America must wait another two weeks until Electoral College electors in each state cast their ballots.

The 14 December vote involves 538 electors: one for each member of the House of Representatives, two per senator, and three allocated to the District of Columbia through the 22nd Amendment.

Their votes typically align with the popular vote in each state. But not all states require the votes cast by electors to mirror the popular vote.

Certificates recording the electoral vote results in each state must be received by the president of the Senate and the archivist no later than 23 December.

The official results of the electoral votes are sent to the new elected Congress which is set to meet in a joint session on 6 January, and announce the results.

Joe Biden is to receive highly classified intelligence analysis and information about pressing national security matters as part of the first presidential daily briefing since winning the election.

A president-elect would normally expect to receive the briefing as soon as the election was over, but Trump’s attempts to cast doubts on the Democrat’s election victory have contributed to delays in the usual transition process.

China has announced it is sanctioning leaders of US government-affiliated bodies that promote democracy around the world in response to what it calls practices that “blatantly meddle in Hong Kong affairs”.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said the measures would cover the senior director for Asia at the National Endowment Democracy, John Knaus, the regional director for the Asia-Pacific at the National Democratic Institute, Manpreet Singh Anand, and two of the institute’s officials responsible for Hong Kong.

It comes amid an ongoing diplomatic dispute with Washington over trade and security.

The Trump administration has cut off Chinese tech giant Huawei’s access to most US components and technology on security grounds, and pressed for the Chinese owner of video service TikTok to sell its US operation, which American officials say is a security risk.

Capitol Hill’s main players are returning for one final, perhaps futile, attempt at deal-making on a challenging menu of year-end business, including Covid relief, a $1.4 trillion spending package, and defense policy.

Ambassadors from the 27 EU countries are due to meet today to consider how the bloc can repair relations with the US after four tumultuous years with Trump in the White House.

They are said to be looking at five policy areas where cooperation could be improved, including Covid-19 and climate change. 

Those discussions will set the scene for a meeting of EU prime ministers and presidents next week. Some European leaders have only reluctantly welcomed Biden’s victory – notably Hungary’s Viktor Orban, who said Trump was his “Plan A”.

Trump supporters are conducting a March for Trump bus tour – a two week multi-state rally in support of the US president. 

On Sunday they began their rally in Doral, Florida. Their intention is to arrive in Washington DC on 12 December.

Biden’s favorability rating has risen six percentage points to 55 per cent since the election, according to polling by Gallup. 

Trump’s favorability, meanwhile, has dropped three points to 42 per cent.

The president-elect’s current rating is the highest it has been since February 2019, two months before he declared his candidacy for president, when it was 56 per cent. 

The survey was conducted between 5 and 19 November.

Biden is excepted to name several of his most senior economic advisers in the coming days – a group that is expected to include several liberal economists and policy specialists from the previous two Democratic administrations

Among them is Janet Yellen, who could become the first woman to lead the Treasury Department in its nearly 232-year history.

Trump launched a Twitter tirade against the CBS 60 Minutes show on Sunday following an interview with Chris Krebs, the cybersecurity director who the president fired over claims the 2020 election was the most secure on record.

Trump accused CBS producers of having failed to approach his team for a comment.

He called the interview “ridiculous, one sided” and in a subsequent tweet called them “fake news”.

Trump has had another brush with coronavirus, according to a report by the Associated Press, which is quoting a source as saying the president held a meeting with Pennsylvania state senator who abruptly left a West Wing meeting after being informed he had tested positive for the disease.

Doug Mastriano, a Republican state senator,  was told that White House medical personnel would take care of him, his son and his son’s friend, who were also there for the Oval Office meeting and tested positive. The meeting continued after he left.

Trump himself was laid low by the virus during the election campaign in October and his son, Don Jr, tested positive two weeks ago. 

Positive coronavirus cases are surging across the United States and Dr Anthony Fauci said the country could see “surge upon surge” in the coming weeks.

Everyone who is in close proximity to the president must take a rapid coronavirus test.

All participants in Wednesday’s meeting took Covid tests, but the positive results were not announced until they were in the West Wing of the White House.