Coronavirus live news: US breaks new cases record for second straight day as

I don’t mean to besmirch this blog’s good name with US election content too often, but in case you’re wondering, this is when we just might know the result (Georgia might be called on Thursday night in the US – if Biden manages to overtake Trump’s narrow margin, we could have a winner):

Five states have yet to be called: Alaska, Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina and Pennsylvania. Several news organizations, including the Associated Press and Fox News’ decision desk, have called Arizona for Joe Biden. The Trump campaign is arguing, however, that call was made too early.

Alaska will end up in the Republican column with near certainty.

The race is extremely tight in Georgia, and could be called on Thursday night. As of 11 pm ET, Trump was leading by just 1,902 votes, meaning both candidates were virtually tied in the state, at 49.4% each. There were an estimated 16,000 votes left to count.

The Democratic challenger is ahead in Nevada, with only Democratic-leaning late postal ballots left to tally. But by state law, ballots postmarked on election day can be counted as long as they are received by 5pm on 10 November, which means counting in the state could continue through the weekend.

In North Carolina, while Trump is the clear favourite, the state accepts postal ballots until 12 November – although that is expected to make little difference.

Also at 11 pm ET, there were about 250,000 ballots left to count in Pennsylvania, where Biden is trailing by just under 49,000 votes. He’s been winning the mail-in ballot counts by huge margins, and could very well take the state. Pennsylvania officials say they expect most votes will be counted by Friday.