2020 US Election: What you need to know right now

President-elect Joe Biden plans further meetings on Wednesday to lay the groundwork for his new administration while President Donald Trump pursues a flurry of lawsuits challenging the election results in an effort to cling to power.

Antony Blinken, a veteran diplomat and longtime confidant of Joe Biden, is expected to play a senior role as the incoming administration looks to jettison President Donald Trump's "America First" agenda and restore relations with US allies.

-Trump's campaign said it would file a lawsuit to stop the battleground state of Michigan from certifying its election results as congressional Democrats said a witness who had raised accusations of ballot tampering in Pennsylvania recanted his allegations.

-FACTBOX-A list of legal challenges that will play out in the coming days and weeks.

-Top Republicans in the US Congress for now are supporting Trump's attempt to challenge Biden's victory, but some senior aides said Trump must soon produce significant evidence or exit the stage.

-Trump hopes a recount of votes will help keep Biden out of the White House, but as common as recounts may be, especially for state and local candidates, only three in the last two decades have changed the result and none for a presidential election.

-US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo voiced confidence that once every "legal" vote was counted, it would lead to a "second Trump administration," appearing to reject Biden's election victory over Trump.

-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has not acknowledged Biden as president-elect, said he does not expect an interrupted transition from the Trump administration.

-Democrat Cal Cunningham, who had been considered the leader for a US Senate seat in North Carolina until his campaign was undermined by a sex scandal, conceded the closely fought contest to Republican incumbent Thom Tillis.

GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE

-President-elect Joe Biden should push for a summit of the Group of 20 major economies early next year, former senior US officials said, to renew the US commitment to diplomacy and fight the global health and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

-The United States and European Union need to forge a new transatlantic alliance in areas such as climate change and the digital economy under Biden, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Tuesday.

-Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan congratulated Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris on their victory in the 2020 presidential election, after years of rising tension between the NATO allies.

-Mexico's ambassador to the United States called Biden the "prospective" President-elect, in what could indicate a slight shift in position after the Mexican government said it was too soon to recognize a winner of the US election.

INVESTOR VIEW

-US President Donald Trump leaned on economic arguments in his reelection bid. The economy favored Democratic challenger Joe Biden.

-US monetary policy will not be a top-of-mind concern for Biden as he prepares to take office in January, with the Federal Reserve's economic arsenal already deployed against an ongoing recession and decisions about federal spending more pressing for the next administration. But over his first year in office Biden will have to decide how deep an imprint he wants to put on the US central bank, and particularly whether Fed Chair Jerome Powell's push this year to refocus it on job growth has earned enough credibility among Democrats to be reappointed.

BY THE NUMBERS

Nearly 80% of Americans, including more than half of Republicans, recognize Biden as the winner of the Nov. 3 election after most media organizations called the race for the Democrat based on his leads in critical battleground states, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll.