manes in doubt republicans have also called for a recount in wisconsin. only a small number of states remain up for grabs right now it appears biden has secured 264 electoral votes and trump has taken 214 as the struggle continues for the white house state here with r.t. international for continuing coverage.

people say droll powells untalented in worthless but you see how difficult it is to blast the money got it takes some skill they have to go to the college coming and. join me every thursday on the alex simon show and i'll be speaking to guest of the world of politics sport this list i'm showbusiness i'll see you then.

this is boom that's the one business show you can't afford to miss unfair montecito going to washington coming out the next president of the united states in jail and the tide it but it doesn't seem to bother wall street we'll explain the big rally for attack as the vote continue to mend. fences on enjoying things today and california voters approve the proposition to keep mover and left drivers contractors will try to economics professor richard wolf about what this means for our faith we have a lot to get to so let's get started. u.s. presidential election results they're still coming in with some pretty big states still in question and really it's it seems like it's too close to call but it's one joins us he's going to walk us through it and what do we have ok so i will reserve out now with some breaking news before we get into the numbers and the states of what's happening because apparently the trump campaign has filed 2 lawsuits in just the last hour one in the state of pennsylvania and one in the state of michigan in

both cases they are asking judges to halt the count here's what they're saying president campaign says it is suing to temporarily stop the vote count in pennsylvania what are they saying they're saying that the democratic election officials are hiding the ballot counting process from republican poll observers and that the campaign wants to temporarily halt the counting until there is meaningful transparency and republicans going to sure all counting is done above board and by law meanwhile in the state of michigan another lawsuit has been filed within the last hour in that case the same thing the campaign claims that republican poll watchers. not been granted access to polling locations where votes are being counted they say that michigan law requires this to happen so in both cases they are trying to halt the vote count in again pennsylvania and in michigan that is the very latest also in the last hour the state of wisconsin has gone into joe biden's column for the presidency now this according to the associated press that's 10

electoral votes they go to biden putting him right now at our count as to 48 donald trump with 214 electoral votes so obviously a lot going on here again the associated press projected that with 95 percent of the vote really a little more than 29000 votes that joe biden has won the state of wisconsin so a big win for biden there it's maybe what prompted the campaign to step up and attempt to block the counting in those other states but let's take a look at the map here and see what else is going on because in georgia the secretary of state says they will get their numbers today they say by the end of the day today and then they'll be off everybody's radar right now president trouble with about a 100000 vote lead in the state of georgia also north carolina so this whole section the southeastern section of the country very important to the trump campaign right now troubling to around 80000 votes in north carolina the north carolina state board of elections official explain this afternoon that they stopped

counting last night because there were no more ballots to count that were that's what we're told and that they are now counting absentee ballots ok up in michigan as we mentioned right now the drum campaign has asked to stop the counting there that's because joe biden leads 49 percent to trump's 48 percent but it's less than one percent a $30000.00 vote difference pennsylvania also where that lawsuit has been filed to try to halt the counting only 64 percent of the vote has been counted right now trump has a $500000.00 vote lead but many of the votes still to be counted are mail in ballots trump has about 53 percent of the vote there compared to 45 percent of the vote vote for biden by the way we're. all of that but will not be completed until at least the end of this week also out here in the west biden right now he leads in the vattel with 67 percent of the vote confirmed 49 percent to 48 percent but biden only has an $8000.00 vote lead in nevada about 588000 votes to trump's 580000 so obviously as we said

a lot going on here with the presidential map and of course wisconsin as we mentioned there's less than one percent difference in the vote tally between trump and biden there and already the trump campaign has said that they will ask for a recount which you can do under wisconsin law as long as the final total is within one percent now let's shift over to the senate races because a lot going on with the u.s. senate now keep in mind we've heard a lot about the u.s. senate over the last few weeks and about how democrats were going to pick up not only retain the house pick up the white house but they would also win the senate well right now here's our count falls republicans have 48 senate seats compared to democratic control of 45 senate seats within the last hour the associated press has called the main seat for susan collins with 51 percent of the vote susan collins the incumbent in maine she was seen as vulnerable to democrats but she has retained that seat also in north carolina thom tillis he is the republican incumbent it looks like he is defeating right now calcuttan him by roughly 100000 votes there an

interesting race is one in michigan you have a republican challenger by the name of john james he's african-american he has 810000 vote lead right now over the democratic incumbent gary peters so if republicans were to pick up that seat it would actually increase their hold on the senate in alaska you have dan sullivan he's a republican that race is still up in the air but not sure should be right now he has a huge lead of 63 percent of the vote without gross's 31 percent now in georgia there are 2 senate races david perdue he's leading john arse off by roughly 160000 votes looks like he's going to pick up or retain his seat he's the incumbent excuse me there's also a. special election and that's going to go to a runoff between kelly loffler and the income she's the incumbent there and raphael warnock he is the democratic challenger that race though will not be decided in a runoff until january and also keep in mind folks you know we heard so much about the senate races mitch mcconnell democrats spent $100000000.00 trying to get rid of

the senate majority leader mitch mcconnell they did not do so he cruised to reelection and so did south carolina senator lindsey graham so again all this talk of democrats who are going to take the senate that part certainly has not panned out it doesn't look like anything is really panned out just yet then given those numbers and given what you just said about them now trying to halter top administration trying to halt the count how likely is that to happen we have so many states still up in the air and question and whether or not we're even going to hear from those results today or tomorrow also up in the air well just kind of a 1st blush here it looks like the trumpet ministration excuse me from campaign may have made a huge mistake by give the president coming out last night and saying that he had already won and saying that this thing was rigged because now it looks like they're looking for any reason to stop it as opposed to the very specific reasons they're sitting in these lawsuits which is that they don't have poll workers who are adequately able to monitor now one of the things they're probably citing here is there was a poll worker a poll watcher in the state of pennsylvania who was turned away you might have seen

the video of that he was turned away when he showed up to watch the polls and told he couldn't come in eventually that was changed he says it was because he was a republican he says republicans were given one color card to show that they were a poll watcher democrats were given another color he says that's why he was forced out and something else is pretty interesting here so as we get all these numbers together i got to mention something the overall numbers for this election are absolutely staggering according to the associated press joe biden now has received more votes than any u.s. presidential candidate in history more than 70000000 votes have gone to joe biden. that's more than a 1000000 votes higher than the previous record set by obama in 2008 so joe biden right now sits at 70000000 votes donald trump sits at 67000000 votes national historical election that we're seeing it take place here but either way they say that their votes were halted or of the ballots not counting right now none of these

candidates have yet reached that level of the number of to 70 that's going to end up at the house what are we looking at well that's that's the point right there the reason the campaign wants to stop the voting now is the excuse me the county now is if you stop the counts as they're coming in you potentially are able to block biden from reaching that to 70 if biden picks up pennsylvania he picks up michigan it's game over so that what the trump campaign is trying to do is halted and throw out ballots that they say are invalid and count the ballots that they claim are valid of course there's going to be a big disagreement between these campaigns as to what is invalid and what is valid but that's the goal here is to ultimately get control of that narrative before biden hits to 70 because once he gets to 70 and by the way as we mentioned out in the in nevada right now biden is leading potentially could pick that up but if you keep adding these totals eventually biden hits that to 70 and gets to declare victory and that's what the trump campaign is trying to hold they don't want to look like he's declared victory and now they're reacting to that would also be very interesting to see nevada flip hasn't happened in so long that's one stay with us.

but the u.s. election results still in limbo global markets rally and surged on wednesday for the 3rd straight day to explain this let's go to bill that's co-host chrystia and see you know of openness to having them around the ottavio we still don't have a clear winner we just heard ben break all the numbers down at the market is rallying the nasdaq up over 4 percent today what's driving this and is this all optimism really pretty premature. well it's quite a remarkable turn of events with this kind of contested election we were seeing a lot more volatility in the markets and our pressure and tech stocks are disappearing through the roof i think what's happening there is that basically there was sort of agreement amongst democrats and republicans that there was a need to regulate big tech more and do something about is one of the few points of agreement between democrats republicans because there was not agreement on how you should regulate what you do about something needed to be. with the democrats it

looks like just a few days ago they were going to take the white house and the house and therefore be able to push through their victory gender and regulate big tech much more closely that's a battery so all these negotiated winds of it take thought they were going to face or just disappear you also see that moral level proposition 2210 the formula where is votes to allow. left to basically carry on aren't people as in and contractors of so i guess big tech is looking this is really sort of a sigh of relief and saying i'm not going to come off this and replace more intensely and so this the ice is going through the roof of the coast state as a result. there kristie i so that you know obviously we're sitting here looking at a presidential race that is inconclusive to say the least who knows how long this goes on is this going to impact even damper consumer spending this holiday season considering where the retailers are right now or is that going to be more of an

issue do you think of coronavirus and what lingers there. it's going to play into well yeah retailers have faced a tremendously difficult 2021st they had disrupted supply chain lines coming from china when china suffered from coronavirus then coronavirus hit our shores and all the retailers they had to shine or lay off and then attempt to reopen again then they had to board up again and hunker down during the george floyd protest so they went quite a lot this year and now they face another threat during the all important holiday season which is to create consumer spending in the face of this problem of the election so consumer spending has been pretty strong during this entire lockdown and coming out of lockdown but now we're starting to go into the holiday season when it's supposed to really really pick up and so far everything has been put on pause then has been put on pause until americans get some real clarity on who's actually going to wit a recent survey from adobe analytics which tracks internet retailers they showed a drop in spending it's very likely you know as in 2016 online sales dropped 14

percent the day after the election and then they dropped 6 percent the day after the 2018 midterms so right now i'm currently 26 percent of consumers said that the presidential outcome will affect their holiday spending so the prolonged counting of votes and also the possibility of a court battle or civil unrest has prompted me to tell us in major cities such as d.c. new york chicago and l.a. to board up their windows again so on top of that as you mentioned millions of americans are still out of work and regardless of whether or biden winning the president will likely lead a divided government which will make it all the more difficult to strike a stimulus deal for consumers and businesses. tabio the i assume services report came out today that slim to the weakest since may job growth it's also showing some signs of slowdown how this is affect the u.s. recovery story in the 4th quarter a story that president trump had said was going to be the best story of the year. well i think we're sort of very very slight. decrease to

56.6 from 57.8 percent and they are still in positive territory anything above 50 percent as opposed to so it looks like things that expanding and i wouldn't read too much into one single malts operation that will get i think overall things look pretty good we're not in the levels that we were. in that direction so i would expect to see the 4th quarter also showed very very strong growth strong growth this quarter but it's going to come out pretty strong and i think as long as there's no lock downs going us we're going to see a fairly strong economic shoot for this is a small but things are still looking at it doesn't look like there will be a lock down for that for that reason i exactly for it not affect the already hurting economy but kristie the night was full of surprises not just here in the united states but over in china the acro-bat i.p.o. was act halted it was also less than 48 hours before it was expected to be the largest i.p.o. in history what happen here. so this was completely unexpected and they left both

bankers and global investors looking for answers because billions and billions of dollars have already been tied up into this i.p.o. especially bankers looking for the $400000000.00 payout with the successful listing so now the i.p.o. has been halted after the founder jack ma was summoned and by the regulators who said that they had discovered an a ray of shortcomings so chinese authorities didn't give money detail about the issues behind the suspension so far saying only there had been significant changes in the regulatory environment and that this move was to protect the country's capital markets there and i.p.o. had created a frenzy both in hong kong and in shanghai months both institutional and smaller investors so following that whole quarter alibaba plunged over 7 percent in the hall call so the i.p.o. is now expected to be delayed for about 6 months and the fund will be returned to the investors in the meantime but essentially this further reinforces the regulatory pressures building on these tech giants now in china and we've heard

about what's happening with the tech giants in the u.s. as well so all this means that it's good for banks bad for phantasy then tech companies like and they pose a major threat to traditional lenders regulators are now trying to tighten control in the country booming micro lending sector because right now and credit business is so huge that it now issues about 110th of all of china. and beijing sees that as a risk in the event of an economic slowdown absolutely all right very much both of you going to go to former vice president joe biden is now taking to the podium let's listen in to what he's saying this afternoon just 90 minutes. god bless you all may god protect our troops. thank you. so he was wrapping up right there as we get you into him but apparently he did not claim victory but he also we obviously did not concede defeat there look

right now if we're looking at the numbers and where they stand by the news in the strongest position in terms of moving forward he has the clearest path to 270 he's on his way to it the real question as we told you at the top of the hour really comes down to whether or not judges will grant a stay a hold if you will on the states of pennsylvania and michigan at the request of the trump campaign to stop counting right now so that they begin can begin to kind of survey the county how it's being done and have what the campaign says are republican poll watchers in the room when you and i were discussing this earlier and he also is looking for a recount how likely is it that that's even going to happen that doesn't change things and doesn't usually change things so in wisconsin the recount absolutely will happen in the reason for that is because as long as you are within one percentage point which trump is in wisconsin he is at 6 tenths of a percentage point behind so yes he absolutely will get a recount in wisconsin but is it actually change that's

a whole other question 29000 votes is a lot of votes typically a recount in a state like this with something like maybe 30025000 votes tops the chance of actually finding 29000 votes and going to reorganize in this very unlikely all we knew that neither one of them really possible planted to concede at least the national action president now actually you know bringing out these legal cases against the states i'm sure there are more to come as we continue to follow those numbers absolutely we'll keep you updated on that. time now for a quick break but hang here because when we return after hundreds of millions of dollars spent by hoover and left california voters are for the proposition to keep drivers of contractors talk to economics professor richard wolffe about what this. means half a spark i think got a break for the number. as

expected ballots are still being counted but what we do know about this election that it's close in the country is deeply divided over the listeners to be learned was it enough to frame this election as a referendum on donald trump. welcome

back we've been talking all day about the presidential election results of the race well it continues to unfold but there are other issues that were on the ballot on election day you know one of the biggest is this so-called proposition 22 in california that proposition means that companies like lift and door dash will be exempt from having to reclassify their drivers as employees so what does that mean for those good workers are joining us out of this gus is a. professor richard wolfe the. for being here professor wolf let's be clear goober left post mates insta card they have put collectively around $200000000.00 into that campaign to support prop 20 which means they don't have to follow state law there's an exemption made for them that requires that they treat drivers as

employees correct that's the gist of it yes absolutely this is a longstanding that's one of the richest companies to basically get out from. a century in the hands of a labor of protection that workers for war over the opposition of all the companies axial rears still want to try to get the protection not only for the workers who drive the cars and go on but also for the public that sits in that call at risk wife's and we're writing there that what you've done is you know these companies want to do what we pay you dollars name tells you how much they want to make out it is allowed to be exempted and that's where their profit is their profit comes from being able to treat their workers it ways that a century or hamper of what the workers. make impossible if you require to do you treat your workers as an employee it's just that it's state mechanism for the

company were foster the company is told voters that they would provide health insurance for drivers who work 15 hours are more a week occupational accident insurance coverage and even 30 fans for every mile they drive among other protections that were noted is that a compromise or is it just a promise that these companies no longer have to keep. it's a promise and has no legal standing whatsoever they can say whatever they want that they're going to do to get this vote actually they did that did make a promise to spend money by the chair and they don't want to die because if they had to do for their workers what the workers won the over the years then their profit would disappear and they wouldn't be any different from say a taxi company in terms of lift and so their prasad is how you move forward in the capital of the last sort by simply ignoring taking care of workers and then the tran missed something they like insurance if you have it believe insurance there's

800 ways of doing insurance which you could end up doing is giving them an insurance policy that is next to a huge list rather than the kind that they want and that their unions win for them in the trunk tracts that's what this is all about but there is something deeper here and you know in recent months the right sharon delivery companies they blasted ads and push notifications directly to drivers saying that only a fraction of them will be hired as employees fewer drivers would mean longer wait times what they were warning customers about they said that said all this and messages that were sent directly to mobile devices right the prices would rise because of higher costs associated with reclassification did these companies find a new way to kind of bully their message and force it onto users and force it on to those drivers in a way that we're going to now see in this new kind of tech future. i don't think it's new frankly then i think this is very you want to scare people into thinking they have a vested interest in the way you want them to so you tell them how much better off

they'll be able to where the company wants are much worse off they'll be if they don't and you hope that grabbed well. you know a clever advertisement will get you through this difficult election i mean it's a tragic day for the working class of this. country so what are the rules protections for workers and leaflets against companies just like you were in and the list at least finally wanted now to have this legal move will get them out of having to observe what was literally a century and have struggled to reduce it's a sign of going backwards in terms of the rolling stock of the working hours oh per professor wolf florida other say want to talk about here and highlight voted today to gradually hike the state wage to $15.00 per hour obviously joining a growing list of states and of policies also taking a step what are your thoughts on the. well i think it's very interesting and in my

judgment very positive it's that even though the people of florida voted for mr trump over mr biden when it came to a real pocketbook issue what everyone can understand without all the fakery should you get this need in dollars minimum pro-grade rage for our everybody kind of knowledge what kind of life can you live even on so if being let alone last extends it was carefully worded and since it really will reach its being until i believe 2026 where the legislation a proposal is written this is a moderate modest way to do something for the worst paid off of the working class and to the credit of the people in florida despite the effort of so many interests to push the weight over and live it on there for the majority of the holders of florida wanted to have some kind of compassion for the for those

earning so little not only florida but especially those states that are areas that are obviously way more expensive to live in what a $15.00 probably do an hour those who are raising families even professor return wolf thank you so much for your time today and breaking this down for us. thank you . for now catch you must on demand on the portable t.v. up available on your apple and android form or simply check it out a portable dot t.v. see an extra.

sputnik 5 has the world. just like its namesake the original. the forest craft to leave. orbit the world. many questions remain unanswered russia's new vaccine the authorities are confident enough to go forward with mass production. of the family states please when you. do receive. interest early in their requests. william. but see. all right this is happening all the way go and the reaction has been exactly the same as it was waved by. journalists from the us . the world reaction is made of green cheese.

thank you. but. it's. true. if you can say someone might. buy the small and direct means say a painting that you can then say there are thousands of other lives well my response is that the way we should think about that is just is that just as there's a child in a store experiment right there in front of you in this burning building you can say well also just thousands of children around the world millions of children on the. you could potentially state it with its light weight in the situation in being i'm facing a burning building just all the time. donald

trump cries foul filing a lawsuit to halt the vote counting in michigan pennsylvania and georgia and demanding a recount in wisconsin joe biden meanwhile is confident he's creeping ever closer towards the white house did not know after a long night of county it's clear that we would do no states to reach $270.00 electoral votes needed to win the presidency has the ballot tally in continues protesters march through several u.s. cities demanding all votes be counted. and the fallout from a knife edge election could potentially drag on for days or even longer with neither side willing to concede. so we'll be going to the.