look around america the democrats put one foot in the toe of the white house off to 3 tenth's days joe biden looks set to become the 46th u.s. president as key states in the close to 20 outs and that results meanwhile. if you count the legal votes easily would you be counted should be should be declared the winner. it could still be a bumpy road ahead as both candidates clash over product results with some in the republican column claiming the count has been fortunate. on the delayed twin out saying the president raises big questions about the vote itself especially e-mail about its amid

a record turnout we hear from commentators on the key issues. sort of so they want to stop the killing over so if you want to continue tell me it's a joke every night after night after that except when i watch the big board our system is the worst we also see that in the united states constitution voting is never mentioned at all welcome to the international on to our coverage of the u.s. election counting in key battleground states continues. the contest for the white house could be over in the coming hour was with a democrat joe biden looking more and more likely to be declared the went on increasing his vote margins in key states however a recount has been announced in the state of georgia leaving america on tenterhooks attention is focused on a handful of states and we'll still waiting for crucial results and nevada on. to

have the democrats hold a slot and. well as it stands this is how it. has $264.00 alexis if you include arizona which some say is too early to cool but if we assume he does take it he is 6 electoral votes short of the $270.00 required for victory donald trump on the other hand carney stands up 214 but that said it remains a really tight race gaps have closed in different battleground states today the former vice president is leading in nevada and has less than one percent ahead to pennsylvania in georgia and has taken the lead by just 1000 votes as mentioned though the margins are so tight that a recount is already set to happen incidentally a democrat hasn't one state in decades meanwhile the race in north carolina is too close to cool to. what it's going live now to our correspondent capable pin in new

york. looks like we might be just hours away from finally having a resolution what's the latest from those pivotal states. well in 4 states where ballots are still being counted joe biden does have a narrow lead in arizona in pennsylvania in georgia and nevada joe biden seems to have a narrow lead however at this point the results are not yet certified we're expecting the state of georgia to conduct a recount there are other concerns being raised we're hearing a lot of optimism though from the democratic side this was nancy pelosi. i wish we weren't wearing masks so we could see how exciting it is to come before you today with joe biden having the tremendous mandate that he has and that. pretty soon the hyphen will be gone from vice president to president elect joe

biden now in georgia a recount has already been set and we now have donald trump speaking up on social media and raising concerns about military ballots those are ballots that are sent absentee by members of the u.s. military apparently there are 9000 votes from members of the u.s. military that donald trump is concerned may not have been counted and the military it is seem to lean more in trump's favor so concerns are being raised about that in georgia that issue is certainly going to be looked into no doubt about it now we understand the trump camp is filing lawsuits in many parts of the country regarding mail in ballots the manner in which they were counted they argue there was not proper transparency and how the votes have been counted donald trump has spoken up and said he intends a legal challenge and he believes that if only legal votes are counted he is the clear winner however joe biden on the biden camp seems to disregard these concerns

this is what we heard from the republican national committee this was their statement we intend to ensure that every little fool votes and has their vote counted in accordance with the law that observe is a grounds that the access they achieve on the state law and that any irregularities that have occurred with the by malicious intent or incompetence fully investigates its to the fullest extent allowed under the law. now at this point we have the mayor of philadelphia the city in pennsylvania saying that what donald trump alleges about how the votes were being counted in philadelphia is simply groundless it has no basis in fact and we also have the secretary of state of arizona making clear that only legal votes are being counted in arizona and that donald trump's concern about a flood or a ballot dumping of illegal votes is simply groundless and does not have any merit

now at this point though the biden camp has not yet declared 'd victory they are using some rather spicy language about donald trump's concerns and allegations of misconduct and and foul play this is what they had to say about donald trump and about their perception that they are on the road to a win the american people will decide this election and the united states government is specifically capable of school passes out of the white house. now at this point biden is expected to address the u.s. public shortly within the next few hours and results are expected to come soon nevada has indicated results will come on sunday we're hearing from officials in georgia that results may come on saturday so results are pending we've got 4 u.s. states where ballots are being counted at this point joe biden has a very narrow lead in all of those states things certainly look good for the biden camp but the trump camp is making clear they will contest the results so even if

a winner is declared it looks like this will not be the end of the u.s. presidential election still no clear winner steere still results being contested a lot of tension in the united states right now as it's friday and we do not yet have the official results of the tuesday election we don't know who will be president for the next 4 years such a lot of frustrations if the american people who are still waiting to know if he's going to take the reins come january that was caleb maupin reporting from anything . we spoke to republican i'd like to know a terry campo and he explained what could happen if the vote counts contested. there always is some fraud and they usually happens in the major cities and it's usually where there's one political party control of your political machine and people have quotas to meet about how many votes they're supposed to produce to keep

their jobs in local government or their contracts and so that's kind of what happens it becomes very difficult once those ballots are in the box to to invalidate them and so what's what poll watchers are for and why we try to have call watchers everywhere to prevent those improper ballots from being counted the problem this year is so many ballots being cast by mail were done in private without any witnesses there is always when these recounts that happen there will be challenges about what legal standard was apply to kick out of the count those votes and those issues probably will be taken up by the supreme court 2000 presidential election 20 years ago bush versus gore that took 37 days from the date of the election for the supreme court to reach the decision and that's very well may be happening again. well this is the scene in washington d.c. want to try to demonstrate to thaw taking a stand next to the white house they are calling for the vote counting to be done

legally and fadi all the peaceful demonstrations in support of both candidates also taking place and a number of cities. the ryle of the results being potentially rigged started even before election day with both parties stressing the vote not to be eco. if you count the illegal votes i easily win if you count the illegal votes they can try to steal. the election from osip in america vote is sacred. it's how people of this nation express their will. and it is there will of the voters no one not anything else but chooses the president of united states of america this tremendous litigation going on and this is a case where they're trying to steal an election they're trying to rig an election each ballot must be counted and that's what we're going to see going through now

and that's how it should be our goal is to defend the integrity of the election will not allow the corruption to steal such an important election or any election for that matter it's a corrupt system and it makes people corrupt even if they aren't. r.t.c. a correspondent or i got to discuss the tension or what around the country with my colleague nick yeah man. the u.s. really does pride itself on its democratic system does not now appear to have glitches with everything that's going on i would say it's at this point more of a spectacle i mean the elections in the united states the there are always something of a shoe for the entire nation but this year in particular they seem to have outdone themselves democracy sometimes messy sometimes requires a little patience is world but that patience has been rewarded now for more than 240 years in the system of government governance are the envy of the world while

the envy of the world perhaps in days long gone if you're in the united states you just a citizen wanting to exercise your constitutional right to vote what you show up at the polling station and they'll turn you right around and tell you to go and register 1st except you have to register 2 to 4 weeks in advance depending on the state you know different procedures everywhere and to register you have a say you have to have a special id card which not everyone has so far ok you will well prepared you did it you you went and registered next you've you've got to get time off work either that because in the united states whereas in europe voting is always inside everyone's free everyone who vote in the united states sunday is a jewish holiday and they would make it a national holiday voting day so you have to go to wednesday for example now there's a pandemic it is dangerous it is literally dangerous to do and stand in huge lines of people with the very little social distancing assume you will your vote as

democrats have been urging their supporters to do you mail your vote and it's lost 150000 votes have been confirmed sue for are lost in this election and they're still counting there this potentially tens and tens of thousands more in an election as clues as this. every vote matters they've lost so many already democrat officials never believe they could win this election honestly i really believe that that's why they did the mail in ballots with this tremendous corruption and fraud going on that's why they mailed out tens of millions of unsolicited ballots they refused to include any requirement to verify signatures i get is or even determine whether they're eligible or it was a vote of it is a nation divided more now than it has been in living memory the level of polarize ation and division political division in the united states is is tearing the

country apart and it isn't doing anyone any favors everybody understands what is happening in america but there is very little you know that nobody's willing to go take the extra step to understand the other side everybody wants things down their way and and this is being with repeated across the country protest violence political violence to level to get beaten stabbed because of the color of the had that you're wearing the slogan a new t. shirt and this is this is being seen worldwide this is new but he's envious of these in europe they're saying look we simply can't afford in content out europe to become as divided and as polarized as the united states the poor ization of america should be a warning for europe we are successful because we preach differences between countries and peoples so we benefit together if we lose the ability to compromise our democracies are in danger. well sublingual america does not quite correspond to the democratic culture we know from the united states it's important the result is

the accepted by everyone it's easy to be a winner but sometimes it is hope to be a loser at the end of the day the how close this election is how close the vote is where the both candidates a lot of leeway both are claiming that they are on the path to victory that their winning bird will be contested lawsuits of fire being fired off like fire crackers by trump especially the this election will be condensed interim self said that you know this is a lonely and in the supreme court despite the warning of legal action several election commissions in america have insisted that every follett photo was counted and accurately reported international observers have also said the ballot proceeded lawfully they have slammed donald trump's allegations of fraud saying it damages the public trust in democratic institutions human rights lawyer eric so one can believe the president will fight tooth and nail to stay in office. i think it's

there are advantages and disadvantages to a extended legal. battle if you will i think that yes if the matter is not resolved by inauguration day that seems to be to create a constitutional crisis in the united states however if the supreme court is quite aware of when an operational day they set their briefing schedules they will eventually irrigates that will. and will issue the appropriate orders but donald trump is fighting for his life he knows he's going to be prosecuted criminally when he's released from the presidency and if not he wants to stay on this is very personal to him however the supreme court can hear the matter and here in a quick way i wouldn't be surprised if they want to throw that kind of curveball

into it and make everyone has to hold their breath and be plugged into the drama into january i suspect that the matter will move much quicker and i believe that it will have the president elect. the count has been particularly complicated in this contest and its story not many contentious issues. discussed just a few of them. look at what the prison is doing legally the places they're trying to intercede and serve and so if they want to stop the county other states want to continue tell me to get a concrete standard for that and as well as after show be read holder in 2014 we've had a diluted voting rights we need to minister its records of who the president is be authorized to make things that the 5 border guards at the have national standards only legends we cover republican we're fighting against that since the late eighty's and the what i was saying that metastasized into this year's election now

i don't know what about that why don't we have one uniform federal law that says when you're voting for president maybe put it on a separate take it i'm not sure how this will work but why don't we have one federal law for that the question is what you're asking is a great question there's a better question to which i think transcends that why is it in the year 2020 when we can map of the genome we still have this archaic system which i think speaks to something which is which makes it right and right if for any kind of shenanigans we know so much about how the votes can be stolen we had terrible days of cold actors and literacy tests and our system of voting is the worst but we also say that in the united states constitution voting is never mentioned at all there's hardly anything new selectors and that sort of thing they never got around to it so the question we have to ask is how is that right now that we see that we have something

as archaic and as stupid as it. seems i think is really it's gotten him if this is not the donald trump that we're used to this is not the same fire and brimstone have bob how did you take it down to what degree. it will say it was embarrassing it was the sad final chapter to a set chapter in american history that something you want here. on an internet war we're looking it's a choice you want broken to beat him cards that almost everything you said in that speech was a lot old us a little moment you find yourself getting angry a bit of the. man who relies. for every school call understanding that there's no pay or. would you want joe biden to drive you home from the airport let me just talk about something right now where you put all this is side this is this says either

something about is good or bad when we have a man but i'm not even sure he knows where he is and he is most probably what we see is correct going to be sworn in as the president and i for the project since since we are predicting he will serve my term shorter than william henry harrison of 31 days when kamel harris will be removed immediately something will happen in joel will maybe perhaps that aneurism god forbid something will pop up maybe coded maybe 8 maybe senescence but he will be moved because if you think of anybody thinks that joe biden is going to be if he is the he is the intended get it and you think that well my friends happy birthday cause you were born yesterday robert can you respond to that do you think that there is a likely i've heard from a lot of people on both sides who they all seem to believe that biden will not serve his entire 1st term and i hear from democrats who say that the time with me i hear from republicans who say it would be

a scandal but i've heard very few people disagree with that idea do you disagree with the. course or disagree with that idea or still buy tickets or rather this term i think it's important that he does because he is a throwback to the era politics when we were not governing in a 51 to 49 country where we were we have bipartisan agreement would be a big thing to big big projects of the major we put people on the moon we won cold war 2 we liberated. western civilization that's what america used to do when we worked or you are. this is a sham the fix is in the fix he's been in from the beginning all these states so you know just going around the voter and changing the voting rules claiming that it's because of covert setting up the scenario where you think they can't finish counting the votes in georgia or north carolina or whatever they're just they're just waiting they're coordinating with the biden people and they're just waiting to see how they're going to do this we all know it's

a joke every night after night after that i sit there and i watch the big boards you know whether it's on c.n.n. or wherever it is and guess why the numbers more votes of come in in this state more votes have come in in that state and guess what biden picked up close trumps lead is evaporating what a surprise this is really a travesty what you guys say is the actual role of the press in these elections i mean are we supposed to be be observers of the process because these days it does seem like the media wields so much power that it could actually steer perception steer the public's and ultimately steer the election itself then. yeah absolutely you know we're supposed to be in the media the observer the impartial observer we're not supposed to be influenced or in this case we've moved even past that to become the decider in fact i were in the arena is full combatants this is something almost unique to the presidency i mean the uncomfortable position of

being a member trump or somebody who thinks the president should be defeated hope see is defeated and yet finds himself very sympathetic to the president when he complains about the media because steve is right my friend steve is right the president has got an unfair shake from this media and i think it's all people out there like me who don't think don't trust been a good president but we hate it that we have to defend the guy against an unfair media. while wrangling over the election. has overshadowed another heated race in the country both parties are still grappling for seats in congress and the days ahead of the vote democrat spent large sums of money campaigning in a bid to win more influence in the house and senate while that did not happen the house is expected to stay in the hands of the democrats with results still coming in however some experts calculate the blue majority will actually be fyn of this year and so far they are down by at least 6 incumbents so we can see 218 seats are needed to win

a majority so far the democrats won 208 republicans on 193 there's also a tussle for the senate that's not forget because democrats need to gain full seats to flip control of the opera house or guts on likely as the republicans already have 48 seats and how be needing in 3 of the remaining 4 of 4 races to get to them object number of 50 so that's the race for seats in congress meanwhile in the presidential race the blue wave that many were predicting has failed to materialize even though joe biden is on course for victory at this stage the contest has been much closer than polls full cost election integrity activist and independent journalist nico house told me why. that stage was set unfortunately prior to the general election because well the candidates that i thought could be trumped which would include gabbert bernie sanders and i would even argue andrew yang those aren't the ones who are allowed to go up against trump in the moment they selected

the one of the mill democrat in joe biden who's basically been by our standards a republican who is pro fact tracking just like trump who can be a little bit more hawkish on foreign policy than trump then you are setting the stage for walk a fine will go will have to vote in support base off a party lines because that's seemingly where at least the democrats are demanding we vote on in by that extra extension you want to have republicans of course staying loyal in most cases to donald trump. but let's turn now to some other events outside the united states and russia has sent a 5th request to job me for data on the alleged poisoning. comes as a spokesperson for russia's top judge claimed that the german side has so far failed to give any meaningful response the political activists was allegedly poisoned in august and siberia. reports. on the one hand if we look

back at how the most senior e.u. officials treated the same the volley case perhaps we shouldn't have expected much from berlin's response to the official request from russia but then on the other hand if you think about what if surprise surprise that reply ended up containing details in abundance on all the tests that were undertaken with a light saying the volley well now the russian officials are saying that they do have that message from germany which literally contains 0 answers to all the questions that were put forward by the russian side which according to moscow is an indication that germany's still unwilling to cooperate on the matter that it's up to work to determine authorities wrote a response cohen on russia to provide additional information on the investigation over the hospitalization of alexina valmy however it's not a single question from the russian side has been concerts so you can be sent to

account it is clear that to date requests by the russian prosecutor's office have not been mapped such a delay by our foreign colleagues is regrettable and leaves russian authorities with no opportunity to study the circumstances of the incident. now to some other key points of that statement by the russian police they are saying that none of the members of the blogger's team that were with the like seen a volley in siberia are willing to get in touch or meet the russian authorities plus in that statement it's being reminded that the russian doctors didn't find any traces of poisoning and the bloggers body and also that cording to the doctors and some chronic illnesses could have led to that charge aeration of his health in fact they are also reminding that the russian doctor 1000 alike scene of ali in a state of aggravated pancreatitis in any case the bottom line from russia's law.

authorities is that they can't move on in their investigation without the details that they are requesting from berlin and this is something that was also echoed and that keeps being echoed by the statements from the russian foreign ministry i should have been reading it is clear that berlin and other european capitals forget international law when it comes to russia and megaphone diplomacy is preferred to mutually respectful dialogue so any objective analysis even without knowledge of applied chemistry and chemical nonproliferation issues quite naturally gives the conclusion of a station amateur performance his main aim is yet another short of sanctions. which stands firm against impose truce at the expense of national sovereignty international law and simple common sense. so it looks like we're in for another deadlock with a vague response or as the russian police authorities put it a completely useless response from the german side and if we look back at what

angola merkel once said that russia pretty much wouldn't get anything unless it is willing to clear up the issue in the meantime anti-crime all activists alexina volley has laughed off the statement by the russian authorities he pretty much said hey guys what else are you going to find in my body up until august 20th was absolutely healthy. so just to remind you of the time line of this very complicated story with a like scene of ali the opposition activist was traveling from siberia to moscow on a plane when he fell severely ill the pilots went for an emergency landing to save his life then the doctors were fighting for a like scene of all these live he was then moved up on the request of his family to berlin for treatment and then we heard from european officials that alexei the volley was poisoned by a nerve agent of the novacek group russia once proof of that but as the officials

in moscow are saying they're not getting any up until this point. clear and russian young talents will be competing in different to stick fields over the next 5 days at the annual games this year the contest is being held for mostly due to the pandemic more than $1700.00 participants from 10 to 25 years old will perform classic. pieces in front of a jury competing for waste 8 keysets of medals the contest is inspired by the delphic games of ancient greece and is aimed at supporting gifted youngsters. were reminded them fine if we go off the numbers in the presidential race in the us democratic nominee joe biden is trying to 64. just 6 shy of the presidency donald trump has 214 by john carney has a narrow need to in the traditionally red state of georgia but he's also slightly

ahead and has just gone out in front in pennsylvania as well saying without tea throughout the coming hours and days as we continue tracking those 2020 u.s. election. join me every thursday on the alec simon show and i'll be speaking to guest in the world of politics sports business i'm show business i'll see you then.