this is bbc news, the headlines. we start with our breaking news: a key us government body — the general services administration — says joe biden‘s transition as president—elect can formally begin. donald trump has tweeted saying that in the best interests of the united states he's told his team to cooperate with protocols. mr biden‘s team will now begin meeting with government officials to discuss the pandemic response and other issues. let's head to washington now and speak with out correspondent nomia iqbal. this came as a surprise, i think. do we know what is actually making a difference, what has tip to hear? we are not sure, but you are right, the transition team from the american news networks, as it was happening. —— we heard about. this is a gilding of the reality that donald trump lost the election. if the first step

the election. if the first step the initiation had taken to admit its defeat and has come within two weeks since biden was projected the winter, at a formal sign off, a perfunctory process known as ascertainment, the woman at the centre of this is emily murphy, the head of the gsa she had been holding back on signing this document which essentially releases millions and millions of dollars to allow a transition to begin. she'd been hugely criticised not just by democrats including joe biting himself, but also republicans who have been crisply coming out and saying we need to except thatjoe biden is one and did the transition to begin. and now it has begun, donald trump has tweeted and thanking herfor donald trump has tweeted and thanking her for her work. donald trump has tweeted and thanking herfor her work. then goes on to say the fight continues. this is a non—concession session.

continues. this is a non-concession session. we have some site audio problems with the feed there, going to come back just the feed there, going to come backjust a the feed there, going to come back just a second. i'm joined now by mathew littman, joe biden‘s former chief speech writer. noticeable that president trump is not using the word concede. i don't think he ever will. there's no way he's ever going to say he's a loser in this case he is a loser. the normal things that happened in a transition the president would do to welcome the next president, the successor will not happen here. is a big step in the right direction. what does have to have been legally is for votes to be certified. that just happened in is for votes to be certified. thatjust happened in michigan and several other states, that must have been important. what happened in michigan today it's very important but also pressure from congress, congresswoman from the general services administration that you have been talking about, there's pressure on her to come toa there's pressure on her to come to a hearing. she wanted to put it off, they were insistent

that i have i think that is what this change from the general service it administration today. possible these senate runoff races in georgia, the may have been a feeling that his attitude was hurting the republicans campaign there. i can assure you that donald trump does not ca re you that donald trump does not care if his attitude is hurting anybody. as one thing we know about donald trump but he doesn't care... it's crucial to control of the senate. he doesn't care. it does occur with the republican party, heat cares about donald trump and if donald trump thought he could keep doing this he would do it. my guess is the general services administration told him that they can't continue down this road and they had to declare joe biting the winner. when he says on twitter the fight continues he's losing the fight, hand over fist fight continues he's losing the fight, hand overfist at fight continues he's losing the fight, hand over fist at the moment. his record in his court cases is something like one for 34 may 35. it's really

terrible. if you want to continue suing come of the key date is december 14. that's when the electors vote in the electoral college. and we will have the joe biting inauguration and i hope not on airthat inauguration and i hope not on air that day because i will be crying as they did when it was announced that joe biden won a couple of weeks ago. i'm going to bea couple of weeks ago. i'm going to be a mess. pretty clear of course we are critical sympathies lie but we know that there are 70s two or 73 million people who do not wantjoe biden as president and having seen four years of mr trump wa nted seen four years of mr trump wanted more. how is this country going to be reconciled? it's massively split. is absolutely split. amazing that he got that many votes but you have to take a step in the right direction. joe biden is a big step in the right direction can be the biggest thing was getting donald trump out of office. now there are a lot of people in the united states and is staggering who believe in all of his fake information they are getting through most

of social media. it's a really big problem. the problem is not would be solved overnight but the one big issue for us and for the entire world, donald trump are no longer be in office and i think we could be very proud ofjoe biden when he's in office and its future secretary of state tony blinken. you were a very important speech writer, what doesjoe biden important speech writer, what does joe biden need important speech writer, what doesjoe biden need to stay at his inauguration to try and bring those people on board? millions and millions of people who don't want him president but also equip possibly think the whole process is broken. when truck a visit inauguration speech he talked about carnage, it was depressing and weird. joe biden is an optimistic guy he's artie said that he really cares what the people that did not vote for him and he represents them as well. it's a big part of it. you can disagree withjoe big part of it. you can disagree with joe biden big part of it. you can disagree withjoe biden but he believes he's going to be president for everybody. donald trump is very specifically not caring about, for example, california or new york. joe

biden was to be president for everybody. you're going to hear a lot about that and i predict he will quote an irish poet because he always does that in his speeches. i'm sure we will come back to that, a lot of people being appointed by the budget ministration may not be household names to many people, you will know them and what are you will know them and what are you thinking? i can't tell you how thrilled i am. i know a lot of these people and have further relationships with a lot of these folks, and they are just really good people which is so staggering after the last few years of some truly horrible human beings being in this administration such as stephen miller. these are the dregs of society and of the earth. you have these legitimately good people and a lot of experience or excellent human beings, jake sullivan and the people working in government affairs inside the new white house. it's really exciting, it really feels good to have people who want to do the right thing be in office.

give your free hit there, other opinions are available as you surely know. thank you very much indeed. let's go back now to our washington correspondent. correspondent nomia iqbal. an important thing partly because it gives access. angus crucial briefings and notjust getting the coach the office door. —— codes. getting the coach the office door. -- codes. taxpayer funds up door. -- codes. taxpayer funds up to about $10 million and this allows basicallyjoe biden to get on with the job. by holding this money back when it means is that joe holding this money back when it means is thatjoe biden has not been able to meet with officials from the trumpet ministration to talk about the handover, also they have not been able to sort out things like office space as well. exchange intelligence briefings ona exchange intelligence briefings on a whole load of issues like national security to talk about the covid pandemic and how to get a hold of that. signing off

on that document which, emily murphy, according to many republicans and democrats should have been a long time ago went by did was declared the victor, it's quite a perfunctory process known as ascertainment and i think that this did take a lot of the biting team by surprise, there we re biting team by surprise, there were hoping it would happen and how it has come it means the transition can begin. interesting when you look at the trump tweets this is not a concession come up more the trump tweets this is not a concession come up more of a non—concession concession by the president. and legally he does not have to concede. he does not have to concede. he does not. and he won't because he's got lots of lawsuits that are going through the courts, he still trying to overturn the election results. more than 30 of those lawsuits have been kicked out of the courts so far in some key swing states with judges citing no evidence. i don't think we will get a concession from donald trump as in suggestions that he's not

going to formally accept or work ofjoe but into the white house like barack 0bama did for him a lot earlier on as well i should say. donald trump very much continuing that fight to overturn the election but i think this move today but each esa is probably a gilding to the reality that donald trump has indeed lost the election. to get a sense that mr trump is doing this at the moment, he's a playing a lot of golf, and he will understand you may be exhausted after that campaign being defeated in the campaign. there's so much to do not least with the pandemic raging around the country. not been seen publicly for some time he did hold a couple of press coverage that was been the about covid—19 and vaccines. he touched on the election briefly but really he, we know he's been playing golf and we get a kind of schedule in which we are told what the president is doing and there's been nothing

listed on it so far. he's basically keeping his messaging to twitter where he can commit in some ways to were disciplined for him and his focus seems to be not on covid, it seems to be very much on trying to overturn the election results and his latest tweet today suggests he not, there's no stopping him on that. how are the latest appointments being met by your contacts? joe biden is doing exactly what he said he would deal. which was turned down the temperature. 0n us politics and turn it to a sort of something a bit more calm her that we have seen the last four years, generally feeling is that he is appointing people who are vetera ns at appointing people who are veterans at this, some real old and familiar voices that he can bring to the west wing. there's a lot of excitement as well over the ways he is breaking ground as well. he is

appointing or is nominated to women to key roles as well. the head of national intelligence, if she got the nomination would be the first woman as the holder of the post and linda thomas greenfield as the un ambassador to make you a semester to the un which would make it a cabinet position. i think it's really interesting because that sense of the message with he is keen to do it that america is now leading again, he's very keen to show the world that america wants to fix some of those global alliances that may have been frayed are the trumpet ministration. we get the feeds, noticeable that quite a lot of people less nervous now a national security terms. document the transition i mean, the gsa okaying the transition. it was found just after that very difficult transition between bush and gore in the

year 2000, 911 following verse shortly afterwards was a feeling the united states took its eye off of the ball then. feeling the united states took its eye off of the ball thenlj think so. 0ne its eye off of the ball thenlj think so. one of the president trump in the last four years, nearly four years of his presidency has been shattering those presidential norms and to jewish traditions. i think it's not surprised that he's seeing his presidency that way. but also going back to 2000 there was obviously a lot of anger at the time, but there was still, it still ended cordially. there's still hope that they could happen. i'm sure there are those that would hope that donald trump would invitejoe bite into the white house to formally recognise his win, that melania trump would have a conversation with joe that melania trump would have a conversation withjoe biden's wife drjill biden. in the same way that melania trump met michelle 0bama. who knows if that would happen it would not wa nt to that would happen it would not want to say anything that would make me my words but i do think

that today the screen might of the transition is a step forward in the right direction, many american people are concerned. in case you justjoined just a reminder of the breaking news, the general services ministration becoming very important in the past few weeks is now set officially thatjoe biden's transmission strip president elect from the beginning. trump has tweeted in the best interest of the united states he has told his team to co—operate with protocols, specifically one of his appointees emily murphy. needed to write a letter to make the transition go ahead and free of government funds but also about crucial briefings to happen. it will not be meeting with government officials to discuss the pandemic response and many other issues. mr trump also said in his tweets the legal fight goes on there he is rapidly been losing those. a few more to come but

significant perhaps that votes we re significant perhaps that votes were certified in michigan. that crucial swing state today. and there was some feeling perhaps that mr trump positive attitude to all of this was affecting the fight for those crucial senate seats in georgia which will decide control of the senate. very important to any incoming president. my colleague tim wilcox just now spoke tojulia, a political reporterfor spoke tojulia, a political reporter for the website the hill about the start of the transition process. wait a feeling it was coming to be heard in michigan today that those election results were certified. we heard last week that in georgia after a recount those election results were certified, so for a lot of these swing states at the you saw the state parties essentially saying joe biden has a clear majority of votes and you are going to move ahead. we saw that with a number of these legal challenges from the trump legal team, they were getting denied and turned on their face. team, they were getting denied and turned on theirface. is that they did not have a lot of legs to stand on. and last week

we saw the president's attorney rudy giuliani gave a press conference and that a number of false accusations and claims we re false accusations and claims were made, the truck can yesterday distanced themselves from sidney powell, an attorney that both present at that news conference, for president trump the entire situation just was not a good look there was not much he could do any more. looking forward to really seeing what happens next, where does president trump go, does he invite joe does president trump go, does he invitejoe bite into the white house? does he have a meeting with him? does the first lady or drjill biden reach out to each other? will be is seymour important information? i assume so but i wonder if that will have a publicly. this it has not been a good look everest of the election, really. what sort of criticism has the head of the gsa committee trump reported murphy come for? what reasons was she using to refuse to

release the funds to the democrats who had been pushing herfor this democrats who had been pushing her for this heaven date? and sadly she was criticised for acting ina sadly she was criticised for acting in a partisan manner and being under pressure from president trump not to certify the election results. despite the election results. despite the fact that four years ago shortly after president from was projected to be the winner of the 2016 election by similar margins to hillary clinton we saw that the gsa very shortly after that certified those election results so deftly looked like it was very partisan. we also saw that she kept on delaying as the trunk and paper pushed forward with these legal challenges citing fraud which we know there's no widespread or evidence for widespread or evidence for widespread voterfraud in widespread or evidence for widespread voter fraud in the united states so essentially she looked like she was partisan but the position she is and should not be a partisan position. is been a fall that within the president's personal

legal team as well. what is left on that front because as you are just saying to our correspondent in washington president trump said that the fight continues. 0ur president trump said that the fight continues. our case strongly continues, we'll keep up strongly continues, we'll keep up the good fight he said.|j think that tweet was very cryptic because this i said before a lot of these legal challenges just weren't standing up in a number of states. there simply no evidence for widespread voter fraud here in the united states. not enough evidence to convince anyone that there was enough fraud to overturn the election in favour of someone. of election in favour of someone. of another candidate. i think that a struggle that present trouble face if you want to continue to claim voter fraud. we don't know what he's going to do after this we don't really know what the fight continues means. he talks about his own political movement that started in the summer of 2015, does he turn that into a media empire? does he consider another run into a 24, i highly doubt that. his legal team is

clearly not as strong as it once was, it does appear to be in shambles and their cases appear to be in shambles and their cases appearto be in in shambles and their cases appear to be in shambles so we don't really know where they go from here because right now the trump administration have to turn their directions to transitioning to a joe by the administration and the fact that this is happening in the backdrop of a global pandemic here in the united states raising a surge in coronavirus cases. nice to be some coordination to slow the spread and figure out how to move forward. with the election did show is that donald trump is still hugely popular and powerful within republican voters right around the country, and just looking ahead at the transition and what donald trump is doing now, how potent are his political appointments and policy directives which he is trying to force through at the moment

ahead of inauguration day, and will that cause problems do you think for president electjoe biden when eventually he does ta ke biden when eventually he does take office. president trump depending on what he does with the coronavirus pandemic reviewed if he continues to not do much of anything with the pandemic, we have not heard president trump make a public statement or enforce any mandates and such, this would have a huge impact on howjoe biden will head of the coronavirus pandemic, the situation is happening in the middle east whether, you know on the eastern part of the world whether it's on the eastern part of the world whether its president trump pulling troops from afghanistan and iraq and that will impact the biden strategy go forward, and the treasured tea m go forward, and the treasured team will be paying attention to what president trump is doing but i would turn our attention to another election that's going to be taking place in the swing state of georgia. there two senate races that went to runoffs and those races especially will determine the balance of power in the united

states senate. president trump, while he lost georgia he did not lose that by that much. it was a very, very tight race. i would assume that the two incumbent republican senators might lean on president trump in that case because president trump is still relatively popular. he's even said the he would consider going and campaigning in georgia. we could deftly see him potentially flexing his political muscles down there. talking to tim a little bit earlier. joe biden's team welcomed the ruling, saying in a statement...

that phrase very much there is. 0ur reporter paul hawkins is with me. then rounding up about everything else that's around, paul. alluding to that, they're going to get access, the biting team to those intelligence briefings that they have been very much after. joe biden saying that lives would be lost if they did not get access to intelligence briefings to help with the role of a coronavirus vaccine. in terms of reaction coming in, republican senators in louisiana, bill cassidy notifying that michigan certified its results today acknowledging joe biden has over 270 electoral college votes. the trump legal team is not presented evidence of mass fraud which would have had to be present to overturn the election, i voted for president trump but joe biden

election, i voted for president trump butjoe biden one. and david perdue acknowledging that donald trump lost election. seems like a lot more republican senators now breaking ranks. chris christie yesterday commit big republican backer of donald trump telling trump effectively you need to concede the election. seems like with this notification by the general services administration that the transition can begin. a lot more republican lawmakers will now be breaking ranks. georgia is particularly interesting because of those two crucial runoff elections which will affect control of the senate. mrtrump very affect control of the senate. mr trump very popular there but i think there might‘ve been a feeling that his attitude was affecting the campaign. speaking i guess they thought that his only interest is president trump and south. nothing to do with what's happening in georgia with the republican party. thank you very much. 0ur washington correspondent, nomia iqbal

is back with us. several people pointing out that the statement from the general services a ministration never uses the phrase president—elect. never uses the phrase president-elect. that's right. it really stands out. just dear mr biden. when you read the whole statement is clear the emily murphy is a trump loyalist, she was appointed by donald trump. interesting that evenin donald trump. interesting that even in the statement she has a bit of a quibble about the gsa's terms and guide on setting this document in the first place suggesting that it needs updating. there is a sense of reluctance with even signing off this document, but i don't think in the end it matters to the biden transition team. this is the document they we re team. this is the document they were waiting to have signed off and now here it is, and they can and now here it is, and they ca n start and now here it is, and they can start moving towards the white house comejanuary can start moving towards the white house come january 20. of

the phrases going the rounds, raising eyebrows. this one jenna ellis the race is not over. the legal avenues really are closing down. pretty fast, aren't they? that's right. really interesting the race is not over, not quite sure what they mean by that. legally, about 30 lawsuits have already been kicked out of the courts. because there's no evidence. that's what it comes down to even some states which ballots have not been counted or there have not been counted or there have been some kind of issue is not enough to overturn the final results. yes trump is still hugely popular in his country, got more than 70 million votes but by the past vitality is more than 80 million socially hard to see with the legal avenues are. there's been some attempt by the trumpet ministration openly floating this idea of putting pressure on state lectures do not certify forjoe biden. but that's not really worked, as

exceeding michigan in which donald trump tersely tried to intervene in that process can be even inviting michigan's state lawmakers to the white house last week. they certified forjoe biden today and were expecting that to happen with other states as well. in case you justjoined just a reminder of the breaking news, the general services ministration becoming very important in the past few weeks is now set officially thatjoe biden's transmission strip president elect from the beginning. trump has tweeted in the best interest of the united states he has told his team to co—operate with protocols, i know point does mr trump use the word concede, there is no concession here there does not have to be. and as lawyers are saying the race is not over. we will have more on all of this of course and the international

news to come. thank you for being with us. hello there. monday was really quite a chilly day, particularly so across central and eastern england, where temperatures quite widely only got to around 7—8 celsius — just six there in north yorkshire. but one of the things that brings us the biggest temperature rises this time of year are warm fronts. and we've had one of those across the country, south—westerly winds have been following, and hour by hour we've seen those temperatures rise recently — such that by the time we get to tuesday, 6am, those temperatures will be far higher than the highest temperatures we had all day yesterday, at around 10—11 celsius quite widely. so milder air is on the way,

south—westerly winds to thank for that. but we'll also have this weather front which will be one of these slow—moving weather fronts — it's bringing rain at the moment in northern ireland and scotland, and it will continue to rain for these areas through much of the day on tuesday, as well. now further southwards and eastward across england and wales, it'll be a mild start to the day, with temperatures 10—12 celsius in places. quite a brisk south—westerly wind, some low cloud over the high grounds, some mist and fog patches higher up, a bit of drizzle around as well. but as we go through tuesday morning, i think the cloud may well break up at times across england. the best chance of that probably in the morning, really, across east anglia and south east england. 0therwise, probably keeping the cloud through most of the day for most areas. and the rain continues to come down for northern ireland and scotland. whether you see sun or cloud, temperatures around 11—13 celsius — a little bit cooler in the far northwest of the uk. that colder air is behind this cold front sinking southwards over the next few days. as it pulls away, we will get that colder air lingering around the uk for much of the rest of the week. so here's the chart for wednesday — here's our cold

front, bringing clouds, still a bit of rain moving southwards and eastwards into east anglia, southeast england, a few showers for scotland and northern ireland, it may be 1—2 sneaking down the irish sea, as well. you notice those temperatures cooling off — highs more typically around 8—9 celsius for northern areas, still around 11—12 celsius in the far southeast. the pressure then rises, giving us clear skies there wednesday night. there'll be a frost with high pressure around towards the end of the week. lots of dry weather with mist and fog patches in the morning, a few patches of frost, but it's a mostly dry picture, perhaps generally turning a bit more cloudy as we head into the weekend. that's your weather.

this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. i'm mike embley. greenlight for president—elect joe biden as transition process is finally given the go—ahead. the trump administration say they will do what needs to be done in the best interest of the county. joe biden's team issues a statement saying the transition will begin with meetings with government officials on a response to the pandemic and national security issues. hello and welcome. a key us government body, the general services

administration, says joe biden's transition