this is bbc news live from washington and london. it's been five days since the united states went to the polls and we still don't have a result. but the key state of pennsylvania, wherejoe biden is currently in the lead, is due to give an update on the numbers. the eyes of the world are on election counters in the state. ifjoe biden manages to secure victory in pennsylvania — he wins the white house. joe biden has been calling for calm and unity — and says he'll soon have a "mandate for action". we don't have the final declaration of victory yet. the numbers tell us it's clear, tell us a clear and convincing story. we're going to win this race. meanwhile donald trump

continues to allege fraud without providing evidence, twitter blocks his four most recent tweets, as his lawyers prepare for a media conference. as the count drags on donald trump leaves the white house for a game of golf. stay clam, stay patient. those are the words ofjoe biden, who says he is on track to become the 46th president of the united states. speaking at his campaign headquarters, the democratic party candidate said he had clear and convincing leads in pennsylvania and georgia, and was ahead in arizona and nevada. and he repeated his insistence that all votes would be counted, "no matter how hard people try to stop it". he also used the moment to say it was time to "put anger and demonisation behind us", stating that a president has a duty of care for all americans.

we're expecting an update from the polling stations in pennsylvania shortly and a press conference by donald trump's lawyers in philadelphia within the next hour. we'll bring that to you live. these are the latest official numbers in the electoral college with 270 needed for victory. the counting continues — and a recount has been announced in georgia. lebo diseko reports. joe biden supporters danced through the day and into the night in the city of philadelphia. their candidate's lead in this state is steadily growing and they can taste the victory. winning in pennsylvania would mean joe biden becomes the president. with the count nearing completion, he is inching his way there. but with some votes still to come in, it may be some time before a result is declared. we don't have a final declaration... on friday evening, joe biden addressed the nation. he stopped short of declaring victory, but his tone

and message deliberately presidential. the numbers tell us it's clear — tell us 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. 2a hours ago, we were behind in pennsylvania, and we are going to win pennsylvania. on twitter, donald trump again expressed frustration at seeing his election night lead "miraculously disappear". but it was the counting of postal votes that shifted the numbers so dramatically — a process donald trump had told his supporters not to trust. but as results trickle in from other battleground states, the picture building isn't in his favour. in both nevada and arizona, joe biden‘s is head. joe biden‘s is ahead. georgia's results are so close that an automatic recount has been triggered, but it's unlikely it would change

the result by more than a few hundred votes. donald trump has filed legal action in several states in an effort to turn his fortunes around, and there's no evidence of the widespread fraud that he alleges. the legal hurdles may create a bumpy path, butjoe biden increasingly seems to be on firm footing on his road to the white house. lebo diseko, bbc news, washington. there's nothing peculiar about donald trump tweeting, especially at such an uncertain time, but what is interesting is how many of his tweets are being flagged as disputed or potentially misleading. take a look — four tweets in the past hour have been hidden behind warning messages. the tweets allege that observors have been refused admittance into counting rooms and that boards were put up to prevent observors watching the count. remember, social media platforms have been under a lot of pressure recently to up their game when it comes to monitoring misleading information. the gap between donald trump

and joe biden may be growing — but the race in the remaining battleground states is still incredibly close. we are expecting a further update from the count in pennsylvania. so where have we got to? let's cross live to ros atkins at the screen. what is the latest? let's look at the situation for both men. currently in the electoral college count, joe biden has 253 and donald trump has 214. america has the system who wins individual states and then each states awards individual electoral college votes and whoever reaches 270, they will be the president. joe biden has more options than donald trump. ifjoe biden were to take arizona and nevada, that would be enough to get him to 270 and he would be the next president. let's assume donald trump

pulls it around and joe biden doesn't take that. it wouldn't be the end of the world for the biden campaign. joe biden contented pennsylvania, the place where he grew up. 20 electoral college votes, that would get him to 273 and that would be him the present. let's assume donald trump pulls that round and pennsylvania doesn't go the way ofjoe biden. he could turn down to the south—east and georgia. if you are to take that that were getting to 269 and he would need one at the state to reach 270 but we are focused on three areas of the country. things are much more complicated for donald trump. let's go back to the current situation and when they are marked in grey, that means they have not been called. if trump took pennsylvania and georgia, we will give him north carolina as well and we will give him alaska, they have not been declared. he still hasn't got there. he needs all

of those and then he would need arizona and nevada. if he took nevada that would get him to 274 and he would be president. he has to ta ke he would be president. he has to take many more of the states that are outstanding thenjoe biden and thatis are outstanding thenjoe biden and that is why the pressure is on the president at the moment. in terms of the national vote, bear in mind the number of votes cast nationally does not matter because hillary clinton got more than donald trump and she did not take over. joe biden has got 74 million votes, more than any other presidential ticket in the history of american democracy. donald trump's total as remarkable as well and that tells us both men have been very effective at getting their supporters out. whatever people think about donald trump, this turnout suggests he has driven an engagement with the selection that surpasses any we have seen in recent memory. if we go back to

georgia, it is interesting in terms of the closeness of the count and the effects on congress? yes, eve ryo ne the effects on congress? yes, everyone is focused on how narrow the selection is at the moment. the reason we are not getting projections in places like pennsylvania, north carolina and georgia, it is tight. if we look at pennsylvania, this is the situation at the moment, 99% of votes cast, joe biden has a half a percentage point lead. the reason the biden camp is buoyant, is absentee votes. they make up 40% of the vote in pennsylvania, but we know it counted the on day votes, the people who went into polling booths earlier thanit went into polling booths earlier than it did the mail—in votes, which is taking several days. the mail—in votes skew 60% to joe is taking several days. the mail—in votes skew 60% tojoe biden. with all of these outstanding mail—in votes, ifjoe biden continues to pull at this level, the lead he

already has is likely to grow and if it does, he wins pennsylvania. if that happens, he is president. as you can see, although these races are tight, the reason the biden campaign is more confident at the moment is because of the emphasis on mail—in voting, which is skewing towards joe mail—in voting, which is skewing towardsjoe biden across the country. anything else on your screen? let's talk about congress, this is the senate. whoever becomes president is going to have to work with both houses of congress. if they are on their site, it makes life easier. republicans and 48, democrats and 46. a look in the yellow, two independent who caucus with the democrats so the democrats effectively are on 48. we have four outstanding seats, in north carolina and alaska. we are expecting them to go to the republicans. that would put the republicans on 50. the other

two are in georgia, they look like they will run office injanuary two are in georgia, they look like they will run office in january and if the democrats can win those two in georgia, with the two independents get them to 50. if you have a 50—50 tie in the senate, the vice president has a casting vote. ifjoe biden wins the presidency, that will be kamala harris and she will support the democrats. that is why this focus on these run—offs in georgia is so intense. less dramatic, this is the house of representatives, it was democrat before election, it is still democrat now but it is the senate eve ryo ne democrat now but it is the senate everyone is focused on. democrat now but it is the senate everyone is focused onlj democrat now but it is the senate everyone is focused on. i am tempted to say, stay at the screen until we get final results. thank you so much. the bbc‘s yalda hakim joins us from philadelphia, pennsylvania. bring us right up—to—date please. james, as he said, 20 electoral couege james, as he said, 20 electoral college votes is huge which will put

joe biden in the lead and will give him the presidency. it will be game overfor donald him the presidency. it will be game over for donald trump ifjoe him the presidency. it will be game overfor donald trump ifjoe biden doesin overfor donald trump ifjoe biden does in fact win this state and he is edging closer. we have seen all week, donald trump's numbers dwindling. let me give you a reminder of where we've at at the beginning of the week. on wednesday donald trump had a lead of 690,000 votes. by thursday afternoon it had come down to about 80,000 votes. 0n friday morning, the gap between them was about 18,000. by lunchtime it had gone to 5500. now we are looking atjoe biden with a lead of 29,000 votes. in pennsylvania, there is still about 100,000 votes to be counted, the mail—in absentee ballots that need to be counted. in philadelphia there are about 18,000 votes they are describing a provisional votes. what they describe these ones as it is a problem child votes, they might have

an issue with the way people have filled out the details. so rather than putting their date of birth on the ballot, they may have put to day's day. they have put them aside to review those, but we can talk about that and the legal issues in pennsylvania. let's speak to someone who ran for attorney general pennsylvania. thank you forjoining us. we are expecting donald trump's legal team to speak any minute now. what do you expect them to say?” think the problem what do you expect them to say?|j think the problem is there is a lot of rule changes by the unelected secretary of state who is under a democratic governor, at the very la st democratic governor, at the very last minute. they were not legislative laws that were passed, these were guidance is issued by the secretary of state. so what that produced was confusion, differences in the counties and when you have is being treated differently in

different counties you have a constitutional equal protection problem. help me understand when you say the confusion, are you talking about the pennsylvania supreme court issuing that any votes that came in between november the 3rd and november the 5th would be accepted, is that what you are referring to? no, actually i am not. the secretary of state is the head administrator of state is the head administrator of elections. what she did, she issued written guidance is, is what she called them, on how election officials in each of the counties where to administer the election. so let me give you one of the issues i have a lot of problems with. when you go to the polling place, you have to sign in in person and the electionjudge checks have to sign in in person and the election judge checks your signature against the official poll book to make sure you are the right person

voting. because in pennsylvania, we don't have voter id to vote. when you voted by mail—in, you also had to sign on the outside of your ballot, not on your ballot. we never, in america, have any recognition between the actual vote on the person because we don't want to have coercion in voting. what we now have is a high volume of mail—in votes being counted. do you think donald trump has a leg to stand on here? just to finish my thoughts, all those mail—in ballots, they never checked the signatures. it is a completely different process. do i think donald trump has a leg to stand on? yes, because what has happened is the democratically controlled secretary of state changed the rules at the last minute. so we are going to hear from

his legal team this morning, any minute now, as i said, what are they likely to say? some of what ijust said and then she didn't publish these rules and we also had a situation with satellite voting. we know poll workers were alive so you go intoa know poll workers were alive so you go into a satellite fan, register to vote, apply to vote by post and then there was no one watching the process. nobody knows whether those votes are legal voters or not. ok, we will have to leave it there. james, as you saw, it really is a bitter battle that could end up having an army of lawyers here in pennsylvania. we are expecting the press co nfe re nce pennsylvania. we are expecting the press conference by trump's legal tea m press conference by trump's legal team to begin any minute and we will be following it very closely. we

will. thank you very much. let's go to pennsylvania and speak to heather heidelbaugh well i'm joined now by scott lamar, host of the local talk show, smart talk, and a regular contributor from elizabethtown, pennsylvania. i don't know, i was quite confused by all of those explanations of the different kinds of voting that you can do in pennsylvania. can i ask a personal question, you have voted? yes, i voted by mail—in. personal question, you have voted? yes, i voted by mail-in. 0k, personal question, you have voted? yes, ivoted by mail-in. ok, so personal question, you have voted? yes, i voted by mail-in. ok, so how confusing was it? not very, i didn't think. there was confusion very early on about what we will call naked ballots, there were two envelopes. an envelope that had to go inside an envelope that would be mailed back to your counting election office. this happened in our primary election back injune,

there were a number of, i think 100,000 that were disqualified because both envelopes were not included. so the state went on an education campaign, not just included. so the state went on an education campaign, notjust this state, a lot of people were letting voters know that if you were going to vote by mail—in, you had to include both envelopes. knowing that, once he went in, i actually voted by mail but i voted in person. you can request mail—in ballots at the polling place in our county. but to be clear, you didn't vote twice? you ended up voting in person? that's right. what are people in pennsylvania telling you about the comments being made about their voting system, these allegations, unsubstantiated allegations that there might be fraud taking place,

what are you hearing? there might be fraud taking place, what are you hearing ?|j there might be fraud taking place, what are you hearing? i think it depends on which candidate you support. what i detect from a lot of people or hear from a lot of people, they are very anxious. they want to have a decision made as to who in pennsylvania. right now, the momentum in the vote counting seems to favourjoe biden. 90,000 votes of mail—in ballots, 100,000 provisional ballots that still have to be counted. people are very anxious. i think there was some confusion because this is new for pennsylvania. the mail—in ballots, being able to post in your vote. there were over 3 million people who requested mail—in ballots because of the pandemic. so there was some

confusion, but i don't think it was that bad that people just didn't know how to do it. very interesting, thank you very much, we are watching those figures as you speak. let's go to charleston in south carolina, where we're joined by eric bolling, a conservative political commentator. we know the president has just gone to his golf virginia. they may come a time as his friend, you might want to wa nt a time as his friend, you might want to want to say to him, it is time? absolutely. i hosted a show last night that said, it probably is time. it looks like this election has been won byjoe biden. but i would like to point something out, i think one of the biggest problems in the situation, when donald trump was elected in 2016, they want after inauguration day should have gone to the states and said we need one

system, one voting system that is consistent across the whole country. look what we are having, discrepancies in five separate states right now, some of the most important swing states in the country. meanwhile, a state like florida, the third largest by population state in the united states had no problem. 0hio, no problems whatsoever. north carolina has problems, georgia, five days away from the vote and they are still trying to figure this out. we should, in 2020, have some more consistent way to vote and count the votes. i will give you an example, i ama votes. i will give you an example, i am a big sports fan. when a football game goes, it looks like the end of the game and it stops. in the past, you didn't know how much extra time at the stadium did not know how much extra time at the referees were holding it to themselves. that is what it feels like to the trump voters right now. you have pointed

out that trump had almost the 700,000 vote lead at midnight on november the 3rd, the day the election was over, effectively over. in those five days since it went from 700,000 litre donald trump, every single day it has slid and it is now 28,000... every single day it has slid and it is now 28,000. .. that is because the legislators in that state specifically said those mail—in ballots should not be counted early. that is why those mail—in ballots have been counted late? correct. so there is nothing mysterious about there is nothing mysterious about the president's lead evaporating as mail—in ballots are counted. the president's lead evaporating as mail-in ballots are counted. james, iam not mail-in ballots are counted. james, i am not questioning, i am not accusing a fraud or mystery, i am simply saying we just need a consistent, a consistent way to count the vote and this just made november the 3rd and arbitrary deadline because it is irrelevant.

there is a deadline, the deadline is the 8th of december, safe harbour day. at that point it goes to the legislators of the state to have till the 14th of december to get their electors to cast their ballots. there is a very clear deadline, safe harbour day. something you have an outline, if it does get to that it becomes a donald trump presidency. there is 26... know, the leader in the pennsylvania legislature has said they will not overrule the electors chosen by the people. that is state-by-state. there may be others. i am so sorry, we don't want to keep talking over each other. can i ask you one more question? will republicans worked with president biden?” question? will republicans worked with president biden? i think our election process and what is going on in politics in the united states, it is split so aggressively and so dramatically, i think it will be a very, very long time before there is

any reaching across the aisle and thatis any reaching across the aisle and that is what is unfortunate about what is going on. i will quickly point out, this will likely be a us senate held by the republicans because those two vote still outstanding will go republican and once you have a biden president, george is typically red. the people of georgia will come out and elect both of those run—offs and the republican will be elected. that is a divided government. we will see those run—offs onjanuary a divided government. we will see those run—offs on january the a divided government. we will see those run—offs onjanuary the 5th. always a pleasure, thank you so much. since election day president trump has repeatedly made claims without any evidence that illegal ballots have been counted and his election victory stolen. but international election observers were sent by europe's 0sce to observe ballot counts in key battleground states like arizona and pennsylania, they say they found no evidence of fraudulent practice.

we can speak now to ambassador urszula gacek, who's the head of the 0sce election 0bservation mission to the united states. she joins us live from washington. thank you. how many observers have you had in these elections? good morning. we have had 100 observers, a little fewer than we had hoped. the key is, our conclusions that we re the key is, our conclusions that were made the day after the election, that we found no systematic cases of wrongdoing hold good for today. i still have teams in the father, in arizona, pennsylvania and georgia as we speak. —— nevada. pennsylvania and georgia as we speak. -- nevada. what you make a president trump's tweet, i wonder by a lot? put it this way, we are following any cases, following what

is happening with the legal cases, our legal team is following that. we have seen today, some accusations that may be, the machinery is faulty in georgia. my voting technology expert is following that. we do not dispute president trump's right as a candidate to take his case to the us court. they will ultimately decide if these cases have substance and if there is enough evidence. i can only continue to say, from what i am hearing from my observers in the field, there are still no cases, widespread cases of fraud or wrongdoing. but ambassador, when he pre—empts the result and makes these allegations of voter fraud, isn't there something that you, as an international body can do? we have already commented on this, the day after the election. unsubsta ntiated allegations of fraud by the incumbent president severely

undermined public trust in the system and we have not shied away from making that conclusion. we don't get embroiled in the political melee in the united states, as we do in any other case, we are very distant and completely nonpartisan and a political. but when the politics encroaches on the process, it is the process we are following. we cannot fail to comment on it. it isa we cannot fail to comment on it. it is a cause of concern and you may or may not be aware, this is resulting also in threats and intimidation of the people who are out there at the sharp end, counting the votes. as we speak. it has been a very long night for them, it is five days and nights of counting the ballot. we are flagging up our concerns about their safety. they a re flagging up our concerns about their safety. they are working very hard and they do not deserve to be treated like this. how has this

election differed from previous elections? presumably you have had people on the ground are presidential elections in the past? this is our ninth mission in the united states. we are not new to coming here and observing the election. but there has never been so much interest, even in our own mission here, because this election was partly also about the way you cast your ballot. we were here six weeks before election day, we were following early voting, following the postal ballots as they came through the system, including through the system, including through the system, including through the post office. we are the only people here on the ground internationally with the experience and with the gravitas that comes with the 0sce's election operation missions. the rhetoric is definitely sharper and the process for us is pretty much the same. we haven't changed the format of our mission

but we are still working very hard after election day, still here on the ground following all the cases in the courts. we will be following the selection to its conclusion, either here in dc, in the battleground states or remotely. thank you very much, i am going to interrupt. thank you forjoining me. we have an important update to bring you on the us election. joe biden has won the american presidential election. the bbc projects that he has reached 270 electoral college votes, meaning that he'll become the president in january, pending the outcome of any legal challenges. the reason why we can say that

joe biden has won the election is because we are projecting that he has won the key state of pennsylvania taking the 20 electoral votes from that state. this means that he has 273 electoral votes, taking him across the 270 mark. that is it, joe biden becomes the 46th president of the united states. he will be 78 years old on election day the oldest president ever to ta ke day the oldest president ever to take office. james, we are still saying it is a projection, the bbc‘s projection. but indeed, that is where we are right now. the bbc‘s yalda hakim joins us from philadelphia, pennsylvania. this is a moment of history, what is the reaction in pennsylvania?

this is a moment of history, what is the reaction in pennsylvania7m this is a moment of history, what is the reaction in pennsylvania? it is, as you say a historic moment. there has been a lot of movement. hardly anyone in the streets, the national guard isjust anyone in the streets, the national guard is just around the corner here to help the philadelphia police. 0bviously, they are preparing for a moment like this, there have been demonstrations, the pro—trump camp and anti—trump demonstrators around the corner from here. and anti—trump demonstrators around the cornerfrom here. there has been some movement and the press are just behind me. there is a lot of movement inside as well. they have been continuing to count and they have been doing it meticulously but in the last few minutes, the bbc had said this is a projection. cnn and some of the other america networks have called it. all cbs partners yesterday said they would once the margin between them reached between 20000 and 30,000 votes. it is now closer to 30,000 votes, more votes and the numbers were released earlier, just a few moments