Georgia heading for recount as race too close to call, says top official

The contest in the vital state of Georgia is “too close to call” and heading for a recount, a top official has revealed, writes Andrew Buncombe.

Biden campaign threatens to ‘escort trespassers out of White House’ if Trump refuses to concede

Joe Biden’s campaign has warned that Donald Trump could be escorted from the White House, amid reports he has no plans to concede, writes Gino Spocchia.  

In a statement, Biden campaign spokesperson Andrew Bates said: “As we said on July 19th, the American people will decide this election.”  

“And the United States government is perfectly capable of escorting trespassers out of the White House,” added Mr Bates, in apparent reference to the Republican president. 

Fox News ‘tells staff to refuse to call Biden president-elect’

Fox News has sent a memo to staff telling them not to refer to Joe Biden as president-elect if he is declared the winner, CNN is reporting.

Trump tweeting about Philadelphia

There’s something about this tweet.

The president quoting a Fox News opinion host and trying to push his message of electoral malfeasance (for which there is no evidence) while Joe Biden’s vote tally grows inexorably.

Trying to tweet back the tide.

‘A global joke’: Worldwide glee grows at US election turmoil

“Chaos won”, shouted the front page of Turkey’s opposition newspaper Cumhuriyet about the bitter aftermath of the US’s still contested election, writes Bel Trew.

“Brawl”, roared Iran leading reformist paper Shargh with a photo of the two contenders, their fists in the air. “What a spectacle!” Wrote Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei on Twitter with glee.

Biden’s lead grows in PA

Joe Biden’s lead in Pennsylvania has grown to more than 6,700.

‘This election isn’t over’, Trump campaign insists

The Trump campaign has released a statement saying that “this election isn’t over”, after Joe Biden took the lead in Pennsylvania and came within touching distance of the White House.

One US site, Decision Desk, has already called the election for Mr Biden. But TV networks and the Associated Press are holding off because thousands of votes are yet to be counted.

Mr Trump’s team insisted he would be re-elected, though that possibility appears to be slipping away.

“The false projection of Joe Biden as the winner is based on results in four states that are far from final,” the Trump campaign said.

It added that it would seek a recount in Georgia, one of the swing states where Mr Biden wrested a lead earlier today.

The rest of the statement was used to make false or unsubstantiated allegations that electoral malfeasance detrimental to Mr Trump had taken place.

You can read our story here:

Why Associated Press hasn’t called Pennsylvania yet

This is direct from AP, explaining why they are waiting to definitively call Pennsylvania. Joe Biden just took a lead in the state with some 130,000 votes left to count.

The Associated Press has not declared a winner in the battleground state of Pennsylvania because there are tens of thousands of votes left to count in the contest between President Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden.

Pennsylvania is among a handful of battleground states Trump and Biden are narrowly contesting as they seek the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency.

Trump, who held a 675,000-vote lead early Wednesday, prematurely declared victory in the state.

“We’re winning Pennsylvania by a tremendous amount. We’re up 690,000 votes in Pennsylvania. These aren’t even close. It’s not like, ‘Oh, it’s close,”‘ Trump said during an appearance at the White House.

But by early Friday, Biden had taken a lead of about 6,000 votes as mail-in ballots from across the state continued to be counted. The late counted ballots were overwhelmingly in Biden’s favor.

One reason the race tightened: Under state law, elections officials are not allowed to process mail-in ballots until Election Day. It’s a form of voting that has skewed heavily in Biden’s favor after Trump spent months claiming — without proof — that voting by mail would lead to widespread voter fraud.

There’s a possibility the race won’t be decided for days. If there is less than a half percentage point difference between Biden and Trump’s vote total, state law dictates that a recount must be held.

Trump’s White House address ‘disturbing’, says Republican senator

A Republican senator has broken ranks to criticise Donald Trump’s address in the White House briefing room last night, in which he continued to push false claims about the election.

Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, whose state is a key battleground, said on Friday he had seen no evidence to support Mr Trump’s claim Thursday evening of fraud in balloting.

“The president’s speech last night was very disturbing to me because he made very, very serious allegations without any evidence to support it,” Toomey told CBS News.

He added: “I voted for President Trump. I endorsed President Trump. I want the next president to be the person who legitimately wins the Electoral College and I will accept whoever that is.”

Meanwhile, Adam Kinzinger, a Republican congressman from Illinois, tweeted that the president’s claims of fraud are “getting insane.” If the president had legitimate concerns about fraud, they needed to be based on evidence and taken to court, Mr Kinzinger said, adding: “STOP Spreading debunked misinformation.”

Biden takes lead in Pennsylvania

Joe Biden has taken the lead in Pennsylvania over Donald Trump.

The challenger has about 5,500 more votes following the latest tranche from Philadelphia.