Votes are still being counted in the US election, meaning the race is not yet won – but Donald Trump is just a handful of electoral votes from victory.
Overnight developments have thrilled Republicans, with Mr Trump going well ahead in the race for the magic number of 270 electoral college votes to win.
While the fight isn’t officially over yet for Kamala Harris– her opponent no longer needs the four remaining key battleground states to win, and he’s already claimed victory.
Here’s the story of the night…
Trump wins first three swing states
North Carolina, Georgiaand Pennsylvania – three of seven critical battleground states – have been called in favour of Donald Trump by Sky News’ US partner network NBC News.
North Carolina was the first battleground win of the election, giving Mr Trump the state’s 16 Electoral College votes, which he also narrowly won in 2020 with 49.9% of the vote, while Joe Biden garnered 48.6%.
It may not be a massive surprise, as North Carolina hasn’t swung to a Democrat for president since 2008, but it is still a significant blow for Ms Harris, who had been eyeing the state as a place to expand her path to 270.
Republican running mate JD Vance admitted before the vote it would be “very hard” for Mr Trump to win if their campaign did not hold North Carolina.
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Both candidates have made frequent trips to the battleground in the final weeks of the race.
But perhaps an even bigger loss for Team Harris was Georgia, which Mr Trump was projected to win at about 5.30am UK time.
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Trump projected to win Georgia
Numbers had shown Mr Trump was well ahead earlier this morning, but Democrats were holding out hope because he had been 200,000 votes ahead at the same stage of the 2020 election and still lost.
In 2020 it had proved a false lead because votes in the state’s four largest counties – Fulton, Gwinnett, Cobb and DeKalb – which normally lean Democrat – had not been counted.
Once they were, Joe Biden came from behind to win the state.
Those same counties took the longest to count this time too, but Ms Harris couldn’t make up the ground in them.
Then at around 7am NBC News projected that Mr Trump would win Pennsylvania.
The state is seen as the key to victory in the election as it holds a crucial 19 electoral college votes.
Pennsylvania has been a heavy focus of the Republican and Democrat campaigns, with both camps spending huge amounts of money and time vying to win the state.
Trump’s victory there means he only needs to win the states he’s widely expected to win – he doesn’t need any more battleground states.
Florida goes to Trump
Sky News’ US partner NBC News projected Donald Trump as the winner in Florida at 1am UK time.
The Republican-leaning state has a massive 30 electoral votes, the third largest number behind California (54) and Texas (40).
Florida, which is Mr Trump’s home state, was once considered a swing state but has been reliably Republican for over a decade.
The last time Floridians went for a Democratic presidential candidate was when Barack Obama beat Mitt Romney by less than a percentage point in 2012.
New York Times needle is back
There was talk that the popular New York Times ‘needle’ may not have been available on election night due to strike action that nearly ran into polling day.
The Tech Guild, which represents the Times’s software developers and data analysts, went on strike on Sunday over contracts, pay and in-office working policies.
But the needle was up and running on election night, predicting a comfortable win for Donald Trump.
The needle is part of the New York Times’s election coverage brought to readers by 100 journalists, engineers, statisticians, data experts and researchers.
It “estimates the final outcome based on partial election results, helping readers understand what to make of the vote that has been counted so far”, the New York Times says.
You can read exactly how the needle works, and see it for yourself, on the New York Times’ website.
Republicans projected to win the Senate
NBC News projects the Republicans will take over control of the Senate from the Democrats.
It is forecast the party will win 51 seats to the Democrats’ 40.
The House, currently held by the Republicans, is still up in the air.
If Donald Trump were to win, having control of the Senate and the House would enable him to govern more freely than if these legislatures were split.
Crowds leave Harris event
Crowds were leaving Kamala Harris’s watch party in Washington DC at around midnight local time as news of Mr Trump’s projected swing state victories came in.
Supporters had hoped she would be delivering a historic victory speech there, but she didn’t show up at all in the end.
One of the supporters who attended, Anna Aurilio, told Sky News: “I’m heading home for a stiff drink but I’m a sport fan so I know it’s not over until it’s over.”
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Crowd leaves Harris event
Another, Ellycia Smalley, said: “I’m a little down, obviously, but I’m not giving up hope, there are still big cities in swing states to be counted.
“It’s not over until the fat lady sings.”
That was before Pennsylvania was projected to go Mr Trump’s way.
One of her campaign chairs said she will be there tomorrow to “address the nation”.
Trump declares victory with 266 electoral college votes
Donald Trump took to the stage in West Palm Beach, Florida, with a huge entourage.
“I want to thank you all very much,” he said, praising the “incredible” MAGA movement.
“Frankly I believe this was the greatest political movement of all time,” he says, adding it’s now going to go to another level.
“We have a country that needs help very badly,” he adds, promising to “fix everything”.
“It’s clear that… this is a political victory,” he adds.
“I want to thank the American people for the extraordinary honour of being elected your 47th president and your 45th president,” he says, effectively claiming victory.
“This is a magnificent victory for the American people that will allow us to make America great again.”
Former US president Bill Clinton is in hospital in Washington DC after developing a fever.
Mr Clinton, 78, has been admitted to MedStar Georgetown University Hospital for “testing and observation”.
Angel Ureña, the 42nd president’s deputy chief of staff, told Sky’s US partner network NBC News he is in “good spirits and grateful for the care he is receiving”.
Another source close to Mr Clinton said the situation is “not urgent”.
“The former president will be fine,” the source added. “He developed a fever and wanted to be checked out. He is awake and alert.”
Mr Clinton was active on the campaign trail in support of vice president Kamala Harris this year and has also been promoting his book Citizen.
The former president, who served two terms from January 1993 until January 2001, also addressed the Democratic National Convention in Chicago this summer.
Since leaving office, Mr Clinton has undergone two heart operations in New York – having a quadruple bypass operation in 2004, and two stents inserted into a coronary artery in 2010.
He was also in hospital for six days in 2021 with a urological infection that spread to his bloodstream.
Matt Gaetz, who was briefly Donald Trump’s nominee for US attorney general, paid women for sex, including with a 17-year-old girl, and used drugs while he was a member of Congress, a committee has said.
The House Ethics Committee’s report concluded there was “substantial evidence” that the former Florida congressman violated House rules, state and federal laws, and other standards of conduct banning prostitution, statutory rape, illicit drug use, and obstruction of Congress.
And the committee accused the 42-year-old of accepting gifts of luxury travel in excess of permissible limits with a trip to the Bahamas in 2018.
The House of Representatives panel wrote: “From 2017 to 2020, Representative Gaetz made tens of thousands of dollars in payments to women that the Committee determined were likely in connection with sexual activity and/or drug use.”
The Republican, who denies any wrongdoing, had sought a restraining order against the committee in a bid to halt the release of its report summarising its investigation.
The filing accused the committee of an “unconstitutional” attempt “to exercise jurisdiction over a private citizen through the threatened release of an investigative report containing potentially defamatory allegations, in violation of the committee’s own rules”.
Mr Gaetz said his selection was “unfairly becoming a distraction” to the transition of Mr Trump’s administration into the White House.
The Florida Republican had faced scrutiny over previous sex trafficking allegations which were investigated by the department he had been picked by the president-elect to lead.
Mr Gaetz was re-elected to the House of Representatives in November this year but resigned after Mr Trump nominated him as attorney general.
The 37-page House report said: “From at least 2017 to 2020, Representative Gaetz regularly paid women for engaging in sexual activity with him.
“In 2017, Representative Gaetz engaged in sexual activity with a 17-year-old girl. During the period 2017 to 2019, Representative Gaetz used or possessed illegal drugs, including cocaine and ecstasy, on multiple occasions.”
‘Sex with 17-year-old girl’
The ethics panel received testimony that Mr Gaetz had sex with a 17-year-old girl, described in the report as Victim A.
It said: “Victim A recalled receiving $400 in cash from Representative Gaetz that evening, which she understood to be payment for sex.
“Victim A said that she did not inform Representative Gaetz that she was under 18 at the time, nor did he ask her age.”
Mr Gaetz was investigated by the Justice Department for three years over sex trafficking allegations. No criminal charges were brought.
The ethics panel said there was not enough evidence that Mr Gaetz violated the federal sex trafficking statute.
All of the women who testified said the sexual encounters with Mr Gaetz were consensual.
‘I feel violated’
However, one woman told the committee that the use of drugs at the parties and events they attended may have “impair[ed their] ability to really know what was going on or fully consent”.
Another woman told the committee: “When I look back on certain moments, I feel violated.”
The suspect accused of fatally shooting the chief executive of UnitedHealthcare has pleaded not guilty to 11 murder and terror charges.
Authorities say Luigi Mangione shot dead Brian Thompson as he was walking to an investor conference in midtown Manhattan on the morning of 4 December.
The 26-year-old was formally charged last week by the Manhattan district attorney with multiple counts of murder, including murder as an act of terrorism.
Mangione was detained in a Pennsylvania McDonald’s after a five-day search, carrying a gun that matched the one used in the shooting and a fake ID, police said.
He was extradited from Pennsylvania on Thursday and quickly rushed to New York City.
As well as this state trial, he also faces a federal charges. The two cases will proceed on parallel tracks, prosecutors have said.
Mangione is being held in a Brooklyn federal jail alongside several other high-profile defendants, including Sean “Diddy” Combs and Sam Bankman-Fried.
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This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.