welcome to bbc news. our top stories: president biden pledges federal aid as tornadoes devastate a string of us states, flattening whole towns and killing at least 70 people. i m monitoring the situation very closely, since early this morning. this is likely to be one of the largest tornado outbreaks in our history. a warning that the uk faces a substantial wave of omicron infections next month that might overwhelm the national health service. piling the pressure on the british prime minister a newspaper publishes a photo showing borisjohnson did take part in a virtual downing street quiz last christmas. and it s going to be a nail biter! max verstappen beats lewis hamilton to pole position for sunday s formula one title decider in abu dhabi.
counties. jason carroll live in ft. lee with the latest. jason. reporter: and good morning to you, john. you have to wonder if these candidates have any nails left to bite on this one. because this is the nail biter. murphy has been saying all along he needed all of his team, all of his supporters to show up at the polls, otherwise it would be a coin toss. that is what we are seeing right now. in ft. lee, bergen county, northern new jersey suburbs, this is an area where right now murphy is under performing if you compare to allow he did last go round. in this particular area in bergen county, he won it by 15 points. at this point, again, votes still to be counted. he s leading by four points. still 86% has been reported so far. so, again, he s under performing in places like this.
office there in more than a decade, but also he did so just one year after the very same electorate went for president joe biden. biden won virginia in 2020 by double digits. now, youngkin s victory doesn t appear to be an anomaly, either. right now the governors race in new jersey is too close to call despite the state being reliably blue, even more so in virginia. incumbent governor phil murphy in a dead heat right now with republican jack ciattarelli. nancy pelosi announcing that four weeks of paid family medical leave is back in to the bill. this is after the loss of the nail biter in new jersey. reporter: senator, what went wrong last night? failure to deliver. congress has to deliver. the window is closing. we have no more time. we need to get it done, and as
might have just delivered a road map to fellow republicans for the 2022 midterms and beyond. together, together we will change the trajectory of this commonwealth. [ cheers and applause ] and, friends, we are going to start that transformation on day one. we re going to have much more on the virginia race and its implications for the 2022 midterms here in a moment. but first, though, berman is at the magic wall to take us through this nail-biter in new jersey. tell us about this. 61 votes, 61 votes separating the two candidates in new jersey. that s not much considering over 2 million votes have been counted so far. so, the thing we need to look at right now is where are the remaining votes? this is with 84% total reporting
rain. some sunshine on both sides of it. biter in northern ireland and scotland and still mild. hello, this is bbc news. the headlines: chancellor rishi sunak is limbering up to deliver his budget speech to the house of commons. measures announced so far include a rise in the national living wage and an end to the public sector pay freeze. but the government s under pressure to do more to help with the rising costs of living. a report by mps says the government s coronavirus test and trace programme in england failed in its main objective of breaking chains of transmission despite costing an eye watering amount of money. and the queen withdraws on medical advice from hosting a reception at the global climate summit in glasgow. time for the sport now. there has