on monday, he is expected to announce members of a coronavirus task force, led by scientists and public health officials. he is also preparing to return the us to the paris agreement on combating climate change. the former american president george w bush has congratulated joe biden, calling the election "fundamentally fair". but donald trump is still refusing to concede. he continues to assert that the election has been "stolen" without supplying evidence. queen elizabeth has led remembrance sunday commemorations as people around the uk paid their respects to the fallen largely from home, because of coronavirus restrictions. at the cenotaph on whitehall in london, the queen wasjoined by other members of the royal family and political leaders. now on bbc news, dateline london.

hello and welcome to dateline london. in an extraordinary and unbelievably tense political week, where it's looking like president trump's democratic challengerjoe biden is heading for the white house. on friday night, joe biden called again for patience and calm as all the votes are counted. it was a stark contrast to the words of president trump, who incorrectly claimed he had already won the election, which was being stolen from him. once the results are confirmed, this could end up being the first time since 1992 — and only the fifth time in a century — that an incumbent president of the united states is unseated. will president trump go quietly in the end?

and if he does not, will the elders of the republican party support him orabandon him? and what would a biden presidency mean for the us and the rest of the world? well, with me, journalist michael goldfarb is in philadelphia in the key swing state of pennsylvania, bronwen maddox in london, director of the institute of government, and here in the studio, the bbc‘s world affairs editor, john simpson. thank you all forjoining me on this crucial weekend. well, the politics of every presidential election are divisive. in 1800, john adams accused thomas jefferson of fathering a child with one of his slave staff members. and jefferson responded by accusing adams of being in league with the english — of being a traitor, effectively. perhaps nothing quite so egregious has been said this time, but america has rarely been so deeply divided. between liberal america and conservative america, no bridge seems possible at the moment. the last two sessions of congress have been among the most partisan in

the history of the american republic. in a system in which power is staggered and consensus is needed for any progress, politics appears to be quite broken. beginning in philadelphia, michael goldfarb, you are in the city in which, in 1787, where the consitutional convention was held, which led to the american constitution. do you think the constitution will hold up in the face of this unique challenge? well, yeah, probably, but it will — but it's a blueprint, the constitution. to talk quickly about that. the constitution is a blueprint and it has survived 200—plus yea rs. and it needs reforming and rewriting in certain crucial areas — especially this idea of an electoral college. thatjoe biden wins four million more votes. i think people around the world will find it extraordinary that you can win four million

more votes than your opponent and still find yourself possibly not winning the election — although in all likelihood he will. so i spent thursday about five blocks from where the constitution was written. people have the right to assemble, and they did. on one side of the street were anti—trump forces, demanding every vote be counted. and on the other side of the street were pro—trump forces demanding only votes counted — that arrived by tuesday be counted. the police was in between actually, the world's media we re actually, the world's media were in between. there was no violence. the constitution will hold up but it needs reform and in a country — i want to use the workd ‘society‘. we don't use the word society enough. society as divided as american society is, there can be no progress, geeta. congress is an absolute reflection of the deep divisions that have existed in america for decades now, and are stroked by partisan media. but that is another subject.

absolutely. bronwen, we are still in a state of flux. all societies are divided, and that's fair enough — joe biden said as much in his speech on friday night. but views are so entrenched in the us. ifjoe biden wins, he will have an extraordinary task ahead, isn't he? yes, he is, and he has coronavirus on top of the divisions we have been talking about. you know, i think it's one of the big questions for any modern country is how do you hold together all kinds of people? and america, of course, has defined itself by doing just that, by uniting them all with the idea of america, which is why that idea is being tested so much at the moment. but for any country, you have a lot of people who see things differently. and it seems a failure to many leaders to just allow a country to break up into their constituent bits because those people don't want to live with the other. so i think the challenge goes wider than america. but forjoe biden, yes, he will have to try to reach

across the red—blue divide into these states which, you know, we are focusing on half a dozen states which are closely fought in this election, but many, many aren't. many are almost entirely democrat or almost entirely republican. people living very different lives with very, very different visions of their country and what they want from their leader, so he has to do that. coronavirus, i wonder whether, even though it has been so partisan an issue in the states in a way it has not as much in britain, i wonder whether it gives him a chance? because joe biden is coming in — we might be about to talk about this — really promising to spend really quite a lot of money. that never goes down badly when trying to bring people onto your side. john simpson, just to pull back, how big a moment does this feel? it is no ordinary election. if it is the end of the trump era, it is the end of a very, very unique style of politics. yes, and very, very divisive style of politics, too.

we are not going to get that in the future, you see, with joe biden — the immediate future. he's very much a kind of touchy—feely kind of friendly kind of man. i first met him in the 1990s and then, too, he was talking about building bridges, trying to get relationships going with republicans. he won't be in a position to do an awful lot because he probably won't have the senate, and so therefore, i think his whole attention will be on calming things down, quietening things down as best he can. and then after 2024, we'll see, i think probably a resurgence probably of much tougher, much more personalised government.

but i think from this momen — well, not from this moment because i'm sure that until january, donald trump's going to make an awful lot of noise, but when that noise stops and biden actually does become president, i think we will find a deliberate effort to quieten things down. so there is still some delay on the final outcome because it has not been called yet. but michael goldfarb, sitting in philadelphia, does it feel possible that these divides can be healed? no, they can't. and the thing that — it's one of the reasons i think joe biden ended up being the nominee at the age of 77 or 78 or whatever it is. he made two previous bids and failed miserably but the times have called him out. he is the emollient figure

that the country needs and when bronwen was talking about covid, she is right, because when donald trump, as the leader, will not acknowledge the dangers of covid, his followers — and they are followers — will not acknowledge it either. but with a new president, that all might change. the divisions in america, which go back — i mean, they have been stoked since the civil rights era, primarily by the republican party, who peeled away the southern democratic vote by appealing to, frankly, their racist instincts, and have built their own coalition on the idea that people don't need welfare, they don't need this, they don't need that, the government should step back and taxes should be cut. when you add in partisan media, which has been unbridled since the late ‘80s, you have tens of millions more than that, actually — about 45% of the country has a set of information

that they believe, they believe — we have to use this term — and the other 55% of the country don't even know what that information is. and they stare at each other across the street, as i sadi earlier, in total incomprehension and with a fair amount of hatred. luckily, whatever violence there has been in this election has been extremely sporadic and hopefully donald trump will show leadership, instead ofjust acting like ‘the leader', and exit gracefully. and bronwen, it would be totally wrong to write off what trump has achieved. surely, because he has galvanised politics — massive turnout here this week — and he has been seen to succeed. i mean, michael talks about racism, but there are legitimate fears all over the world on immigration, surely? trump has tapped into blue collar fears, hopes and aspirations, hasn't he, in a way that the republican party cannot now ignore. absolutely, and nor does

the republican party wants to ignore it. i think you have a lot of conservative commentators are saying — correctly, in my view — that this was a good election for american conservatives. they have more seats in the house of representatives. it held onto the senate — it looks like for now, anyway. and trump had a much better performance, given that people were predicting a blue wave. and meanwhile, trump has put in a lot of conservative judges that the conservatives are very pleased with — notjust in the supreme court. but you're asking also about the bigger themes that trump tackled, and i think, you know, there a lot of people out there are quietly glad that he took the argument to china and to some extent to north korea, that he asked nato allies to contribute more, the european ones and so on, and brought, as you said, articulated the concerns that many people have about immigration. he made it more divisive than it needed to be — some of the policies were very, very ugly to many people's eyes — but he did put them

on the table and speak for a lot of people. and i think the republican party is going to want to carry some of that forward, just without the unique aspects of trump himself, tweeting in capital letters, the denial of facts, the constant sense of theatre. and john simpson, i mean, if president trump is confirmed as having lost this election — which, again, we don't know yet — people have mentioned the possibility of him returning to fight again in 202a. i suppose it's possible, but a lot of things are going to happen in between then and now. and i think that one of those things may be that he will be open to criminal prosecution for various things that he has done. i think that we'll — i imagine we will see a turning away from donald trump, except among his strongest followers. but by the republican party, large chunks of the republican party, it's not the same in any

way, but there was a kind but there was a kind of parallel movement after george w bush — the feeling that we have been down that road and it didn't really work out for us. and so i think we will feel the same, i think we will find the same after this with donald trump. that "yeah, you know, that was a special time." he has — he will — and i mean, i fully agree with what bronwen says. he's changed the goalposts. it's not going to be easy for a democrat to come in and say, "well, we shouldn't be so tough on china. after all, they have got their problems." "you know, if germany doesn't spend too much on its defence, well, you know, they've got other things to spend their money on." it's not going to be like that. he's going to have to follow some, at least, the trump lines. we will come onto the

international front in a moment in a bit more detail, butjohn, i want to ask you, we have seen you over the years filming with a number of international dictators or authoritarian regimes. some people have talked about authoritarianism in the leadership style or donald trump and his — especially his behaviour in the last few days, not accepting the democratic vote of the public. how concerned to do you think people should be in america at the moment about how fragile their democracy might be? i don't think american democracy is fragile. i think it's very very noisy, and very loud, a lot of angry voices. but i think, personally, it's kind of worked its way through. believe me, if it can digest a man as extreme as donald trump... i was trying to think, who is it that he reminds me of? i am afraid it is nicolae ceausescu in romania. all that pomposity.

finding it so difficult to believe that the tide has turned against him. if it can deal with him, sort him out, and put him to one side and carry on, i think american democracy is in remarkable shape. fascinating comparison! michael, in terms of what we might see from joe biden on the domestic front, is this going to look staffers coming back in? ijust want to pick up a point north authoritarianism. i thinkjohn is right, i have been in countries but i have been in countries where if you tweeted, you would be in prison, and in a basement cell being tortured. there's maybe an authoritarian desire on the part of

donald trump, but he is really bad at it. the wall isn't built yet. there is that to consider. it is worth doing more reporting on, joe biden is a creature of the senate. being a creature of the senate, it means he has a long—standing relationship with mitch mcconnell, who is the leader of the senate. senate republicans. he is someone who probably historians would say is one of the most important politicians of the first part of this century. and i would be very interested to know how closely biden worked with mitch mcconnell to ease passage, and it wasn't an easy passage, i was there, of obamacare, for example. they speak that kind of senate language. it is a question of whether they work together or not. the amounts of money that have been thrown at the economy in america since the pandemic took root, you need co—operation.

and i think the lines of communication being open already between biden because of his decades, and he was elected in the senate in the mid—70s, and mcconnell, it's worth thinking it will be ok. it will be noisy and there are always hardliners who say you can't give another penny to anyone, but i think you will see that as an improvement. in terms of other things, look, the reality of america, talking about ungovernability, has to do with the practicalities of being elected. everyone in washington will tell you, you basically have 18 months to govern in any given year, because the house of representatives is re—elected every two years. all those people just elected have about 18 months to work and then they have to go and raise money to get re—elected. the president, joe biden, if he chooses to go for a second term, and he will be in his 80s when he finishes

the first one, essentially after about two and half years he has to start raising money to campaign again. so i think there is a very tiny window, and i do think now that trump is going, there is the possibility of co—operation, just to deal with the pandemic and then we will see what happens. not confirmed, but bronwen, who do you think will be the key voices in a joe biden administration? he will face pressure from the left as well, bernie sanders, elizabeth warren, those voices too? and he may not be able to get those people into his top team because of opposition from the senate. we will get an early test on whether the bipartisan spirit that joe biden absolutely invokes, the old senate, if you like, as it used to be, which michael wasjust describing. we will get an early signal about whether or not that's going to hold good. whether or not mitch mcconnell,

as some people say, willjust join bipartisan memory motions when it suits him, joe biden will have all sorts of people he wants in his top team at the senate may not want him to have, some of the more left—wing ones like elizabeth warren and bernie sanders. he will want to repeal or stop the overturning of environmental objections that president trump was undergoing. he is going to want to rein back, again, the overturning of obamacare. we'll get an early sign, even before it comes to spending any money, we will get a view of whether the senate is prepared to go along with him or it is going to act as a bloc, in which case it's going to be very, very hard for him to do anything at home. let's look a bit wider, because the trump presidency has been marked by a desire to withdraw the us won

its commitments in the world. does the prospect, as yet unconfirmed, of a biden presidency herald a return to a more international role for the us? biden has already said he would re—enter the paris climate agreement that trump left, will he be less critical of nato and hostile trading relations with china? will he revive the iran nuclear deal? his vice—president kamala harris has indian and jamaican heritage... what we know aboutjoe biden, with his irish catholic background, he knows brexit may imperil any hope of a us uk trade deal in the future? many questions. john simpson, looking again in a global sense, many liberals might breathe a sigh of relief and give joe biden the benefit of the doubt.

as we're hearing from michael, no administration has that long to get stuff through. but foreign policy is easier because the president can act unilaterally, effectively. i imagine the first thing joe biden will do will be to get onto his nato partners across the board. i am sure he will try to do something with turkey. he will certainly try to do something with the western european elements in nato. personally i believe, but i wouldn't know of course, no kind of evidence for it, but i personally believe that he won't be too interested in what's happening with brexit and the european union. because the only way he can do that, really, is to act as a continuation of that whole good friday process, which is a beneficent presence. just outside the door orjust inside it.

that proved so successful with his partial participation, in fact, that i think he will act towards britain, for instance, in a calming way. so you will find right across europe, most parts of the world, there will be a huge sigh of relief. you know, from a president who could tweet something at two o'clock in the morning which would throw everything out of the pram. suddenly you are getting somebody whose trajectory you can follow and worked out. michael goldfarb, china, the big question. the democrats have not completely dissented from the criticism of china by any stretch. no, and i agree with point that bronwen was making earlier

in the programme, trump made the running here. he grasped the nettle, although some of the details were not clear. what was the quid pro quo for the trademarks his daughter got? people have been wanting to know, how can you deal with china in terms of trade? we've developed an extraordinary reliance on china's manufacturing capacity to provide us with the consumer goods that we all enjoy at prices we can afford. so trump made the running there in pushing back, and i don't think biden will publicly do anything else. what interests me most about his foreign policy, john touched on the nato stuff, and he is right, they will be the first calls... the president is still seen as

the leader of the free world. will it be a difference of tone in dealing with the authoritarian nationalist politicians who have been favoured by donald trump? what will be the approach of the united states to jair bolsonaro in brazil? if the us rejoins the paris accords and brazil continues to burn down the rainforest? we're almost out of time, let's bring in bronwen. what do you think will be the biggest impact of a new president? climate change and the deal with iran. the damaging issue of trump leaving the iran nuclear programme, i wonder if biden will get back into that? and climate change, will clearly help everyone trying to do what countries do,

except the president of brazil. what about brexit, is it better or worse for us overall? difficult, but brexit is always difficult! i am not sure the uk government has a solution it'll increase the stakes to get it sorted. john, big weekend — how momentous does it feel if there is a change? absolutely huge, and a total reversal of four years of world history. john simpson, bronwen maddox and michael goldfarb, many thanks for your time on dateline london amid these tumultuous but still moving events. nothing fully confirmed from the us as yet. shaun ley is here with much more next week, we might have a confirmed answer by then. thanks so much for watching, bye—bye for now.

hello there. southerly winds are going to bring us a mild start to the week but they are also bringing extensive cloud, a little bit of damp weather and we've seen mist and fog patches as well, so rather murky conditions for a time, too. now, the satellite picture shows the area of cloud responsible for the drizzle and some fog lurking underneath that. got pressure to the south—west and then a more substantial area of cloud. now, that's going to be coming in towards the middle part of the week so we are going to see some rain over the next few days as well. now, for the early risers, i think it's probably going to be a damp start to the day around the east coast of scotland, some eastern areas of england as well with mist and fog patches dotted around across scotland, england and wales, so murky conditions too. then we will start to see further bits and pieces of rain working into northern ireland and wales and south—west england, and that is all tied in with this area of low pressure that's going to be pushing north—eastwards as we go through

the course of monday. so monday, a cloudy start to the day. as i say, pretty murky across scotland, much of england and wales, with some bursts of rain for northern ireland, wales, western areas of england and through the day, this rain will gradually push its way northwards and eastwards. it will very gradually brighten up across western areas but otherwise, scotland and most of england staying pretty cloudy, really. despite that, it'll be mild — temperatures reaching a high of up to 16 degrees celsius in the south—east of england. now, through tuesday, the low pressure is still on the charts and we've still got a lot of cloud in the forecast, still with some bursts of rain slowly pushing north and eastwards. but the low pressure on tuesday is going to weaken significantly, and so the cloud will begin to break up and we should start to see some brighter weather slowly pushing in from the west, so a greater chance of seeing at least a little bit of sunshine, and it's still mild — average temperature for this time of year is about 11 in london, so 15 degrees is still four above normal. wednesday sees a more substantial area of rain move in off the atlantic and this one will be accompanied by some strengthening winds with gale force gusts working in across western areas.

so heavy rain for northern ireland, heavy rain also developing through the day for west scotland, southern wales and the moors of south—west england. a very squally band of rain, too. notice it's dry for much of the day over eastern areas of england — it'll probably have brighter spells as well — but this band of squally rain will push its way eastwards as we go through wednesday night to reach all areas.

this is bbc news. welcome if you're watching here in the uk or around the globe. i'm lewis vaughan jones. our top stories: joe biden presses on with preparations for his time in office. he's expected to announce members of a coronavirus task force on monday. i pledge to be a president who seeks not to divide, but unify. who doesn't see red states and blue states, only sees the united states. president trump plays golf again. on twitter, he continues to claim — without evidence — that the election was "stolen". joe biden has met every british prime minister for the last a0 years. but questions are being asked about his future relationship with boris johnson — a man he's previously described as a "clone of donald trump".