Reality Check

In a speech reacting to the unfolding election results, President Trump said he’d be going to the US Supreme Court and said of the Democrats: "They knew they couldn’t win, so they said let’s go to court."

During the campaign, Trump has been a vocal proponent of the use of litigation. Speaking at a rally in North Carolina on Sunday he said "we’re going to go in the night of, as soon as that election is over, we’re going in with our lawyers."

Former Vice-President Biden has not spoken directly about using lawyers in the aftermath of the election.

But, like President Trump, Biden has a legal team on standby, led by former White House Counsel Bob Bauer, and has fundraised in anticipation of a lengthy legal battle.

According to the Stanford-MIT Healthy Elections project , externalthere were already 437 election-related lawsuits in the run-up to the election. This legal action, some of which is ongoing, has been undertaken by both Democrats and Republicans.

In Miami, many of the president's Cuban supporters were elated over his projected win in the sunshine state.

Florida has 29 coveted electoral votes, and much of Trump’s Latin base in the state cited their fears of socialism when asked about their support for the president.

Facebook has responded to President Trump’s unsubstantiated statement of victory in the election.

“Once President Trump began making premature claims of victory, we started running top-of-feed notifications on Facebook and Instagram so that everyone knows votes are still being counted and the winner has not been projected,” a Facebook spokesperson told NBC News, external.

Millions of legitimate votes are still being counted in the crucial swing states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin and others which could still determine the outcome of the election. Election officials say it could be days before the winner in these states is confirmed.

Earlier, Twitter took similar steps, placing a warning on a tweet from Trump in which he said, without providing evidence, that "they are trying to STEAL the Election".

Anthony Zurcher
BBC North America reporter

Image source, Reuters

What was once a nightmare scenario is taking shape, with Biden saying he is on a path to victory and Trump lobbing unfounded accusations of voter fraud and electoral theft.

It's a recipe for acrimony and a protracted court battle, which ends with supporters on the losing side feeling angry and cheated.

Although the final results aren't known, what is clear after election night is that the US continues to be a sharply divided nation.

The American voters did not repudiate Trump in any meaningful way. Nor did they give him the kind of ringing endorsement that the president had hoped for.

Instead, the battle lines are drawn - and the political warfare will continue no matter who prevails in this particular election.

Read more from Anthony's analysis of the results so far here.

Image source, EPA

President Trump has plunged the US into a “battle for the legitimacy” of the presidential election after his unfounded declaration of victory, Germany’s defence minister has said.

“This is a very explosive situation,” Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer told German broadcaster ZDF on Wednesday, external.

She said election experts had rightly warned of a "constitutional crisis” in the US should Trump dispute a potentially unfavourable result.

Earlier, Trump threatened to mount a legal challenge in the Supreme Court to stop legitimate ballots from being tallied in key swing states after election day.

But Kramp-Karrenbauer told ZDF that "this election has not been decided” because “votes are still being counted”.

Diplomatic relations between Germany and the US have been shaky during Trump's presidency. But Germany, a long-time ally of the US, has expressed hopes that the relationship will improve again after the election, whoever wins.

Image source, EPA

Welcome if you're just joining our live coverage of the US presidential election 2020. With votes still being counted and several swing states yet to declare results, both President Trump and his Democratic challenger Joe Biden say they are on course for victory.

Here's how election night unfolded:

• In the race to get the 270 electoral college votes needed to win the White House, Biden is currently projected to win 224. Trump is predicted to win 213 - but the outcome of this election is now likely to be determined by the tens of millions of postal ballots yet to be counted
• Results suggest a tight race in the key battlegrounds of the Midwest and Rust Belt of Pennsylvania - where Democrats may be counting on an increased turnout in urban and suburban areas - Michigan and Wisconsin, and the result might not be known for days
• Speaking from the White House late in the evening, Trump made an unsubstantiated statement of victory, and said he would launch a Supreme Court challenge - without providing any evidence
• Vice-President Mike Pence tried to smooth over Trump's remarks, declining to declare premature victory and insisting that all the legally cast votes would be counted
• Biden's campaign team said Trump's questioning of the legitimacy of yet-to-be-counted ballots "was outrageous, unprecedented, and incorrect"
• Biden told supporters in Delaware that the election was "not over until every ballot is counted" and insisted: "We are on track to win"
• Election day saw a near-record voter turnout. As polls began to close late on Tuesday, protests against Trump were held in the streets of Washington DC, leading to some tense scenes

Looking for more? Read The Countdown for a snapshot of the race so far.

BBC Monitoring
The world through its media

Here's a quick look at some of the headlines the world has been waking up to.

"The madness that is the US election" and "The United States of Anxiety" are how one Russian TV presenter and an Indian newspaper are describing the mood of the election.

"The atmosphere is electric. Biden and Trump are neck-and-neck, and each is preparing a victory speech," reported Ukraine's Inter TV channel.

Latin America's media saw the US presidential election race turning into a nail-bitingly close finish.

"Trump's victory in Florida buries the prospect of a massacring Democratic triumph," was the headline published by prominent Brazilian daily Folha de Sao Paulo.

On Iran's international Press TV channel, the "threat of civil war" is a prominent talking point, with a presenter saying that, for outside observers, the election "looks very scary".

Image source, Rossiya 24

Chinese state media and other outlets in Asia have also highlighted possible "unrest" in the US, as the final result may not be settled for some time.

In South Asia, "United States of Anxiety,” was the headline on the website of The Indian Express newspaper.

"Anxious Americans vote on Election Day with faces masked, stores boarded up," said the headline in Pakistan's Express Tribune.

Germany's Popular tabloid Bild said: "More and more observers who had previously assumed a clear victory for challenger Joe Biden are asking: CAN TRUMP STILL MAKE IT?".

"It is the mother of all battles and the Americans have understood it," wrote a columnist in France's Le Monde.

“The US holds its breath as the vote leaves the country without a master,” said Italy's La Stampa newspaper.

Turkey's NTV said: “Biden could not display the performance that was expected”, adding that Trump is “happy and strongly believes he will be re-elected”.

Arab media coverage reflects uncertainty over the outcome, with Saudi-funded Al Arabiya TV saying that it could be days before a result emerges.

Qatari Al Jazeera hosted a studio discussion in Washington with US commentators, one of whom rebuffed Trump’s claim that unnamed parties were “trying to steal” the election.

Egyptian newspapers highlighted what they described as "a historic turnout".

And a cartoon in Kenya's Star newspaper depicts the mascots of the Democratic and Republican parties holding up matches to ignite an explosive labelled "US post-election violence threat".

Joe Biden is projected to win the state of Hawaii. Since becoming a state in 1959, it has only voted twice for Republican presidential candidates.

Tara McKelvey
BBC News, Washington

Image source, EPA

The mood in the White House overnight was tense.

President Trump's staffers and campaign officials stayed there through much of the night - their boss's job was on the line, and all they could do was wait and drink alcohol. Lots of it.

They watched election returns in the West Wing and wondered what would happen.

Then, when Trump pulled ahead of his Democratic rival Joe Biden in Florida, the mood brightened.

"We're feeling very good," a White House staffer told me. "We're very optimistic." She smiled, cautiously.

Meanwhile in the East Room, the president's re-election party was under way. Hundreds of people had been invited, and some of the guests wandered through the West Wing, draped in red silk, as they made their way over to the event.

The party was just one of the ways that Trump broke with tradition. There is no law that forbids the president from hosting a party at the White House on election night. But no other president has organised a gathering like that one (or flouted conventions in the way that he has during his time in office).

• Read more from Tara here

BBC Radio 5 Live

Trump supporter Jonathan Morton was asked by BBC Radio 5 Live, external’s Rachel Burden how he would feel if Trump lost the popular vote again.

“It’s how you view our country. Our country’s a representative democracy,” he said. “The way we vote in our presidents and our leaders, that’s still technically a representative democracy, not just a straight-up democracy mob rule.”

Listen live on BBC Sounds.

Anthony Zurcher
BBC North America reporter

Image source, Reuters

The race is boiling down to just a handful of states: Arizona, Georgia, Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania.

Arizona appears to be trending toward Biden, which means the Democrat would have to win two of the three 2016 "blue wall" states - Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania - to secure victory.

Biden trails in all three, but the remaining votes to be counted will favour the Democrat - perhaps by enough to pull him ahead.

There are more than 1.4 million vote-by-mail ballots left to count in Pennsylvania, and it could take days to tabulate them all. The big cities in Michigan (Detroit) and Wisconsin (Milwaukee) are also yet to fully report, and they will heavily tilt toward the Democrats.

Meanwhile, Georgia is a wildcard. What seemed heading toward a comfortable Trump win earlier on Tuesday has ended up in a dead heat. Results from Biden-friendly Atlanta were, improbably enough, delayed by a broken water pipe in a vote-counting location. A Democratic win in Georgia would mean Biden only has to carry one of those Midwest states.

Read more from Anthony's analysis here.

One of the president's overnight tweets was tagged by Twitter as "disputed" and potentially "misleading" because he made an unfounded claim that the Democrats were trying to "steal" the election.

But apart from that, it also included a misspelling of polls - prompting jokes on Polish social media.

Poland's conservative government has enjoyed close relations with the Trump administration - and the US is redeploying troops there from Germany. So some Poles have been quick to point out that, no, they're not closed at all...

Image source, EPA

Joe Biden's campaign team has responded to President Trump's premature and unsubstantiated statement of victory.

Biden for President Campaign Manager Jen O’Malley Dillon said Trump's statement about the legitimacy of yet-to-be-counted ballots "was outrageous, unprecedented, and incorrect".

"It was outrageous because it is a naked effort to take away the democratic rights of American citizens," she said.

"It was unprecedented because never before in our history has a president of the United States sought to strip Americans of their voice in a national election."

Trump's statement was incorrect, O’Malley Dillon said, because the law requires every legitimate vote to be counted.

She said: "We repeat what the vice-president said tonight: Donald Trump does not decide the outcome of this election. Joe Biden does not decide the outcome of this election. The American people decide the outcome of this election. And the democratic process must and will continue until its conclusion."

On Trump's threat to challenge the counting of votes in court, O’Malley Dillon said Biden had "legal teams standing by ready".

"Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will stand for the right of all Americans to have their votes counted — no matter who they voted for," she added.

Image source, EPA

This morning, BBC Radio 5 Live's Your Call programme is asking listeners which candidate would be better for Britain and the world.

Listen now on BBC Sounds.

Reality Check

Image source, EPA

President Trump says he’s already won the US election despite many uncounted votes in battleground states that could tip the balance either way.

“We were getting ready to win this election. Frankly, we did win this election,” he said in a televised speech from the White House.

A roster of tightly-fought states including Georgia, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan are yet to be called. Large numbers of votes, particularly in urban centres that favour the Democratic candidate, are still being counted.

Pennsylvania in particular is being hotly contested. With a high turnout and large numbers of mail-in ballots, the counting is expected to go on for days.

“Most importantly, we’re winning Pennsylvania by a tremendous amount of votes,” said Trump. “We’re coming into good Pennsylvania areas where they happen to like your president.”

Trump is currently leading there with 55.7% to Joe Biden’s 43% - with 74% of votes counted. However, Philadelphia, the largest city in the state, has only reported 48% - and it leans heavily towards Joe Biden.

It’s the same picture for the Midwestern states Michigan and Wisconsin which remain on a knife-edge.

“We’re winning Michigan,” said Trump. “And 65% of the vote is in. And we’re winning Wisconsin.”

Detroit, the largest city in Michigan, has a large number of votes outstanding. In Wisconsin, the Democratic-leaning city of Milwaukee has reported less than half of its votes.

What about the southern state of Georgia - is that still in play?

Trump said: “It’s also clear we have won Georgia”. However, although over 90% of the vote has been counted, it’s still a toss-up. There are still a significant number of votes to be declared in the state’s largest city Atlanta.

Image source, EPA

Image source, Reuters

UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has been speaking to the BBC about Donald Trump's comments on postal fraud and his statement of victory in the election - without evidence - before all votes are counted.

"Whatever the election night comments from either side of the campaigns, I am confident and have full faith in the US institution," Raab said.

He said he was sure the "checks and balances" in place for US presidential election races would "produce a definitive result".

"The truth is, what's really important is that we wait for this race to unfold," he added. "I am very confident that regardless of whether there is a Republican or Democrat win, the British-US relationship is in great shape."

Image source, Getty Images

There's still no answer to the question of who will become the next US president. Some possibilities are that:

We might not know for days. This looks like the most likely scenario, as this battle is going to shift to the postal votes that are yet to be counted in places like Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.

Lawyers could get involved. Donald Trump has threatened to mount challenges in the Supreme Court. This means it could potentially take weeks.

Uncertainty could bring unrest. There is definitely going to be uncertainty, but although many Americans have talked about their concerns, it is too early to say if there will be any significant unrest.

Looking for more? Read The Countdown for a snapshot of the race so far.

President Trump’s unfounded declaration that "frankly, we did win this election" has prompted a strong reaction from Democratic politicians.

Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who is projected to win re-election in New York, condemned Trump’s claim as “illegitimate, dangerous, and authoritarian”.

“Count the votes. Respect the results,” she tweeted.

House Representative for Minnesota Ilhan Omar called Trump a “dangerous man”, external, tweeting “you can’t stop ballots from being counted”.

“This isn’t a dictatorship,” she added.

Amy Klobuchar, the senator for Minnesota, struck a more measured tone.

“All votes must be counted. We live in a democracy,” she wrote minutes after Trump's statement, external.

Image source, Getty Images

While all eyes are fixed on the race for the White House, the other big contests for the Senate, House and local seats have also provided plenty of excitement. Here are some highlights:

• Trump ally South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham is projected to win re-election over his Democratic challenger Jaime Harrison - a race which at one point looked like he might lose.
• Georgia Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene, the first open supporter of the QAnon conspiracy theory, has won a seat in Congress - she stood unchallenged.
• Also in the race to win control of the Senate, the Democrats lost Alabama, their most vulnerable seat, but gained Colorado from the Republicans.
• Democrat Mark Kelly has defeated incumbent Republican senator Martha McSally in the crucial state of Arizona
• Sarah McBride of Delaware has become the first openly transgender state senator
• New Jersey has liberalised cannabis laws, while Oregon has made history by becoming the first state to decriminalise possession of harder illicit drugs including heroin and cocaine

Looking for more? Read The Countdown for a snapshot of the race so far.

Anthony Zurcher
BBC North America reporter

Donald Trump has been telegraphing for weeks that if the presidential election were close, he would accuse his Democratic opponents of committing voter fraud and trying to steal victory away from him.

In the early hours of Wednesday morning, he did exactly that.

It is the doomsday scenario that many Americans were fearing, where the president of the United States – from the White House itself – would undermine ballot-counting. It’s a process that stretches on for days after the election, even in years when voters haven’t turned to mail-in or early voting because of an ongoing pandemic.

After Trump spoke, Vice-President Mike Pence tried to smooth over his remarks, declining to declare premature victory and insisting that all the legally cast votes will be counted. It was much more in line with how a US leader would be expected to behave in a moment of political uncertainty.

The damage had been done, however. Whether Trump ultimately wins or loses, he has cast a pall on this election, as he calls the very machinery of American democracy into question.