in america the u.s president-elect joe
biden has started assembling his team
to prepare for taking over the
presidency at the end of january
he spent the day appointing members to
his coronavirus task force
he said the tackling the pandemic was
key to rebuilding the us economy
the current occupant of the oval office
president trump is still refusing to
concede victory
to mr biden despite pressure from a
growing number of fellow republicans
as our north america editor john sobel
tells us
donald trump at his rallies repeatedly
said that once the election was over
you'd not hear much more about covid
covert covered
covert kovacova at carver a plane goes
down
500 people dead they don't talk about it
kovitkova had covered
govind by the way on november 4th you
won't hear about it anymore
it's true coven
fat chance there's a fresh infection
outbreak at the white house because we
follow the science
with his chief of staff and the person
leading the legal fight against the
results
among those who have gone down with it
10 million americans have now been
infected
and from the president-elect today a
markedly different message
it doesn't matter your party your point
of view
we can save tens of thousands of lives
if everyone would just wear a mask
for the next few months not democrat or
republican lives
american lives
[Music]
shares in the u.s have soared on news
from pfizer on the vaccine
an announcement welcomed by joe biden
and donald trump
that how the president must have wished
it had come two weeks ago
the president spent the weekend playing
golf and while we know
no more about his future he today fired
his defense secretary mark esper
by tweet well not fired he was
terminated
donald trump hasn't spoken on camera
since thursday
probably a record for this presidency
but his close aides are appearing
and to the question will he concede this
is the answer
that word's not even in our vocabulary
right now we're going to go and pursue
all of these legal means
all of the recount methods we're going
to continue exposing
and investigating all these instances of
fraud or abuse
and make sure again that the american
public can have full confidence in these
elections
as donald trump vows to explore all
legal avenues to continue the fight
some around him are beginning to
consider another option
it is that he eventually concedes but
then runs again
in 2024. it's happened once before
in the late 19th century president
grover cleveland
lost and fought again and won
with a crane appearing on the skyline
today it's perhaps confirmation
that one way or another donald trump is
facing removal
from the white house john sopel bbc news
washington well in the past joe biden
has made no secret of his opposition to
brexit
and to the government's approach to
leaving the eu mr biden has also
insisted that the future piece of
northern ireland cannot
in his words be a casualty of brexit
today talks between the eu and uk
restarted
to try to reach a trade deal before the
end of the year let's talk to our
political editor
laura koonsberg at westminster laura
let's start there with events at
westminster we've been expecting a
potentially very significant
vote in the house of lords which could
have a big impact on the government's
talks with the eu
well it could do hume and as you say joe
biden doesn't much like the way that the
government has been pursuing some of its
brexit approach
and neither does the house of lords
talking tonight
angrily as we can see there in
particular about ministers plans to give
themselves the ability to break
international law
to take more control of what happens in
northern ireland if they can't reach a
joint agreement with the european union
this has been hugely controversial
condemned by lots of people
and the house of lords is likely to kick
it back to the commons tonight
but number 10 at the moment is sticking
by its view that these are necessary
parts of what has to be put in law to be
in there they would even say to
safeguard the union
and the peace process in northern
ireland if a wider agreement can't be
sorted out with the eu
and meanwhile as we mentioned the talks
are up and running again michelle
barnier
in town today uh how are they going well
you're right
that controversy in the house of lords
tonight and in
joe biden's brain is part of a wider
jigsaw of what's going on here
michelle barnier and his officials have
come to london again this week they'll
be locked in a room with uk negotiators
for the next few days
and given that we are meant to be
leaving the status quo that we've been
in since we actually left the european
union at the end of december
it doesn't take a genius to get our
calendar and look at the fact that time
is running out here
but the talks are still stumbling over
familiar issues
what is a fair share of fish for
fishermen at home
and abroad how does the eu and the uk
share
rules and regulations to do business
with each other
at the end of the transition period at
the end of next month
there is a sense that in the next week
or perhaps 10 days
there's going to have to be some kind of
conclusion to this if there's a chance
of actually having
at the beginning of january something
that looks like a smooth
significant change to how things work or
perhaps risk the process
falling into something more chaotic
laura many thanks again or kinsburg
there with the latest at westminster