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    Texas sends bus carrying 28 migrants, including sick child, to Philadelphia

    Texas sends bus carrying 28 migrants, including sick child, to PhiladelphiaDehydrated 10-year-old sent to hospital after arrival, as Governor Greg Abbott sends thousands of migrants to Democratic-led areas A bus carrying 28 migrants from Texas arrived in Philadelphia on Wednesday, including a 10-year-old girl suffering from dehydration and a high fever who was taken to a hospital for treatment.Title 42: judge orders Biden to lift Trump-era immigration ruleRead moreAdvocates who welcomed the migrants with coats and blankets before dawn on a cold and drizzly morning said the families and individuals came from Colombia, the Dominican Republic and Cuba. The city and several non-profit groups were ready to provide food, temporary housing and other services.“In general, people feel relieved,” said one Philadelphia city councilmember, Helen Gym, who accompanied several of the migrants onto a second bus taking them to a site where their needs could be assessed.“We want them to know that they have a home here. There’s a 10-year-old who’s completely dehydrated. It’s one of the more inhumane aspects that they would put a child who was dehydrated with a fever now, a very high fever” on the bus, Gym said. “It’s a terrible situation.”The Texas governor, Greg Abbott, announced on Tuesday that Philadelphia would be the next destination for migrants the state is transporting by the thousands to Democratic-led areas.Advocates who greeted the group in Philadelphia, which included 21 adults, said it was not clear how long the bus journey took. One said it would typically take about 40 hours.“The important thing is they got to Philadelphia, and they were received with open arms,” said Emilio Buitrago of the non-profit Casa de Venezuela. “The kids are frightened, they’re exhausted, they’re tired. They’re going to go to a place … where they’re going to have comfy, warm beds with a blanket, and warm food. From there, we’re going to work on relocation.”Some families hope to unite with relatives or friends in other locations, Gym said.US officials stopped more than 2m illegal border crossings in the last fiscal year, a record high that reflects deteriorating economic and political conditions in some countries along with the relative strength of the US economy and uneven enforcement of Trump-era asylum restrictions.In the fiscal year that ended on 30 September, migrants at the US border were stopped 2.38m times, up 37% from 1.73m times the year before.Other buses have turned up in recent months in New York, Washington and Chicago. Texas has transported more than 13,000 migrants since April. Abbott has sent the buses to Democratic-led cities as a way to maximize exposure over what he says is inaction by the Biden administration regarding the southern border.Critics have called the buses a cruel political stunt, but last week voters rewarded Abbott with a record-tying third term as Texas governor in his race against the Democrat Beto O’Rourke. Abbott made a series of hardline immigration measures the centerpiece of his campaign.Nearly six in 10 Texas voters favored Abbott’s decision to send migrants to northern cities, according to AP VoteCast, a survey of almost 3,400 voters in the state.In a statement announcing the bus trips to Philadelphia, Abbott’s office said the Philadelphia mayor, Jim Kenney, “has long celebrated and fought for sanctuary city status, making the city an ideal addition to Texas’ list of drop-off locations”.Kenney said: “It is truly disgusting to hear today that Governor Abbott and his administration continue to implement their purposefully cruel policy using immigrant families – including women and children – as pawns to shamelessly push his warped political agenda.”Kenney said the city was working with more than a dozen local organizations to provide the migrants with shelter space, emergency health screening, food, water, language interpretation and more. Some will probably make their way to other states.Arizona and Florida have also sent migrants to northern US cities.Philadelphia has also welcomed waves of Ukrainians, Afghans and others in recent years. The people arriving from Texas are all in the US legally while they seek asylum, Kenney said.“It is our duty to welcome and support these folks as they face some of the most trying times of their lives,” the mayor said. “At its core, this is a humanitarian crisis, that started with instability and violence in South and Central America and is being accelerated by political dynamics in our own country.”TopicsUS immigrationTexasGreg AbbottUS-Mexico borderUS politicsPhiladelphianewsReuse this content More

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    Highland Park shooting death toll rises to seven with 46 injured – as it happened

    Americans grappled with another wave of gun violence that left seven people dead after a shooting in a Chicago suburb while two new polls paint a grim picture of Americans’ views of President Joe Biden, his handling of the economy, and the country’s institutions in general.Here’s a rundown of what’s happened today:
    A Chicago Sun-Times journalist wrote a harrowing account of the mass shooting in Highland Park, Illinois, that killed seven during an Independence Day parade.
    Biden awarded the Medal of Honor to four army veterans who fought in Vietnam.
    The head of Planned Parenthood talked to the Guardian about how the group will continue working to help women get abortions.
    Inflation and the overall cost of living remains Americans’ top concern, according to a poll released today that casts doubt on Democrats’ hopes that concerns about abortion and gun access will reverse Biden’s poor approval ratings.
    But if Biden is unpopular, he’s not alone. Americans’ confidence in almost all of their institutions has declined compared with last year, according to a different poll.
    Local authorities also announced the names of three more victims which had not been known yet. The identity of the seventh – and so far last – victim has not been released. The three new names are: Katherine Goldstein, 88 Irina McCarthy, 35 Kevin McCarthy, 37At a press conference police have detailed two previous incidents involving the alleged shooter Robert Crimo. The first happened in April, 2019 when police got a report from Crimo’s family that he had attempted suicide. The second occurred in September, 2019 when there was a report that Crimo had been making threats that he wanted to “kill everyone” and had a collection of knives.Police visited where Crimo was living and confiscated a collection of 16 knives, a dagger and a sword. The New York Times has some heartbreaking details on the third victim to be identified. The paper reports: Steve Straus, 88.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}A father of two, grandfather of four and a financial adviser who, at 88, still took the train every day from his Highland Park home to his office at a brokerage firm in Chicago, Steve Straus “should not have had to die this way,” his niece, Cynthia Straus, said in a phone interview.
    “He was an honorable man who worked his whole life and looked out for his family and gave everyone the best he had,” Ms Straus said. “He was kind and gentle and had huge intelligence and humor and wit.”
    He was devoted to his wife, she said, and intensely close with his brother, and extremely health conscious: “He exercised as if he were 50.”Biden has no plans yet to visit Highland Park, Illinois, site of Monday’s mass shooting that killed seven people, his press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters.“We don’t have any plans right now to go to Chicago”, the city of which Highland Park is a suburb, Jean-Pierre said. However vice-president Kamala Harris is scheduled to be in the city later today to to address the National Education Association, “and she will speak to the devastation that we that we all saw with our own eyes yesterday in Highland Park”, according to Jean-Pierre.Biden will travel to Cleveland, Ohio on Wednesday for a speech regarding the economy.White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre is holding the daily press briefing, and reiterated the Biden administration’s efforts to get WNBA star Brittney Griner released from prison in Russia.“We believe she was wrongfully detained. We believe she needs to come home, she should be home,” Jean-Pierre said, adding that Griner’s wife spoke with national security advisor Jake Sullivan over the weekend, their second phone call in the past 10 days.Griner wrote a letter to Biden asking him to push for her release, which Jean-Pierre said the president had read. “He takes this to heart, he takes this job very seriously, especially when it comes to bringing home US nationals who are wrongfully detained,” Jean-Pierre said.This post has been updated to clarify that Griner’s wife, not Griner herself, spoke to Jake Sullivan.’I’m terrified I might be here forever’: Brittney Griner appeals to Biden in letterRead morePresident Biden has ordered flags flown at half-staff across the United States and its embassies abroad until the end of the day on July 9 in memory of the people killed at the mass shooting in Highland Park.Biden had previously ordered flags flown at half-staff in May after the shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas that killed 19 children and two teachers.A seventh person has died following the July 4 shooting at an Independence Day parade in Highland Park, Illinois, NBC Chicago reports.The death brings the toll of wounded in the shooting to 46, according to the broadcaster. Police have said the man suspected of carrying out the attack planned it for weeks and dressed as a woman in order to conceal his identity.Mississippi’s restrictions on abortion were at the center of the supreme court’s ruling last month overturning Roe v. Wade, but the litigation isn’t finished in the state.The Associated Press reports that Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the plaintiff in the supreme court case, is suing to stop a law that would ban almost all abortions in the state:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;} The law — which state lawmakers passed before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the 1973 ruling that allowed abortions nationwide — is set to take effect Thursday.
    The Jackson Women’s Health Organization sought a temporary restraining order that would allow it to remain open, at least while the lawsuit remains in court.
    The closely watched lawsuit is part of a flurry of activity that has occurred nationwide since the Supreme Court ruled. Conservative states have moved to halt or limit abortions while others have sought to ensure abortion rights, all as some women try to obtain the medical procedure against the changing legal landscape.
    If Chancery Judge Debbra K. Halford grants the clinic’s request to block the new Mississippi law from taking effect, the decision could be quickly appealed to the state Supreme Court.Twenty-six states are expected to outlaw abortion entirely following the supreme court’s decision, and according to the Guttmacher Institute, six states have already done so.Maryland’s governor announced today that his state will change its requirements for licensing concealed weapons in response to last month’s ruling by the supreme court expanding Americans’ ability to possess a gun outside their homes.In light of a recent Supreme Court ruling and to ensure compliance with the Constitution, I am directing the Maryland State Police to suspend utilization of the ‘good and substantial reason’ standard when reviewing applications for Wear and Carry Permits.My full statement: pic.twitter.com/0wi1dzD8Aw— Governor Larry Hogan (@GovLarryHogan) July 5, 2022
    As its term came to a close in June, the court’s conservative majority overturned a New York law that had placed strict limits on carrying a firearm outside the home, which affected states with similar laws on their books, including Maryland.New York’s governor Kathy Hochul last week signed legislation designed to counter the supreme court’s ruling by prohibiting the carrying of weapons in certain locations such as bars and restaurants that serve alcohol, schools, government buildings and airports, as well as requiring owners to consent to people carrying guns on their property.US supreme court overturns New York handgun law in bitter blow to gun-control pushRead moreIn other January 6 news, Adam Kinzinger, one of only two Republicans sitting on the House committee investigating the insurrection, has released a compilation of threatening and profane phone calls his office has received.Threats of violence over politics has increased heavily in the last few years. But the darkness has reached new lows. My new interns made this compilation of recent calls they’ve received while serving in my DC office.WARNING: this video contains foul & graphic language. pic.twitter.com/yQJvvAHBVV— Adam Kinzinger (@RepKinzinger) July 5, 2022
    Last year, Kinzinger announced he would retire from Congress, where he’s served since 2011.A Georgia grand jury investigating Donald Trump’s attempts to subvert the 2020 election result in the state has issued subpoenas to a number of the former president’s attorneys and allies, including senator Lindsey Graham.The special grand jury empaneled in Fulton county, where the capital and largest city Atlanta lies, issued the subpoenas today, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;} In addition to Giuliani, among those being summoned are John Eastman, Cleta Mitchell, Kenneth Chesbro and Jenna Ellis, all of whom advised Trump on strategies for overturning Democrat Joe Biden’s wins in Georgia and other swing states.
    The grand jury also subpoenaed South Carolina U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, one of Trump’s top allies in the U.S. Senate, and attorney and podcast host Jacki Pick Deason.
    The subpoenas, were filed July 5 and signed off by Fulton Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney, who is overseeing the special grand jury. Unlike subpoenas issued to Georgians, the summons were required to receive McBurney’s blessing since they are for people who reside outside the state.Viewers of the January 6 committee’s hearings will remember Eastman, the lawyer who, according to testimony from witnesses before the lawmakers, worked with Trump on his plot to undermine the results of the 2020 election. Eastman is among those who asked Trump for a pardon before he left office.At the press conference, investigators said the suspect Robert E Crimo III, 21, had legally bought the rifle allegedly used in the shootings and recovered at the scene – a high-powered rifle styled after an AR-15 – along with at least one more, as well as some pistols.The attack had evidently been planned for weeks, said Covelli, though investigators had not been tipped off to the social media videos posted by the suspect before the shooting.Authorities have still not said what charges Crimo faces, though another press conference is scheduled for later today.All six people killed were adults, Covelli said, and more than 30 others went to hospitals with bullet wounds.Covelli said there is no indication targets were picked out based on race, religion or any other federally protected status.The suspect in the 4 July shootings in Highland Park pre-planned the attack for several weeks, according to officials, and wore “women’s clothing” in what investigators said they believed was an effort to conceal his identity.According to Chris Covelli, the leader of a police taskforce investigating major crimes in the Illinois county that includes Highland Park, local officers recognized the suspect in surveillance footage they reviewed after the shooting, which helped them track him down. The suspect has prominent facial tattoos. Details continue to emerge about the mass shooting in a Chicago suburb yesterday, while two new polls paint a grim picture of Americans’ views of President Joe Biden, his handling of the economy, and the country’s institutions in general.Here’s a rundown of what’s happened so far today:
    A Chicago Sun-Times journalist wrote a harrowing account of the mass shooting in Highland Park, Illinois, that killed six during an Independence Day parade.
    Biden awarded the Medal of Honor to four army veterans who fought in Vietnam.
    The head of Planned Parenthood talked to the Guardian about how the group will continue working to help women get abortions.
    Inflation and the overall cost of living remains Americans’ top concern, according to a poll released today that casts doubt on Democrats’ hopes that concerns about abortion and gun access will reverse Biden’s poor approval ratings.
    But if Biden is unpopular, he’s not alone. Americans’ confidence in almost all of their institutions has declined compared with last year, according to a different poll.
    High inflation is just one reason why economists are worrying that the United States is poised to enter a recession.But if the economy does contract, The Wall Street Journal reports that it may not look like more recent downturns such as at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic or the global financial crisis. One key difference is that waves of layoffs that accompanied those downturns may not occur.From their article exploring the “very strange” situation the world’s largest economy finds itself in:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;} Today, something highly unusual is happening. Economic output fell in the first quarter and signs suggest it did so again in the second. Yet the job market showed little sign of faltering during the first half of the year. The jobless rate fell from 4% last December to 3.6% in May.
    It is the latest strange twist in the odd trajectory of the pandemic economy, and a riddle for those contemplating a recession. If the U.S. is in or near one, it doesn’t yet look like any other on record.
    Analysts sometimes talked about “jobless recoveries” after past recessions, in which economic output rose but employers kept shedding workers. The first half of 2022 was the mirror image—a “jobful” downturn, in which output fell and companies kept hiring. Whether it will spiral into a fuller and deeper recession isn’t known, though a growing number of economists believe it will.
    Some companies, especially in the tech sector, have given indications that they’re pulling back on hiring, though across the broad economy the job market has rarely looked stronger.Also unpopular with Americans: the country’s institutions.Gallup has today released a poll showing a decline in confidence for most of the 16 institutions they track, in particular the supreme court and the presidency.Americans’ confidence in major U.S. institutions has dropped to the lowest point in Gallup’s more than 40-year trend. https://t.co/G2frb7HXxk pic.twitter.com/OyWfUwXmjp— GallupNews (@GallupNews) July 5, 2022
    In the yearly survey, confidence in the supreme court dropped 11 percentage points from 2021 to 25 percent, while the presidency suffered a 15 point decline to 23 percent. The least popular institution was Congress, in which only seven percent of respondent had confidence, down five points from last year. Just above them was television news, in which only 11 percent of Americans had confidence. Small businesses were the most popular institution of those surveyed, with 68 percent confidence, a decline of only two percentage points from last year. The military was up next with 64 percent confidence, followed by the police, with 45 percent confidence. More

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    What you missed: results from five US races on Tuesday

    US newsWhat you missed: results from five US races on TuesdayWhile Virginia’s gubernatorial election caught national attention, the results of these local votes across four states are worth noting Gloria Oladipo@gaoladipoWed 3 Nov 2021 18.35 EDTLast modified on Wed 3 Nov 2021 19.02 EDTTuesday was a busy day for voters across the country, as millions of Americans voted on local issues ranging from police reform to increasing voter accessibility.While some races garnered national attention – Glenn Youngkin’s win in the Virginia gubernatorial election, for example – other ballot questions remained more local.Here are five race results worth spotlighting from Tuesday.Republican Glenn Youngkin wins Virginia governor’s race in blow to BidenRead moreVoting reform referendums in New York StateIn New York, voters decided ‘no’ on two voting reform measures that would have allowed for same-day voter registration and no-excuse absentee voting, a practice already implemented in dozens of states and during the coronavirus pandemic.On the question of same-day voter registration, 49% of people voted ‘no’ while 38.93% voted ‘yes’, according to City & State.While Democrats and voting rights groups were in favor of the proposals, Republicans, on the whole, opposed the attempts at increasing voter expansion, citing familiar claims of voter fraud from the 2020 presidential election, noted NPR.Alvin Bragg elected Manhattan DAAlvin Bragg, a former federal prosecutor, was elected the district attorney of Manhattan, the first Black person to be in the influential role, reports the New York Times.Bragg, who campaigned on ensuring fair treatment for all defendants while also maintaining public safety, was one of seven Democrats who ran for the nomination after incumbent Democrat Cyrus R Vance Jr did not run for reelection.A large feature of Bragg’s campaign was his experience with the criminal justice system, one that he said informed his career and differentiated him from other candidates.“Having been stopped by the police”, said Bragg in an interview with the Times. “Having a homicide victim on my doorstep. Having had a loved one return from incarceration and live with me”.‘Prop A’ Police Staffing Plan in Austin, TexasVoters in Austin, Texas overwhelmingly rejected ‘Prop A’ on Tuesday, a plan to hire hundreds of police officers despite city officials saying that significant budget cuts elsewhere would be needed to do so, reports the Austin American-Statesman.Of the more than 155,000 votes submitted, 68% voted against ‘Prop A’ with only 31% in favor of the proposition.The vast rejection of ‘Prop A’ came as a surprise to some who thought the results on the referendum would be tighter.Throughout the campaign, opposition came from multiple sides for the plan. Labor unions for Austin firefighters and EMS expressed their concerns about the plan, worried that jobs would be cut in those sectors to finance more police officers. Additionally, 10 out of 11 Austin council members were against the proposition.After the early voting election results, Austin mayor Steve Adler tweeted a statement of celebration about the measure’s failing.This election reaffirms our community’s belief that public safety for all requires a comprehensive system that includes properly staffing our police, but also our fire, EMS, and mental health responses as well.— Mayor Adler | Get vaccinated! (@MayorAdler) November 3, 2021
    State Senate President Race in New JerseyIn New Jersey, Edward Durr, a Republican truck driver who apparently spent approximately $153 to finance his campaign, will probably defeat incumbent Democrat state senate president Steve Sweeney, who has held the second most powerful political position in New Jersey for almost 12 years, reports NBC.While an official winner has not been called, with more than 99% of precincts reporting, Durr has received 52% of the vote while Sweeney received only 48%.In a YouTube interview, Durr said he entered the race after being denied a conceal carry permit despite having an unblemished record.Durr, who identifies as a “constitutional conservative”, said he was also sensed a growing distrust in Sweeney because of the Covid-19 pandemic and Sweeney’s inability to “challenge” New Jersey governor Phil Murphy’s Covid-19 executive orders, a shift in public opinion that Durr says contributed to his success as a candidate.In addition to opposing mask mandates and abortions, Durr also pledged to create a business friendly environment in New Jersey by cutting corporate, income, and other state taxes as well as property tax.Marijuana support in PhiladelphiaA referendum in Philadelphia that asked voters if they supported the legalization of marijuana overwhelmingly passed, signaling to Pennsylvania lawmakers where residents fall on the issue.With 96% of precincts reporting, about 72% of people voted ‘yes’ to urge the Pennsylvania state legislature to legalize marijuana, according to Philly Voice. The ballot question is not legally binding and doesn’t automatically make weed legal in the state, but symbolizes that the majority of voters want marijuana legalized.While Pennsylvania governor Tom Wolf supports the legalization of recreational marijuana as a means of economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, drug legalization has faced opposition from Pennsylvania’s Republican legislature.Weed was decriminalized in Philadelphia in 2014, but recreational use of marijuana in Pennsylvania remains illegal. Two previous bills introduced in 2019 to legalize marijuana have failed.TopicsUS newsElections 2021US politicsPhiladelphiaNew YorkNew JerseyTexasnewsReuse this content More

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    'I'm proud of the city': the volunteers fighting voter suppression in Philadelphia

    Joe Certaine arrived in the early morning chill Tuesday at a church.
    There would be a long week of uncertainty ahead, much that hinged on his state, but Certaine didn’t know that yet. For now, he and his “brigade” of trained volunteers were settling in to respond to acts of voter suppression on election day.
    In the days leading up to the election, violent protests against the Philadelphia police shooting death of a Black man, Walter Wallace Jr, deployment of the national guard and repeated taunting by Donald Trump had the city on edge. The city’s district attorney had fired back at the President that if his “goon squad” tried to disrupt the vote, he “would have something for you”.
    In that fraught atmosphere, thousands of election observers, from non-partisan groups like Common Cause and the city’s election commission, would roam the streets on Tuesday to try to keep voting from going off the rails, making it probably the most observed election in city history.
    Certaine and his group would be among them, ready to roll at Greater St Matthew Baptist church, in a predominantly Black neighborhood in the northern part of the city. This would be the 73-year-old’s “last rodeo”, as he put it, crowning a lifetime of activism in voting rights and politics. More

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    'I can't stop crying': joyful celebrations erupt in US as Joe Biden beats Trump

    As news broke that Joe Biden had defeated Donald Trump in the race for the White House, cities across the US saw wild celebrations from supporters of the Democratic nominee for president.
    In Philadelphia, the biggest city in Pennsylvania, the state where Biden was born and which sealed his electoral college victory, celebrations erupted outside the convention center where votes were being counted.
    Donna Widmann, a teacher who helped get her students and their families registered to vote, told the Guardian she had not been able to stop crying.

    “I remember four years ago, watching, you know, on 21 January 2017, him getting inaugurated,” she said, referring to Trump’s installation as the 45th president after his shock victory over Hillary Clinton. “And just crying … just watching [Barack] Obama leave and just crying. I feel like so much, so much emotion has happened in the past four years, man, and it just feels really good – like I can’t stop crying.”
    Windmann, who was holding a sign saying Trump should “take the L”, said she was “psyched” for her students and her families to know they made a difference.
    Alice Sukhina, who is from Ukraine, said she had volunteered for the Biden campaign. She had not been able to see her family in four years, she said, adding that she had sent them messages saying that the wait would soon be over.
    “I am overwhelmed with happiness,” she said. “I’m just so ready to get some real progressive things done. I’m ready to push the platform of Democrats to the left.”
    Marissa Babnew said she was “utterly excited for the first time in a very long time” and added: “I’ve had a lot of close experiences with this pandemic because of my work, and I’m finally feeling hopeful.”
    In Manhattan, where Trump made his fortune in real estate but where he remains a highly controversial and deeply divisive figure, crowds flocked to public spaces including Washington Square Park.
    Uptown, in Washington Heights, two friends, both actors, celebrated in Bennett Park, the sight of a key battle in the American revolutionary war.

    “Our long national nightmare is over,” said Paul DeBoy, happily quoting Gerald Ford’s famous message to the nation after the resignation of Richard Nixon in 1974.
    Ward Duffy said the cheering out of apartment block windows, banging of pots and pans, and cars honking in the streets represented “a different celebration than this summer’s respectful salutes to frontline workers” during the coronavirus pandemic.
    “This had a visceral explosion of relief and joy,” he said.
    Cheering, honking and banging of pots and pans erupted in Harlem too. More

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    Philadelphia mayor tells Trump to accept he lost – video

    Jim Kenney tells a press conference that Donald Trump should ‘put his big boy pants on’, acknowledge his defeat and congratulate Joe Biden as the winner of the US presidential election. It could take several days to complete the count in Philadelphia, but Biden has so far won 81% of the votes. Around 40,000 are still to be counted. Trump has continued to tweet baseless allegations of voter fraud
    US election live: Biden on brink of beating Trump with growing lead in Nevada and Pennsylvania
    Trump v Biden – full results as they come in More