Image source, Reuters

Another top official has quit the Pentagon, only a day after Secretary of Defense Mark Esper was sacked.

Politico, which first broke the story, describes the resignation of James Anderson, the acting undersecretary of defense for policy, as raising fears of a "post-election purge" at the Pentagon.

Anderson had reportedly fallen out with the White House over personnel issues.

His resignation letter, external cites his claimed successes, including modernising the US nuclear arsenal, providing civilian oversight over war plans and strengthening the US "global posture".

The last paragraph, though, has prompted some online comment.

"Now, as ever, our long-term success depends on adhering to the US constitution all public servants swear to support and defend."

Anthony Zurcher
BBC North America reporter

Image source, EPA

In the week since election day, as Donald Trump insists – contrary to the vote totals – that he has won and makes sweeping, and unsupported claims of election fraud, Republican politicians are engaging in a now familiar behaviour. They’re biting their tongues and waiting.

It’s a strategy that has proven effective over the past four years whenever the president has done something controversial. The party’s leaders appear to be hoping it will once again lead them out of the chaos in the closing months of Trump’s presidential term.

The calculation is simple. Few Republicans want to attract the ire of the president by publicly accepting that Joe Biden has won. The ones who have spoken out already – Senators Susan Collins, Ben Sasse and Mitt Romney among them - broke with Trump a long time ago.

For the rest, the president still has enormous power in the party’s base, and he can – and has – wielded it against those he believes are insufficiently loyal.

On the other hand, Republicans not named Donald Trump have to think about their future, both in working with the Democratic president and in winning moderates in elections to come. Unlike the president, they’re in no mood for scorched-earth tactics. Their political timeline is measured in years, not days or weeks.

And so, from Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on down, the name of the game is patience. Accept that the president has a right to make his claims, give him time to vent his frustration, but figure that there will be no evidence of sufficient enough magnitude to change the results of the election. Celebrate Republican down-ballot wins, without acknowledging the absurdity of alleged election-fixing that is massive enough to unseat a president but not to deliver a fully Democratic Congress.

Through their actions, if not their words, the president’s fellow Republicans are acknowledging that come January, there will be a new president. Trump, too, shall pass.

Image source, Getty Images

After being re-elected to lead the Republican caucus in the Senate, Mitch McConnell held a brief news conference where he was asked why so few Republicans have congratulated Biden and Harris so far - and what it says about the state of the country.

The Kentucky senator responded: "Until the Electoral College votes, anyone who's running for office can exhaust concerns about counting in any court of appropriate jurisdiction. That's not unusual. It should not be alarming."

Earlier today at Capitol Hill, Wisconsin Republican Senator Ron Johnson said he had not congratulated Biden yet and there was "nothing to congratulate him about."

Meanwhile, Missouri Senator Roy Blunt said Trump "may not have been defeated at all", while Alabama's Richard Shelby, when asked who the winner of the election was, said: "We don't know yet. It hasn't been certified."

Reporters pointed out to him that four years ago he congratulated Trump on his win before it was certified by the Electoral College, which meets this year to finalise the vote on 14 December.

Trump himself has not conceded, has filed numerous lawsuits seeking to overturn Biden's victory, and made unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud.

Vice-president Mike Pence was also in Congress today, hours before he is due to head to Florida for a family vacation. He refused to speak to journalists who asked if it was time for his campaign to throw in the towel.

Image source, Reuters

As we reported earlier, Biden called UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson earlier today, and the two spoke on the phone for about 20-25 minutes.

The US president-elect has also been busy calling other leaders in Europe:

• French President Emmanuel Macron said he was ready to work together with the US on issues including climate change, health, and the fight against terrorism
• German Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed the wish for close and trusting future co-operation between the two sides
• Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin tweeted that Biden "underlined his commitment to the Good Friday Agreement", external

All four European politicians congratulated Biden with his victory in the US election.

Biden on Monday had already spoken to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, in what was his first phone call to a foreign leader as the president-elect.

They discussed a range of issues, including climate change and the Nato military alliance.

in recent history, US presidents have made Canada the destination of their first foreign visit when taking office, to underscore the deep ties between the neighbouring nations, although President Trump didn't follow that tradition.

Marianna Spring
Specialist disinformation and social media reporter

Image source, AFP

A US man who claimed he had “thrown out every Trump ballot” on Facebook says it was a joke – and that he’s receiving death threats now the post has gone viral.

The 32-year-old butcher thought it would be funny to post online saying it “was time to come clean” that he had been throwing away “tens of thousands” of pro-Trump ballots while counting votes in Wayne County, Michigan.

The post spread like wildfire in pro-Trump Stop The Steal Facebook groups and on Twitter, where it was used to fuel unsubstantiated claims about voter fraud and rigged elections.

But the man confirmed to the BBC that he has never worked for Wayne County or been involved in counting ballots. He also confirmed his real identity – but asked to stay anonymous to protect him from further abuse.

“I like to stir the pot and get a rise out of people, but I always assume people know I’m joking,” he told the BBC.

He deactivated his Facebook account – where the post was initially shared – after being bombarded with death threats from those who believed his false claim. And he says it’s also affected family and friends.

“Starting last night my girlfriend’s workplace started getting inundated with bad reviews and messages,” he explained.

“If I have to deal with the consequences for this, let me face them alone.”

Image source, Getty Images

As we reported yesterday, actress and Biden supporter Eva Longoria came under some criticism after she said "Latina women were the real heroines" of the election.

She was accused of "taking credit from black women" who had voted and campaigned for Biden and Harris.

She has since apologised, saying "I simply meant that they turned out in greater numbers and voted more progressively than LATINO men". Actress Kerry Washington came to her defence, describing Longoria as "a fighter for all women".

In fact, exit polls suggest that women from both the black and Latina communities had an important role to play for the Democrats, with both groups more likely to vote for Biden than their male counterparts.

While exact trends vary from state to state, across the US as a whole, 90% of black women voted for Biden, compared to 79% of black men. Meanwhile, 69% of Latina women voted for Biden, compared to 59% of Latino men.

The exit poll results also show how diverse the opinions of the US electorate are - while commentators often make generalisations about white and "non-white" voters, actual voting trends tend to be much more nuanced.

James Landale
Diplomatic correspondent

Image source, Andrew Parsons/10 Downing Street

The election of Joe Biden leaves Boris Johnson facing a substantial diplomatic repair job. The two men have never met. Last December, Biden described the prime minister as a "physical and emotional clone" of Donald Trump.

There are people around Biden who remember bitterly how Johnson once suggested President Obama harboured anti-British sentiment because of his part-Kenyan ancestry, our correspondent says.

Biden and his team think Brexit is an historic mistake. They would not want Britain to leave the EU without a trade deal, particularly if it involved breaking commitments made in the Northern Ireland protocol.

Last month, Biden warned publicly that a future UK-US trade deal was contingent on the UK not unravelling the Good Friday Agreement that brought peace to Northern Ireland.

Read more from James here.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and US President-elect Joe Biden have had a phone call on Tuesday, which the BBC's poltical editor, Laura Kuenssberg, says lasted 20-25 minutes.

It is understood that Biden called Johnson ahead of calls he expected to make to other major European leaders.

Johnson later tweeted: "I just spoke to @JoeBiden to congratulate him on his election.

"I look forward to strengthening the partnership between our countries and to working with him on our shared priorities - from tackling climate change, to promoting democracy and building back better from the pandemic."

Image source, Reuters

Amid the wrangling over the election result and the transition, let's go back to November 2016 and the start of President Barack Obama's handover to Donald Trump.

Yes it's four years to the day that the two held a harmonious transition meeting at the White House.

A press release from the time quotes Obama as saying they had wide-ranging talks covering domestic and foreign policy.

"And as I said last night, my number-one priority in the coming two months is to try to facilitate a transition that ensures our president-elect is successful...

"And I believe that it is important for all of us, regardless of party and regardless of political preferences, to now come together, work together, to deal with the many challenges that we face."

Trump responded in kind: "I have great respect. The meeting lasted for almost an hour and a half. And it could have - as far as I'm concerned, it could have gone on for a lot longer.

"We really - we discussed a lot of different situations, some wonderful and some difficulties. I very much look forward to dealing with the president in the future, including counsel. He explained some of the difficulties, some of the high-flying assets and some of the really great things that have been achieved."

Needless to say, it remains to be seen whether any such meeting will take place between President Trump and President-elect Biden.

Shayan Sardarizadeh
BBC Anti-Disinformation Unit

A false claim about the political news website and polling data aggregator RealClearPolitics - that it withdrew its projection about Joe Biden winning in Pennsylvania - has gone viral in conservative circles.

But the claim isn't true, as the website -, external unlike other news organisations - never called Pennsylvania for Biden or projected him as the winner of the election.

Rudy Giuliani, President Trump’s personal lawyer, who's pursuing his campaign’s allegations of voter fraud in a number of states, tweeted the claim earlier.

Tom Bevan, co-founder and president of RealClearPolitics, confirmed on Twitter, external:

“This is false. We never called Pennsylvania and nothing has changed."

The claim was subsequently shared by numerous accounts, including by the former White House press secretary Sean Spicer, though he later corrected himself.

Image source, Getty Images

Let's take a step back from all the election drama to dive into one thing that's come under recent scrutiny: projections.

Some Republicans have lashed out at news networks for projecting a winner in the states, claiming it's not their job to do so and results aren't certified.

What does all this mean?

As there's no single nationwide electoral body in the US, news organisations have taken to projections during election day (or week, in this case).

This is not new. It has long happened during every election.

Projections are made by analysing voter interviews, polling data and actual votes counted in precincts. Major networks have always projected winners when all this data shows a candidate has an unbeatable lead - some have described this as 99.5% certainty.

Remember: these are always predictions and not official results, which typically takes several weeks as states canvass (or review) all their votes.

Once this review process is done, the states say the results are certified and their groups of electors - ie the people who actually vote for the president in the Electoral College - is put together. This year, they have until 8 December to do so. Electors must cast their ballots on 14 December.

If you need a refresher on the electoral college system, check out our explainer here.

Supporters of Donald Trump are urging others to bombard the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) with complaints for referring to Joe Biden as the president-elect.

All major US TV networks have projected Biden as the winner of the 2020 election and have begun referring to him as president-elect.

Some Republican activists have tweeted out a section of the FCC’s guidance, which states it will deal with complaints about networks who “intentionally distort the news”.

It has long been a US tradition that TV networks begin calling a candidate the president-elect when it is deemed they have won enough votes to make it mathematically impossible for the rival candidate to catch up.

Trump has refused to concede the election, and has launched legal challenges in a number of key states where he is narrowly trailing Biden.

Image source, Reuters

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has congratulated Joe Biden with a victory in the US presidential election.

In a statement (in Turkish), Mr Erdogan said bilateral relations were of "strategic" nature, external and should be further strengthened based on common interests.

Mr Erdogan reiterated Ankara's "determination to work closely with the US administration" in the coming period, adding that "the strong co-operation and alliance" between the two countries would continue to contribute to world peace.

Ties between the US and Turkey have been recently strained over several key issues, including the crisis in Syria and Ankara's military co-operation with Russia.

Here's a quick recap of some of the latest developments ...

A team of international election monitors from the Organization of American States (OAS) has praised the conduct of the US election – running counter to President Trump’s claims of voter fraud and corruption.

Biden’s transition team is said to be considering legal action if it has to wait much longer for a federal transition agency to approve the result of the election. Without that approval, the team can't access funds and federal offices.

The Trump campaign has filed a lawsuit in Pennsylvania alleging a violation of the equal voter protection clause, citing a “lack of meaningful observation and transparency” and “disparate treatment” between Republican and Democratic voters – a claim that is heavily disputed.

Votes are still being counted in Georgia and Arizona, where Biden continues to lead, and North Carolina, where Trump is ahead.

The president has taken to Twitter to repeat his unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud.

Trump alleged counting abuse, but did not offer further evidence.

Counting is still going on in several states, including Arizona and Georgia, but so far, Biden remains in the lead and analysts say it is unlikely any legal challenges or additional counting will shake his overall win.

Image source, Twitter

Democratic Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia was asked on Fox News about the "progressive agenda" - and his thoughts on a practice called "court-packing" that's come up quite a bit during this election.

Court-packing involves expanding the number of justices on the US Supreme Court (there are currently nine). This is allowed by the Constitution, and Congress has changed the number of seats before, but that hasn't happened since 1896.

Some Democrats have threatened to revive the process in light of the appointment of a conservative, Amy Coney Barrett, to the top court. Her ascendency has tipped the ideological balance of the court to the right for the first time in decades.

There is now pressure from the left for a President Biden to try to add seats to the court to readjust the numbers and pressure from the right not to do so.

Manchin's an interesting Democrat in the Senate as he hails from a conservative state - as a result, he's seen as much more moderate than his other liberal colleagues.

He held true to that when it comes to court-packing, telling Fox: "I will not vote to pack the courts."

For Joe Biden, the US state of Delaware and his home town of Wilmington have played a big part in his life.

He represented Delaware in the federal Senate for six terms (36 years) before becoming President Barack Obama's vice-president.

Paul Calistro, who is the executive director of West End Neighbourhood House, shared some of his anecdotes about the president-elect with BBC World News.

A team of international monitors from the Organization of American States (OAS) has praised the conduct of the US election.

The delegation - which had 28 experts and observers from 13 countries - said in its preliminary report:, external "While the environment of the elections was competitive and fraught, the ability of voters across the country to access the vote in less than ideal circumstances exemplifies the democracy for which the United States is renowned and which it has championed across the globe.

"The OAS Mission urges all political parties, candidates and citizens to allow this democracy to prevail and to allow the remainder of the electoral process to unfold within the framework of the law."

The monitors were able to follow campaigning events and the voting itself on 3 November in several locations, including the key battleground states of Georgia and Michigan.

They said they did not witness any irregularities there, responding to President Trump's claims that the Democrats had tried to steal the elections.

Image source, Getty Images

Biden's transition team is still waiting for the federal funding and office space it needs to get to work on taking over the levers of power.

That depends on a federal agency - the General Services Administration (GSA) - led by Trump appointee Emily Murphy.

She will be the one to sign a letter allowing all this to happen, but for now she says there has been "no ascertainment" or, as a spokeswoman put it more clearly, she has not yet found that "a winner is clear".

Team Biden is said to be considering legal action, though other options are on the table, according to a Biden official speaking to Reuters.

Robert MacKichan, who was general counsel to the GSA during the Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations, has been speaking to US public radio.

He says it would be "premature", external for her to decide now "given what has been publicly made available".

At first it was the Four Seasons Hotel.

Then it transpired that Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani's key news conference on Saturday was to take place in the yard of Four Seasons Total Landscaping in Philadelphia - next to an adult content store.

Giuliani was explaining his boss's legal challenges over the election.

The BBC's Ros Atkins explains the saga.