Fascinating to speak extraordinary. Fascinating to speak to you. We will have to leave it there but we will come back to you as and when we get the final tally but for the time being thank you so much for speaking to us here on bbc news. Hello, and welcome to our look ahead to what the papers will be bringing us. No prizes for guessing what we can expect in the programme. Hello, and welcome to our look ahead to what the papers will be bringing us. With me are sebastian payne, whitehall correspondent of the financial times, and kate andrews, the economics correspondent at the spectator magazine. Welcome to both of you. Like i say no prizes for guessing what we are going to be talking about. Some of our front pages from around the world, starting with. Le figaro asks that key question that we are all asking ourselves today, simply qui, and features pictures of the two men vying for the us presidency. Heres a popular word which is repeated time and again in the headlines tonight, as the New York Times describes the election as a cliffhanger. Singapores Straits Times also says its a cliffhanger and quotes joe biden and donald trump at their news conferences earlier today and their very different takes on how it will all end. In the International Edition of the financial times, the us election is on a knife edge. The paper reports on a mountain of mail ballots still to count in philadelphia. Make america wait again shouts the uks metro newspaper. But for what and how long will that be . So, lets begin. As always its good to have both of oui as always its good to have both of our guests with us tonight and im
sure you have had a rather long few hours already. We are going to start off in france and the front page basically has donald trump and joe biden and simply the question qui . That translates to the word who. Lets go to sebastian. Who is it going to be . Speaking to some of our correspondence in the us, it could be quite a wait for some of those states to finish counting. But my goodness what a wait and who is going to be . This is the question i think every body wants the answer to and unfortunately there is no easy a nswer and unfortunately there is no easy answer for that at the moment because of the complicated situation with the Electoral College and there are routes to victory both forjoe biden and donald trump at this stage. But as was the case before the result started coming in, there are more routes through pennsylvania forjoe biden then there are four donald trump. And it really strikes
me that it will come down to those results now in nevada and arizona. Arizona was called quite some time ago by fox news, a right leaning news outlet not especially friendly tojoe biden news outlet not especially friendly to joe biden chemist news outlet not especially friendly tojoe biden chemist when they call that for the democratic candidate, that for the democratic candidate, that sort of looked as if that was going to be it for him. But we have still not had an official confirmation and we still have all eyes on pennsylvania where there is a huge stack of mail in balance to come in there. But at this stage of the race, generally, he does look as ifjoe biden is edging ahead and donald trump could still clinch it but that is the direction its heading. But really want to the whole thing, for american democracy. What an electoral system and of course the actions of donald trump himself which arejust course the actions of donald trump himself which are just totally extraordinary and historic, the way that he has called states are not ready to be called and the way he is challenged you intimacy of the election and i think the repercussions of how he is acting will last for a very long time on american democracy and on the Republican Party and not in a good
way im afraid to say. What do you make of it . Lets get your initial reactions because it is an awful lot to ta ke reactions because it is an awful lot to take in, quite frankly. It is and its hard to imagine 48 hours ago that will be looking at front covers like this because while there are a myriad of factors that have brought the us election and the first polls we re the us election and the first polls were so the us election and the first polls were so badly wrong, especially looking at those key Battle Ground states, donald trump has over performed in this election and while the final Electoral College calculations may prove to be more favourable for one candidate over the other, it may not be razor thin come of this election certainly feels that way. Of course because of covid 19, you have a historic number of mail in balance that reposted to millions of people tens of millions of people who cast their ballots by phone and because each state has the right under the constitution to decide its own process for calculating and adding up these votes, they have time on their side. Now some are ordering they really should have been better prepared and we are going to want to know the answers to these questions but of course because those polls were so heavily in joe bidens favour, course because those polls were so heavily injoe bidens favour, many did not think will be in the position would be looking atjust did not think will be in the position would be looking at just a very few number of states as sebastian says, in arizona and pennsylvania, to decide this election. And hinting at the third factor that has really rocked the boat is the bombastic personality of donald trump. We truly have. We just losing you slightly as we will try and fix the line there. But sebastian, looking at the guardian and they are pretty much focusing on joe biden. Just a few moments ago, about an hour joe biden. Just a few moments ago, aboutan hourorso joe biden. Just a few moments ago, about an hour or so ago, he made a speech and he was talking about democracy and the paper picking up very much on his theme. No one will ta ke very much on his theme. No one will take away our democracy. Still very much looking at the way that the us is going. And hopefully we will get
a result. Youre talking about and questioning the us electoral system a little bit earlier on and the Electoral College, that really difficult to understand for so many system that the us has. And d and i think it is in the seven or eight elections for president that the Democratic Party will have won the majority of votes there but as we know they have not won all the races because of the college and every time we go through a president ial cycle, people who call for the Electoral College to be abolished in some way. And i think the fact that the country was built for is on the america that existed today in terms of its demographic profile, where its votes are. I imagine those calls will only increase and i think looking at the guardian in the front page, it really shows the different between the two candidates here. Thatjoe biden although he is ahead and asi thatjoe biden although he is ahead and as i said although he has more routes to victory than donald trump, he is not calling the race in any way. He said i think we are going to do this and i think we are happy
lets get all the votes counted before we get into the game of calling who has or has not one. But donald trump and his family coming out calling the race come talking about legal challenges and it really is extorted at the american president has been tweeting all sorts of things over the past four hours. And twitter has stepped up and march of these tweets essentially as a fake news and saying they are calling races that simply are not ready to be called yet. So if joe simply are not ready to be called yet. So ifjoe biden does when this thing, it does show the real difference in how they are going to govern and how they look at the legal system and how they look at the electoral system and of course we can say the very complicated nature of this race and the fact that it has been challenged should lead to some form of a system reform. It is current state it looks very difficult for the democrats to get control of the senate for something probably going to hold control of the house but getting serious reform through of the electoral system or anything don is going to be very difficult forjoe biden. Hes only got two years
before the next midterm elections so there is a chance that he could win there is a chance that he could win the presidency but find himself hobbled already and he would have to reach out to republicans to try and get some progress there which you might be able to do on the economy and immigration and trade but i dont think youll be able to do on electoral system. Lot to take in there. The world watching the New York Times describing this as an american cliffhanger. We will know more about the American Dream but they pick up on this cliffhanger. We hear about the knife edge and the razor edge. Joe biden was earlier saying that should he and kamala harassment to be the fourth ticket to win against an incumbent president but at this moment as these papers go to press, it is still all up in the air. Kamala harris. We have got kate back, i should have said. It is all up in the airand it should have said. It is all up in the air and it looks as though however the president is going to be challenging some of these results at
least in michigan and certainly in pennsylvania and the courts. He is hoping to take the pennsylvania ruling all the way to the Supreme Court and we know this reeks of desperation as somebody realises they have lost and in many ways this try to abuse a system to make sure that they get that win but of course this election has not been called. And i think we have to keep an open mind and remember in a way that donald trump has not that every vote that has been cast legitimately needs to be counted. Absolutely and i was saying that we have got kate back and towards the end they are the technical gremlins came back in. So lets i think we will end with the singapore and we have that cliffhanger in a similar pose for both men butjust focusing on the very different and already you have touched upon the very different way that they are reacting to this, donald trump with the paper
says funny victory, joe biden optimistic about the outcome. Indeed andi optimistic about the outcome. Indeed and i think we look at how all the papers have covered this, every body is hedging their bets tonight because there is such an uncertain time. And of course this is a humble lesson for pollsters because there has been some extraordinarily inaccurate polling throughout this election but of course we asked her in less need to ask ourselves questions as well after the Eu Referendum in britain in 2016 where a lot of us got the result wrong and then we tried a similar situation here where there was very little narrative over the past couple of months that showed this surge of donald trump voters appearing in people who did not seem to mind what is going on with coronavirus. Today, america has declared 100,000 cases of coronavirus yet it was the third most important issue in the election. Really some disconnect there. Absolutely right to remind us about the devastating impact of coronavirus. But we have to finish there. We are out of time but thank
you as always. Pleased that we got through all the technical difficulties as always and thank you to our guests as well. Much more coming from the us are the top of the hour. Bye bye for now, though. Hello there. High pressure brought us a quiet day of weather on wednesday. The best of this sunshine across england and wales where much of the day skies looked like these. However, there were a few showers around across the north of wales. Across north west england and the West Midlands as well. In scotland and Northern Ireland, clouds have been thickening towards the end of the afternoon. And that cloud is associated with this cloud you can see here on the satellite picture. So warm fronts bring the rain across northern scotland and once that rain has pushed through, we will start to get milder air coming in around this area of High Pressure. So temperatures will actually be rising through the night. Whereas across the heart
of england and wales, the fronts are kept at bay. And here, its going to be a cold night with long clear spells, frost, temperatures getting down to about 3, 4 degrees in the coldest areas in the countryside and there will be some dense patches of fog. Whereas that rain band in scotland, well, it trickles into the far north of england whilst weakening, where, over the hills, i suspect there will be a bit of drizzle. Once that front is through, its a night where temperature will be rising through the night, and by the end of the night, it will be back to 11 degrees in glasgow. So a mild start to the day for much of scotland, Northern Ireland and the far north of england. Cold in the south, sunshine once the fog patches have lifted and the frost has melted away. As far as the temperatures go, well, as we go through thursday afternoon, broadly speaking, similar to what we had on wednesday, highs of around 10 13 degrees, but it could turn quite mild for a time in aberdeenshire. If we see a bit of sunshine, those higher temperatures boosted by the foehn effect. Thats the winds coming over the mountains. 0n into fridays forecast, another quiet day, High Pressure stilljust about clinging on. Again, a cold start across southern areas with a few
mist and fog patches. Rather cloudy again across northwestern parts of the country. And later through friday afternoon, we will start to see the winds pick up across the south. And that can make it feel just a little bit cooler and fresher for a time. Although on the face of it, those temperatures similar values, highs 10 13 degrees. Now, for this weekend, we are going to start to see the winds turn to a more southerly direction. And those southerly winds will be pushing in some slightly milder air. But its going to take a while for that milder air to mix into the weather in scotland, so here, it stays quite cool. Those temperatures slow to rise, but england and wales turning milder. 16 degrees or so in london. But there will be some cloud and rain around at times through the weekend as well. This is bbc news, im katty kay in washington. Im Christian Fraser in london. Joe bidens team was hoping for a smooth election, and a clear victory. That didnt happen. But mr biden now thinks he has enough votes to win. That we won but i am here to report when the count is finished, we believe we will be the winners. President donald trump has unleashed his legal forces, in a bid to maintain his lead in some key states. Last night, before the race was over, he declared an unsubstantiated victory. We were getting ready to win this election, to win this election, frankly,
we did win this election