MEXICO CITY: Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said Monday that his decision to wait for an official US election result before congratulating Joe Biden does not mean he believes there was fraud.
"Waiting doesn't mean that we're going to endorse (claims) that there was fraud. We don't know that," Lopez Obrador said at his daily news conference.
"We want to act prudently. Let's wait for the authorities to resolve it. Then we will speak out," he said.
Lopez Obrador said Saturday that he would wait for "all legal issues" in the US presidential election to be settled before offering any congratulations, even as such messages poured in from many other world leaders.
Trump has launched a slew of legal challenges, complained of vote fraud without offering evidence, and refused to concede after the major US television networks announced Biden's win.
Before coming to power in 2018, Lopez Obrador himself twice alleged he was the victim of vote fraud after losing the 2006 and 2012 presidential races.
Trump sparked anger during his 2016, election campaign when he branded Mexican migrants "rapists" and drug dealers, and vowed to build a wall along the southern US border.
But Lopez Obrador managed to maintain cordial relations with the Republican leader -- and even visited him in July on his first foreign trip since taking office.
The left-wing populist said that whatever the official election result, he would seek solid ties with Washington.
"In no case, with Joe Biden or with Donald Trump, will there be a bad relationship between Mexico and the United States," Lopez Obrador said.
BEIJING/MOSCOW: China and Russia held off congratulating US President-elect Joe Biden on Monday, with Bejing saying it would follow usual custom in its response and the Kremlin noting incumbent Donald Trump's vow to pursue legal challenges.
Democrat Biden clinched enough states to win the presidency on Saturday and has begun making plans for when he takes office on Jan. 20. Trump has not conceded defeat and plans rallies to build support for legal challenges.
Some of the United States' biggest and closest allies in Europe, the Middle East and Asia quickly congratulated Biden over the weekend despite Trump's refusal to concede, as did some Trump allies, including Israel and Saudi Arabia.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday called for the European Union and United States to work "side by side", holding up Biden as an experienced leader who knows Germany and Europe well and stressing the NATO allies' shared values and interests.
Beijing and Moscow were cautious.
"We noticed that Mr. Biden has declared election victory," China's foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a daily media briefing. "We understand that the US presidential election result will be determined following US law and procedures."
In 2016, Chinese President Xi Jinping sent congratulations to Trump on Nov. 9, a day after the election.
Relations between China and the United States are at their worst in decades over disputes ranging from technology and trade to Hong Kong and the coronavirus, and the Trump administration has unleashed a barrage of sanctions against Beijing.
While Biden is expected to maintain a tough stance on China -- he has called Xi a "thug" and vowed to lead a campaign to "pressure, isolate and punish China" -- he is likely to take a more measured and multilateral approach.
Chinese state media struck an optimistic tone in editorials, saying relations could be restored to a state of greater predictability, starting with trade.
KREMLIN NOTES TRUMP'S LAW SUITS
The Kremlin said it would wait for the official results of the election before commenting, and that it had noted Trump's announcement of legal challenges.
President Vladimir Putin has remained silent since Biden's victory. In the run-up to the vote, Putin had appeared to hedge his bets, frowning on Biden's anti-Russian rhetoric but welcoming his comments on nuclear arms control. Putin had also defended Biden's son, Hunter, against criticism from Trump.
"We think it appropriate to wait for the official vote count," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call.
Biden cleared the threshold of 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the White House on Saturday, four days after the Nov. 3 election. He beat Trump by more than 4 million votes nationwide, making Trump the first president since 1992 to lose re-election.
Asked why, in 2016, Putin had congratulated Trump soon after he had won the Electoral College and beaten Democrat Hillary Clinton, Peskov said there was an obvious difference.
"You can see that there are certain legal procedures that have been announced by the current president. That is why the situations are different and we therefore think it appropriate to wait for an official announcement," he said.
Peskov noted that Putin had repeatedly said he was ready to work with any US leader and that Russia hoped it could establish dialogue with a new US administration and find a way to normalise troubled bilateral relations.
Moscow's ties with Washington sank to post-Cold War lows in 2014 when Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine. Biden was serving as vice president under President Barack Obama at the time.
Relations soured further over US allegations that Moscow had meddled in the 2016 US presidential election to try to tilt the vote in Trump's favour, something the Kremlin denied.
BRUSSELS: The European Union will wait for US president-elect 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. "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."
WASHINGTON/WILMINGTON: President-elect Joe Biden will convene a coronavirus task force on Monday to examine the No. 1 problem confronting him when he takes office in January, while President Donald Trump pursues several long-shot gambits to hold on to his job.
Biden is due to meet with an advisory board co-chaired by former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner David Kessler and Yale University Associate Professor Marcella Nunez-Smith to examine how best to tame a pandemic that has killed more than 237,000 Americans.
The Democratic former vice president will then give remarks in Wilmington, Delaware, about his plans for tackling COVID-19 and rebuilding the economy.
"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.
Even as Trump declines to concede and some of his closest allies encourage him to exhaust every recourse for hanging onto power, the Biden-appointed scientists and experts will liaise with local and state officials on the pandemic response. They will consider how to safely reopen schools and businesses and tackle racial disparities.
The Biden panel includes Rick Bright, a whistleblower who says he was removed from his Trump administration post for raising concerns about coronavirus preparedness, and Luciana Borio, who specializes in complex public health emergencies.
Trump has frequently clashed with top health officials over the pandemic. Vice President Mike Pence is due to meet with the White House coronavirus task force on Monday for the first time since Oct. 20.
Biden cleared the threshold of 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the White House on Saturday, four days after the Nov. 3 election. He beat Trump by more than 4 million votes nationwide, making Trump the first president since 1992 to lose re-election.
But Trump has not acknowledged defeat and has launched an array of lawsuits to press claims of election fraud for which he has produced no evidence. State officials say they are not aware of any significant irregularities.
"The Biden selection by the Crooked Media is based on unlawful votes in PA, Mich, GA, Wisc, Nevada et al. We will prove it all," Rudy Giuliani, Trump's personal lawyer and a former New York City mayor, said on Twitter early Monday.
Trump has no public events scheduled for Monday, and has not spoken in public since Thursday. He plans to hold rallies to build support for his challenge to the election results, campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh said.
TRANSITION IMPEDED
Biden's advisers are moving ahead and considering candidates for top Cabinet posts. But the transition cannot shift into high gear until the US General Services Administration, which oversees federal property, certifies the winner.
Emily Murphy, the Trump appointee who runs the agency, has not yet done so and a GSA spokeswoman gave no timetable for the decision.
Until then, the GSA can continue providing Biden's team with offices, computers and background checks for security clearances, but they cannot yet enter federal agencies or access federal funds set aside for the transition.
The Biden campaign on Sunday pressed the agency to move ahead.
"America's national security and economic interests depend on the federal government signaling clearly and swiftly that the United States government will respect the will of the American people and engage in a smooth and peaceful transfer of power," the campaign said in a statement.
Trump, however, has shown no signs he will engage in a transition.
Murtaugh said Trump will hold a series of rallies to build support for the legal fights challenging the outcome, though Murtaugh did not say when and where they would take place.
Trump will seek to back up his as yet unsubstantiated accusations of voting fraud by highlighting obituaries of dead people the campaign said voted in the election, Murtaugh said.
Trump also announced teams to pursue recounts in several states. Experts said that effort, like his lawsuits, are unlikely to meet with success.
"The chances of a recount flipping tens of thousands of votes across multiple states in his favor are outside anything we have seen in American history," William Antholis, director of the University of Virginia's Miller Center think tank, wrote in an essay on Sunday.
Leaders from across the globe have congratulated Biden, including some Trump allies, but many of Trump's fellow Republicans have yet to recognize the Democrat's victory.
Republican attorneys general from Louisiana, Kentucky, Missouri and Oklahoma said they will take legal action on Monday to help the Trump campaign challenge how Pennsylvania has handled mail ballots, a popular option this year for voters seeking to avoid coronavirus exposure at crowded polling locations. It was not clear how they would help Trump's legal team, which is headed by David Bossie, a seasoned political activist but not a lawyer.
(Karachi) Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said that Russian President Vladimir Putin will not congratulate the newly-elected US President Joe Biden on his victory until all legal challenges are resolved, Spectator Index reported.
President Donald Trump had said his campaign would begin challenging US election results in court after media outlets declared Joe Biden victorious in the US presidential election. Trump said that the election is far from over.
Addressing media persons on Monday, Peskov stated that Kremlin will wait for official results of the US presidential election to be announced before commenting on its outcome.
Putin has kept mum over the matter since Biden claimed the presidency on November 7, by securing 290 of the least 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the White House. The Kremlin spokesman added that Moscow will wait for the official vote count to be announced.
In an interview back in 2019, President Vladimir Putin said that ties between Russia and the United States were getting worse and worse as the US administration had imposed dozens of sanctions on Russia.
“They (our relations) are going downhill, they are getting worse and worse,” Putin had stated.
Moscow’s ties with Washington sank to post-Cold War lows in 2014 when Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine. Biden was serving as vice president under President Barack Obama at the time. Relations soured further over US allegations that Moscow had meddled in the 2016 US presidential election to try to tilt the vote in Trump’s favour, something the Kremlin denied.
WASHINGTON: Georgia Democratic activist Stacey Abrams said on Sunday that her party would pour unprecedented resources into two runoff Senate races in the traditionally Republican-leaning state that will determine control of the top U.S. legislative chamber.
Abrams, who narrowly lost a race for governor in 2018, has been credited with boosting Democratic hopes in the state, where President-elect Joe Biden is currently leading by around 10,000 votes with the race there yet to be called.
Democratic candidates businessman Jon Ossoff and Reverend Raphael Warnock face uphill battles in their Jan. 5 runoffs against incumbent Republican Senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler in runoff elections.
The election will likely decide whether Democrats can win seats they need to gain control of the Senate. Republicans are currently on course to win 50 seats in the 100-seat chamber while Democrats have 48. If the chamber has a 50-50 tie, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris would have the deciding vote.
"I want to push back against this anachronistic notion that we can't win in Georgia," Abrams said on CNN's "State of the Union." "We will have the investment and resources that have never followed a runoff in Georgia for Democrats."
Georgia law requires runoffs in races unless a candidate wins a majority of the vote. Perdue leads Ossoff 49.8%-47.9%, and secured more votes than either President Donald Trump or Biden did.
Warnock topped Loeffler with 32.9% of the vote to 25.9%, though the incumbent's results were hurt by a challenge by fellow Republican Representative Doug Collins, who won 20% of the vote in a 21-candidate field.
She said Ossoff and Warnock are working together "to make certain voters come back" for an election in which lower turnout would be expected as presidential contenders will no longer be on the ballot.
After losing the governor's race, Abrams focused on leading to effort to register more people to vote in a state with rapidly changing demographics, including an increase in the nonwhite population.
That control of the Senate rests on the outcome should also drive Democrats to the polls, Abrams said.
"This is going to be the determining factor of whether we have access to healthcare and access to justice in the United States. Those are two issues that will make certain that people turn out," she said.
Republicans are equally confident that their voters will be motivated too even without Trump on the ballot, largely because wins in just one of the races would ensure they can block many Biden legislative goals.
"I cannot overstate how important to the country both those seats are," Republican Senator Ted Cruz said on Fox News.
He said that with Democrats in control of the Senate, they would seek to add seats to the Supreme Court to wipe out its conservative majority, raise taxes and pass sweeping climate change legislation
"If you want a check on Joe Biden, if you don't want to go over the edge to the socialist abyss, Georgia is the big enchilada," he added.
RAMALLAH: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday congratulated US President-elect Joe Biden in a statement that indicated he will drop his three-year political boycott of the White House. Abbas had ended all political dealings with President Donald Trump's administration after the US leader's 2017 decisions to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital and to move the US Embassy there.
"I congratulate President-elect Joe Biden on his victory as President of the United States of America for the coming period," Abbas said in a statement issued from his office in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
"I look forward to working with the President-elect and his administration to strengthen the Palestinian-American relations and to achieve freedom, independence, justice and dignity for our people," the statement continued.
Trump's moves, which broke with decades of US policy, had delighted Israel but infuriated the Palestinians, who claim east Jerusalem as a future capital and considered Trump's backing for Israel as undermining their own goal of statehood. Abbas's boycott was popular among Palestinians, who celebrated Trump's defeat on Sunday on the streets.
But, even as security contacts with Washington continued behind the scenes, the Palestinian leadership felt increasingly isolated, especially after Israel signed agreements with Gulf Arab states to normalise ties.
In the days before the election Abbas's inner circle met to discuss whether they should resume political contacts with the White House if Biden won, a Palestinian official told Reuters.
Bassam Al-Salhe, a senior member of the Abbas-led Palestine Liberation Organization, said on Sunday the boycott was primarily linked to what he called "the hostile policy" of Trump's administration.
"When Biden announces that this is going to change - and he announced that during his election campaign - there will be no reason for the boycott," he said.
BIDEN HOPES
Biden has said he would restore funding to the West Bank and Gaza that Trump had cut, including assistance delivered through the US Agency for International Development and U.N. agencies.
He has also in the past opposed Israeli settlement construction in the occupied West Bank, and voiced support for a two-state solution to the conflict, a formula that would see a future state of Palestine co-existing alongside Israel.
But he is not likely to reverse the Jerusalem and embassy decisions and Biden has welcomed Israel's rapprochements with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan, even as Palestinians condemned those moves.
Among the Palestinians hit hardest by Trump were refugees, following his 2018 decision to cut off all US funding - more than $300 million annually - to UNRWA, the United Nations agency.
"Trump's losing is a gain for us, for the Palestinian people, because he had sold out the Palestinian cause," said Anwar Abu Amira, 38, a refugee in Gaza's Beach Camp.
"Since he took office until he lost, he has been trying to wipe out the Palestinian identity," Abu Amira said.
Gaza political analyst Hani Habib said the Biden win would encourage Abbas to re-engage in negotiations with Israel, a move the international community has long called for.
He said this might complicate Abbas's efforts to reconcile with his principal domestic rivals, the Islamist movement Hamas, although Habib said Biden would not address the issue soon.
"When it comes to foreign policy, Biden has far more important and immediate issues than the Israeli-Palestinian conflict such as Iran, NATO and the alliance with Europe."
ISLAMABAD: President Dr Arif Alvi and Prime Minister Imran Khan congratulated President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris. In a tweet on Sunday, the president said we are looking forward to an improving US role towards world peace especially in Afghanistan, as well as the entire region.
The president said Pakistan looks forward to our continued long-term friendship and a dignified relationship. Prime Minister Imran Khan has reiterated Pakistan's commitment to continue to work with the United States for peace in Afghanistan and in the region.
In a tweet, the prime minister felicitated Joe Biden for winning the US presidential election. Imran Khan said he looks forward to President-elect Joe Biden's Global Summit on Democracy and working with him to end illegal tax havens and stealth of nation's wealth by corrupt leaders.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020
WASHINGTON: US President-elect Joe Biden took the first steps on Sunday towards taking over the White House 73 days from now but Donald Trump showed no signs of being ready to admit defeat and continued to sow doubt about the election results.
As congratulations poured in from world leaders and supporters nursed hangovers after a day of raucous celebrations, Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris launched a transition website, BuildBackBetter.com, and a Twitter feed, @Transition46.
While Trump is refusing to concede Tuesday's election and most Republican lawmakers are adopting a studied silence, former president George W. Bush said the "outcome is clear."
Bush, 74, the only living Republican ex-president, said he had called "President-elect" Biden and Harris to extend his "warm congratulations."
While Trump has the right to request recounts and pursue legal challenges, Bush said "the American people can have confidence that this election was fundamentally fair, its integrity will be upheld, and its outcome is clear."
"Though we have political differences, I know Joe Biden to be a good man, who has won his opportunity to lead and unify our country," Bush said in a statement. "We must come together for the sake of our families and neighbors, and for our nation and its future."
The transition website lists four priorities for an administration led by Barack Obama's former vice president: Covid-19, economic recovery, racial equity and climate change.
"The team being assembled will meet these challenges on Day One," it said in a reference to January 20, 2021, when Biden will be sworn in as the 46th President of the United States.
Biden, who turns 78 on November 20, is the oldest person ever elected to the White House. Harris, 56, the junior senator from California, is the first woman and first Black person to be elected vice president.
Biden plans to name a task force on Monday to tackle the coronavirus pandemic which has left more than 237,000 people dead in the United States and is surging across the country.
He has also announced plans to rejoin the Paris climate accord and will reportedly issue an executive order on his first day reversing Trump's the travel ban on mostly Muslim countries.
Biden has vowed to name a cabinet that reflects the diversity of the country although he may have some trouble gaining Senate approval for more progressive appointees if Republicans retain control of the Senate -- an outcome that will depend on two runoff races in Georgia in January.
Biden, after John F. Kennedy just the second Catholic to be elected US president, attended church Sunday morning in his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, and visited the graves of his son, Beau Biden, who died of brain cancer in 2015, and his first wife and daughter, who died in a 1972 car accident.
Trump, 74, was playing golf on Sunday at his course near Washington, the same place where he was on Saturday when the US television networks delivered the news that Biden had secured enough Electoral College votes for victory.
"Since when does the Lamestream Media call who our next president will be?" Trump complained in a tweet on Sunday.
First Lady Melania Trump also chipped in, tweeting: "The American people deserve fair elections. Every legal -- not illegal -- vote should be counted."
The Trump campaign has mounted legal challenges to the results in several states but no evidence has emerged so far of any widespread irregularities that would impact the results.
Speaking on CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday, Symone Sanders, a senior advisor to Biden, dismissed the court challenges as "baseless legal strategies."
Biden received nearly 74.6 million votes to Trump's 70.4 million nationwide and has a 279-214 lead in the Electoral College that determines the presidency.
Biden also leads in Arizona, which has 11 electoral votes, and Georgia, which has 16, and if he wins both he would finish with 306 electoral votes -- the same total won by Trump in 2016 when he upset Hillary Clinton.
Only two Republicans senators, Mitt Romney and Lisa Murkowski, have congratulated Biden and Democratic Representative James Clyburn of South Carolina said the Republican Party has a "responsibility" to help convince Trump it is time to give up.
Romney, who voted to convict Trump at his impeachment trial, said the president will eventually "accept the inevitable."
The Utah senator added that he "would prefer to see the world watching a more graceful departure, but that's just not in the nature of the man."
But Trump ally Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said the president should keep fighting.
"We will work with Biden if he wins, but Trump has not lost," Graham said on the Fox News show "Sunday Morning Futures." "Do not concede, Mr. President. Fight hard."
Another Trump ally, House minority leader Kevin McCarthy, told the same show it was too early to call the election.
"What we need in the presidential race is to make sure every legal vote is counted, every recount is completed, and every legal challenge should be heard," McCarthy said.
In a victory speech on Saturday, Biden promised to unify the bitterly divided nation and reached out to Trump supporters, saying "they're not our enemies, they're Americans."
"Let's give each other a chance," he said. "Let this grim era of demonization in America begin to end, here and now."
While only a handful of Republican lawmakers have congratulated Biden, the leaders of Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and other European countries have done so along with Australia, Canada, India, Indonesia, Israel, Japan and South Korea.
JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu congratulated U.S. President-elect Joe Biden on Sunday, hailing a strong alliance that could be burdened by differences over policy on Iran and the Palestinians.
"Congratulations @JoeBiden and @KamalaHarris. Joe, we've had a long & warm personal relationship for nearly 40 years, and I know you as a great friend of Israel. I look forward to working with both of you to further strengthen the special alliance between the U.S. and Israel," Netanyahu said on his Twitter account, which still carries a photograph of him and incumbent U.S. President Donald Trump at its head.
Having been in lockstep with Trump for four years, Netanyahu will likely be challenged by any departure by Biden from Trump's tough policy on Iran and toward the Palestinians. Biden has pledged to restore U.S. involvement in the 2015 Iran nuclear deal - which Trump had pulled out of - and a likely opposition by the White House to Israeli settlement of occupied land where Palestinians seek statehood.
Netanyahu thanked Trump in a subsequent tweet:
"Thank you @realDonaldTrump for the friendship you have shown the state of Israel and me personally, for recognizing Jerusalem and the Golan, for standing up to Iran, for the historic peace accords and for bringing the American-Israeli alliance to unprecedented heights."
Netanyahu's message came hours after many world leaders had already congratulated Democrat Biden, even as Trump refused to concede and pressed ahead with legal fights against the outcome.
A spokesman for Netanyahu did not respond to a request for comment on the relative delay. Dani Dayan, Israel's former consul to New York said Netanyahu's slowed response was a precautionary move.
"There is a president in the White House who has not yet acknowledged his defeat and whose whims definitely play a major role in his decision making process and he will be sitting in the White House for another two and a half months," Dayan told Army Radio.
The right-wing Netanyahu's particularly close ties with Trump followed an acrimonious relationship with his predecessor Barack Obama, which some critics have said had alienated Democrats and compromised U.S. bipartisan support for Israel.
Michael Oren, Netanyahu's ambassador to Washington when Obama was president, predicted warm ties with Biden. "They will have disagreements over the peace process. They will have disagreements certainly over the Iran nuclear deal but I think their friendship is solid."
Israel's stock market responded positively to Biden's win. Both the blue-chip Tel Aviv 35 index and the broader TA-125 were up about 0.3% in morning trade.
Still, among Israelis, Trump has won overwhelming popularity and many may be sad to see him go.
"I think the problem is that Biden will not be as tough or as strong as Donald Trump," said Aaron Morali, a student from Tel Aviv. "He made it hard for the Iranian people to have a nuclear plan but I think with Biden they have someone very easy and I am very, very scared of what will happen."
PARIS: Media outlets worldwide hailed Joe Biden's defeat of Donald Trump in the US presidential election, but attention quickly turned to the consequences for US policy.
The international press also focused on the feat of Kamala Harris, Biden's running mate who will become the United States' first female, and first Black, vice president.
"A new dawn for America", read the headline of The Independent in Britain, showing a photo of Biden standing next to Harris and noting her historic achievement.
The Sunday Times went with a picture of a Black woman draped in the US flag and the headline: "Sleepy Joe wakes up America", taunting Trump with his own derogatory nickname for Biden.
And the left-leaning Observer went simply with "It's Joe" over an image of the smiling Democrat.
Germany's mass-market Bild newspaper carried a photo of Trump with the headline: "Exit without decency".
"What a liberation, what a relief", said the left-leaning Sueddeutsche Zeitung broadsheet.
But it noted that Biden "inherits a heavy burden" like nothing faced by his predecessors, and warned that Trump accepting defeat was "unthinkable".
In Australia, the Daily Telegraph tabloid owned by Rupert Murdoch's media empire also focused on Trump's expected defiance against "a foe he perceived to be feeble and barely worth turning up to fight".
Iran's ultraconservative papers celebrated the downfall of Trump, a leader who has applied "maximum pressure" and punishing sanctions since his 2018 withdrawal from a landmark nuclear agreement.
Still, they reserved little warmth for Biden. "The maskless enemy left, the masked enemy arrived," warned conservative publication Resalat.
Another theme was the false claim of voter fraud with the ultraconservative Vatan-e Emrooz, seemingly before the Biden win was announced, headlined on "The graveyard of democracy", and focused on false allegations.
Similarly, Egypt's government daily al-Akhbar used a long editorial to zero in on the -- unfounded -- "violations" of fraudulent voting, and said that "it is time for the United States to stop giving us lessons in democracy".
In Saudi Arabia, the only Gulf country yet to comment on the result, pro-government online newspaper Okaz wondered if Biden would persist with Trump's close ties to the kingdom.
The kingdom's pan-Arab Asharq al-Awsat paper urged Biden to continue a "period of economic prosperity and stability in security" for the Middle East.
Turkey's mainstream dailies were muted. Major paper Hurriyet ran a small frontpage news story on the result, along with a piece titled: "Trump went golfing".
One pro-government newspaper, Sabah, did not even report on Biden's victory until page 10, with an opposition daily also running one small front-page election story.
Brazil's leading media outlets reported Trump's defeat in the context of its own populist leader, Jair Bolsonaro, who has similarly sought to diminish democratic institutions and reject science-based facts.
"Trump's defeat punishes the attacks against civilisation, it is a lesson for Bolsonaro," wrote Folha de Sao Paulo, one of Brazil's major daily newspapers.
"May Brazil's leaders seize the spirit of the times -- or die, like Trump."
Spain's centre-right El Mundo newspaper said Biden's win was a goodbye to Trump's populism, and described Harris as a "symbol of renewal".
Sweden's biggest daily, Dagens Nyheter, headlined its opinion-editorial piece: "Bittersweet victory -- Biden will struggle to heal the US".
It described Biden's vow of a return to normalcy as "mission impossible" in a "deeply divided country".
Conservative Svenska Dagbladet daily warned of the dangers posed by the millions of Americans who will continue to believe Trump's rhetoric of a stolen election.
"Election is over -- but conflict continues," read its headline.
On a lighter note, the Ayrshire Daily News, whose patch covers the Trump Turnberry golf course in Scotland, took a more local look at the result.
"South Ayrshire golf club owner loses 2020 presidential election," read its headline.
(Karachi) Chairman of Kashmir Council Europe Ali Raza Syed has said that the newly elected US President Joe Bidden should play his role in the settlement of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) dispute, Radio Pakistan reported.
Felicitating the Joe Bidden and his team on winning the US elections, Ali Raza said urged the US President not to ignore security issues in South Asia, especially the Kashmir dispute because it is related to peace in the region.
He maintained that people of Kashmir have a lot of expectations from Biden who has already emphasized on restoration of their rights. He said the new US President should use his good offices and influence for a peaceful solution of the Kashmir dispute.
Earlier, Prime Minister Imran Khan congratulated the United States President-elect Joe Biden and his vice president Kamala Harris on winning the elections.
In a tweet, the PM said He said he looked forward to President-elect Biden’s Global Summit on Democracy.
Jo Biden secured 290 electoral votes more than he needed. To secure the win, Biden faced unprecedented challenges. These included Republican-led efforts to limit mail-in voting at a time when a record number of people were due to vote by mail because of the pandemic, which has killed more than 235,000 people in the United States.
(Karachi) Prime Minister Imran Khan congratulated the United States President-elect Joe Biden and his vice president Kamala Harris on winning the elections, Radio Pakistan has reported.
In a tweet soon after confirmed reports announced both Democrats have won, the PM said He said he looked forward to President-elect Biden’s Global Summit on Democracy.
He stated, "Look forward to President Elect Biden's Global Summit on Democracy & working with him to end illegal tax havens & stealth of nation's wealth by corrupt leaders." He added, "We will also continue to work with US for peace in Afghanistan & in the region."
Democrat Joe Biden captured the US presidency on Saturday, as voters narrowly rebuffed Republican incumbent Donald Trump’s tumultuous leadership and embraced Biden’s promise to fight the coronavirus pandemic and fix the economy in a divided nation.
Trump immediately accused Biden of “rushing to falsely pose as the winner.” “This election is far from over,” he said in a statement.
Biden’s projected victory came after four days of nail-biting suspense over the outcome of Tuesday’s election, with the counting of votes in a handful of battleground states still going on thanks to a flood of mail-in ballots.
WASHINGTON: Before Saturday, Biden had at least 253 electoral votes, meaning the win in the Keystone State put him at 273. He later claimed victory in Nevada, boosting his total to 279. Some US media outlets have also declared him the winner in Arizona, which would put him at 290. Biden has captured 24 states including his home state Delaware and big prizes California and New York, as well as the US capital. The former vice president has flipped four states won by Trump in 2016 -- Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and, according to two news organizations, Arizona. US media outlets have projected wins for the Republican incumbent in 23 states including big prizes Florida and Texas, as well as Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri and Ohio -- all states he won in 2016. As it stands, there are three states still left uncalled -- Alaska, Georgia and North Carolina. But Biden's lead is now insurmountable.
In the case of Arizona, Fox News and the Associated Press have already called the race in Biden's favor. But other networks including CNN and NBC News have held back thus far, as the race remains tight. Nebraska split its electoral votes between the two candidates -- four for Trump and one for Biden. Maine was won by Biden, but he seized only three of the four electoral votes on offer, with the last allocated to Trump.
WASHINGTON: Democrat Joe Biden captured the US presidency on Saturday as voters narrowly rebuffed Republican incumbent Donald Trump's tumultuous leadership and embraced Biden's promise to fight the coronavirus pandemic and fix the economy in a divided nation.
Winning the battleground state of Pennsylvania's 20 Electoral College votes gave the former vice president more than the 270 he needed to triumph, prompting all major TV networks to declare him victor came after four days of nail-biting suspense following Tuesday's election.
"With the campaign over, it's time to put the anger and the harsh rhetoric behind us and come together as a nation. It's time for America to unite. And to heal," Biden said on Twitter. Congratulations poured in from leaders around the world, including conservative British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, making it hard for Trump to push his repeated claims, without evidence, that the election was rigged against him.
Trump, who was golfing when the networks made their calls for his rival, immediately accused Biden of "rushing to falsely pose as the winner." "This election is far from over," he said in a statement. State elections officials across the country say there has been no evidence of significant fraud. As the news broke, loud cheers erupted in the halls of the hotel where Biden aides were staying and around the country. "Worth every minute," of the wait, a Biden aide said, as campaign staff exchanged elbow bumps and air hugs in the lobby. Biden's running mate, US Senator Kamala Harris, tweeted a video of her congratulating Biden: "We did it Joe!" Harris will be the first woman, the first Black American and the first American of Asian descent to serve as vice president, the country's No. 2 office. Cheers and applause was heard in neighborhoods in Washington, D.C. In one community, people emerged onto balconies, yelling, waving and banging pots. The wave of noise built as more people learned of the news. Some were in tears. Music began to play, "We are the Champions" blared.
In the Brooklyn neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant, people clapped, honked car horns and erupted in screams of joy as the news spread of Biden's victory. Some residents danced on a building's fire escape, cheering while others screamed "yes!" as they passed by.
In a reminder of the divided state of the country, however, pro-Trump "Stop the Steal" demonstrators gathered at state capitol buildings in Lansing, Michigan, and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
The networks' declaration that Biden had won came amid internal concerns within Trump's team about the strategy going forward and pressure on him to pick a more professional legal team to outline where they believe voter fraud took place and show evidence pointing toward it.
One Trump loyalist said Trump simply was not ready to admit defeat even though there would not be enough ballots thrown out in a recount to change the outcome. "There's a mathematical certainty that he's going to lose," the loyalist said.
Biden was expected to address the nation after 8 p.m. on Saturday (1 a.m. Sunday GMT) from his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, according to a campaign aide.
DIFFICULT TASK AHEAD
When Biden enters the White House on Jan. 20, the oldest person to assume the office at age 78, he likely will face a difficult task governing in a deeply polarized Washington, underscored by a record nationwide voter turnout.
The former vice president had a 273 to 214 lead in the state-by-state Electoral College vote that determines the winner, having won Pennsylvania's 20 electoral votes to put him over the 270 he needed to secure the presidency, according to Edison Research.
To secure the win, Biden faced unprecedented challenges. These included Republican-led efforts to limit mail-in voting at a time when a record number of people were due to vote by mail because of the pandemic, which has killed more than 235,000 people in the United States.
Both sides characterized the 2020 election as one of the most crucial in US history, as important as votes during the 1860s Civil War and the 1930s Great Depression.
For months, officials on both sides raised the spectre of the United States not being able to pull off a fair vote. In the end, however, voting at the polls proceeded with limited disruption. Thousands of election monitors from both parties worked for four days to ensure the votes were being counted.
Biden's victory was driven by strong support from groups including women, African Americans, white voters with college degrees and city-dwellers. He was more than four million votes ahead of Trump in the nationwide popular vote count.
Biden, who has spent half a century in public life as a US senator and then vice president under Trump's predecessor Barack Obama, will inherit a nation in turmoil over the coronavirus pandemic and the related economic slowdown as well as disruptive protests against racism and police brutality.
Biden has said his first priority will be developing a plan to contain and recover from the pandemic, promising to improve access to testing and, unlike Trump, to heed the advice of leading public health officials and scientists.
He also has pledged to restore a sense of normalcy to the White House after a presidency in which Trump praised authoritarian foreign leaders, disdained longstanding global alliances, refused to disavow white supremacists and cast doubt on the legitimacy of the US election system.
Despite his victory, Biden will have failed to deliver the sweeping repudiation to Trump that Democrats had hoped for, reflecting the deep support the president enjoys despite his tumultuous four years in office.
This could complicate Biden's campaign promises to reverse key parts of Trump's legacy. These include deep Trump tax cuts that especially benefited corporations and the wealthy, hardline immigration policies, efforts to dismantle the 2010 Obamacare healthcare law and Trump's abandonment of such international agreements as the Paris climate accord and Iran nuclear deal.
Should Republicans keep control of the US Senate, they would likely block large parts of his legislative agenda, including expanding healthcare and fighting climate change. That prospect could depend on the outcome of four undecided Senate races, including two in Georgia.
Investors said on Saturday the market's focus was likely to turn on the Senate, which would determine how much a Biden administration is able to do in terms of policy.
"Trump is going to fight for a few weeks. That's going to be a little unsettling for markets," said Jim Awad, senior managing director at Clearstead Advisors in New York. "But most commentators believe Biden will prevail, that the election is over, and the Senate is going to have to compromise."
'TRYING TO STEAL AN ELECTION'
For Trump, 74, it was an unsettling end after an astonishing political rise. The real estate developer who established a nationwide brand as a reality TV personality upset Democrat Hillary Clinton to win the presidency in 2016 in his first run for elected office. Four years later, he becomes the first US president to lose a re-election bid since Republican George H.W. Bush in 1992.
Despite his draconian immigration curbs, Trump made surprising inroads with Latino voters. He also won battleground states such as Florida, where his pledge to prioritize the economy even if it increased the threat of the coronavirus appeared to have resonated.
In the end, though, Trump failed to significantly widen his appeal beyond a committed core of rural and working-class white voters who embraced his right-wing populism and "America First" nationalism.
Prior to the election, Trump had refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power if he lost to Biden - and he stuck to that approach. He falsely declared victory long before counting was complete.
Before Biden's victory projection and with Trump's re-election chances fading as more votes were counted, the president launched an extraordinary assault on the country's democratic process from the White House on Thursday, falsely claiming the election was being stolen from him.
Offering no evidence, Trump assailed election workers and alleged fraud in the states where results from a dwindling set of uncounted votes pushed Biden nearer to victory.
"This is a case where they're trying to steal an election," Trump said on Thursday.
Urging patience as votes were counted, Biden responded on Twitter: "No one is going to take our democracy away from us. Not now, not ever."- Reuters
(Reuters) - President Donald Trump said on Saturday his campaign would begin challenging U.S. election results in court next week after media outlets called the race for Democrat Joe Biden, saying “this election is far from over.”
“We all know why Joe Biden is rushing to falsely pose as the winner, and why his media allies are trying so hard to help him: they don’t want the truth to be exposed,” he said in a statement. “The simple fact is this election is far from over.”
Trump has repeatedly made unfounded claims of fraud in the election.
By winning Pennsylvania, Democrat Joe Biden has won the vote to become the next president, pending any legal challenges.
He was poised for victory in the U.S. presidential election as vote counts in key states leaned his way, while President Donald Trump showed no sign of conceding despite his increasingly bleak chances.
With Americans were increasingly anxious for a result four days after Tuesday’s election, Biden has the math largely on his side with a 273-to-214 lead in the state-by-state Electoral College vote that determines the winner, according to Edison Research.
On Friday he took the lead in Pennsylvania, whose 20 electoral votes would put him over the 270 threshold needed for victory.
Pennsylvania was enough to get Biden over that halfway line. With leads in Georgia, Arizona and Nevada, he may well end up winning far more than needed - taking those three states would give him a total of 306.
“The counts are ongoing, but there isn’t any good news for the president’s campaign anywhere in the pockets of votes that remain,” the Democrat told CNN on Saturday.
Trump, 74, has been defiant as his chances fade for securing a second four-year term. He has made repeated and unfounded claims of electoral fraud, while his campaign pursues lawsuits that legal experts say are unlikely to alter the election outcome.
The Republican president continued his unsubstantiated allegations on Saturday morning, alleging on Twitter that tens of thousands of votes were illegally received at 8 p.m. on Election Day, “totally and easily changing the results in Pennsylvania and certain other razor thin states.”
WILMINGTON: Democrat Joe Biden predicted victory in the US presidential election as vote counts leaned his way in key states, while President Donald Trump showed no sign of being ready to concede in a contest that has dragged on for days.
Biden maintained his advantage going into Saturday, but television networks held off from declaring a winner because the margins are still close in the four states that will determine the election winner and votes are still being counted.
Americans have been waiting longer than in any presidential election since 2000 to learn the winner, with counting slowed by a record number of mail-in ballots. The COVID-19 pandemic prompted many to avoid voting in person on Tuesday's Election Day.
"The numbers tell us ... it's a clear and convincing story: We're going to win this race," Biden said late on Friday from his home state of Delaware, adding that he and his running mate Kamala Harris were already meeting with experts as they prepared to start their administration on Jan. 20.
Trump, 74, has been defiant as his chances fade for securing a second four-year term. He has made repeated and unfounded claims of electoral fraud, including from the White House briefing room on Thursday night, while his campaign pursues lawsuits that legal experts say are unlikely to alter the election outcome.
Former Vice President Biden, 77, has a 253-to-214 lead in the state-by-state Electoral College vote that determines the winner, according to Edison Research. He edged closer to victory when he took the lead on Friday in Pennsylvania, whose 20 electoral votes would put him over the 270 needed for victory.
In the early hours of Saturday, Biden's slim lead widened in Georgia, a typically Republican-leaning state, to put him ahead by 7,248 votes with the count 99% complete.
In Pennsylvania, he led by 27,130 votes with 96% of the vote complete, while in Nevada he led by 22,657 votes with 93% of the count complete.
In Arizona, Biden's lead narrowed to 29,861 votes with 97% of the tally completed. Trump's campaign has been optimistic that Arizona will end up in the president's column.
With thousands of votes still to count, it was not clear when the contest would conclude, though further updates were expected on Saturday.
Biden backers danced in Philadelphia's streets, while armed Trump supporters in Phoenix and Detroit said the election was being stolen, despite there being no evidence of widespread irregularities. Under the banner of "Stop the Steal," Trump supporters planned dozens of rallies for Saturday.
NO VICTORY SPEECH YET
Biden's speech was originally planned as a victory celebration, but he changed his approach in the absence of a call on the result from television networks and other election forecasters.
Trump kept out of view in the White House on Friday and had nothing on his public schedule for Saturday. He said in a statement issued by his campaign that "all legal ballots must be counted and all illegal ballots should not be counted," while accusing Democrats of resisting that call.
Election officials say there has been no evidence of fraud.
Although the popular vote does not determine the outcome, Biden leads Trump by 4.18 million votes nationwide out of a record 147 million cast. He said on Friday Americans had given him a mandate to tackle the pandemic, the struggling economy, climate change and systemic racism.
"They made it clear they want the country to come together, not continue to pull apart," said Biden, making his third bid for the White House in a political career spanning five decades.
Biden, who said he hoped to address Americans again on Saturday, said Trump's demands to stop the count would not work.
"Your vote will be counted. I don't care how hard people try to stop it. I will not let it happen," Biden said.
Trump gave no indication he was ready to give up.
"Joe Biden should not wrongfully claim the office of the President. I could make that claim also. Legal proceedings are just now beginning!" he wrote on Twitter.
A Trump adviser described the campaign's litigation strategy as chaotic and disorganized. Another Republican official said it was doubtful the lawsuits would yield a Trump victory.
"This race is over, and the only person who doesn't see it is Donald Trump," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Republicans aimed to raise at least $60 million for legal costs, although the fine print on solicitations indicates that more than half the money raised would go to paying down the campaign's debts.
In one potential bright spot for Trump, US Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito ordered county election boards in Pennsylvania to follow a state directive to separate mail-in ballots received after 8 p.m. on Election Day from other ballots. However, Pennsylvania's chief elections official, Kathy Boockvar, has said late-arriving ballots are a tiny proportion of the overall vote in the state.
In a blow to the president, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows was diagnosed with COVID-19, according to a source familiar with the situation.
Meadows, who frequently appears at public events without a mask, is the latest person within Trump's circle to contract the virus, which has killed more than 236,000 people in the United States and is still sweeping the country. He has been a key adviser to Trump on policy as well as the election.
(Reuters) - Democrat Joe Biden said Friday that he was going to win the U.S. presidency as his lead grew over President Donald Trump in battleground states, although television networks held off from declaring him the victor as officials continued to count votes.
“The numbers tell us ... it’s a clear and convincing story: We’re going to win this race,” Biden said, adding that he and his running mate Kamala Harris were already meeting with experts as they prepare for the White House.
Biden’s speech was originally planned as a victory celebration, but he changed his approach in the absence of an official call from television networks and other election forecasters.
Still, it amounted to a blunt challenge to Trump. The Republican incumbent kept out of view in the White House on Friday as Biden’s lead grew in the four states that will decide the outcome: Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona and Nevada.
Leading Trump by 4.1 million votes nationwide out of a record 147 million cast, Biden said Americans had given him the mandate to tackle the coronavirus pandemic, the struggling economy, climate change, and systemic racism.
“They made it clear they want the country to come together, not continue to pull apart,” Biden said.
He said he hoped to address Americans again on Saturday.
Trump has remained defiant, vowing to press unfounded claims of fraud as his Republicans sought to raise $60 million to fund lawsuits challenging the results. But some in his camp described the legal effort as disorganized, and so far they have not found success in the courts.
On the fourth day of vote counting, former Vice President Biden had a 253-to-214 lead in the state-by-state Electoral College vote that determines the winner, according to Edison Research. Democrats grew increasingly frustrated that networks had not yet called a winner.
Securing Pennsylvania’s 20 electoral votes would put Biden over the 270 he needs to win the presidency after a political career stretching back nearly five decades.
Biden would also win if he prevails in two of the three other key states. Like Pennsylvania, all three were still processing ballots on Friday.
As officials count a deluge of mail-in ballots, Biden has held on to narrow leads in Nevada and Arizona and earlier on Friday overtook Trump in Pennsylvania and Georgia.
“In Arizona, Biden led by 29,861 votes with 97% of the tally completed. In Nevada, he led by 22,657 votes with 93% of the count complete.”
“In Georgia, he led by a mere 4,289 votes with the count 99% complete, while in Pennsylvania he led by 27,130 votes with 96% of the vote complete.”
Biden said Trump’s demands to stop the count would not work.
“Your vote will be counted. I don’t care how hard people try to stop it. I will not let it happen,” Biden said.
Trump showed no sign he was ready to concede, as his campaign pursued a series of lawsuits that legal experts said were unlikely to alter the election outcome.
“Joe Biden should not wrongfully claim the office of the President. I could make that claim also. Legal proceedings are just now beginning!” he wrote on Twitter.
A Trump adviser described the campaign’s litigation strategy thus far as chaotic and disorganized. Another Republican official said it was doubtful the lawsuits would yield a Trump victory. Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows, was diagnosed with COVID-19, according to a source familiar with the situation.
“This race is over, and the only person who doesn’t see it is Donald Trump,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
WASHINGTON: The outcome of the US presidential election remained in the balance Friday as a handful of battleground states complete their vote counts, but Joe Biden was edging toward victory -- barring a surprise.
The Democrat has racked up at least 253 of the 270 electoral votes that he needs, according to US network projections, and has taken the lead in Pennsylvania, which would put him over the top.
Donald Trump has amassed 214 electoral votes so far, and while the Republican incumbent was still in contention in several states that could afford him a path to reelection, that path was narrowing.
In addition to Pennsylvania, Biden has pulled ahead in the southeastern state of Georgia, which has 16 electoral votes, but it remains too close to call.
There is some uncertainty surrounding Arizona, which has 11 electoral votes.
Fox News and The Associated Press have called Arizona in Biden's favor, but other media have been more cautious.
With Arizona, Biden would currently have 264 electoral votes.
Much of the delay in key states has resulted from a flood of mail-in ballots due to the coronavirus pandemic -- and those votes have tended to favor Democrats.
Here is a look at the situation in the key states that are still up for grabs:
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania is the biggest prize remaining, with 20 electoral votes. Trump had been ahead, but Biden overtook him on Friday morning and, as of 2000 GMT, leads by nearly 14,000 votes -- out of more than 6.6 million cast.
The majority of votes left to be counted are in Democratic-leaning areas such as greater Philadelphia.
With some 95 percent of the ballots counted, Biden had 49.53 percent of the total compared to Trump's 49.33, according to state election data.
Georgia
In Georgia, Trump's initial lead over Biden steadily slipped away as vote counting continued in heavily Democratic areas, and the former vice president is now slightly ahead.
Biden's lead is 1,585 votes as of 2000 GMT. More than 98 percent of the ballots have been counted.
Georgia has not chosen a Democrat for president since Bill Clinton in 1992. Its 16 electoral votes would put Biden just under 270 -- or over the top if he holds Arizona.
Nevada
Biden had been favored to win Nevada, and its six electoral votes could put him precisely at the number needed to win if he keeps Arizona.
With about 92 percent of the vote counted, Biden was leading by more than 20,000 votes in the Western state -- an increase from earlier in the day.
North Carolina
In North Carolina, which has 15 electoral votes, Trump had a lead of around 76,700 votes with 95 percent of the ballots tabulated. He had around 50 percent of the total compared to Biden's 48.6 percent.
Trump is favored to win the southeastern state, but mail-in ballots sent on or before election day in North Carolina can be counted until November 12.
Arizona
Biden had a lead of about 41,000 votes with about 93 percent of the ballots counted -- a slight drop in his lead from earlier in the day. He holds about 50 percent of the total compared to Trump's 48.6.
If Biden wins Pennsylvania, he does not need to hold on to Arizona.
