David Molloy
Technology reporter

Image source, Getty Images

If Joe Biden wins the election, President Trump’s “special treatment” by Twitter could end.

Bloomberg reports, external that the exemption Trump enjoys when he breaks Twitter’s policies will end in January when his term expires, if he isn't re-elected.

That’s because at the moment, Trump falls under Twitter’s world leaders policy, external – a specific set of rules that says presidents, prime ministers, and other rulers are newsworthy enough for Twitter to leave their tweets up even when they break the rules (with a handful of very serious exemptions).

This special status is why several of Trump’s tweets have been labelled with warnings and hidden from view, but left online for those who want to click past the warning and read them anyway. Twitter says that’s in the public interest, even if it doesn't recommend labelled posts to other users through its algorithms.

As one of the most-followed Twitter accounts in the world (with 88 million followers), he has been the most visible example of these warnings – and has frequently railed against them.

But as the Bloomberg report points out, the policy only applies to elected officials, those running for office, or those about to take office – such as the named successor to a post.

If Mr Trump loses the election and becomes a private citizen again, he will be treated like anyone else. That means punishments such as suspensions or even a permanent ban could be issued if he repeatedly falls foul of Twitter policies.

Image source, Reuters

Biden has taken a marginal lead in Georgia. A win in the state would put him just one vote shy of the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency, and he currently leads in Arizona and Nevada, and is gaining on Trump in Pennsylvania.

But Georgia could also be crucial for control of the Senate. Democrats had hoped to take enough seats to gain control of the upper chamber of Congress at the election but struggled, with many Republican incumbents managing to hold on.

Races in Georgia however are far closer. As things stand the state looks set to have two special run-off votes in January to decide both its seats, because - under a state law - an additional vote must be held if neither candidate manages to get 50% of the vote.

If Democratic candidates win both of these, it would mean the Senate would be split 50-50, with the vice president casting the deciding ballot - Kamala Harris, in the event of a Biden victory.

You can read more about Georgia's significance for Congress here.

Image source, EPA

With 538 votes in the electoral college up for grabs, there's always a remote chance of a tie, with both candidates on 269.

That possibility is still alive, although it's not necessarily likely. Donald Trump would have to win Arizona, North Carolina, Nevada and Pennsylvania, but lose Georgia.

So what would happen then?

If neither candidate has a majority of votes in the electoral college, then it's up to the US Congress to decide.

The House of Representatives would vote to decide the president, with one vote for each state's delegation. To win a majority, a candidate needs 26 votes.

The vice-president would be chosen by the Senate, with all 100 senators having a vote.

It's the members of Congress elected in the 2020 elections who would take on this responsibility – and some of those races have not yet been decided.

You can find out more about what happens in a tie - and other questions on the US elections, here.

Image source, Reuters

We're still (yes, still) waiting for a winner in the US presidential election. Democratic challenger Joe Biden is gaining ground, as Republican incumbent Donald Trump makes baseless claims about electoral fraud.

Here's the main news:

• Biden has pulled ahead in Georgia, which has not voted for a Democratic president since 1992. The latest figures show he has a lead of just over 1,000 votes with 99% of votes counted. A win for Biden in the state would make a victory for Trump all but impossible
• Trump is leading in Pennsylvania by about 20,000 votes, but Biden is catching up as they count mail-in ballots. Biden currently leads in counts in Arizona and Nevada
• In a White House statement on Thursday, Trump claimed: "If you count the legal votes, I easily win. If you count the illegal votes they can try to steal the election from us." Beyond allegations of irregularities, the Trump campaign has not presented any evidence of election fraud.

• And three days after the election on Tuesday, the US is passing the time with memes - lots of them

Image source, Reuters

Joe Biden has taken the lead in Georgia, but there's another key contest on the east coast still very much at stake - Pennsylvania.

As things stand Donald Trump is leading his Democratic challenger by about 20,000 votes in the Keystone State. That advantage has been shrinking as mail-in and absentee ballots come in, in particular from around the city of Philadelphia.

The city's commissioner Al Schmidt has told CNN to expect another update on the count "in the next hour or two".

“The counting in Philadelphia has continued uninterrupted from the beginning. We had a brief pause yesterday for about two hours as a result of some litigation, but it's just critically important that we continue counting every eligible vote cast by voters in Philadelphia," he said.

He added that observers from both the Republican and Democratic parties have been watching the count "the entire time".

President Trump's campaign filed a lawsuit to stop the count and demanded more scrutiny of the process, a suit the state's supreme court rejected on Thursday.

The spotlight's been on Georgia after Biden pulled a whisker ahead in the ongoing race, but tensions are also high in Pennsylvania, where ballot counting continues.

As postal votes are tallied, Biden is gaining on Trump's early lead.

On Wednesday Trump's campaign filed a lawsuit to end the count in Pennsylvania, demanding greater scrutiny of the process as his early lead quickly shrank.

But the state's supreme court rejected it on Thursday. Both Republicans and Democrats were permitted to monitor the count, a judge ruled, rejecting the claim that the two parties were not given equal access.

The BBC spoke to people on the streets amid the uncertainty.

According to the BBC results system, Joe Biden's very slight lead in Georgia - a critically important state counting its last 1% of ballots - has now increased from 917 votes to 1,096.

Image source, Reuters

It's been three days of waiting (and live page refreshing), and we still don't quite know who's going to be the next president - but we're definitely getting closer.

Democrat Joe Biden is on 253 electoral college votes to Donald Trump's 214 - with both chasing the pivotal 270 benchmark.

If Biden is projected to win Georgia - where he has a slim lead with 99% of votes counted - and some combination of Nevada, Arizona and Wisconsin, he will win the keys to the White House. Scooping Pennsylvania, with its 20 electoral votes, also puts him over the line.

Trump, meanwhile, would need Pennsylvania's votes - and to win three states out of Georgia, North Carolina, Nevada, and Arizona.

Read more about the shape of this election here.

Donald Trump has had a fractious relationship with German Chancellor Angela Merkel during his time in office.

He has put pressure on the country to contribute more to Nato defence spending, and differed with her on everything from climate change, to diplomacy and the coronavirus.

Now Germany's foreign minister Heiko Maas has weighed in on the US election.

"Decent losers are more important to the functioning of a democracy than brilliant winners," Maas said in an interview with the Funke media group, external.

"The US is more than a one-man show," he said, adding that "those who continue to add fuel to the fire in the current situation are acting irresponsibly".

Here's the original German tweet translated:

Image source, Twitter

BBC Monitoring
The world through its media

As votes from Tuesday's election continue to be counted, the world's media is focused on the legal moves taken by Donald Trump and continues to discuss the "chaos" around the count.

China's nationalist tabloid Global Times said the vote had "given birth to division, violence and anguish" in the US. In China, the election "has mainly served as entertainment", "a sneak-peek into the US and its chaotic society", it added.

Iran's broadcast media reported street protests over the counting process in different US states. Radio Iran (VIRI) reported on "ambiguity in the outcome of the US election, as election chaos escalates".

In Russia, the US election was no longer the top story on the major pro-Kremlin TV channels this morning, as networks focused on Russian anti-Covid efforts. All channels featured Trump's vote-rigging claims without mentioning that so far no evidence has substantiated them.

Italy's Corriere della Sera saw the vote as the "hardest test for democracy”, showing the US system's "strength and weakness at the same time” in terms of record turnout and “a mechanism that continues to generate electoral anomalies" respectively.

Nahum Barnea in Israel's Yediot Aharonot said he expected Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to "get along with Biden” should he win, while Al-Quds Palestinian daily saw little prospect of a Biden administration reversing President Trump's shift in policy to favour Israel.

In South Asia, India's Hindustan Times carried the headline: "US Election 2020: Does Donald Trump have a legal case? Jury is out", while Pakistan's daily Dawn said: "Biden on cusp of White House victory, Trump turns to courts."

Today's banner headline in Kenya's Standard newspaper read: "Chaotic to the end". The Punch of Nigeria carried a report on the heightened "anxiety and tension" in the US, and Liberia's leading FrontPage Africa noted that two Liberians who fled the country’s civil war had been elected to the House of Representatives in Colorado and Rhode Island.

Image source, The Standard

Image source, Getty Images

Here's a deeper look at what's happening in the key state:

The counties with the largest number of ballots still to be counted are Gwinnett, with more than 4,000, and Clayton, with a little under 2,000 remaining, CBS reports.

In Clayton County - the home district of the late Democratic Congressman and civil rights icon John Lewis - votes were reportedly being turned in by a few hundred at a time as the night went on. Officials said Biden had gained 1,602 votes, while Trump had gained 223.

In Gwinnett County, there have been a number of absentee ballots that have required "adjudication", according to CNN.

If an issue is spotted with any one of these ballots, which are grouped in batches of 25, the entire batch must be pulled aside for adjudication. This threatens to hold things up further, officials said.

You can take a closer look at the results in Georgia and elsewhere here.

As counting in crucial Georgia gives a very narrow lead to Joe Biden, it's worth noting the state's recount rules:

The losing candidate, whoever that might be, is allowed to request a recount if the margin is under 0.5% of the total vote. The request must be made within two days of the state certifying the vote.

Current figures put Joe Biden on about 49.39% compared to 49.37% for Donald Trump, with around 99% of ballots counted.

Donald Trump has alleged that "illegal votes" are being counted, in an apparent reference to legitimate postal votes which are still being tallied - a standard part of election procedure.

BBC Radio 5Live asked a spokeswoman for the OSCE, which carries out election observation to ensure outcomes are free and fair, what they had found. The answer was - no evidence of irregularities.

Image source, EPA

Joe Biden has edged ahead of Donald Trump in Georgia by about 900 ballots, with only a few thousand votes left to count.

With its 16 electoral votes, winning the state would put Biden just one shy of the crucial 270 threshold needed to win the presidency.

It would also deny Donald Trump a straight victory. Even if he won all the remaining states - which as it stands looks unlikely - he would only be able to take 269 electoral college votes, leaving the candidates in an unprecedented draw.

Taking Georgia would be a momentous shift. Since 1964 the Peach State has only voted for a Democratic presidential candidate four times, the last time for Bill Clinton in 1992. If it does opt for Biden this year, Georgia would be an island of blue in a sea of red on the electoral map, surrounded by Republican states.

Many online are giving credit for the potential shift to Stacey Abrams. The Democrat ran for governor in 2018, and while she lost, she has spent the intervening two years campaigning there for her party.

You can read the BBC's 2018 profile of Abrams here

An update: The BBC's results system and US partner CBS are now also showing a Biden lead in Georgia by 917 votes.

In Georgia, one of the remaining key states where votes are still being counted, election monitors and US broadcaster CNN are saying that Democrat Joe Biden has taken the lead there for the first time.

Decision Desk puts Biden ahead by a whisker with what it says is about 99% of estimated votes counted.

Local reports also have Biden ahead of Donald Trump in the state by more than 900 votes, based on counting from Clayton County.

You'd be forgiven for briefly forgetting the scourge of 2020 amid all this uncertainty - but on Thursday the US reported a record daily rise in coronavirus cases, with more than 120,000 new infections.

That breaks the previous record set just a day earlier on Wednesday.

America is the worst-affected nation in the world, with more than 9.6 million cases and more than 234,000 deaths, according to tallies by Johns Hopkins University.

Exit polls conducted by CNN and the New York Times after the US vote showed that the economy was the main issue for Republican voters, even as the virus tore through Trump-backing states in the Midwest like Montana and Wyoming.

You can read more about where the virus is spreading here

Image source, Getty Images

Comedian Stephen Colbert, the host of CBS’s Late Show, is going viral online after he choked up on last night's show.

The segment was filmed shortly after President Trump gave a speech at the White House in which he once again made unsubstantiated allegations of electoral fraud.

At about two minutes in, Colbert paused and was visibly emotionally upset, external as he described how Trump was "always expected" to contest the result if he appeared to be losing the keys to the White House.

"We all knew he would do this... what I didn't know is that it would hurt so much - I didn't expect this to break my heart," he said.

Both Donald Trump and Joe Biden could still win this, although as things stand Biden has a far easier path to victory.

The US presidential election is decided by the electoral college. Voters in each state pick electors, who then gather a few weeks after the vote to decide the winner.

Each elector equals one electoral vote, and the number of electoral votes per state is roughly in line with its population - so bigger states like Texas (38) and California (55) have more, while smaller states like Delaware (3) and Idaho (4) have fewer. In total there are 538 electoral votes, and a candidate needs more than half to win.

With 253 electoral votes already in the bag, Biden needs just 17 to pass the crucial threshold of 270 and take the White House. If he comes out on top in Pennsylvania (20) then he’s the next president-elect. (If this happens, expect the Trump camp to stand by their legal challenges.)

But he can also win by holding onto his lead in Nevada (6) and taking top spot in Arizona (11), which would net him exactly 270. In either case he wouldn’t need to win Georgia (16) - although as things stand he's neck-and-neck with his Republican opponent in the state.

Donald Trump has a far narrower route to victory. To ensure his re-election he needs to take Pennsylvania - where his lead is narrowing by the hour as mail-in and absentee ballots are counted – as well as three of four states still outstanding: Arizona, Nevada, Georgia and North Carolina. Alaska has also not finished counting, but barring a massive upset it will comfortably back Trump.

Image source, EPA

Donald Trump's two sons have rebuked Republicans for failing to back the president as he struggles to win re-election.

Trump's eldest son, Don Jr, accused the party of being "weak". His brother Eric warned: "Our voters will never forget you if your [sic] sheep!"

Senior Republicans such as Utah Senator Mitt Romney and Maryland Governor Larry Hogan have warned the Trump campaign against undermining the democratic process.

Don Jr took to Twitter to dish out his ire for those who may be eyeing up a presidential run in 2024.

"The total lack of action from virtually all of the '2024 GOP [Republican] hopefuls' is pretty amazing," he wrote.

"They have a perfect platform to show that they're willing & able to fight but they will cower to the media mob instead. Don't worry @realDonaldTrump will fight & they can watch as usual!"

The younger Trump later told supporters in Atlanta, Georgia - one of the key battleground states where votes are still being counted - that his father was right to mount legal challenges to the vote-counting process.

"I think the number one thing that Donald Trump can do in this election is fight each and every one of these battles to the death," he said.

Read more about the spat that reflects an emerging rift between Trump disciples and the party.