we're going to win this race. just look at what has happened since yesterday. 2a hours we were behind in georgia, now we're ahead and we're going to win that state. 24 we're going to win that state. 2a hours ago, we were behind in pennsylvania and we are going to win pennsylvania. and now we're ahead but we are winning in arizona, winning in nevada and in fact, our in arizona, winning in nevada and infact, our leadjust doubled in nevada. we are on track to over 300 electoral couege track to over 300 electoral college votes and look at the national numbers. we're going to win this race with a clear majority with the nation behind us. we have gotten over 7a

million votes. let me repeat that. 74 million votes. let me repeat that. 7a million votes. that's more than any presidential ticket has ever gotten in the history of the united states of america. and our vote total is still growing. we are beating donald trump by over 4 million votes. that's that is still growing as well. one of the things i'm a pet —— especially proud of is how well we have done across america. and we're going to be the first democrat to win in arizona in 2a years. we're going to be first democrat to win georgia in 28 yea rs democrat to win georgia in 28 years and we have rebuilt the blue wall in the middle of the country that crumbled just four yea rs country that crumbled just four years ago. pennsylvania, michigan, wisconsin, the heartland of this nation. i know watching these vote tallies on tv moves very slowly and as slow as it goes, it can be numbing. but neverforget, the tallies aren't just numbers. they represent votes

and voters. men and women who exercise their fundamental right to have their voice heard. and what is becoming clearer each hour is that record number of americans, of all races, faiths, religions, chose change over more of the same. they have given us a mandate for action on covid, the economy, climate change, systemic racism. they made it clear, they want country to come together, not continue to pull apart stop the people spoke. more than 7a million americans. they spoke loudly for our ticket. that was joe biden there. kim roosevelt is a constitutional law professor at the university of pennsylvania law school. he's in philadelphia. he also happens to be the great great grandson of teddy roosevelt. thank you so much for coming on the programme. thanks for having me. we listened to joe biden giving a presidential speech, talking about the work he wants to do. of course,

there is a big obstacle in the way and that is that he doesn't have 270 electoral college votes. he is a 17 short and residentjumper would votes. he is a 17 short and resident jumper would say, "i've got lots of legal challenges coming down the line to stop that happening". what do you make of the legal challenges? well, president trump does have lots of legal challenges but really, none of them are any good. even if he prevailed on some of them, they wouldn't change the outcome so his strategy has been to make a lot of bold claims and to file a lot of lawsuits but to the extent that the lawsuits actually identify public —— particular things that they wa nt to particular things that they want to change, they only affect a very small number of ballots a nd affect a very small number of ballots and some of them are about things like the distance that counters can stand from the watches. and that wouldn't affect a ny the watches. and that wouldn't affect any ballots. we have got affect any ballots. we have got a vigorous legal attack being mounted but in the end i don't think its going to amount to much. whether it amounts to

much. whether it amounts to much or not, what do you make of the fact that he has swung into action so vigorously? is this the constitution working effectively, is it every candidate's right to take things to court if they don't like them? it is always everyone's right to take something to court and it is certainly appropriate for candidates to do that if they think that there has been fryett —— fraud. i'm not sure whether donald trump sincerely believes that or not, it is very ha rd to believes that or not, it is very hard to tell with drum, whether he believes the things that he is saying, but we simply don't have any evidence that supports the kind of claims he has been making. so the response in terms of what he is saying and in terms of the amount of legation is wildly out of proportion to any fraud that we have any reason to believe might have occurred. and that's are bad ink. it is not harmless, it is not harmless if biden ends up winning and the loss out —— lawsuits amount to nothing was a bit is causing real damage to american faith. talk us through

that, why is it doing damage. if they are nonsensical and don't amount to anything, why was there the thing about many of donald trump's supporters is they will believe anything he says and he can say nonsensical things, he can say we want to stop the counting in one state, we wa nt stop the counting in one state, we want to continue the counting in another state, we wa nt to counting in another state, we want to change the counting and another state. they won't see any inconsistency. they really have a very strong devotion to them and if he tells them that they are being cheated and that they are being cheated and that the democrats are the enemies that are perpetrating this fraud, they will believe it and thatis fraud, they will believe it and that is going to be very hard to ove rco m e that is going to be very hard to overcome going forward. that is going to be very hard to overcome going forwardm is one thing lawyers are standing upfor is one thing lawyers are standing up for the constitution and legal affairs and this the elections, who else would you like to see standing up? i would like to see republicans are standing up. ithink see republicans are standing up. i think we're seeing some of that now. so the election was in some ways a referendum on donald trump and it was not a repudiation. got a lot of boats and more than he got in

2016, but there is a bit of a referendum —— votes. —— a bit ofa referendum —— votes. —— a bit of a referendum on his reaction to what appears to be a loss. that is a broader repudiation because some republicans are coming forward and distancing themselves from these unsupported broad claims of fraud and saying that this is not how we want our elections conducted in america. we have to leave it there be great to talk to you. thanks for coming on. kim roosevelt there. thank you. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: we have a special report from pennsylvania on what this election has done to america. the bombastic outsider donald trump has defied pollsters to ta ke trump has defied pollsters to take the keys to the white house. i feel great about the results because i genuinely believe he wants to look after the country. success or failure

depends not only on public display but on the local campaign headquarters and to heavy routine work of their heavy routine work of their heavy women volunteers. berliners from east and west linked hands and danced around the liberated territory and with no—one to stop them it wasn't long until the first attempts were made to destroy the structure itself. yasser arafat, who dominated the palestinian cause for so long has died. the palestinian authority has declared a state of mourning. after 17 years of discussion, the result was greeted with an outburst ofjoy and the ministers have long felt and wrenchingly accepted in the ranks of clergy. this is bbc world news, the latest headlines: joe biden hasjust addressed the american people, saying he will win the race for the white house. he's inching ahead of donald trump in crucial states. a recount has been announced

in georgia, wherejoe biden‘s lead over donald trump is just 4,000 votes or so. pollsters have come under criticism for getting the election wrong, but there is one professor who's been getting it right for a very long time. i spoke to allan lichtman a few weeks ago and asked him for his prediction. let's take a listen. 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. allan lichtman, presidential historian from the university of washington spoke to me a short time ago when i asked him how he was feeling about the prediction. i'm feeling pretty good, not for myself but for the country. the country is in deep can't —— 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 or no barack obama or order but he is a nonthreatening, reconciling figure which is what america may need right now to heal and come together, it is not as such the people who are polarised, it is donald trump who fans the flames of polarisation and hatred and autocracy. despite what you've just said, many more millions of people voted for donald tripp this time the last time thatis tripp this time the last time that is donald trump. lots of the regular polling organisations just didn't get that? that is right. i will give some advice to my friends in the journalistic profession, never again publish a horse

race poll, horse race polars are not predicted, they are snapshots and they change and they are abused as polls, moreover, they are way off in the estimation of these so—called likely voters and they were off in estimating the trump voter is last time and even more off estimating the voters this time but in truth, this was one of the best american elections we ever had. forget about donald trump's false tortures of fraud —— charges. as you pointed out, we have a record turnout, we have joe biden winning a decisive mandate of more than 4 million votes a nd mandate of more than 4 million votes and likely to win more than 3000 electoral college votes a nd than 3000 electoral college votes and the election was cover smoothly and fairly in the middle of the worst pandemic in 100 years. the american people, our election administrators and the selfless volu nteers administrators and the selfless volunteers need to be applauded quite that was an interesting takeaway. you have predicted ten out of ten of the last presidents with your unique prediction method which we may come back to if we have time. ten out of ten. there is one

anomaly within that, some would say it is only nine out of ten because back in 2000, give predicted al gore to win and it went to george bush. it went 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 al gore would win the popular vote and he did and the election was then stolen in florida as i proved my 2001 report to the us commission on civil rights, because of the suppression of tens of thousands of african—american votes. george bush won by 537 votes, there was a necessary court battle because nobody knew because the vote count was only a couple of hundred votes apart who actually won in florida. that is why you had to have a court battle. there was absolutely no basis for that in

any absolutely no basis for that in a ny state absolutely no basis for that in any state in the nation, whether it is won by trump or won by biden, there were no improprieties, no elections where the results were uncertain and there is not a scrap of evidence of voter fraud despite all of donald trump's laughter and by the way, even studies 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 you are to find someone who has committed fraud. how close are the battles in some of these states, this adds to that uncertainty? well, i don't think there anywhere near as close as any state as florida asi close as any state as florida as i know by a few hundred votes. the closest date is georgia, a little over 4000 and it will be many tens of thousands of votes in pennsylvania, which would decide the election. it's 20,000 in wisconsin and over

100,000 in michigan so there is noissue 100,000 in michigan so there is no issue here who really won these states and there will be a recount and that has nothing to do with fraud, it has to do with you have gone under the necessary trigger to have the votes recounted and they almost never change anything, they move votes along in the hundred range, not in the thousand range. the bbc‘s clive myrie has been reporting on the battle for the white house over the past few 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! aland 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. ordinary 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 kathryn kobor and her friend 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 kathryn. 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. within the past half hour, joe biden has said he will win the us presidential election in a brief speech at his headquarters in demo level choir the democratic challenger —— headquarters in delaware he

said he had a convincing win in key states. you can reach me on twitter. i'm @lvaughanjones 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. our 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 patchier. 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 has, in the last half hour, addressed the american people, saying he will win the race for the white house. he's inching ahead of donald trump in crucial states. overall, mr biden needsjust 17 more electoral college votes in order to reach the magic number of 270. mr biden is leading in arizona and nevada. but a recount has been announced in georgia, wherejoe 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 more than 20,000 votes over donald trump in the crucial count there. the city's mayor says trump must admit defeat. pennsylvania is hugely important to both candidates as it's worth 20 electoral college votes.