Projected U.S. presidential election winner Joe Biden will meet with the U.S. national security experts on Tuesday in Wilmington, Delaware, to discuss key issues related to security, according to media reports quoting Biden's team. 

Diplomatic, intelligence and defense advisers will brief Biden as well as Kamala Harris.  

An earlier report from Reuters noted that Biden has tapped finance, trade and banking regulation experts for his transition team that ranges from core Democrats to progressive activists, reflecting ongoing debate within the party about how to address climate change, wealth inequality and other issues.  

Meanwhile, he will further lay the groundwork for his new administration as incumbent President Donald Trump pursues a flurry of lawsuits challenging the election results in an effort to cling to power.

Judges so far have tossed out lawsuits brought by Trump's campaign in Michigan and Georgia, and legal experts say the litigation has little chance of changing the outcome of the November 3 election. 

More than 2,600 votes have reportedly been uncovered in Georgia amid its recount process that weren't previously included in the state's overall tally of ballots in the presidential election.

According to reports, U.S. President Donald Trump could see roughly 800 net votes added to his tally in the state as a result of the discovery.

However, it doesn't seem likely the potential addition will change the projected outcome of the presidential election in Georgia.

Additionally, the Wisconsin Elections Commission said on Monday that a statewide vote recount would cost an estimated $7.9 million, money that Donald Trump's campaign would have to pay in advance should it request one.

Wisconsin's chief election official, Meagan Wolfe, said in a statement that county clerks had, as required by law, carefully estimated their costs for recounting Wisconsin's 3.2 million ballots.

"We still have not received any indication that there will or will not be a recount," Wolfe said.

She said the cost estimate was "significantly higher" than the actual costs of the 2016 recount there because it included extra funds for larger spaces required for social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as security for those spaces, and a greater number of absentee ballots.

"The legal team continues to examine the issues with irregularities in Wisconsin and are leaving all legal options open, including a recount and an audit," Trump 2020 legal adviser Jenna Ellis said when asked if the campaign would move ahead with a petition for a recount.

(With input from agencies)

"RIGGED ELECTION. WE WILL WIN!" tweeted U.S. President Donald Trump late Sunday, continuing his relentless diatribe against the popular verdict of the recently held presidential election that has projected Democrat opponent Joe Biden as the winner.

"He (Biden) only won in the eyes of the FAKE NEWS MEDIA. I concede NOTHING! We have a long way to go. This was a RIGGED ELECTION!," Trump said in the next tweet.

The U.S. president's explicit effort to cling to power and over-the-top claims of an "election fraud" have led observers to wonder if this is simply political rhetoric at best or an attempted coup d'état at worst.

In either case, concerns are being raised over a smooth transition of power, and with several Republican leaders still refusing to concede defeat, the fear appears real.

At a recent press conference Secretary of State Mike Pompeo daringly suggested that power wouldn't pass to Biden. "There will be smooth transition to a second Trump administration," he insisted.

With Trump upping the ante with every new tweet discrediting the election and his team hinting at long-shot strategies for overturning the election results, the apprehensions are only getting worse.

"What Donald Trump is attempting to do has a name: coup d'état. Poorly organized though it might seem, it is not bound to fail. It must be made to fail," Timothy Snyder, a professor of history at Yale University, said in a long thread of tweets warning Americans of the looming danger of Trump's conduct.

"Coups are defeated quickly or not at all. While they take place, we are meant to look away, as many of us are doing. When they are complete, we are powerless," Snyder cautioned.

'A chilling move and a bad precedent'

While Trump's legal challenges to election results in six states – Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin – have so far failed to prove any fraud, the president's move to install loyalists in the defense department and in other key security-related government positions have raised alarms over his likely intention.

Trump fired Defense Secretary Mark Esper on November 9, just two days after the election results. Trump-confidante and Republic operative Kashyap Patel has been appointed as the president's chief of staff. Patel's name figured in the Russia investigations for infamously providing information on Ukraine matters directly to Trump, bypassing the National Security Council (NSC).

Trump has also replaced the heads of intelligence and policy inside the Pentagon with political nominees believed to be close to the president, while another Republican apparatchik, Michael Ellis, was appointed as the general counsel of the National Security Agency. The fate of FBI director Christopher A Wray and CIA director Gina Haspel hang in the balance amid reports that Trump is looking to replace them as well.

These appointments in such quick succession towards the fag end of his presidential term is seen with suspicion by analysts. The next U.S. president will be sworn in on January 20, 2021.

"The Pentagon purges are most troubling because there are two months remaining," William Antholis, the director of the Miller Center, at the University of Virginia, who has studied presidential transitions and their national-security risks, told The New Yorker.

A similar move by a leader in another country, say in Turkey, Venezuela, Ghana or Zimbabwe, would have undoubtedly drawn U.S. ire with accusations of an authoritarian takeover.

Michael Abramowitz, the president of pro-democracy NGO Freedom House, insisted that Trump's conduct resembled "authoritarian tactics" used elsewhere. "Will it be successful in helping President Trump keep power? I don't think so," Abramowitz told The New Yorker, describing Trump's 11th-hour measures as "a chilling move and a bad precedent."

"This is dangerous," concurred Corey Bresttschneider, a professor of constitutional law and politics at Brown University. "We have other checks, and I don't believe that the military would go along with a coup, but we need to have people at the top of those departments willing to say what democracy demands," she told The Guardian.

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It has been over a week since Biden was projected as the winner by most major American news networks based on state-by-state vote counts, but the General Services Administration (GSA), led by Trump appointee Emily Murphy, hasn't yet recognized the Democratic leader as president-elect.

This has prevented Biden's team from gaining access to government office space, funding and intelligence briefings that are typically extended to an incoming administration to ensure a smooth transition of power. Biden has not been given access to the presidential daily brief and the national security briefing that normally gets shared with the president-elect.

Seemingly unperturbed by the situation, Biden is moving steadily ahead with his transition plans. "We're well underway," Biden asserted at a recent press interaction.

The Trump administration's refusal to concede "does not change the dynamic of what we're able to do," he said. "We're going to be moving along in a consistent manner putting together our administration, our White House, reviewing who we're going to pick for Cabinet positions, and nothing's going to stop it," he affirmed.

"Donald Trump's Twitter feed doesn't make Joe Biden president or not president. The American people did that," Ron Klain, Biden's choice as White House chief of staff, reiterated on NBC's Meet the Press.

The core focus of the Biden team appears to be dealing with COVID-19 pandemic as the crisis intensifies in the U.S. with total coronavirus cases in the country passing 11 million on Sunday. Biden has already set up a high-profile COVID-19 task force to steer future prevention and contention plans, which has been welcomed by scientists and doctors. Biden's team will this week also meet leading drug companies that are developing coronavirus vaccines.

Besides the pandemic, Biden's transition team is working on an economic recovery plan for working families focused on creating new jobs, and providing affordable health care to Americans under a revamped Affordable Care Act, as per the election campaign promises.

Only time will tell whether Trump succeeds in thwarting Biden's bid for the White House by denying him being sworn in as the next U.S. president. However, with his relentless denigration of the elections and blatant display of authoritarian conduct, Trump has already succeeded in pushing the country towards an ugly political collision course that is bound to dent Washington's democratic credentials.

Trump's unsavory attempt to cling to power despite an election defeat is probably the worst advertisement of American democracy in recent memory.

Tens of thousands of U.S. President Donald Trump's supporters marched through downtown Washington on Saturday, echoing his unsubstantiated claims of election fraud and cheering as his motorcade drove past.

A week after Democrat Joe Biden clinched the election, Trump, a Republican, has refused to accept the outcome and has launched a flurry of dubious legal challenges to overturn the results. Election officials around the country have said they saw no evidence of serious irregularities.

Carrying flags and chanting "stop the steal," the protesters walked from Freedom Plaza near the White House to the U.S. Supreme Court building on Capitol Hill as part of the "Million MAGA March," referring to Trump's campaign mantra of "Make American Great Again."

Trump's motorcade briefly drove through the crowds on the way to his golf course in Sterling, Virginia. Demonstrators cheered as the president, wearing a red baseball cap emblazoned with the slogan, waved from inside the presidential limousine.

"They will not stand for a Rigged and Corrupt Election!" Trump wrote on Twitter, saying hundreds of thousands had taken to the streets. Police gave no official crowd size, but witnesses said it was far smaller than Trump's estimate.

Donald Tarca Jr., who traveled to Washington from West Palm Beach, Florida, held a massive U.S. flag sporting a giant portrait of Trump.

"I think it was rigged on multiple fronts," he said of the election. "Also, the media was so biased that they convinced millions of Americans to vote for Biden. They hate Trump."

Scores of members of the far-right Proud Boys group, mostly clad in black with some wearing helmets and ballistic vests, were among the marchers. Some left-wing groups staged small counter-demonstrations, including members of the loose movement known as antifa.

Near the Supreme Court, some counter-protesters carried black umbrellas and makeshift shields, while others formed a line of bicycles to prevent pro-Trump protesters from approaching their group from the rear. They called Trump supporters "Nazis;" the protesters shouted back a profanity about antifa.

Reuters witnessed at least half a dozen scuffles and several tense standoffs, but the violence appeared isolated.

One person was stabbed and rushed to a trauma center, a spokeswoman for the city fire and emergency medical services department said. The Washington Post reported that the stabbing occurred amid a melee between Trump supporters, some carrying batons, and counter-protesters that broke out around 8 p.m.

The city's police department had made 10 arrests by mid-afternoon, a spokeswoman told Reuters, including four for firearms violations, two for assault and one for assaulting an officer.

Biden spent the morning at his beach house in Delaware meeting with transition advisers, as he has done for much of the week, before returning to his home near Wilmington. The president-elect has largely ignored Trump's repeated claims of fraud, instead focusing on preparing to govern and fielding congratulatory calls from world leaders.

During a bike ride on Saturday morning with his wife, Jill, he answered "yes" when a reporter asked whether he was making progress in selecting his Cabinet appointees.

(With input from Reuters)

(Cover: Members of the far-right group Proud Boys walk past the U.S. Capitol during a march in support of President Donald Trump to protest against the results of the U.S. presidential election, in Washington, November 14, 2020. /Reuters)

President Donald Trump insisted on Friday he would never put the United States into a coronavirus lockdown but said "time will tell" if another administration takes office in January and does so, the closest he has come to acknowledging that the projected winner of the presidential election Joe Biden could succeed him.

In his first public remarks since Biden was widely projected to be the next president last Saturday, Trump said he expects a coronavirus vaccine to be available for the entire population as soon as April, amid a crush of new infections that has pushed daily case counts to record highs.

Trump also appeared to acknowledge for the first time the possibility of an upcoming Biden administration, though he stopped short of conceding the race and did not mention his Democratic rival by name.

"Ideally, we won't go to a lockdown. I will not go, this administration will not be going to a lockdown," he said in remarks from the White House Rose Garden. "Hopefully the, the – uh – whatever happens in the future – who knows which administration will be. I guess time will tell."

Since the November 3 election, Trump has persisted with unfounded accusations of widespread voting fraud. But while he has continued to make such claims on Twitter, he did not repeat them in his public remarks on Friday.

The last time Trump spoke publicly – in the White House briefing room two days after election day – he said without evidence that if "legal" votes were counted he would "easily win" the election.

Biden solidified his victory over Trump on Friday after the state of Georgia went his way, leaving Trump little hope of reversing the outcome through legal challenges and recounts.

The Republican president said on Friday that he expects an emergency use authorization for Pfizer's PFE.N vaccine "extremely soon."

Pfizer has said it expects to report required safety data next week and can then apply for an emergency use authorization.

The remarks came after Trump received an update on "Operation Warp Speed," an administration effort to turbocharge development of a vaccine.

Criticism of the administration's response to the virus, which has killed over 240,000 Americans, became a rallying cry for Democrats ahead of the elections.

U.S. networks projected on Friday that Biden won Georgia, giving him 306 votes in the Electoral College that determines the White House winner. North Carolina was called for Trump, leaving him with 232 votes.

(With inputs from Reuters, AFP) 

Corey Lewandowski, a senior adviser to President Trump's reelection campaign, has tested positive for coronavirus, a source familiar with the matter confirmed on Thursday.

Lewandowski is the latest person in Trump's orbit to contract the virus since Election Day, though it was not immediately clear when he became infected.

Lewandowski was at a White House party on the night of the election, and he has mostly been in Pennsylvania in recent days as part of an effort to challenge the outcome there.

(With input from agencies)

Projected winner of U.S. presidential election Joe Biden named Ron Klain to be his incoming chief of staff, elevating his longtime aide to one of the most powerful positions in the White House, CNN reported on Wednesday.

Klain has accepted the offer and will begin a new era of service to Biden, officials said, with a formal announcement set for Thursday, according to the report. 

Klain served as Biden's chief of staff during the opening years of his vice presidency and has been seen as the top prospect for the critical job as gatekeeper to the president. Klain also served as White House Ebola response coordinator in 2014 and has taken considerable interest in the response to the coronavirus pandemic. 

Projected U.S. presidential election winner Joe Biden said on Tuesday that he thinks it is an "embarrassment" that President Donald Trump has not conceded the election.

Speaking at an event in Delaware, Biden added that the transition was well underway despite Trump's refusal to accept the election results and that he hoped to put forward names for some Cabinet positions by Thanksgiving.

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Republican President Donald Trump's campaign said on Tuesday it would file a lawsuit in Michigan requesting the results of the U.S. election in the state not be certified until it could be verified that votes were cast lawfully.

Republicans held on to a seat in the U.S. Senate on Tuesday after a close race in the state of North Carolina, dealing another blow to Joe Biden's Democrats in their bid to take control of the chamber. Republican Senator Thom Tillis was assured re-election after his Democratic opponent, Cal Cunningham, conceded the race. 

Cunningham said in a statement that he had called Tillis to congratulate him even though complete results from the November 3 election have not yet been announced.

Donald Trump was notably absent from German Chancellor Angela Merkel's response to the news that Joe Biden had been projected as the victor of the 2020 U.S. presidential election. 

No reference, no mention, nothing. No longer relevant or not worth it? The relationship between the two has been fractured during the four years since Trump's victory in 2016. Her strong rapport with former President Barack Obama was in stark contrast to the iciness between her and his successor – a tense first meeting in 2017 was a sign of things to come. 

Though his name never appeared, Trump was present in the warmth of her congratulations. Where Merkel had set conditions for cooperation between her country and the Trump administration in 2016, smoothness was assumed with the projected incoming Biden administration. COVID-19 and climate change were just two of the topics on which Merkel and Trump differed – she made sure to mention them in her response. 

Though what Merkel thinks or says might not matter all that much – she has, after all, already entered her final year as chancellor. 

Should Biden assume office on January 20, 2021, the window to work with Merkel will be 10 months long. She will not be standing for a fifth term after 15 years at the top of German politics. Infighting has been rife within her party, the Christian Democratic Union, and it has yet to elect a candidate for the 2021 German federal election. A whole new set of differences or even closer cooperation between the two countries could yet be on the horizon.

Joe Biden is the projected winner of the 2020 U.S. Presidential election, but President Donald Trump has so far refused to concede. What will happen if he still doesn't in the coming weeks? Take a look:

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U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has held a telephone conversation with Joe Biden to congratulate him for his projected win of the U.S. Presidential elections.

Boris confirmed on Twitter that the phone call had taken place on Tuesday, days after U.S. media projected a victory for him over President Donald Trump.

"I just spoke to Joe Biden 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," said Boris.

Boris Johnson is the latest world leader to congratulate Biden for his projected win, following others including Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel, India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi and others.

Boris also acknowledged Biden’s victory over the weekend in a statement where he said: "The U.S. is our most important ally and I look forward to working closely together on our shared priorities, from climate change to trade and security."

U.S. Attorney General William Barr has authorized federal prosecutors across the country to pursue "substantial allegations" of voting irregularities before the 2020 presidential election is certified, despite little evidence of fraud, the AP reported on Monday.

In a memo written to U.S. attorneys, Barr said that investigations "may be conducted if there are clear and apparently-credible allegations of irregularities that, if true, could potentially impact the outcome of a federal election in an individual State," according to the report.

The top Republican in the U.S. Congress on Monday said President Donald Trump was well within his rights to look into charges of "irregularities" in last week's election, which has been called for Democrat Joe Biden, but did not offer any evidence of fraud.

Trump, a Republican, has yet to acknowledge defeat two days after Biden secured enough votes in the state-by-state Electoral College to win. 

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he backed Trump's launch of a legal fight into claims of voter fraud.

"President Trump is 100 percent within his rights to look into allegations of irregularities and weigh his legal options," McConnell said.

McConnell spoke after four Senate Republicans, including a prominent Trump critic, acknowledged Biden's victory. Before addressing the Senate, he met privately with Attorney General William Barr.

(With input from Reuters)

The projected winner of the U.S. presidential election, Joe Biden prepares to enter the White House as the next president of the United States, with his own COVID-19 task force at the ready.

Biden has named 13 health experts to his transition COVID-19 advisory panel.

He is expected to seek cooperation with state governors to promote masks and social distancing and other policies.

CGTN’s Jim Spellman reports.

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The projected winner of the U.S. elections Joe Biden has hailed the promising development of a COVID-19 vaccine but urged Americans to continue adhering to the laid down health protocols in efforts to keep the virus at bay.

Biden acknowledging that the latest development is a "cause for hope", said the battle against COVID-19 may still last for months.

"Today's news does not change this urgent reality. Americans will have to rely on masking, distancing, contact tracing, hand washing, and other measures to keep themselves safe well into next year. Today's news is great news, but it doesn’t change that fact," he said.

The U.S. is the hardest-hit country by the COVID-19 pandemic, having registered more than 9.98 million infections and over 237,000 deaths.

Biden in his statement noted that an approval for the drug by late November would still leave the U.S. with "many more months before there is widespread vaccination in this country."

Joe Biden's transition team unveiled the members of his COVID-19 task force on Monday, which will "help shape" the incoming administration's approach to managing the coronavirus pandemic, local media reported.

The list includes former government health officials, academics and major figures in medicine.

"Dealing with the coronavirus pandemic is one of the most important battles our administration will face, and I will be informed by science and by experts," Biden said in a statement on Monday.

The European Union will wait for Joe Biden to take office before commenting on future cooperation with Washington, the 27-nation bloc's executive commission said on Monday.

"I think we should take things one step at a time," spokesman Eric Mamer told a news briefing.

"It is still very, very early days and therefore at the moment," Eric said, adding that the question of who is U.S. president has no bearing on the trade talks between the European Union and Britain.

The World Health Organization (WHO) chief welcomed efforts on Monday to strengthen the Geneva-based body through reform and said that it was looking forward to working closely with the administration of Joe Biden, the projected U.S. presidential winner.

"We welcome any and all efforts to strengthen this organization not for its own sake, but the sake of the people we serve," WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told health ministers at the start of its resumed annual meeting.

Biden has previously said he will reverse U.S. President Donald Trump's move to withdraw from the WHO.

The Trump administration has formally notified the United Nations of its withdrawal from the WHO in early July this year.

Speaking from quarantine after being in contact with an individual with COVID-19 more than a week ago, Tedros called for unity and solidarity in fighting the pandemic which has affected more than 50 million people and claimed over 1.2 million lives.

"We cannot negotiate with COVID-19, nor close our eyes and hope it goes away. It pays no heed to political rhetoric or conspiracy theories. Our only hope is science, solutions and solidarity."

(With input from Reuters)

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday congratulated projected U.S. presidential election winner Joe Biden and called for the European Union (EU) and U.S. to work "side by side", but also acknowledged the EU must do more to take care of its own security. 

Merkel held up Biden as an experienced leader who knows Germany and Europe well, stressing: "We are allies in NATO, we share fundamental values ... and interests." 

She said the partners needed to work together to tackle issues such as the coronavirus pandemic, climate change and terrorism, and to champion free trade.

"We Germans and we Europeans know that we have to take on more responsibility in this partnership in the 21st century," Merkel said. 

"America is and remains our most important ally. But it expects us, and rightly so, to make stronger efforts to take care of our security and to stand up for our convictions in the world," she added. 

Merkel also said Kamala Harris, Joe Biden's vice presidential pick, was an inspiration to many people and that she was looking forward to working with Harris and Biden. 

While the EU later said the 27-nation block will wait for Biden to take office before commenting on future cooperation with Washington. 

"I think we should take things one step at a time," spokesman of the EU Executive Commission Eric Mamer told a news briefing. "We have had now a process in the United States ... ongoing for a while and has now led to us welcoming the victory in the election of Joe Biden." 

"It is still very, very early days and therefore at the moment ... the EU is waiting for the new president-elect to take office before starting to comment on what this will imply when it comes to our relationship." 

(Cover: German Chancellor Angela Merkel addresses a news conference on coronavirus in Berlin, Germany, March 11, 2020. /Reuters)

(With input from Reuters)

World stocks hit a record high on Monday and the dollar stayed weak as expectations of better global trade ties and more monetary stimulus under projected U.S. presidential election winner Joe Biden supported risk appetite.

Markets started to trade on the prospect of a Biden presidency and a Republican-controlled U.S. Senate last week, but the Democratic candidate's projected victory on Saturday gave more fuel to the move.

The MSCI world equity index, which tracks shares in 49 countries, rose 0.5 percent to a record high in early European hours. On Friday, it posted its biggest one-week gain in nearly seven months.

E-mini futures for the S&P 500 jumped more than 1.4 percent on Monday. Nasdaq futures rallied more than two percent to just under a record high, signaling a positive start for U.S. markets.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside of Japan jumped 1.3 percent after hitting its highest since January 2018. The pan-Europe STOXX 600 climbed 1.5 percent to one-month highs by 0846 GMT.

"Why the excitement? Hopes of less diplomatic and trade angst, a lower dollar helps global rebalancing," Chris Bailey, European strategist at Raymond James in London said in a note. "A lot of hope... but over two months until inauguration day!"

Equities rallied last week, with the S&P 500 up 7.3 percent, clocking the best gain in an election week since 1932, according to National Australia Bank analyst Tapas Strickland.

Oil prices jumped on Monday as investors greeted the prospect of a Biden victory, shrugging off worries about lackluster demand amid rising global coronavirus cases. Brent crude added nearly $1 to $40.35.

Analysts said the outlook might get tougher from here as investors focus on Biden's ability to expand fiscal stimulus and measures to reduce the spread of COVID-19.

Expectations that monetary policy in the U.S. will remain easy and global trade relations improve has weakened the dollar in recent days. It posted its biggest weekly loss in more than seven months on Friday.

The dollar index was just above its lowest in around 10 weeks, up 0.1 percent, while growth and trade proxies such as the Australian dollar and the Chinese yuan remained in demand. The Aussie reached a seven-week high, up 0.4 percent, and China's yuan struck a 28-month high.

The euro, which climbed 1.9 percent last week, was unchanged. Sterling was also flat as the focus turned to Brexit trade negotiations coming to a head with the EU summit on November 15.

(Cover: Passersby wearing protective face masks walk past a screen displaying Nikkei share average and world stock indexes outside a brokerage, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Tokyo, Japan October 5, 2020. /Reuters)

Russian President Vladimir Putin is waiting for the official results from the U.S. presidential election before congratulating a winner, the Kremlin said on Monday. 

"We consider it correct to wait for the official results to be finalized. I want to remind you that President Putin repeatedly said he will respect the choice of the American people," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, adding that Russia would like to cooperate with "any U.S. leader."

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence is scheduled to meet with the White House coronavirus task force on Monday afternoon, according to a schedule sent to reporters, their first meeting since October 20. 

On the same day, the projected winner of presidential election Joe Biden is going to launch his 12-strong task force for coronavirus response.

The U.S. has reported another daily record for coronavirus cases, with the country's total number of cases nearing 10 million. 

A total of 126,742 cases were recorded on Saturday, the third day in a row with the total exceeding 126,000, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

Read more:

COVID-19: US sets record with 126,742 new cases, world tops 50 million

Projected winner of the U.S. presidential election Joe Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris have launched a transition website, where they detail plans on four priorities – COVID-19, economic recovery, racial equity and climate change.

According to the latest data released by John Hopkins University, the United States is on the brink of becoming the first nation to surpass 10 million coronavirus infections. 

Biden and Harris have promised to double the number of drive-through testing sites.

They have also vowed to establish a COVID-19 Racial and Ethnic Disparities Task Force to provide recommendations and oversight on disparities in public health and economic response. At the end of the current health crisis, it will become a permanent Infectious Disease Racial Disparities Task Force.

They will immediately restore their relationship with the World Health Organization and restore the White House National Security Council Directorate for Global Health Security and Biodefense, originally established by the Obama-Biden administration, according to the plan. 

It also reiterated Biden's stance on Paris climate agreement, which the U.S. has officially left last week.

"He (Biden) will not only recommit the United States to the Paris Agreement on climate change – he will go much further than that," the plan stated.

- Melania Trump, the wife of U.S. President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, is among the people advising Donald Trump to accept the defeat in the presidential election, according to a report from CNN on Sunday.

- Former White House National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn congratulated Joe Biden and Kamala Harris after U.S. networks declared them the projected winners of the bitter race for the White House. 

- Clark County in the state of Nevada still has 16,000 mail-in ballots to count as of Sunday, according to local media reports. 

Lindsey Graham, chairman of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, on Saturday said he will investigate allegations of voting irregularities and misconduct during the U.S. presidential election, after receiving a sworn affidavit from a postal worker in Pennsylvania that alleged "a plan to backdate ballots mailed after the election."

"It is imperative that all credible allegations of voting irregularities and misconduct be investigated to ensure the integrity of the 2020 elections," Graham said in a press release.

Graham stated that he will be calling on the Department of Justice to investigate these claims, and contact the Postmaster General to look into the allegations.

His statement came less than two hours after the Associated Press and TV networks projected Joe Biden would win the presidential race.

On Saturday, Ellen Weintraub, commissioner of the Federal Election Commission, told CNN that there was "no evidence of fraud" in the election. 

U.S. President Donald Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner has approached the president about conceding the election, according to CNN.

Previously, Trump's campaign had said in a statement that Trump "will not rest until the American people have the honest vote count they deserve and that Democracy demands," the report said.

U.S. President Donald Trump's campaign said Saturday it had filed suit in Arizona, alleging the southwestern state's most populous county incorrectly rejected votes cast by some voters in the U.S. presidential election on the election day.

The lawsuit, filed in Superior Court in Maricopa County, said poll workers told some voters to press a button after a machine had detected an "overvote." The campaign contended that decision disregarded voters' choices in those races, saying new voting machines were used on Tuesday. The lawsuit suggested those votes could prove "determinative" in the state's outcome.

At his speech after winning the U.S. presidential election, Joe Biden said he sought the job "to restore the soul of America, to rebuild the backbone of this nation, the middle class, and to make America respected around the world again."

Biden pledges to be a unifying president, hails 'convincing victory'

Joe Biden pledged that he's going to be a president who seeks to unify and rebuild the backbone of the U.S. during an address to the public on Saturday night after being projected by multiple U.S. media outlets to be the winner of the 2020 U.S. election. 

"I pledge to be a president who seeks not to divide, but to unify. Who doesn't see Red and Blue states, but a United States. And who will work with all my heart to win the confidence of the whole people," Biden told cheering supporters at his hometown Wilmington, Delaware.

He also touted his victory in the tense race by saying, "people have spoken and delivered us a clear victory, a convincing victory," with a record of 74 million votes.

Moving to the topic of COVID-19 which has taken over 236,000 lives in the U.S., Biden said he's resolute to turn the pandemic around and he will name an advisory team to deal with the pandemic on Monday and they'll tackle it based on "science."

"We cannot repair the economy, restore our vitality, or relish life's most precious moments – hugging a grandchild, birthdays, weddings, graduations, all the moments that matter most to us – until we get this virus under control." 

Before Biden took on the victory stage, Kamala Harris, who will become U.S.' first Black, Asian American vice president, said voters had brought a "new day for America" and both Biden and she herself are ready to serve the nation. 

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U.S. President-elect Joe Biden will owe a great debt to the people in the city where he grew up: Wilmington, Delaware. It's a city in a small state that had a huge impact in Biden's development. It's where he first learned about issues that divide blacks and whites, and how he learned politics can bridge the chasm.

With incumbent U.S. President Donald Trump refusing to concede the election, CGTN asked both Democrats and Republicans in Detroit what they think should happen.

U.S. investors and financial executives took a big sigh of relief on Saturday after the country's major networks declared Democrat Joe Biden winner of the U.S. presidential election, offering some certainty after days of conflicting reports about who might run the White House in the next term.

Although incumbent President Donald Trump said he would fight the result in court, Wall Streeters who offered comments felt there was little doubt Biden would ultimately succeed. 

"Biden is good news for the markets," Christopher Stanton, chief investment officer at Sunrise Capital Partners, said on Saturday. "We're all so tired of the whipsaw that came with the Trump tweets."

Major U.S. stock indexes registered their biggest weekly gains since April this week, as investors bet Biden would win and Republicans would hold onto the Senate. That scenario would create a steadier hand in the Oval Office and a Congress that would check left-leaning impulses on taxes or regulations that pinch companies, investors said.

However, there are lingering risks to asset prices in the days and weeks ahead.

Republicans have already filed several lawsuits over ballot counting and Trump said his campaign will file more. The litigation could drag out election proceedings, which are also likely to face run-off contests in Georgia.

Beyond those battles, investors have been worried about the people Biden might appoint to his Cabinet. Some of those officials would be negotiating with Congress about a relief package and have extensive powers to craft Wall Street rules.

Current U.S. Federal Reserve governor and former McKinsey consultant Lael Brainard's name has been floated as a potential Treasury Secretary, while Biden has already tapped former derivatives market regulator and Goldman Sachs Group Inc banker Gary Gensler for advice on financial regulation.

Investors and prominent Wall Street figures said they were happy with the election finally being called after what seemed like unending tension as ballots were counted throughout the week.

The financial industry was not reacting in a bubble: major cities in the U.S., from New York to San Francisco, erupted in celebration on Saturday. Though Trump undoubtedly has significant support throughout the country, including on Wall Street, 2020 has been a difficult year for the United States.

The coronavirus pandemic has taken a huge toll on the country, killing some 236,250 people so far, while social unrest over the police killing of George Floyd, a Black man, has only hardened divisions that already existed.

Many voters were hoping for a decisive election that would offer some calm, whichever candidate they cast ballots for.

Mohamed El-Erian, Allianz Group's chief economic adviser, said he hoped a Biden administration could work with Congress to get a handle on the pandemic and pass an economic stimulus package for struggling Americans.

"The country needs to come together to deal better with a surge in COVID infections that risks the loss of more lives, greater disruptions to livelihoods, and long-term economic, institutional and social scarring," he said.

(Cover: New York Stock Exchange, New York, U.S., November 4, 2020. / CFP)

U.S. Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden called for unity on Saturday after being projected to be the winner of the fiercely contested 2020 election.

"With the campaign over, it's time to put the anger and the harsh rhetoric behind us and come together as a nation," Biden said in a statement.

The statement came after major news outlets, including AP, CNN, Fox News, and NBC News, projected the former U.S. vice president has won more than 270 electoral votes.

His Republican opponent, sitting President Donald Trump, said in a statement that the election is "far from over," vowing to take legal actions as early as next week.

Kamala Harris, only the second Black woman in this country's history to be elected a U.S. senator, kicked off her journey to the White House with a presidential bid of her own, and was among the most diverse class of Democratic presidential candidates ever.

Announcing her candidacy on Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 2019, she ran on a platform of providing Dreamers a pathway to citizenship, abortion rights, and pay equity along racial and gender lines. 

She was one of the only candidates to dedicate room on her platform to the Black maternal mortality crisis. She suspended her campaign on Dec. 3, 2019, citing a lack of funding. But she got another chance to fight when Biden announced her as his running mate in August. 

Harris' line sisters — the women who pledged her sorority with her — celebrated the announcement, then immediately got to work supporting her. 

Lorri Saddler, who crossed AKA with Harris and 36 other women at Howard University in 1986, told HuffPost that she and her line sisters regularly host meetings and prayer calls; Harris supports them through their various ups and downs as they support her.

(With input from agencies)

News just in indicate that Democrat, Joe Biden has amassed the 270 Electoral College Votes required to be the US president. CBS News projects Joe Biden has secured enough electoral votes to become the 46th president of the United States, defeating President Trump and capturing the White House after a bitter campaign that exposed deep divides in the country.

The former vice president's victory in Pennsylvania marks the third Rust Belt state that President Trump won in 2016 which in turn supported Biden in 2020, along with Michigan and Ohio. Biden is also leading in Nevada, Arizona and Georgia, which Mr. Trump won in 2016.

Mr. Trump has refused to acknowledge the validity of legally cast ballots that have been counted since Election Day. However, Biden took an insurmountable lead in Pennsylvania on Saturday morning, closing the president's last path to victory.

The Trump campaign has launched lawsuits in several critical states in an attempt to delay the counting of votes it considers to be disputed, but this litigation has thus far been unsuccessful.

Biden's victory is historic, as his running mate, Kamala Harris, will be the first woman and first Black and Asian-American person to serve as vice president.

(With input from agencies)

Twitter tags four of Trump's tweets as 'misleading'

American microblogging platform Twitter tagged four of U.S. President Donald Trump's tweets as "misleading" on Saturday. As the U.S. presidential election's protracted vote counts grind on in three key states, Trump has claimed election fraud and irregularities in mail-in ballots. The social networking site attached a disclaimer to the tweets saying: "Some or all of the content shared in this Tweet is disputed and might be misleading about an election or other civic process."

No evidence of fraud says U.S. Federal Election Commissioner

"No evidence of fraud" in the U.S. presidential election, Ellen Weintraub, commissioner of the Federal Election Commission, told CNN on Saturday. 

Two Trump supporters injured in shooting in Florida: Report

Two individuals participating in a rally supporting U.S. President Donald Trump in Fort Lauderdale, Florida were shot on Friday, resulting in minor injuries, local media reported.

The weapon used in the shooting was "an unknown type of pellet gun," according to media reports.

An investigation into the incident is underway.

Joe Biden said his campaign is going to win the presidential race with a clear majority, in an address on Friday night, saying he's on track to win over 300 electoral votes.

"The numbers tell us a clear and convincing story: We're going to win this race."

"We're beating Donald Trump by over four million votes," said Biden, referring to the popular vote, adding the margin is still growing.

Biden moved closer to winning the White House on Friday as he expanded his lead over President Donald Trump in battleground states.

He is currently leading with 264 electoral votes, according to the AP projection, while incumbent U.S. President Trump is on 214 as both need 270 electoral votes to win the presidency. 

As tension grows over vote counting, Biden called for calm and urged every vote to be counted. 

"We need to remain calm. Patient. And let the process work out as we count all the votes," said Biden. 

Advisers urge Trump to prepare for defeat, maybe without a concession speech

Donald Trump's advisers have broached with the president the prospect of an electoral defeat, and how he should handle such an outcome, local media reported on Friday, adding that there may be no concession speech.

Biden will not declare victory without being certain of winning key states

U.S. Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden said he will not declare victory on Friday without being certain of winning key states, according to local media. 

Supreme Court Justice Alito orders Pennsylvania to segregate ballots received after election day

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito has ordered all county boards in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania to segregate ballots received after election day and said that if the ballots are counted, they be counted separately.

This order is in line with the guidance that secretary of state of Pennsylvania had already issued.

Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar has already ordered any ballots that arrived between November 4 and November 6 be segregated from those that arrived by election day, pending ongoing litigation, and Alito's order puts more force to that order.

U.S. judge rejects Republican lawsuit alleging voter irregularities in Nevada

Republican claims in Nevada about voting irregularities in the 2020 presidential election were rejected by a state court earlier this week, Nevada's attorney general Aaron Ford said on social media on Friday.

Special Counsel confirms Hatch Act investigation of Trump campaign

The United States Special Counsel has investigated the use of the White House as a "war room" by President Donald Trump's reelection campaign, after Congress member Bill Pascrell asked for an investigation into whether Trump used the executive branch of the White House for his campaign.

In the letter, Pascrell said that according to media reports, Trump and members of the executive branch are breaking the law on Election Day, suggesting that they are using space inside the Eisenhower Executive Office Building as a campaign "war room."

The U.S. Office of Special Counsel has informed Pascrell that it is pursuing a federal probe into the Trump campaign's using the White House and Old Executive Office Building as a campaign command center and election day war room for running afoul of the Hatch Act.

There will be a recount in Georgia due to a small margin in the White House race in the southeastern state, an official said on Friday.

"With a margin that small, there will be a recount in Georgia," Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said at a press conference, adding that they are "not seeing widespread fraud."

The remarks came as the updated vote count showed that Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is leading sitting President Donald Trump by fewer than 1,600 votes in the "Peach State," with 99 percent of votes reported.

Raffensperger noted the race remains "too close to call" with fewer than 5,500 ballots left to be counted in a handful of counties and 8,890 military ballots outstanding.

As of Friday morning, Biden is leading the 2020 presidential election with 253 electoral votes, while Trump has taken 213, according to CNN.

Fox News and The Wall Street Journal have forecast a higher number of electoral votes for the former U.S. vice president at 264, awarding him Arizona, which carries 11 votes.

To win the presidential election, a candidate needs at least 270 electoral votes of the 538 in total.

Most of the major news networks in the United States have not yet called the race for Pennsylvania, Georgia, North Carolina, Nevada and Alaska, as the vote tabulation continues.

In a statement on Friday morning, the Trump campaign said they believe "this election is not over," arguing that results in some battleground states "are far from final."

U.S. President Donald Trump's Democratic challenger Joe Biden has taken the lead by 5,594 votes in the state of Pennsylvania, according to AP.

Read our live blog for more updates on the U.S. presidential election.

 Joe Biden takes the lead by 917 votes in Georgia: AP

U.S. President Donald Trump's Democratic challenger Joe Biden has taken the lead by 917 votes in the state of Georgia, AP reported.

More than 99 percent of the total votes have already been tallied in Georgia.

January showdown for Senate?

The battle for control of the Senate – crucial for whoever wins the White House – remains in the balance, with the parties tied at 48-48, one contest is heading to a runoff, and three others are yet to be called. 

The Democrats had been confident of winning a majority, but the party's hopes are dwindling. Cal Cunningham trails incumbent Republican Thom Tillis in North Carolina, and in slow-counting Alaska, the Republican holds a healthy lead. 

That likely puts control of the Senate in Georgia's hands: both races in the state are likely to go to runoff elections on January 5, with no candidate expected to surpass 50 percent in Tuesday's elections. 

Read more: Why the Senate could make or break the next president
 

Trump's lead in Georgia continues to narrow

Joe Biden continues to cut into incumbent President Donald Trump's lead in Georgia.

As the state's 16 electoral votes remain at stake, with 99 percent of the estimated votes tallied so far, Trump has 49.41 percent, and Biden has 49.36 percent of the votes, according to AP. 

Pennsylvania's results slow as officials count some ballots by hand: report 

Counting procedures in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania have slowed as some ballots could not be scanned by machines, CNN reported on Thursday.

With more than 100,000 mail-in ballots still uncounted in the state, officials are counting by hand instead.

The report said that "as of about 7:45 p.m. ET (1245GMT), there were still about 74,000 uncounted votes from Philadelphia County, 36,000 from Allegheny County and just under 25,000 from Bucks County." 

(Cover: Lehigh County staffers count ballots as vote counting countinues for the the U.S. election, in Allentown, Pennsylvania, the United States, November 5, 2020. /AP) 

Must-win Pennsylvania trending to Biden

As attention lingers on the close races in Nevada, Arizona and Georgia, the remaining uncalled state with the most electoral votes – Pennsylvania – is trending rapidly towards Joe Biden. 

The Democrat will win the White House if he picks up Pennsylvania's 20 votes, even if Donald Trump wins Nevada, Arizona, Georgia and North Carolina. 

The incumbent president's lead has fallen from over half a million votes to under 100,000 as early votes are counted: if the trend continues, Biden will be on course for a comfortable win in the state of his birth that will push him beyond the 270 electoral votes needed to take the White House. 

Trump: 'If you count legal votes, I easily win'

"If you count the legal votes, I have won the election," U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday night, noting the election was tainted by "cheating and corruption". 

He addressed the media in the White House while still awaiting the final electoral results.

Earlier, U.S. Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden tweeted, "The people will not be silenced, be bullied, or surrender. Every vote must be counted."

Trump campaign's use of the White House to be investigated: official 

The U.S. Office of Special Counsel has opened an investigation into allegations that the Trump campaign's use of the White House as an Election Day command center violated federal law, Democratic Representative Bill Pascrell said on Thursday.

In a statement, Pascrell said the federal watchdog responded on Thursday to his call for a probe, telling him a special unit "has opened an investigation into these allegations to determine if the Hatch Act was violated."

Biden inches nearer to victory; Trump loses legal fights in Georgia, Michigan

Democrat Joe Biden crept nearer to victory over Donald Trump on Thursday in an exceedingly close U.S. election, while Trump's campaign lost court rulings in the states of Georgia and Michigan on Thursday, even as it vowed to bring a new lawsuit challenging what it called "voting irregularities" in Nevada.

Both candidates need 270 electoral votes to win the presidency. Biden currently has 264 electoral votes, while Trump has 214, according to AP.

A Georgia judge has dismissed a lawsuit lodged by President Donald Trump's campaign team that sought to ensure elections officials were following the law regarding absentee ballots, AP reports.

The campaign team, alongside the Georgia Republican Party, filed the lawsuit against the Chatham County Board of Elections asking the judge to order the county to secure and account for ballots received after 7PM on election day.

According to Georgia laws, ballots must be received by 7PM on Election Day in order to count.

Trump, Biden divide on vote counting as Georgia result coming soon

Georgia's Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said that fewer than 25,000 votes remained to be counted across the state – and promised that the count would be completed this morning.

"We should be done no later than noontime today," Raffensperger said in a televised interview Thursday morning.

According to AP projection, Georgia is among the five U.S. states that are counting votes, and Trump currently leads by 0.4 points.

Georgia has 16 electoral votes. If taken, it will put Trump on 230 in the race for the White House.

On Thursday morning, the two presidential candidates divided on vote counting, with Biden tweeted, "Every vote must be counted." Trump, whereas, called for a stop. "STOP THE COUNT!"

In pics: Votes continue to be counted after the 2020 U.S. presidential election

Votes continue to be counted after the 2020 U.S. presidential election as five states remain too close to call, according to AP.

We feel "impenetrable" to any potential Trump legal challenge: Nevada attorney general

Nevada is ready to rebuff any legal challenges the Trump campaign brings against the state's election results, the state's Democratic attorney general Aaron Ford told CNN on Thursday.

"We feel quite invulnerable, if you take a look at the track record we've already established against Mr. Trump," said Ford.

"We actually have safeguards to prevent fraud, such as signature verification and unique bar codes, that are also part and parcel of the process here," Ford said, adding, "We think it's pretty impenetrable when it comes to legal challenge against us."

In pics: Protesters descend on U.S. streets as counting underway

Protesters took to the streets in cities across the U.S. on Wednesday for a second night as the 2020 presidential election inched closer to declaring a winner.

Senate control hangs in the balance

Biden is leading in the race to the White House, but the picture is less rosy for Democrats down ballot – the party looks to have won a reduced majority in the House of Representatives and has struggled to gain seats in the Senate.

If the Republicans retain control of the Senate, it would severely hamstring a potential Biden administration. 

The Democrats need a net gain of four seats to take control. Thus far they have managed to flip a seat in Colorado, with John Hickenlooper defeating incumbent Cory Gardner; while Gary Peters held off a fierce challenge to retain his seat in Michigan.

The Republicans won back Alabama, with Tommy Tuberville defeating Doug Jones; incumbents Joni Ernst and Susan Collins held on in Iowa and Maine respectively.

Races in Georgia and North Carolina remain too close to call, while another contest in Georgia is heading for a potentially critical runoff election on January 5.  

Read more: Senate battles that could make or break the next president

The state of the race

Projections from the AP indicate Biden is currently six votes short of the 270 needed to win the presidential election and Trump needs to find 56, three of which the Republican is likely to pick up in Alaska. 

Trump leads in Pennsylvania (20), North Carolina (15) and Georgia (16) are narrowing with votes, mostly mail-ins that favor Biden, still being counted, while the Democrat has a small advantage in Nebraska (6). If Biden wins at least one of those four states he'll win the election, if the president wins all four he'll be reelected.

Michigan secretary of state calls Trump lawsuit 'frivolous'

Michigan's secretary of state said on Wednesday that a lawsuit by U.S. President Donald Trump seeking to halt counting of votes was "frivolous." 

All valid ballots cast in Michigan had been tabulated securely and accurately, said Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson.

Earlier, Donald Trump's campaign said it has filed lawsuits in Michigan and Pennsylvania seeking to halt vote counting, arguing that officials had failed to allow fair access to counting sites.

Trump's campaign files suit in Georgia to pause count: AP

Incumbent President Donald Trump's campaign has filed a suit in Georgia seeking to pause the vote count, AP reported on Wednesday.

Georgia, with 16 electoral votes, is one of the five states whose Electoral College votes haven't been called. The others are Alaska (three electoral votes), North Carolina (15 electoral votes), Nevada (six electoral votes) and Pennsylvania (20 electoral votes).

According to AP, Trump is leading the race in the state, with 98 percent votes counted. 

As the counting work is still ongoing, Trump's campaign has mounted a multi-pronged legal attack in several battleground states in the wake of the tight election.

The campaign said it has filed lawsuits in Michigan and Pennsylvania seeking to halt vote counting, arguing that officials had failed to allow fair access to counting sites.

Before Wisconsin was called in favor of Biden by a slight edge, the Trump campaign said it will request a recount in the Midwestern state.

Read more: Biden edges closer to White House, Trump launches legal challenges

U.S. reports over 100,000 daily COVID-19 cases, setting new record

The United States reported more than 100,000 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, according to data tracked by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University.

The United States has recorded 9,472,548 confirmed COVID-19 cases and over 233,000 deaths as of 7:24 p.m. local time (2324 GMT), according to the CSSE.

U.S. stocks surged to close higher on Wednesday as the presidential election race remained cloudy but the likelihood of gridlock in Congress made investors optimistic that major policy changes would be difficult to enact.

Both President Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden still had paths to reach the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win as states kept counting mail-in ballots. 

As of the time of writing, Joe Biden is now leading the race, with 264 electoral votes, according to AP. President Trump has 214 electoral votes. 

U.S. election updates live: Trump, Biden predict win with a few key states votes still being counted

Votes are still being counted in five states – Alaska, Georgia, North Carolina, Nevada and Pennsylvania.

Growth stocks, currently comprised of a large portion of names in areas such as tech, surged by 4.31 percent as investors expected them to keep outperforming value stocks as they have in recent months. Value names, which closed flat, are currently comprised of mostly cyclical stocks such as banks and energy.

"Even if Joe Biden wins the presidency, it looks like we are going to have a divided Congress so the opportunity to have meaningful change at the fiscal level is pretty slim, and that is what is being priced into the back end of the market today," said David Joy, chief market strategist at Ameriprise Financial in Boston.

"If we are going to have a similar type of economic environment as we've had, then we are going back to an emphasis on trying to find earnings in a relatively scarce earnings environment, back to the same winners as before."

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 367.63 points, or 1.34 percent, to 27,847.66, the S&P 500 percent gained 74.28 points, or 2.20 percent, to 3,443.44 and the Nasdaq Composite percent added 430.21 points, or 3.85 percent, to 11,590.78.

It was the biggest daily percentage gain for the S&P 500 since June 5 and for the Nasdaq, since April 14. Still, advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by just a 1.36-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.26-to-1 ratio favored advancers.

The S&P healthcare index  jumped by 4.45 percent to close at a record high, and the information technology sector also gained strongly, as a divided Congress means slimmer chances for heightened antitrust scrutiny, capital gains taxes and a restoration of parts of the Affordable Care Act. The healthcare index notched its biggest daily percentage gain in about seven months.

Still, investors said they favor a definitive, swift resolution of the presidential race that would clear the way for a deal on a stimulus package to revive the economy.

Despite the rally in stocks, the potential for political uncertainty also sent investors to U.S. Treasuries, sparking the biggest one-day drop in 10- and 30-year bond yields since June. Shares of U.S. banks, which typically track Treasury yields, slumped.

The S&P 500 posted 49 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 112 new highs and 28 new lows.

Volume on U.S. exchanges was 10.39 billion shares, compared with the 9.09 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days.

(With input from Reuters)

Latest on U.S. election: Joe Biden leading the race with 264 votes 

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is now leading the race, with 264 electoral votes, according to AP. President Trump has 214 electoral votes. 

Votes are still being counted in five states -- Alaska, Georgia, North Carolina, Nevada and Pennsylvania. 

Tip: A candidate needs 270 electoral votes to win the presidential election. 

Biden takes the lead in tight Michigan race: AP

U.S. Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden takes the lead in the state of Michigan, with 94 percent of the votes estimated so far, according to AP.

Biden has 49.33 percent, and Trump has 49.13 percent of the votes. 

Four people injured in stabbing near White House: media

Three men and a woman were stabbed and sent to the hospital following an altercation near the intersection of 14th Street and New York Avenue Northwest, several blocks away from the White House, early Wednesday morning, local media reported citing the DC Police Department.

Police asked residents to be on the lookout for three suspects, and one of them is believed to be armed with a knife.

Democrats set to hold House majority: AP

The Democrats are on course to hold on to their majority in the House of Representatives.

However, they could well go into the next session of Congress with a smaller majority than before, having lost six seats, even though they entered the race hoping to increase their number.

Among those winning reelection were four congresswomen who shot to prominence in 2018 and have come to be known as The Squad: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ( New York), Ilhan Omar (Minnesota), Ayanna Pressley (Massachusetts) and Rashida Tlaib (Michigan).

One of the Republicans' major coups was unseating 15-term Minnesota representative Collin Peterson. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a candidate who has made headlines for spreading baseless QAnon conspiracy theories, meanwhile won a seat in Georgia.

Vote counting underway in key states, Biden holds the lead

Votes are still being counted in several key states across the U.S., and no winner has been determined in the election. The race is boiling down to just a handful of states: Georgia, Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania.

Joe Biden is currently 32 votes short of the 270 needed to win the election and Donald Trump needs to find 57.

In battleground state of Wisconsin, with 89 percent of the votes tallied so far, Trump has 49 percent and Biden has 49.3 percent of the votes.

Nevada's six votes are likely to go to the Democrat, and the president is a narrow favorite for North Carolina's 15, Maine's second district's one and Alaska's three. 

That leaves Biden on 244 and Trump on 232, with Wisconsin (10), Michigan (16), Pennsylvania (20) and Georgia (16) in the balance with votes still to be counted: If Biden wins at least two of the four states he'll win the election, if Trump wins three he'll be reelected. 

Biden campaign says its lawyers standing by if Trump goes to court over vote

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden's campaign said on Wednesday it has legal teams standing by if U.S. President Donald Trump follows through with his threat to go to court to try to stop the counting of votes.

"If the president makes good on his threat to go to court to try to prevent the proper tabulation of votes, we have legal teams standing by ready to deploy to resist that effort," Biden campaign manager Jen O'Malley Dillon said in a statement.

Biden at 238 electoral votes, Trump at 213: AP

Democrat Joe Biden is leading with 238 electoral votes, while incumbent President Donald Trump is at 213, according to AP.

A U.S. presidential candidate requires 270 electoral votes to win the White House. 

Biden wins in Maine: AP call

Democrat Joe Biden has claimed victory in the northeastern state of Maine, according to AP call. 

Biden takes battleground state of Arizona: AP

U.S. Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is projected to win the key battleground state of Arizona, with a total of 11 electoral votes, according to AP. 

As counting underway, Trump says 'ready for celebration' 

As the votes were still being tallied, incumbent U.S. President and Republican nominee Donald Trump addressed the nation on Wednesday. 

While claiming victory in the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election, he said was "ready for celebration."

"Frankly, we did win," Trump told his supporters at the White House.

"We were getting ready for a big celebration," he said, adding "We were winning everything."

Trump also took a moment for self-congratulation on his big win of the night in Florida.

But election results from some battleground states, including Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan and Georgia, were still not clear and projections from all major networks showed Trump's still short of the 270 electoral votes required to win an election.

Earlier, his Democratic rival Joe Biden said during a brief speech in Wilmington, Delaware shortly after midnight that he is "on track to win this election."

Biden has racked up 18 states including his home state Delaware and big prizes California and New York, as well as the U.S. capital.

Trump takes battleground state of Texas: AP

Trump is projected to win the key battleground state of Texas, with a total of 38 electoral votes, according to AP. 

Twitter removes Trump's post for 'misleading about an election'

Social networking site Twitter on Wednesday removed a post by incumbent U.S. President Donald Trump for "misleading about an election.”

Trump had alleged his Democratic challenger Joe Biden of "stealing the election.”

Biden, Trump both predict victory as counting underway

"We believe we're on track to win the election," said Democrat Joe Biden while addressing his supporters in Delaware in the wee hours of Wednesday, as the counting is still underway. 

The U.S. election will not be over until every ballot is counted, Biden said.   

Incumbent President Donald Trump announced on Twitter that he would be making a statement tonight.

"We are up BIG, but they are trying to STEAL the Election," Trump wrote on Twitter moments after Biden told supporters he expected to win.

Trump takes Ohio, Biden wins Minnesota: AP

In key battleground states, Trump gets Ohio; Joe Biden wins Minnesota, according to AP.

U.S. Election 2020: Donald Trump carries key swing state of Florida

Incumbent President Donald Trump has won the key swing state of Florida, according to AP. 

Florida has 29 electoral votes, thanks to its colossal size and population.

With its 29 electoral college votes and frequent switches from Republican to Democrat, Florida is a coveted battleground state in the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. 

Find out why Florida matters:

Swing states: Florida – a vote-rich 2020 election battleground

Biden expected to deliver a statement later today: Reuters

Democrat Joe Biden is expected to deliver a statement at 12:30 a.m. ET (0530GMT), Reuters reported, citing Biden campaign.

Biden leads with 209 electoral votes, Trump at 118: AP

Democrat Joe Biden is leading with 209 electoral votes, while incumbent President Donald Trump is at 118, according to AP, as the two are battling it out for the White House, with polls gradually closing across the United States on Tuesday.

So far, Biden has raked up 16 states including Delaware, California and New York, as well as the U.S. capital. Trump has won 18 states including Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, Oklahoma and Tennessee.

Two arrested amid D.C. protest as election results flood in

At least two were arrested on Tuesday as police and protesters faced off in Washington D.C. on 2020 U.S. election night.

Scuffles also erupted outside the White House between Donald Trump and Joe Biden's supporters.

Police are shown trying to form a line with their bicycles and called on protesters to "back up." 

Latest on Senate races in the 2020 U.S. elections

American voters have also cast ballots in 35 Senate races that will have a major bearing on the ability of the eventual winner of the presidential race to pursue his agenda.

The Democrats need a net gain of four seats to take control the Senate and have flipped a seat in Colorado, with former contender for the Democratic nomination John Hickenlooper defeating incumbent Republican Cory Gardner.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has held on to his Kentucky seat, comfortably defeating well-funded challenger Amy McGrath, and Republican Tom Cotton has been reelected in Arkansas. 

Here has more about the Senate races: 

- Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has won a seventh term in Kentucky.

- Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois has been reelected to a fifth term, handily winning over four lesser-known challengers.

- Democratic Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware has defeated Republican challenger Lauren Witzke to win reelection.

- Republican Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma has defeated Democrat Abby Broyles and three lesser-known candidates to secure another six-year term.

Read more:

Battle for the Senate: Races that could make or break the next U.S. president 

(Cover: CFP) 

International observers say voting in U.S. election 'calm, peaceful'

International election observers deployed in the U.S. tweeted on Tuesday that voting had proceeded with calm, despite fears of tension or voter intimidation in the run-up to November 3.  

Andrej Hunko, a German parliamentarian observing the election, posted a video on Twitter late Tuesday, local time, from Chesterfield in St. Louis County, Missouri, where he said he had already visited eight polling stations. 

"Overall, everything was calm and peaceful, there was no tension, no voter intimidation as we had feared," he said. 

He noted that the observers had driven all over the county, which has about one million voters, and would also observe the counting of mail-in ballots, which have become a major talking point in this election, as voters have sought alternatives to visiting polling stations during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Hunko was part of a team of observers from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe's (OSCE) Parliamentary Assembly, which routinely sends observers all around the world to check that elections are held in accordance with democratic standards.

Click here for more. 

Biden at 131 electoral votes, Trump at 92: AP

Democrat Joe Biden is leading with 131 electoral votes, while incumbent President Donald Trump is at 92, according to AP.

A U.S. presidential candidate requires 270 electoral votes to win the White House. 

The first results are trickling in, with wins for Trump so far in 14 states including Indiana, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Tennessee and West Virginia.

Biden has racked up 13 states including New York, Connecticut, his home state Delaware, along with D.C.

2020 U.S. presidential election: Joe Biden wins state of New York

Democrat Joe Biden has won the state of New York, according to AP result.

There are 29 electoral votes at stake in New York.

2020 U.S. general election: USPS fails to meet deadline

The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) responded to a judge's order late Tuesday, revealing that it had failed to meet the court-imposed deadline of 4:30 p.m. to sweep mail processing facilities for delayed election ballots, according to a report from ABC News.

But USPS promised to complete the task in key battleground states before the polls closed.
Judge Emmet Sullivan on Tuesday ordered the Postal Service to "sweep" the facilities between 12:30 PM EST (1730 GMT) and 3:00 PM EST (2000 GMT), the report noted.

In August, USPS has sent letters to states across the country, notifying them of possible delays in the delivery of mail-in ballots that would cause those votes not to be counted on Election Day, November 3.

First election results: Trump wins Kentucky, Biden wins Vermont

Republican Donald Trump has won the state of Kentucky, while Democrat Joe Biden has taken Vermont, according to AP results, as polls are closing across the U.S. and votes are being counted.

First polls of U.S. general election close

The first polls of the 2020 U.S. general elections closed on Tuesday night in the states of Indiana and Kentucky at 23:00 GMT (18:00 EST), according to local media reports.

Americans by the millions patiently lined up during the day to cast ballots, belying deep tensions shaping one of the most polarizing presidential campaigns in U.S. history.

As election day voting kicked off in the U.S. early Tuesday, the country is seeing an alarming increase in cases nationwide and the number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 reaching record highs in a growing number of states.

COVID-19 cases in the U.S. reached 9.36 million, rising by one million in just two weeks. The death toll rose to 232,484 as of 2225 GMT Tuesday, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University. 

On Friday, the U.S. set a world record by reporting over 100,000 new infections in a single day. 

The number of coronavirus patients in hospitals reached 50,000 on Tuesday, the highest level in nearly three months, as a surge in infections threatens to push the nation's health care system to the edge of capacity.

As hospitalizations have climbed, so have deaths. The seven-day rolling average for deaths from COVID-19 has risen over the past two weeks from about 58,424 on October 19 to 83,805 on Monday, according to Johns Hopkins University researchers. 

While daily infections were rising in all but three states, the surge was most pronounced in the Midwest and Southwest. 

Missouri, Oklahoma, Iowa, Indiana, Nebraska, North Dakota and New Mexico all reported record high hospitalizations this week. Nebraska's largest hospitals started limiting elective surgeries and looked to bring in nurses from other states to cope. Hospital officials in Iowa and Missouri warned that bed capacity could soon be overwhelmed.

The resurgence loomed over candidates and voters, fearful of both the virus itself and the economic toll of any new shutdowns to control its spread. The debate over how far to take economically costly measures has divided a country already sharply polarized over President Donald Trump's turbulent four years in office.

The pandemic colored who voters chose at the ballot box and how they did it. While many Americans took advantage of expanded access to mail-in voting, lines were long in many polling places, with record turnout expected and reminders of the pandemic were everywhere. 

"It's very serious that we have 400 people gathered in one space at the height of the pandemic here in Wisconsin. So, we've tried to take every measure to limit the movement throughout the room," said Claire Woodall-Vogg, the election commission director of the city of Milwaukee, where poll workers were spread out into 12 different pods to limit contact. 

Trump's insistence that the U.S. is "rounding the turn" on the virus angered many voters confronting figures that tell a different story. 

"The fact that he (Trump) acts like this is a fake virus that the entire world is out to get him out of office shows just how convoluted his thinking is," said Carrie Rogers, 44, a software development manager from Mount Laurel, N.J., who dropped off her ballot for former Vice President Joe Biden in one of hundreds of locked boxes set up around the state. 

Of equal concern is the fear of more economic pain if the country heads into another round of lockdowns to contain the virus. While the U.S. economy grew at a record 33.1 percent annual rate in the July-September quarter, it has yet to fully rebound from the plunge in the spring. 

Trump's message prioritizing economic recovery over virus containment resonated with voters like Jason Schanta, a business owner and father of twin 13-year-old boys from Fountain Valley, California. He said his business was doing well before the pandemic, motivating him to vote for the president. 

"I don't trust Biden to get it open," Schanta said of the economy. 

But there were signs of a resurgence of the virus hampering economic reopening even without government shutdown orders, as a fearful public stays away from riskier activities. 

The Cruise Lines International Association, which represents the bulk of the cruise industry, said its members are extending the suspension of U.S. sailing operations through the end of the year, just days after the U.S. government effectively lifted its no-sail order. The cruise industry group estimates that the suspension of cruises snuffed out more than $25 billion in economic activity and 164,000 American jobs.

(With input from agencies.)

(Cover: Clemintine Banks (front right) changes gloves after handing a ballot to a person who tested positive for COVID-19 during curbside voting at the St. Louis Board of Election Commissioners on Locust Street, around the corner from board offices in downtown St. Louis, Nov. 2, 2020.)

While many will be hoping to have a clear winner on U.S. election night, there’s also the possibility of a contested election with so many variables at play. 

Results may be delayed, but the U.S. Constitution lays out a clear path forward that culminates with Inauguration Day.

CGTN’s Gerald Tan explains.

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U.S. stocks open higher in Election Day session

On Tuesday, U.S. stocks opened on a high note as Americans headed to the polls for the presidential election. 

Shortly after the opening bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average stood at 27,251.58, up 1.2 percent.

The broad-based S&P 500 gained 1.0 percent to 3,342.33, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index climbed 0.7 percent to 11,035.54. 

More than 100 million Americans already voted, over two-thirds of 2016's total

Over 100 million ballots were already submitted, through in-person early voting and by mail on Tuesday, more than two-thirds of the number of votes cast in the 2016 election, according to CNN.  

With many states offering one remaining day of early in-person voting and allowing for mailed ballots to be received on Election Day or several days after, the final early vote tally will be even higher. 

There is the possibility of a contested election with so many variables at play. Mail-in ballots raise concerns about disputed results in U.S..

2020 in 120 seconds: Pennsylvania, Florida and a post-election scrap

It's the last day of voting in the U.S. election, and if you want to know the states the campaigns think will be decisive in the Electoral College, just take a look at the places Joe Biden and Donald Trump have visited in the final few days of the race.

With nearly 100 million votes cast before Election Day – more than 70 percent of the total turnout in 2016 – the candidates have focused their attention on Pennsylvania, where the 20 electoral votes up for grabs could tip the election, and Florida, the quick-counting swing state with 29 electoral votes. 

Click here for more. 

Four scenarios: How U.S. election night may play out

The final day of voting in the United States has arrived and attention has switched to election night: How could the evening play out for Donald Trump and Joe Biden?

Several factors have combined to make election night in the United States particularly uncertain in 2020: A massive increase in early and mail voting has changed how and when ballots will be counted; there is expected to be record turnout; the specter of 2016 and Trump's surprise win has hovered over a polling picture that in previous years would have told a clear story; and the expectation that neither candidate will easily concede has sowed seeds of doubt.

For all of these reasons, it's hard to say when the results of the presidential or congressional races will be known. It'll vary from state to state, with each having different rules, and with lawyers from both parties poised to jump in once voting ends, the uncertainty could last for days.

Here are four possible scenarios to watch out for in the hours after the polls close.

More: Four scenarios: How U.S. election night may play out

2020 United States Election Day starts

The 2020 U.S. Election Day is starting as voting enters the last stretch in a battle between incumbent President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden. 

Registered voters in Dixville Notch, New Hampshire, were the first to cast their ballots on Election Day. The community continued its tradition of early morning voting in the presidential election. 

Millions of Americans have already voted amid the COVID-19 pandemic in a record early turnout ahead of Tuesday, as surging new infections continue to wreak havoc across the country. 

(Cover: People vote shortly after midnight on Tuesday for the U.S. presidential election at the Hale House at Balsams Hotel in the hamlet of Dixville Notch, New Hampshire, U.S., November 3, 2020. /AP) 

95 million early ballots cast in U.S. one day before election

More than 95 million Americans cast their votes in the 2020 presidential election by Monday according to a tally from the U.S. Elections Project at the University of Florida, a harbinger of what is expected to be the highest turnout in modern times.

A tangle of rules: Why the U.S. election confuses so many

U.S. elections are among the most watched around the world. Yet, every four years, people around the globe gaze at the spectacle of presidential elections and try to make sense of how they work. And given the number of websites, videos and news reports that seek to clarify the process in the run-up to election day, quite a few U.S. citizens are similarly confused. 

So here is a look at some of the quirks of U.S. presidential elections.

Why is election day always on a Tuesday?

In many countries, elections can be called at any time during the year. They are also often held on a Saturday or Sunday, when people have the day off and have time to vote. Not so in the U.S.

An 1844 statute set the presidential election "on the Tuesday next after the first Monday in the month of November" — meaning any Tuesday between November 2 and 8.

At the time, this made sense as it enabled farmers, who made up a large part of the population and often lived far from their polling station, to vote on their way to town for market day on Wednesday.

But in recent years, with Tuesday now a working day, there have been concerns that some people are unable to make it to their polling station. Civil rights advocates have called for election day to be made a federal holiday so that people have the day off to vote.

Read more here.

More than 90 million Americans have cast ballots in the U.S. presidential election, according to a tally on Saturday from the U.S. Elections Project at the University of Florida, setting the stage for the highest participation rate in over a century.

The record-breaking pace, about 65% of the total turnout in 2016, reflects intense interest in the vote, in which incumbent Donald Trump, a Republican, is up against Democratic nominee Joe Biden, a former vice president.

Huge numbers of people have voted by mail or at early in-person polling sites amid concerns about exposure to the coronavirus at busy Election Day voting places.

Trump trails Biden in national opinion polls amid criticism of the Trump administration’s handling of COVID-19, which has killed nearly 229,000 people in the United States, with numbers of new infections once again breaking daily records as Election Day nears on Tuesday.

Democrats hold a significant advantage in early voting due to their embrace of postal ballots, which Republicans have historically cast in large numbers but have shunned amid repeated and unfounded attacks by Trump, who says the system is prone to widespread fraud.

Experts have predicted turnout will easily surpass the 138 million who voted in 2016. Only 47 million votes were submitted before Election Day four years ago.

In 20 states that report party registration data, 19.9 million registered Democrats have already voted, compared with 13 million Republicans and 10.1 million with no party affiliation. The data does not show for whom the votes were cast.

(With input from agencies)

U.S. Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden cast an early ballot in his home state of Delaware on Wednesday, telling reporters afterward that he is able to work with Republicans on improving the Affordable Care Act to give Americans better health care.

"Well, we just voted," Biden said, holding his wife Jill Biden's hand as the couple emerged from the Carvel State Office Building in Biden's hometown of Wilmington, Delaware.

Regarding the ACA, also known as Obamacare, the former vice president said, "I do have a proposal that relates to how we can improve the Affordable Care Act beyond what it was before, which Barack (Obama) and I wanted to do at the time to add a public option, allowing people to keep their private insurance, if that's what they want to do, making it more affordable to get a better plan."

President Donald Trump voted Saturday in Palm Beach, Florida, the state to which he changed his resident status from his native New York in 2019. He said he "voted for a guy named Trump."

As of Wednesday afternoon, more than 75 million votes have been cast, more than half of the total number of votes cast in the 2016 election, according to the U.S. Election Project, a turnout-tracking database.

Among those ballots, over 25 million were cast in person, while nearly 50 million were mailed in.

U.S. President Donald Trump cast an early ballot in Florida's West Palm Beach on Saturday, ahead of the November 3 presidential election.

It's the first time an incumbent president has voted in person in the swing state of Florida.

"I voted for a guy named Trump," he said with a smile as he emerged. Nearly 55 million Americans have now cast early votes as the coronavirus has made in-person voting more problematic.

"It was a very secure vote. Much more secure than when you send in a ballot, I can tell you that," said Trump, who insists without giving evidence that mail-in voting leads to fraud.

"Everything was perfect, very strict, right by the rules. When you send in your ballot, it could never be secure like that," he said.

Under a hot sun in North Carolina, Trump told reporters "this election is a choice between a Trump super-recovery and a Biden depression," highlighting promises of a cure to COVID-19 and a rapid economic recovery. 

The U.S. set a daily record for new COVID-19 cases on Friday, of nearly 83,000 cases, and a further surge is expected as winter sets in.

Trump shrugged off polls which continue to show his Democratic rival Biden leading the race. 

"They want to depress you," he said of the political and media outlets reporting the numbers. "These polls are much better than four years ago." 

Continuing his frenetic pace, the president was to hop-scotch later in the day from North Carolina to Ohio to Wisconsin, returning to the White House only minutes before midnight, as he works furiously to make up lost ground. 

Biden warns of COVID-19 'dark winter'

"That's Donald Trump's presidency," Biden said Saturday during a drive-in rally, one of the two events planned for the day in his native Pennsylvania, a critical swing state. He spoke from a stage decorated with bales of hay and Halloween pumpkins. 

"Yesterday (was) the worst day we've ever had," said Biden, who has been more restrained than Trump in his campaigning and careful to take precautions against coronavirus. 

"Donald Trump said, and is still saying, we're rounding the corner. It's going away. We're learning how to live with it," he said.

"We're not learning how to live with it. You're asking us to learn how to die with it, and it's wrong." 

The Biden campaign also deployed a key surrogate, former president Barack Obama, who slammed the Trump administration's COVID-19 response. 

"The idea that somehow this White House has done anything but completely screw this thing up is nonsense," Obama told supporters at a drive-in rally in Miami, Florida. 

"Donald Trump isn't suddenly going to protect all of us. He can't even take the basic steps to protect himself," Obama added, referring to Trump's hospitalization for COVID-19 three weeks ago. 

Also slamming the president's failure to denounce white supremacy, and the many times he has lied in public, among other issues, Obama called on supporters to vote for his former vice president. 

"We can make things better... That's what voting is about, not making things perfect, but making things better," he said. 

"If we vote up and down the ticket like never before, we will elect Joe Biden."

(With input from Reuters, AFP)

(Cover: U.S. President Donald Trump talks with reporters after casting his ballot in the presidential election in person in West Palm Beach, Florida, the U.S., October 24, 2020. /AP)