US President-elect Joe Biden has held separate congratulatory phone calls with the leaders of Australia, Japan and South Korea, his transition office said on Wednesday.
Biden's victory in the battleground state of Pennsylvania put him over the threshold of 270 Electoral College votes he needed to clinch the presidency, ending four days of nail-biting suspense and sending his supporters into the streets of major cities in celebration.
From Atlanta and Tallahassee to Austin, Bismarck, Boise and Phoenix, crowds ranging in size from a few dozen to a few thousand - some of them openly carrying guns - decried the news of Joe Biden's victory after more than three suspense-filled days of vote-counting put the Democrat over the top. Skirmishes broke out in some cities.
Although U.S. President Donald Trump did not concede defeat, relief was a common theme expressed in many parts of the world to the news that his reelection bid had failed.
Roughly two-thirds of voters said their opinion of the Republican president - either for or against - drove their choice. Only about a third said the same of his Democratic rival, former Vice President Joe Biden. This was the case nationally, as well as in many of the battleground states that will determine which candidate wins a majority in the electoral college.
Calling Joe Biden his "brother,'' Barack Obama on Saturday accused Donald Trump of failing to take the coronavirus pandemic and the presidency seriously as Democrats leaned on America's first Black president to energize Black voters in battleground Michigan on the final weekend of the 2020 campaign.
The deeply divided chamber voted 52 to 48, largely along party lines in the Republican-controlled Senate, making Barrett the third Trump nominee to reach the high court and cementing a six-to-three conservative majority.
US President Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger Joe Biden are face-to-face in their final presidential debate, just less than two weeks ahead of the crucial presidential elections on November 3.
