US election results LIVE: Joe Biden promises to address Covid-19 crisis

US election results 2020 LIVE updates: Joe Biden wins the race to the White House. Currently, he is ahead in 306 electoral votes. Meanwhile Donald Trump tweeted, "I won the elections, by a lot"

10:10 AM

Kamala Harris says her mother, who came from India to the US, would have 'never imagined this moment'

US Vice President-elect Kamala Harris on Saturday (local time) honoured her late mother Shamala Gopalan Harris and said she reflects on the "struggle" and "determination" of women in America, including her mother, who came from India to the US at the age of 19.

 

Addressing the nation after becoming the US-Vice Presidential elect, Harris said that she might be the first woman as the vice president but she will not be the last. She wore an all-white suit for her first speech as history-making vice-president-elect.

 

"When she came here from India at the age of 19, she maybe didn't quite imagine this moment," Harris said during her opening remarks. "But she believed so deeply in America where a moment like this is possible."

 

"So I am thinking about her and about the generations of women, Black women, Asian, White, Latina, Native American women, who throughout our nation's history have paved the way to tonight. Women who fought and sacrificed so much for equality and liberty and justice for all. Including the Black women who are often, too often overlooked but so often proven they are the backbone of our democracy," she added.

10:02 AM

Joe Biden plans to increase H-1B visa limit and remove country quota for green cards

US President-elect Joe Biden plans to increase the number of high-skilled visas, including the H-1B, and eliminate the limit on employment-based visas by country, both of which are expected to benefit tens of thousands of Indian professionals impacted by some immigration policies of the outgoing Trump administration.

 

With Kamala Harris as his deputy, Biden is expected to reverse the move of the outgoing Trump administration to revoke work permits to the spouses of H-1B visas, which had adversely impacted a large number of Indian families in the US.

 

All these are part of a comprehensive immigration reform that the Biden administration plans to work on, either in one go or in separate pieces.

 

"High skilled temporary visas should not be used to disincentivise recruiting workers already in the US for in-demand occupations. An immigration system that crowds out high-skilled workers in favour of only entry level wages and skills threatens American innovation and competitiveness," according to a policy document issued by the Biden campaign.

9:55 AM

'She's going to be one of the most active VPs in US history': Kamala Harris' uncle in India

9:54 AM

LIVE: Son-in-law Jared Kushner approaches Donald Trump about conceding US election, says CNN

Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser, has approached the President about conceding the election, according to CNN.

9:51 AM

Let's give each other a chance: Full text of President-elect Joe Biden's speech

My fellow Americans, the people of this nation have spoken. They have delivered us a clear victory. A convincing victory. A victory for “We the People.” We have won with the most votes ever cast for a presidential ticket in the history of this nation — 74 million.

 

I am humbled by the trust and confidence you have placed in me. I pledge to be a president who seeks not to divide, but to unify. Who doesn’t see red and blue states, but a United States. And who will work with all my heart to win the confidence of the whole people.

 

For that is what America is about: The people.

 

And that is what our administration will be about. I sought this office to restore the soul of America. READ MORE...

9:33 AM

To be built on bedrock science: Joe Biden announces task force to tackle Covid-19

US President-elect Joe Biden has assured Americans that his first task is to get the raging coronavirus pandemic under control with a definite plan that will be "built on bedrock science," as the deadly disease has killed over 237,000 people in the country.

 

"That's the only way we can get back to living," Biden said in his victory speech, hours after he was declared the winner of the November 3 presidential election held amidst the pandemic.

 

He also announced that on Monday he will form a group of leading scientists and experts to bring the pandemic under control.

 

"On Monday, I will name a group of leading scientists and experts as transition advisers to help take the Biden-Harris Covid plan and convert it into an action blueprint that will start on January 20, 2021," he said in his hometown of Delaware. READ ON...

9:27 AM

We the people have the power to build a better future, says Kamala Harris

9:25 AM

Joe Biden administration will place high priority on strengthening Indo-US ties: policy paper

The Biden administration will place high priority on strengthening the Indo-US relationship by pushing India to became a permanent member of the UN Security Council, continuing co-operation on terrorism, climate change, health and trade, according to a policy paper released by the Biden campaign during the presidential election.

 

Biden, 77, defeated incumbent President Donald Trump in the bitterly-fought presidential election that attracted a record number of Americans to cast their votes. By becoming the US president, Biden has an opportunity of fulfilling his 14-year-old dream to strengthen the India-US ties that he wants to achieve in 2020. My dream is that in 2020, the two closest nations in the world will be India and the United States. If that occurs, the world will be safer, Biden had told the now closed down India Abroad newspaper in an interview in December 2006.

 

While it would be tough for him to realise this in 2020, he can definitely achieve it during his presidency starting on January 20, 2021. A policy paper released by the Biden Campaign during the closely-fought election gave an inkling of how he wants to accomplish it.

9:19 AM

US Vice President-elect Kamala Harris' native village celebrates her election win in Tamil Nadu

9:17 AM

Donald Trump supporters protest against Biden-Harris win

Supporters of US President Donald Trump took to the streets across the country to protest against the results of the 2020 presidential election after Democratic nominee Joe Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris were declared the winners. After four full days of waiting patiently for the slow march of vote counting to work itself out, Biden, 77, pulled off one of the great political turn-arounds in America by defeating Trump.

 

Exactly 160 years ago around this time, Abraham Lincoln was elected US President. Biden's victory came at around 11.30 a.m. (local time) on Saturday, when NBC, BBC and The Washington Post called Pennsylvania for Biden. Shortly after the declaration, supporters of the President took to the streets in the states of Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin where Biden was either declared the winner or where he leads in the vote tally, The Hill news website reported.

 

In front of the Georgia State Capitol in Atlanta, at least 200 demonstrators gathered, with some chanting Georgia, which is traditionally Republican, "is not a blue state". Protests were also staged in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where Trump supporters shouted slogans like "stop the steal". Demonstrators also gathered in Madison, Wisconsin, to protest the results.

9:05 AM

Kamala Harris as Vice President was long overdue, says Joe Biden

US President-elect Joe Biden has said that he would be honoured to be serving with Kamala Harris, who scripted history by becoming the first woman and first daughter of immigrants ever elected to national office in this country.

 

"I will be honoured to be serving with a fantastic vice president Kamala Harris who will make history as the first woman, first Black woman, first woman of South Asian descent, and first daughter of immigrants ever elected to national office in this country," Biden said in his victory speech in Wilmington, Delaware on Saturday night.

 

"It's long overdue, and we're reminded tonight of all those who fought so hard for so many years to make this happen. But once again, America has bent the arc of the moral universe towards justice, he said. "Kamala, Doug like it or not you're family. You've become honorary Bidens and there's no way out, he said.

 

Biden, 77, and Harris, 56, would be sworn in as the president and vice president of the United States on January 20, 2021. Harris, the daughter of an Indian mother and African-American father from Jamaica, thanked Biden for selecting her as his running mate.

8:51 AM

Wish him luck: From managing Covid-19 to unifying US, Joe Biden faces a tough task

Almost 50 years to the day since he first entered politics, Joe Biden — erstwhile vice president, decades-long veteran of the Senate, national avatar of avuncularity — has been chosen as the next president of the United States. Wish him luck. He’ll need it.
 

His first challenge will be to steer the country through the hazards of the coming weeks. The full and final election numbers will take time to wrap up, and assorted legal gambits will need to be resolved. These almost certainly won’t change the result, but they risk fuelling anger and instability. Until the matter is settled and Trump quits the stage — doubtless insisting, as he goes, that he was robbed — Biden will need to be a patient and steadying influence.

 

And this effort can’t be confined to the weeks between now and taking office. The election was closer than many expected, and Biden should be cautious about claiming a mandate for radical change. He and the Democrats should press their agenda, to be sure — while aiming to win the broadest possible support. That means understanding and attending to the concerns of the many Americans who voted for Trump even as they recognised his flaws. Bringing the country together is something Biden, unlike Trump, will want to do. Seeing the need is an excellent start. READ MORE...

8:43 AM

Joe Biden vows to tackle Covid-19; to name advisers on Monday

US President-elect Joe Biden has assured Americans that his first task is to get the raging coronavirus pandemic under control with a definite plan that will be "built on bedrock science," as the deadly disease has killed over 237,000 people in the country. "That's the only way we can get back to living," Biden said in his victory speech, hours after he was declared the winner of the November 3 presidential election held amidst the pandemic.

 

He also announced that on Monday he will form a group of leading scientists and experts to bring the pandemic under control.

 

"On Monday, I will name a group of leading scientists and experts as transition advisers to help take the Biden-Harris Covid plan and convert it into an action blueprint that will start on January 20, 2021," he said in his hometown of Delaware. "That plan will be built on bedrock science," Biden said, adding that he will "spare no effort" to turn the pandemic around.

 

His remarks are significant as incumbent US President Donald Trump has been accused of not listening to his own health experts on now to combat the deadly disease, allowing it to spread across the nation. The US is the currently the world's worst-hit nation from the pandemic after it emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan last year. The US has reported over 9,849,000 COVID-19 cases and over 237,000 people have died, according to latest statistics from Johns Hopkins University.

8:35 AM

US Election Result LIVE: Georgia's Fulton County rescans more than 5,000 ballots, reports CNN

Georgia's Fulton County uploaded 5,012 ballots early Saturday morning according to information obtained from the Fulton County elections website, according to CNN.

 

The upload was a combination of cured provisional ballots and overseas and domestic military ballots that arrived by Friday’s close of business deadline.

8:28 AM

Harris is first woman, and woman of colour, to be Vice-President of the US

From the earliest days of her childhood, Kamala Harris was taught that the road to racial justice was long. She spoke often on the campaign trail of those who had come before her, of her parents, immigrants drawn to the civil rights struggle in the United States — and of the ancestors who had paved the way. As she took the stage in Texas shortly before the election, Ms. Harris spoke of being singular in her role but not solitary.

 

“Yes, sister, sometimes we may be the only one that looks like us walking in that room,” she told a largely Black audience in Fort Worth. “But the thing we all know is we never walk in those rooms alone — we are all in that room together.”

 

With her ascension to the vice presidency, Ms. Harris will become the first woman and first woman of color to hold that office, a milestone for a nation in upheaval, grappling with a damaging history of racial injustice exposed, yet again, in a divisive election. Ms. Harris, 56, embodies the future of a country that is growing more racially diverse, even if the person voters picked for the top of the ticket is a 77-year-old white man. READ ON...