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.