US posts fourth consecutive daily Covid record as Joe Biden prepares taskforce

President-elect Biden says ‘Plan will be to built on bedrock of science’ and promised ‘to spare no effort’ to fight pandemic

As President-elect Joe Biden announced that he would name his own coronavirus taskforce on Monday, the US recorded its fourth consecutive record daily total of new Covid cases, close to 130,000.

Related: Coronavirus live news: world war a risk in wake of pandemic, says UK defence chief; 16,017 new infections in Germany

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Boris Johnson congratulates Biden and Harris: ‘There is more that unites us than divides us’ – video

The UK prime minister insisted there is scope for cooperation with the incoming Biden administration as he congratulated the Democrat and his running mate Kamala Harris.

Biden, who has Irish ancestry, has made it clear there will be no agreement on a post-Brexit UK-US trade deal if a no-deal outcome threatens the Good Friday agreement

‘There is far more that unites the government of this country and governments in Washington at any stage than divides us,’ Johnson said.

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Trauma and triumph: the 10 moments that made Joe Biden

On his road to the White House, the former vice-president has had a dramatic journey, overcoming family tragedy and political tumult along the way

Joe Biden was born on 20 November 1942, in Scranton, Pennsylvania. He was the oldest of four children in a Catholic family; his mother, Jean, had Irish roots. The family’s economic fortunes were up and down, with Biden’s father, Joseph, later becoming a successful car-tyre salesman. At school Biden was class president, although his grades were unremarkable.

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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ends truce by warning ‘incompetent’ Democratic party

New York representative denies Movement for Black Lives and Green New Deal cost seats

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has criticised the Democratic party for incompetence in a no-holds-barred, post-election interview with the New York Times, warning that if the Biden administration does not put progressives in top positions, the party would lose big in the 2022 midterm elections.

Signaling that the internal moratorium in place while the Democrats worked to defeat Donald Trump was over, the leftwing New York representative sharply rejected the notion advanced by some Democrats that progressive messaging around the Movement for Black Lives and the Green New Deal led to the party’s loss of congressional seats in last week’s election.

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Educated urban voters are key to success in a deeply divided America

Not only is the country profoundly divided after Trump, but social trends may be pulling it even further apart

Patterns of voting in the presidential election have once again revealed the deep divides that cut across America. As the social makeup of different parts of the country is shifting, so too is the balance of power in electoral politics. As the Democrats have seen their support grow in urban, more racially diverse, educated and younger places, the Republicans have strengthened their political hold on rural and small-town America, in places that are older and home to higher numbers of white, non-college graduates – a group that swung decisively behind Donald Trump in 2016, delivering him victory.

While both Trump and Joe Biden made gains on their party’s vote share in 2016, as fringe candidates were pushed to the sidelines, it was the Democrat who made the largest gains.

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Democrats left to sift through aftermath of ‘blue wave’ that never crested

Once united over shared priority of removing Trump from office, Democrats now anxious and uncertain after unexpected losses

Joe Biden secured a historic presidential victory on Saturday yet some Democrats have spent the tense days since the election engulfed in recriminations, finger-pointing and infighting as they sift through the aftermath of expectations of a “blue wave” that never crested.

Long-simmering tensions between moderate Democrats who represent conservative districts and progressives who have massive online followings erupted into public view, after a series of unexpected losses in parts of the country where the president proved surprisingly resilient.

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Mary Trump on the end of Uncle Donald: all he has now is breaking things

The president will be having ‘meltdowns upon meltdowns’, according to his niece, who sees poetic justice in the lies and cheating now coming back to bite him

This is how the most colossal and fragile ego on the planet deals with losing the US election: he does not deal with it at all.

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Keep on digging: Trump team holds press conference at suburban garden centre

Rudy Giuliani details strategy in the car park of Four Seasons Total Landscaping, a suspected mixup with Four Seasons hotel in Philadelphia

Donald Trump’s bid to hang on to the White House is promising to end in farce if his campaign’s choice of venue for a crucial press conference is anything to go by.

On Saturday morning, as Trump played golf and continued to baselessly accuse the Democrats of stealing the election for Joe Biden, he announced, in a Tweet since deleted, that there would be a “Big press conference” at the Four Seasons in Philadelphia.

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‘Spread the faith’: Biden and Harris victory speeches offer message of unity – video highlights

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have offered a message of unity as the pair spoke following their election victory. Harris, who will be the first woman to be vice-president, paid tribute to her mother. For Biden, his speech was an opportunity to offer an olive branch to his political rivals after nearly four years of division under Donald Trump

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With humility and empathy, Biden speech seeks to make America sane again | David Smith’s sketch

Sketch: In his victory speech, the president-elect proved himself the right person at the right time for an ailing country

Joe Biden ran jauntily on to the stage, wearing a black face mask but suddenly looking several years younger. Looking, in fact, like millions of Americans felt, with burdens to bear but a spring in his step.

The new US president-elect offered a Saturday night speech that did not brag or name call, did not demonise immigrants and people of colour, did not send TV networks and social media into meltdown and did not murder the English language.

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‘It’s not over’: Trump supporters protest Biden victory in swing states

People gathered in capitals of Pennsylvania and Michigan claim ballot fraud and condemn media

As word came on Saturday that the election had been called for Joe Biden, hundreds of supporters of the defeated president began amassing at Pennsylvania’s state capitol building in Harrisburg to protest.

It was a split-screen simulcast of America’s intensified political division, as Donald Trump’s defeat was jubilantly celebrated 130 miles east in Philadelphia, and in cities around the country.

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Mexico’s president won’t congratulate Biden on election win until legal challenges over

Andrés Manuel López Obrador will wait for courts to rule on Trump lawsuits in bid to avoid friction

Mexico’s president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, said on Saturday he would not congratulate a winner of the US presidential election until legal challenges are concluded, in an apparent bid to avoid friction with Washington during the transition.

Democrat Joe Biden won the election on Saturday after a victory in the battleground state of Pennsylvania put him over the threshold of 270 electoral college votes.

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‘We must restore the soul of America’: Joe Biden’s victory speech in full – video

President-elect Joe Biden promised to 'restore the soul of America' as he declared victory in front of a crowd of supporters on Saturday night in his home town of Wilmington. 'I pledge to be a president who seeks not to divide but unify, who doesn't see red states or blue states but who only sees the United States.'

Addressing Trump supporters, Biden said he understood their disappointment because he had lost before. But now, 'let’s give each other a chance', he said. Biden and Kamala Harris hardly mentioned Donald Trump directly in their speeches – instead, they focused on the challenges ahead, including tackling the coronavirus pandemic

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Scott Morrison congratulates Biden-Harris team on victory over Donald Trump – video

Scott Morrison has congratulated Joe Biden and Kamala Harris on their projected US election win. Morrison spoke about the importance of the alliance between the two countries that was strengthened following the second world war and the value of the US in the Australia-Pacific region. While President Donald Trump is yet to concede, Morrison joined leaders around the world in congratulating Biden


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‘You chose truth’: Kamala Harris’s historic victory speech in full – video

Kamala Harris, the first Black woman and first South Asian American woman to become vice-president-elect, began her victory speech by quoting the late congressman and civil rights leader John Lewis, who said, 'Democracy is not a state, it is an act.'

A century after women won the right to vote, Harris, wearing suffragette white, spoke about her late mother, Shyamala Gopalan Harris. 'When she came here from India, at the age of 19, she maybe didn’t quite imagine this moment. But she believed so deeply in an America where a moment like this is possible,' she said.

Joe Biden was declared the president-elect after the AP announced he had won Pennsylvania and its 20 electoral votes, putting him over the threshold of the 270 electoral votes needed to win the White House and beat Donald Trump

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Bernie Sanders offers congratulations to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris – video

Bernie Sanders, the progressive senator of Vermont who put up a strong challenge to Joe Biden in the Democratic primaries before helping him campaign, has offered congratulations to the president-elect and his running mate, Kamala Harris. Sanders called this election the most important in modern American history

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Trump golfs and poses for pictures as election is called in Biden’s favour – video

Donald Trump was golfing at the Trump National Golf Club in Virginia when major news outlets projected presidential rival Joe Biden had won the 2020 US election. Trump posed for photos at the club but did not comment on the results at the time. The president's camp has since refused to concede the result and released a statement saying the 'simple fact is this election is far from over'

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US election live: Joe Biden wins and says ‘It’s time for America to unite’

Georgia’s Secretary of State has tweeted that that county of Fulton had “discovered an issue involving reporting from their work” on Friday.

Brad Raffensperger said officials will rescan the “work”, which I assume he means ballots, although the tweet is fairly vague.

Fulton has discovered an issue involving reporting from their work on Fri. Officials are at State Farm Arena to rescan that work. I have a monitor & investigators onsite. Also sent Dep. SOS as well to oversee the process to make sure to secure the vote and protect all legal votes

The Guardian’s Libby Brooks reports from Glasgow:

Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon has congratulated President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris following the US Presidential election.

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Scott Morrison congratulates Joe Biden on US election win and flags Australian visit in 2021

Morrison’s predecessor, Malcolm Turnbull, welcomed the defeat of Donald Trump by tweeting ‘what a relief’

Scott Morrison has signalled he would invite Joe Biden to visit Australia for the 70th anniversary of the Anzus treaty in 2021 as he congratulated the Democrat for winning the US presidential election.

Morrison told reporters that Canberra would continue to deal with the Trump administration during the transition period but looked forward to working with Biden from January.

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From the editor of Guardian US: a fresh start for America | John Mulholland

The American people have disavowed four years of a thuggish presidency. But now the real work begins

Joe Biden is the next president of the United States – and Kamala Harris has made history, becoming the first woman, and the first woman of color, to be elected vice-president. The pair shattered previous records, winning more votes in the presidential race than any candidates in American history.

Related: 'You're fired!': New York, Trump's home town, celebrates his election defeat

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