News digest: Biden confident of victory and tributes to Anthony Van Dyck

Democratic candidate Joe Biden appears confident that he will be the next President of the United States, as he told viewers that his victory would be a “victory for the American people”.

“I will work as hard for those who didn’t vote for me as I will for those who did vote for me,” he told supporters in Delaware, before writing on Twitter: “I am confident we will emerge victorious, but this will not be my victory or our victory alone. It will be a victory for the American people, for our democracy, for America.”

It comes as multiple reports suggest he has claimed the crucial states of Michigan and Wisconsin, leading to Biden saying it was “clear” that he would achieve the 70 electoral votes needed to secure the presidency.

Overnight President Donald Trump declared victory for himself though, as he said: “We were getting ready to win this election. Frankly, we did win this election.” His speech came despite many votes remaining uncounted.

However Trump also went on to suggest that the election had been fraudulent, adding: “We’ll be going to the US Supreme Court. We want all voting to stop.”

Speaking this morning, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he was sure the United States would continue to be a great partner, regardless of the election result. However he refused to comment on Trump’s claims regarding election fraud.

“The great thing about the United States, it is a great democracy and it does have great institutions and we have a deep and wide relationship with the United States which is incredibly important to Australia,” he told reporters on Thursday. “We are both like-minded and like in so many ways. Our values, our partnerships, economics, security and in so many ways. And I have great confidence in the democracy of the United States and I have great confidence in their institutions and the thing about great institutions and democracies is they deal with whatever challenges come, just like our own does.”

In other news, tributes have been paid to Melbourne Cup favourite Anthony Van Dyck who was tragically euthanised on Tuesday after breaking down during the race with a fetlock fracture.

Now Irish trainer Aidan O’Brien has remembered the “lovely-natured” horse. “He was a very kind, sound, lovely-natured horse – incredibly tough and genuine,” O’Brien told the Racing Post. “It was very sad to see that happen, it was just very unfortunate.

“He was a good Derby winner who we’ll have fond memories of.“