Image source, Getty Images

Welcome back to our live coverage. You join us as US President-elect Donald Trump has made two more key appointments ahead of his return to the White House in January.

The make-up of his new administration is gradually taking shape. As we reported earlier, Tom Homan, 62, will serve as Trump's "border tsar", having previously served as the returning president's acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice).

New York Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, 40, has also been made ambassador to the United Nations, the BBC's US partner CBS News has confirmed.

Trump earlier appointed Susie Wilesas his chief of staff. In his election victory speech, Trump called her "the ice maiden" - a reference to her composure.

The news comes as Trump's Republican Party are edging closer to full control of the US Congress - they already have a majority in the Senate and need to win just a handful of seats to take the House of Representatives.

Our teams in Washington DC, London, and beyond are poised to bring you the latest updates and analysis throughout the day, so stay with us.

Nada Tawfik and Regan Morris
BBC News in Palm Beach, Florida

Image source, Getty Images

Before we leave you for the time being, here's our look at what Donald Trump has been up to behind the gates of his Florida home since winning the election. You can read the full article here.

Donald Trump’s Florida residence and private club Mar-a-Lago is once again the Winter White House - the place to be seen for West Wing hopefuls as the US president-elect assembles a new administration behind its opulent doors.

While President Joe Biden will remain in office until January, this part of Florida has become a rival centre of political power in America.

Just two years after an FBI raid found classified documents about US nuclear weapons and spy satellites stored in a bathroom, an eclectic mix of insiders are swarming to Mar-a-Lago, which is patrolled by robot dogs and armed guards on boats.

North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, rumoured as a potential energy secretary, was there on election night. So was former US Defence Department chief of staff Kash Patel.

Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, has been alongside Donald Trump in Mar-a-Lago during family dinners and calls with world leaders.

For those not blessed with an invitation to stay at Mar-a-Lago itself, the hotels and restaurants around nearby West Palm Beach are packed with office-seekers jostling for influence in the new administration and supporters celebrating Trump’s victory.

We are pausing our live coverage shortly. Here's a recap of what we've learned in recent hours:

• Donald Trump has appointed former immigration official Tom Homan as his "border tsar"
• Florida Senator Rick Scott's run to be Senate leader has been endorsed by a number of Trump allies, marking him out as clear favourite
• We still don't know who will control the House, with counting continuing in the handful of races which decide who gets a majority
• Joe Biden and Trump will meet at the White House on Friday. Biden is expected to use the meeting to press Trump on Ukraine
• Trump reportedly spoke to Putin on the phone this week, though the BBC has been unable to confirm that report

Thanks for joining us - we'll be back shortly.

Tom Homan's appointment as "border czar" puts Donald Trump's immigration plans back in the spotlight.

Here's a reading list if you want to learn more about what the president-elect is planning once he's back in office:

• How would Trump’s promise of mass deportations of migrants work?
• Divided Arizona contends with Trump's sweeping border plan
• Seven things Trump says he will do as president

Image source, Getty Images

Tom Homan, a 62-year-old former police officer and long-serving immigration official, has been appointed as Donald Trump's "border tsar".

The president-elect confirmed he would have a wide-ranging role overseeing border security and deportation policy - two areas which were central to Trump's presidential campaign.

Homan previously served as Trump's acting director of the immigration department during his first presidency.

After leaving that role, Homan contributed to Project 2025, a 900-page policy "wish list" authored by a group of conservatives and billed by some as a blueprint for a future Trump government.

The document proved controversial and has been criticised as authoritarian by Democrats. Trump has distanced himself from its proposals and has claimed not to have read it.

Before the election, Homan was asked about Trump's deportation plans by CBS, the BBC's US partner. He said mass deportation policy "has to be done" because the US is facing a "historic illegal immigration crisis".

Homan was given the Presidential Rank Award for Distinguished Service in 2015 while working as an immigration enforcement official, which is "bestowed to leaders who've achieved sustained extraordinary results".

Donald Trump says Tom Homan will serve as head of border and deportation policy in his new administration.

The president-elect confirmed the appointment on his Truth Social network.

Homan, who served as acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement during Trump's first presidency, will be given a wide-ranging role covering a number of areas that were core campaign pledges.

Trump refers to Homan as his "border czar", overseeing security issues from the southern border to aviation security.

He goes on to say Homan "will be in charge of all Deportation of Illegal Aliens back to their Country of Origin".

We'll bring you more on this story shortly.

Image source, Reuters

As we reported earlier, Donald Trump spoke with Russian leader Vladimir Putin over the phone on Wednesday, according to the Washington Post.

Trump is said to have warned the Russian president not to escalate the war in Ukraine.

Asked about the reported call, the president-elect's communications director Steven Chueng said they wouldn't comment on private calls with other world leaders, but did say Trump has received calls from leaders.

The report in the post suggests Trump mentioned America's "sizeable military presence in Europe" during the conversation, but the BBC has not been able to independently verify the report.

During the election campaign, Trump said he would end the war in Ukraine "within a day", but didn't explain how he would do that.

Trump spoke to Ukrainian leader Volodomyr Zelensky after he won the election, with X owner Elon Musk also on the call. A source in Ukraine's presidential office told the BBC the call lasted around half an hour.

Image source, Reuters

Earlier, we brought you reports that Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor is under pressure from some Democrats to stand down.

The 70-year-old judge, who is on the court's liberal wing, will be replaced by Donald Trump if she retires or dies during his presidency.

Some reportedly want her to leave the court in the coming weeks so Joe Biden can pick her replacement, and prevent Trump being able to further cement the court's conservative majority.

It's a complicated and sensitive subject. We've tried to help you understand it here.

Image source, Getty Images

Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell will be stepping down at the end of the year, opening up a contest to replace him.

With Republicans now holding a majority in the upper house of Congress, that race is now effectively an internal GOP battle - and over the last 24 hours, it's become clear that one man is leading that race: Rick Scott.

We know he's wanted the job for some time. In 2022, the Florida Senator angered many of his Republican colleagues when he mounted a challenge against McConnell.

He was told to "be careful" by Donald Trump when he suggested several popular federal programmes - including Medicare and Social Security - should be renegotiated every five years.

When McConnell announced he was quitting, Scott said he had "long believed that we need new leadership in the Senate".

Now several key Trump allies like Elon Musk, Marco Rubio and RFK Jr are publicly endorsing him.

While it appears Scott is currently the preferred candidate of the Trump camp, it's worth pointing out the president-elect has publicly endorsed anyone himself yet.

Anthony Zurcher
BBC North America correspondent

Donald Trump swept to victory on Tuesday by chipping away at groups of voters which Democrats once believed would help them win the White House for a generation.

After Barack Obama’s victory in 2008, many triumphantly claimed that the liberal voting coalition which had elected the first black president was growing more powerful, as the makeup of America changed.

Older, white conservatives were reducing in number, and non-white Americans were projected to be in the majority by 2044. College-educated professionals, younger people, black Americans, Latinos and other ethnic minorities, and blue-collar workers were part of a “coalition of the ascendant”.

These voters were left-leaning on cultural issues and supportive of an active federal government and a strong social safety net. And they constituted a majority in enough states to ensure a Democratic lock on the Electoral College – and the presidency.

“Demography,” these left-wing optimists liked to say, “is destiny.” Sixteen years later, however, that destiny appears to have turned to dust.

Read more on why here.

Sam Cabral
Reporting from Washington DC

Wednesday will see the election of a new Republican leader in the US Senate - where the party now holds a majority. And though we're still days away from those secret ballots being cast, a clear frontrunner has begun to emerge.

Florida Senator Rick Scott, who was comfortably re-elected to another six-year term on Tuesday, launched a renegade bid against his colleagues, John Cornyn of Texas and John Thune of South Dakota.

Neither of the Johns are trusted by the Trump camp and many, from grassroots supporters to some of the president-elect's closest allies, are now publicly endorsing Scott.

"The nation delivered a mandate on Tuesday. They want @realdonaldtrump's America First agenda, and they want it now," Alabama's Tommy Tuberville wrote on X, one of at least five of Scott's Senate colleagues to back him.

Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson mocked Cornyn as "an angry liberal", while billionaire Elon Musk ridiculed Thune as "the top choice of Democrats".

"Without Rick Scott, the entire Trump reform agenda wobbly," wrote Robert F Kennedy Jr.

It is just one of the many signs of how rapidly the Trump wing is moving to assert its dominance as 2025 approaches.

Sam Cabral
Reporting from Washington DC

Image source, Getty Images

As we wait to find out whether Republicans will control the House of Representatives - and with it, both chambers of Congress - speculation is swirling over the candidates being vetted to join Donald Trump's administration.

The president-elect's first hire came earlier this week. Susie Wiles, who steered him to victory as campaign co-chair, will be the White House chief of staff, managing the West Wing and its staff.

Several other allies are under consideration for Trump's cabinet:

• Secretary of State: Vivek Ramaswamy, the biotech entrepreneur who turned heads with his presidential primary bid, is on the shortlist to be America's chief diplomat
• Treasury Secretary: Billionaire hedge fund manager Scott Bessent, who donated millions to re-elect Trump and helped prepare him for economic policy discussions, could be the country's next chief financial officer
• Defence Secretary:Christopher Miller, the acting defense secretary during the 6 January riot at the US Capitol, may return to the fray as the formal nominee to oversee the US military
• Homeland Secretary: Tom Homan, a major advocate of Trump's approach on immigration when he led Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice), may be the man tasked with enforcing his plans to mass-deport undocumented migrants and "seal" the border

Keep reading to find out who else is being vetted to potentially join Trump's new top team.

Sam Cabral
Reporting from Washington DC

Image source, EPA

The US government is made up of three branches of government.

When Donald Trump won the White House last week, it gave him control of the executive branch of the US government.

Republicans have won a majority in the Senate and, as we just mentioned, they could retain their majority in the House of Representatives. The two chambers together make up the US Congress, or the legislative branch of government.

Trump's first term also helped his party cement a six-to-three conservative majority on the Supreme Court - which is the top decision-maker in the third and final piece of government: the judicial branch.

Trump has an ambitious agenda that could see him potentially restructure the federal administration, repeal or reverse policies of the outgoing Biden administration, and make major moves on everything from energy and the economy to immigration and healthcare.

With Republicans controlling the executive and potentially all of the legislative branch, they can advance his ideas through each chamber and send those bills to his desk. Once he signs them, they become law.

Critics and opponents could still launch legal challenges to these laws, but courts may hold them up. And if that recourse fails, Republican backers can appeal many of those decisions and escalate them to the Supreme Court, which could then provide the green light to move forward.

Image source, Getty Images

Berlin says German Chancellor Olaf Scholz spoke with Donald Trump by phone on Sunday.

Scholz and the US president-elect "agreed to work together towards a return to peace in Europe", according to a German government spokesman.

"Both exchanged views on the German-American relationship and the current geopolitical challenges," Steffen Hebestreit said.

Scholz congratulated Trump on Wednesday in a statement stressing his commitment to "further strengthening our joint Nato Alliance and the German-American friendship".

The German chancellor is part of a growing list of political figures who have reached out to the president-elect in recent days. By Thursday, Trump told NBC he had spoken with more than 70 world leaders since his election victory.

He had a famously difficult relationship with Scholz's predecessor, Angela Merkel, conversations with whom he recounted regularly on the campaign trail this year.

As we've been reporting, the Republicans are edging closer to overall control of Congress after having already secured a majority in the Senate.

Our partners at CBS News have yet to project a winner in 10 tight races in the US House of Representatives, with Republicans currently winning at least 215 seats and Democrats with at least 210. Whoever reaches a majority of 218 will run the 435-seat chamber.

Moments ago, Democrat Yadira Caraveo conceded defeat to Republican Gabe Evans in Colorado's 8th district.

We should note, however, that neither CBS or other US outlets have called this race. But Evans is ahead by 2,596 votes and, if his win is confirmed, Republicans will have secured their 216th seat.

Here's a quick look at other races yet to be called.

Potential flips:

• Alaska's only district: Republican challenger Nick Begich is inching closer to the 50% winning threshold - and ousting Democratic Representative Mary Peltola
• California's 27th district: Democratic challenger George Whitesides is narrowly leading Republican Rep. Mike Garcia

Other races still to be called:

• Iowa’s 1st district: Republican Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks is narrowly ahead
• Maine's 2nd district: Democratic Rep. Jared Golden is only 726 votes ahead in this ranked-choice contest
• Arizona’s 6th district: Republican Rep. Juan Ciscomani leads
• California’s 9th district: Democratic Rep. Josh Harder is slowly powering ahead
• California’s 13th district: Republican Rep. John Duarte is building a lead, with 62% of votes counted
• California’s 21st district: Democratic Rep. Jim Costa is barely ahead
• California's 41st district: Republican Rep. Ken Calvert is slowly powering ahead
• California's 45th district: Republican Rep. Michelle Steel is ahead but her lead is not unassailable
• California's 47th district: Democratic Rep. Dave Min is edging ahead, with 14% of votes left to count

Sam Cabral
Reporting from Washington DC

Image source, Getty Images

After backing Donald Trump with significant amounts of time and money, Elon Musk is now starting to weigh in on several aspects of the president-elect's incoming administration.

In his latest such intervention, the world's richest person is backing Florida Senator Rick Scott to lead Republicans in their new Senate majority once long-time leader Mitch McConnell steps aside in January.

"Rick Scott for Senate Majority Leader!" Musk wrote on his personal X account on Sunday night.

The apparent endorsement came after Scott wrote that he "will do whatever it takes" to confirm Trump's cabinet and judicial nominations in the Senate chamber "as quickly as possible", if he is elected leader.

Musk also earlier trashed one of Scott's competitor's in the race - South Dakota Senator John Thune - as he called him "the top choice of Democrats".

Thune and Texas Senator John Cornyn, another contender, are viewed as moderate figures in the party rather than natural Trump allies, which could benefit Scott in his bid.

Scott has previously been heavily critical of McConnell, arguing that his colleagues "want change". Trump allies, including Utah Senator Mike Lee, Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson and former Fox News host Tucker Carlson have all publicly backed him.

• Read more about Scott, Thune and Cornyn and the three-way race for Senate Republican leader

National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told our US partner CBS that President Joe Biden is expected to urge Trump not to walk away from Ukraine - the pair will meet in the Oval Office on Wednesday.

The Washington Post reports that Trump spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday and warned him not to escalate the Ukraine war - the BBC has not been able to independently verify this report.

Trump has weighed in on the Senate leadership race, but hasn't endorsed any of those considered to be top contenders.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he and Trump "see eye to eye" on the "Iranian threat" and the "danger posed by it".

Earlier today, Trump was projected to have won Arizona, meaning he's taken all seven swing states in the US presidential election.

As a reminder,there is still one chamber of Congress to be decided as Republicans currently lead in the race to control the House of Representatives.

Image source, Getty Images

As we've been reporting, Donald Trump has weighed in on the Senate leadership race and key Trump supporters are being floated for various positions in his cabinet. But - unlike in the UK - American president-elects don't assume the role immediately after the vote.

Here are a few dates for your diary if you want to follow along with what's coming up next.

• 17 December: Electors vote in their states - if you're looking for a reminder, you can glance over our explainer on the electoral college system
• 20 December: Funding for government services expires. This follows the approval of a three-month funding extension to avoid a shutdown, external
• 3 January: First meeting of the 119th Congress. Representatives and senators will be sworn in
• 6 January: Congress counts the electoral votes and subsequently confirms the new president
• 20 January: Inauguration day - the new president and vice-president will be sworn in. Members of the public will be able to get free tickets to watch this in-person

Sam Cabral
Reporting from Washington DC

Image source, Getty Images

Donald Trump's return to office has raised the possibility that he could further shape a Supreme Court to which he has already appointed three judges.

Conservative Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito are 76 and 74 respectively. But it is their liberal colleague - Justice Sonia Sotomayor, 70 - who is currently facing the most scrutiny.

The Barack Obama appointee lives with type 1 diabetes and though she has shown little signs of slowing down in life or work, anxious liberals have suggested in recent months that she should retire while Democrats still hold power in Washington.

Many of those advocating for this seem to be haunted by the death of liberal icon Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg during the first Trump term. She was replaced by Justice Amy Coney Barrett, which cemented the court's conservative majority.

But those close to Sotomayor have dismissed these claims as ageist, with one telling US media this weekend: “She’s in great health, and the court needs her now more than ever.”

No elected Democrat has yet called on her to step down and independent Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders told NBC earlier today that such a move was not "sensible”.

• For context: The Supreme Court hears challenges to lower court decisions and resolves contentious legal questions. Justices are nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate. Currently, six justices were nominated by a Republican and three by a Democrat. They are appointed for life.

As well as choosing a president, some Americans on 5 November also voted for senators.

The Republican Party ended up winning a majority in the Senate, flipping the upper chamber of the US Congress.

On Wednesday, senators in the party caucus will decide who will replace Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell - the longest-serving leader in the chamber - when the 119th Congress begins in January.

McConnell, 82, announced earlier this year that he was stepping down from the powerful role.

Here's a quick look at the top contenders vying for the role:

• Senator John Thune of South Dakota: Currently serving as the Senate minority whip, he is seen as a moderating force among Republicans

• Senator John Cornyn of Texas: Hewas first lawmaker to officially throw his hat in the ring for the position
• Senator Rick Scott of Florida: Senators Bill Hagerty and Rand Paul have endorsed Scott for the position