this is bbc news, the headlines: on his first full day as the president—elect, joe biden has been reflecting on his victory at a church service in delaware. president trump has found solace on the golf course, though on twitter he continues to assert that the election has been "stolen". his wife melania has tweted that every legal — not illegal vote — should be counted. kamala harris will make history becoming the first female, first black and first asian—american vice president. she says voters have sent america's children a message — to dream with ambition. joe biden has encountered every british prime minister for the last a0 years — he described the current prime minister as a clone of donald trump, a comparison borisjohnson was keen to ignore.

big ben chimes the hour away from the us — the queen has attended a ceremony to mark remembrance sunday to honour the dead from the two world wars. people across the uk observed a two—minute silence. now on bbc news, clive myrie reflects on a tumultuous election week in the usa. 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! divided. angry. frustrated.

primed for trouble. this is a fraud on the american public. this is an embarrassment to our country. i'm not here to declare that we've won, but i am here to report, when the count is finished, we believe we will be the winners. this is the story of ourjourney through a bitter campaign and the ordinary americans we came across. so, last night, as the votes started rolling in, i looked to track my ballot and it wasn't there. before the polls opened... we love trump, we love trump! at this particular moment, this is trump's time. he's the man of the hour. ..and after the votes were counted. you can'tjust find hundreds of thousands of votes and wake up the next morning and all

the tables have turned. could the result mean a more dis—united states of america? music: this is america by childish gambino election day is a little over three weeks away, and catherine and herfriend pam are stumping for the president in phoenix, arizona. they endure the heat... we love trump! ..and very public disapproval. i feel sorry for you! car horns beeping if we lose the election, we're going to lose our way of life. we won't be free.

his campaign blows into town. for trump supporters like catherine the appeal goes beyond policy — it's personal, and that can promote a devotion difficult to shake. it's a beautiful spot. he's such a little devil sometimes. and it's like he, you know, he needs a spanking or something! but then i, you know, i can kind of relate to that, going back to being when you grew up. "well, i'm not doing that and you can't make me!", you know. so then, your mother... "oh, yes, you will." it's kind of like that. he's funny. and i enjoy the humour. even on some of the silly, outlandish tweets, you're going like, "wow, geez." and then you start laughing. that's donald! i personally think the guy

in the white house right now is crazier than a loon. not all republicans are spellbound. and in another corner of arizona, funny equals dangerous when it comes to donald trump. rancher bill doesn't understand the blind devotion of certain supporters like catherine. that's why he'll be voting forjoe biden and the democrats. i have no choices. i've never liked joe biden, but he's a much better person than donald trump is, in my opinion. donald trump is the definition of a narcissist, if i ever saw one. just a dangerous person, because so many people seem to think that he's the answer. i don't understand it. neither does this man. asjoe biden tours a recycling plant in arizona, it's clear he doesn't have trump's pizzazz.

however, in the age of covid—i9, a new seriousness may be what the public wants. but given the choice, for a bit of entertainment, what would you choose to go to? a joe biden or a donald trump rally? music: ymca by the village people yeah, me too. sleepyjoe biden shipped away your jobs, shutdown your factories, threw open your borders... the rallies, the rhetoric, are the stuff of political legend. . . blood and treasure in these endless, ridiculous foreign wars... meet chris smith — trump loyalist to his bones. it's halloween, four days to the election. you must be sarah. i'm sarah. chris.

yes. hey, guys, it's good to see you. so, did you enjoy the atmosphere at the rally? immensely. it was fantastic, electric... i back trump, because he is absolutely a patriot. he loves our country, he loves our country, and anybody that says differently is...it‘s absurd. he wants our country to do well. he's been saying it for a0 years, he's been talking about this. and what's wrong with us having borders? everybody has borders, that's what makes a country. so when he talks about having manufacturing jobs, we want ourjobs here, we want americans to have them. do you think he's going to win? i think he's going to win in a landslide. i mean, did we not see the crowd, did you not see the diversity of people that were at his rally yesterday? it was funny, because there was another, like an anti—rally, of biden and harris. we drove by there, there might have been seven people. and i look at this and i go,

where's the votes coming from? how can the news tout that there's a iii—point lead? show me the voters, please, i'd love to see them. it's the eve of the election and down below sparkles the metropolitan area of philadelphia — biden country. among the lights are votes, millions of them, in the crucial swing state of pennsylvania. he's a hometown boy, born in scranton, pa, son of the soil. at the time i started as a us senator, philadelphia brought me to the dance... we love you, joe! you've been great to me my whole career. cheering his rallies — well, they're sedate affairs compared to the donald's. all social distancing, facemasks and limited numbers. wise in the middle of a pandemic, but it means his supporters

are everywhere and nowhere, hiding in plain sight. so you voted back in october? yeah, october 23rd. also hiding, apparently, is debbie smith's mail—in ballot. like millions of other democrats, she didn't want to vote in person at a polling station, what with coronavirus on the loose. and you checked last night to see if your vote had been processed. right. and it wasn't there? it wasn't there. itjust still said "mail—in". so, first of all, i was upset, because i went in person. they say vote early. so i went early, i stood in line for, like, an hour to vote early, to get inside to fill out a paper ballot. so, like, why am i doing a paper ballot? and it's like, well, this is how it has to be done, because it's not election day yet. so i'm like, shoot! so i fill out the paper ballot, put it in an envelope, put it in another envelope, seal it all up, sign it. and they drop it in a box and they say they're going

to store it until election day. so i've been nervous all this time, like, where's my ballot? you know? donald trump had spent months telling republicans mail—in ballots were open to widespread fraud. democrats said that was rubbish. are you nervous it might still not be there? i know. so, now it's there. oh! it says "vote recorded". 0k. so, it's there. the polls are about to close in six states, giving us the first results in an election night that may still not be over by the morning... the waiting's over. ..ending a presidential campaign that... and the voting lines begin to swell — right across america. in fact, turnout is the highest on record, but crucially, notjust with in—person votes — mail—in ballots too are at an all—time high, more than 100 million.

ladies and gentlemen, the president of the united states, donald] trump! but for how much longer? the first family watched as in—person ballots were counted, giving the president a strong lead in many states. but as the evening wore on, mail—in ballots began to be counted too — their number overwhelmingly favouring the democrats. cue face—off. well, thank you very much. this is a fraud on the american public. this is an embarrassment to our country. we were getting ready to win this election. frankly, we did win this election. and now, after a long night of counting, it's clear that we're winning enough states to reach 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency.

i'm not here to declare that we've won. but i am here to report when the count is finished, we believe we will be the winners. thank you. a fair wind now follows the challenger. so with the race drawing to a close, what chance now of reconciliation between america's two tribes? hello, catherine, greetings from philadelphia. it's good to see you again. thank you. greetings from phoenix. it's hot here. oh, yeah. it's a bit cooler here, though. now that the election is over, do you think there's a chance that both sides can start talking to each other, the country can begin to heal? no, i think it's going to stay divided, because the left believes in what they believe in and the right believes in what they believe in. and i don't think they're ever going to... years from now, they might

resolve the issues. but right now, no, it's going to be chaos. so i don't know what's going to happen. ijust... all i can do is hope for the best. that's a very pessimistic view. it's very sad for you. the wound is too open, the wound is ragged, it's bleeding, and it will continue to bleed. so all we can do is hope for a future that we can get together. and later that evening, i catch up with chris smith, who's suspicious of joe biden‘s vote tally. you think it's fraud? i mean, guys, we don't go to bed at 10, 11, 12 o'clock at night, 2:00 in the morning with leading all the key swing states, and wake up at seven o'clock in the morning and suddenly they found hundreds of thousands of votes and they all happen

to be forjoe biden. it'sjust, there'sjust too many things that are wrong, that can swing that quickly overnight. and everything has to do with this election. and your energies, chris, that were channeled into the president, channeled into the man, a sense of belief in him — where does that energy go now for you? well, it doesn't go anywhere. it still stays in my heart, of what he was trying to accomplish and what he did accomplish. they called it. but might the other side proffer a hand of friendship, a chance to build a bridge? debbie smith voted forjoe biden, was worried her early vote had been lost, but her voice was heard, despite, she says, the best efforts of donald trump and the republicans. we were the ones defrauded. so do you think he was trying, then, to get democrats...?

to vote early — because they knew they're going to go vote early, they're going to be scared about the pandemic, and in the end, i'm going to get their ballots thrown out. in the end, i'm going to create so much dissension in the ranks about fraudulent ballots. "oh, i saw ballots in the garbage." "there's a ballot... a bag of ballots over here. " he's been sowing this seed for the last three or four months that when i go to court — which he already had that plan — they're going to throw those ballots out and i'm going to be the winner, because all my people voted in person. you know what i mean? that was the whole plan. do you think the country can heal? i... ido. i truly believe it. the first year is going to be hard. 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.