US elections 2024: the biggest moments of the night so far

Now that Britain is waking up, the outcome of the American elections is not yet certain.

With exit polls announced at different times in different states, many of the key battleground states are still too close, according to Sky’s partner network NBC News.

Follow live: Early data makes Trump camp ‘optimistic’

Donald Trump’s camp can be confidentwith the Republican have an edge in a number of key statesbut a clear winner may still be some time away – these are the biggest moments of election night so far.

‘Russian’ bomb threats close polling stations

Polling places in several of the seven battleground states were subject to bomb threats all Tuesday.

The security threats, all of which were confirmed by the FBI as “not credible,” briefly deterred people from voting in Fulton County and DeKalb County, Georgia.

There were also hoaxes in Michigan, Wisconsin and Arizona, but the vote was not affected there.

Two North Carolina counties reported brief polling place closures due to computer and printer problems.

Both Georgia and North Carolina said they would have to extend voting hours as a result — but in the end, official statewide polls closed on time — and some were allowed to continue voting after the deadline.

Brad Raffensperger, Georgia’s foreign minister, claimed the fake bomb threats came from Russian IP addresses.

“They are planning to cause mischief, it seems. “They don’t want us to have smooth, fair and accurate elections, and if they can get us to fight among ourselves, they can consider that a victory,” he said.

A spokesperson for the Russian embassy in Washington described claims of interference as “malicious slander,” adding: “As President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly emphasized, we respect the will of the American people.”

Russia has been accused of meddling in other recent US elections, most notably the race in which Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in 2016.

The Internet claims a ‘fake Melania’ voted alongside Trump

When images of Melania Trump voting alongside Donald Trump in Florida emerged on social media, they were met with conspiracy theories: It wasn’t really her.

Mr. and Mrs. Trump cast their ballots late Tuesday afternoon at the Mandel Recreation Center in Palm Beach.

But people online claimed it was a ‘fake Melania’, questioned her appearance and speculated that Trump had used a body double instead.

One post on

Sky News analyzed the video and compared it with photographs taken of Mrs Trump by Reuters news agency – showing her next to her husband in the same district – which showed it was her.

It is not the first time that ‘fake Melania’ has been popular online. Mrs. Trump’s rare appearances during this year’s campaign — in stark contrast to the 2016 and 2020 races — led to speculation that the former president used a lookalike to replace his wife at previous events.

Mrs Trump introduced her husband and

Florida is failing to guarantee abortions, but other states are succeeding

An attempt to guarantee abortion rights in the Florida Constitution failed to get enough votes.

The proposal on the ballot would have allowed women to terminate their pregnancies up to 24 weeks. Currently, the law only allows this for six weeks before most women know they are pregnant.

It’s a victory for Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has campaigned heavily against Amendment 4 with state-funded TV ads and threats of criminal charges for TV channels that air ads supporting the amendment.

The amendment received majority support, but ultimately failed to reach the 60% needed to become state law.

Abortion was on the ballot in 10 states after the Supreme Court voted to overturn Roe v Wade in 2022.

Unlike Florida, Colorado and New York were among the states that were safe for democracy and voted to protect reproductive rights, NBC predicted.

In New York, the Constitution will now guarantee that people cannot be denied their rights based on “pregnancy outcomes,” as well as on the basis of race, religion and other protected characteristics.

In Colorado, reproductive rights will become part of the state constitution — barring state authorities to try to impose a local ban — and the current constitutional ban on publicly funded abortions will be lifted.

According to an NBC exit poll, only 14% of voters considered abortion the most important election issue overall — compared to 35% who cited democracy.

Trump claims there is ‘massive cheating’ in Philadelphia

Donald Trump made more false claims about election fraud and said this was the case “Conversation about massive fraud in Philadelphia” before the polls closed there Tuesday evening.

He said “law enforcement was coming!” to investigate his claims in the Pennsylvania town – but there was no evidence of that.

Twenty minutes later, he reposted on his Truth Social media platform that police were also investigating claims of election fraud in Detroit, Michigan.

District Attorney Larry Krasner said there was “no factual basis for these charges.”

“If Donald J. Trump has facts to support his wild accusations, we want them now. At this moment. We are not holding our breath,” he wrote on X.

Both Pennsylvania and Michigan are among the seven battleground states that historically decide who wins the White House.

Trump filed more than 60 lawsuits in 2020 over claims of voter fraud in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and Washington DC.