"At no point has Russia been under threat from Nato" says White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, in response to President Putin putting Russia's nuclear forces on "special alert"

Live updates here: bit.ly/3plAWG2 Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba says if Russia uses nuclear weapons against Ukraine it will be a "catastrophe for the world"

Live updates here: bit.ly/3hjwnYJ

Dawn has just broken in Afghanistan, and on this Monday morning the Afghan people face a very new world

Here's what's happened over the last few hours:
bbc.in/3k1rgNJ The Taliban has effectively gained control of Afghanistan, meeting with little resistance as they made their way into the Afghan capital of Kabul

Maids in Spain have been imprisoned in their employers homes during the pandemic

BBC News has found some live-in cleaners and carers have been kept locked in since the start of the Covid pandemic

“Maria” is just one of many currently trapped

[Thread]

bbc.in/3kgBqYQ Spain has more domestic workers than any country in Europe

Most of them live with their employers which means they can be more easily exploited

“Isabella” was fired during the first lockdown after being mistreated for months by her employer

bbc.in/3kgBqYQ

The potential new vaccine for Covid-19 has been making headlines around the world
Here’s what you need to know about what it might mean for you
#BBCYourQuestions
[Thread]

bbc.in/38tJZgJ Get answers to #BBCYourQuestions about the Covid-19 vaccine: bbc.in/38tJZgJ

Rudy Giuliani claims Philadelphia has a history of voter fraud including dead people voting

He said late world boxing champion Joe Frazier voted there & Will Smith's dead father voted twice after he died

#BBCRealityCheck confirm that's not true

[Thread]
bbc.in/3eOVKzn #BBCRealityCheck spoke to city officials in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, about both claims

Officials told us Joe Frazier has not voted since he died

bbc.in/3eOVKzn

The battle for the presidency has been between two white men - Donald Trump and Joe Biden

But we've also seen women elected in unprecedented numbers, from Vice President-elect Kamala Harris to a record number voted into Congress 👇

[Thread]

bbc.in/36oQsXp A record 135 women will sit in Congress (where US laws are made) in 2021

Women will occupy over a quarter of 535 seats. That's 25.2% (103 Democrats, 32 Republicans) and it could rise higher

ℹ️ Rutgers University's Center for American Women and Politics

bbc.in/36oQsXp

Joe Biden has been declared president-elect, but President Trump is planning legal challenges in some key states

The Trump campaign says it plans to lodge lawsuits today

Here's what we know so far from #BBCRealityCheck

[Thread]
bbc.in/2GHQrFj In Pennsylvania, the Trump campaign has filed a lawsuit accusing election officials of violating a judge's orders to allow observers six feet from the vote counting

But election officials say that watchers were able to observe the process unimpeded

bbc.in/2GHQrFj

Joe Biden is projected to have won the US election

Now what? #Election2020

[THREAD]

bbc.com/news/election-… After days of waiting and uncertainty, TV networks projected Joe Biden the victor in Pennsylvania, giving him enough votes in the electoral college to be named president-elect of the United States

bbc.com/news/election-…

The campaign has gone on for months, the voters have gone to the polls but we still don't know the results of the US election
So why don’t we know who will be president yet?

bbc.in/3mVmJfD

[Thread] Not enough votes have been counted for Trump or Biden to claim victory
Because of the time it takes to count the huge number of postal votes cast during this pandemic election, it could take days
And if there are legal challenges, it might even take weeks
bbc.in/3mVmJfD

It’s almost over

Today is the last day Americans can vote for who they want to be the next US president

Follow our live coverage throughout the night and as the results come in #Election2020

[Thread]

bbc.in/US2020Live The choice is between Republican President Donald Trump and Democratic former Vice-President Joe Biden

Here’s a very simple guide to who they are, and what they stand for #Election2020

bbc.in/US2020Guide

Every four years, the world watches the US election

Donald Trump won in 2016 – now he’s in a close race with Joe Biden

Whoever wins will shape America’s foreign policy and the global economy

So what has changed since 2016?

[Thread] 👇 bbc.in/3mtsi4L President Trump has repeatedly declared the US "the greatest country in the world"

But in many European countries, the percentage of the public with a positive view of America is at its lowest in almost 20 years bbc.in/3mtsi4L

President Trump is in hospital after being diagnosed with coronavirus

He has been treated with an experimental drug cocktail injection and the antiviral medication Remdesivir

[A thread] bbc.in/2HKBjai President Trump was flown to a military hospital on Friday after contracting Covid-19

The White House says the move is out of an "abundance of caution"

bbc.in/2GruN7P

US President Donald Trump tests positive for Covid-19

Here’s seven things you need to know 👇

[Thread]
bbc.in/33mVlQt 1. President Trump was diagnosed shortly after it came to light that Hope Hicks, one of his closest aides, had tested positive for the virus

First Lady Melania Trump is also Covid positive

Both the president and his wife report mild symptoms bbc.in/33mVlQt

Tonight, President Donald Trump and Joe Biden will face off in Cleveland, Ohio during the first US presidential debate

THREAD 👇

#Debates2020 bbc.in/3jgm8Ub The six topics on tonight’s agenda:

➡️ Trump's and Biden's records in office
➡️ The Supreme Court
➡️ Covid-19
➡️ The economy
➡️ Race and violence in our cities
➡️ The integrity of the election

#Debates2020 bbc.in/3jgm8Ub

More than one million people around the world have died with coronavirus

Data from Johns Hopkins University shows that deaths in the US, Brazil and India make up nearly half the total

[Thread]

bbc.in/Coronavirus1Mi… Experts warn the true figure is probably much higher

The pandemic has spread to 188 countries with more than 32 million confirmed cases

bbc.in/Coronavirus1Mi…

This summer, Arctic sea-ice shrunk to its second lowest level since satellite observation began 42 years ago

What does this mean for the planet?

[Thread]

bbc.in/3hVWh2m It's normal for Arctic sea-ice to expand through the winter and then melt back again in the summer

But data suggests the floating ice sheets in September are now shrinking by around 13% per decade as the polar north warms

bbc.in/3hVWh2m

Banking’s dirty secrets have been revealed in a leak of documents which show London is at the heart of global money laundering

The #FinCENFiles are the latest in a series of whistleblowing-led investigations

So, what do we know?

[Thread]

bbc.in/FinCENFiles The #FinCENFiles are more than 2,500 documents, most of which were files that banks sent to US authorities between 2000 and 2017

The documents raise concerns about what their clients might be doing

bbc.in/FinCENFiles

US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has died, age 87

Here are 10 things you need to know about her life (THREAD) bbc.in/3kIggUj 1. She was born to Jewish immigrant parents in the Flatbush neighbourhood of Brooklyn, New York City, in 1933

Her mother, Celia Bader, died of cancer the day before Ginsburg left high school bbc.in/3kIggUj

Dozens of wildfires have been burning their way through large parts of the US West Coast over the last month

Here's a visual guide to what's happening [Thread]👇

bbc.in/3kvntHa Tens of thousands of people have been left homeless or have been evacuated

30 have died

In Oregon, the Almeda fire has been wreaking havoc since it started in the city of Ashland on 8 September bbc.in/3kvntHa

Surging coronavirus figures across Europe should be "a wake-up call", the World Health Organization's regional director says

In the past two weeks the number of new cases has doubled in more than half of European member states, Hans Kluge notes

[Thread]

bbc.in/CV19EuropeWHO "Although these numbers reflect more comprehensive testing, it also shows alarming rates of transmission”

The WHO says 300,000 new infections were reported across Europe last week alone; weekly cases exceeded those reported during the first peak in March

bbc.in/CV19EuropeWHO

Carbon dioxide emissions from plug-in hybrid cars are up to two-and-a-half times higher than official tests suggest, campaigners claim

[Thread]

bbc.in/2FskL3y Analysis from pressure groups Transport and Environment, and Greenpeace suggests the average plug-in hybrid emits about 120g of CO2 per km

That compares with 44g per km in official "lab" tests

bbc.in/2FskL3y