US election: Celebrations and despair on Biden's victory day — in pictures

Democrat Joe Biden was declared the president-elect on Saturday, four days after election day. The Associated Press and other media outlets finally called the election after it became clear that Biden had won the 20 electoral votes from Pennsylvania. Trump had originally led the race there, but as absentee votes were counted, Biden eventually overtook the president.

Kamala Harris has become the first-ever women vice president in the history of the United States. The daughter of Indian and Jamaican immigrant parents, the former California senator is also the first person of color to take the role of vice president. She dedicated her win to the civil rights movement.

Jubilant crowds gathered at Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington D.C., in front of the White House. Democrat supporters took to the streets from New York to LA, with many ecstatic about the end of Donald Trump's presidency. "You're fired!" — a phrase famously used by Trump in his TV series The Apprentice — was a common sight among the crowds.

Many Trump supporters have expressed disbelief at the fact that their preferred candidate lost the election. Across the country, people protested what they claimed to be a stolen election, as seen here in Beverly Hills, California. Supporters have repeated claims made by the president that ballots counted after Election Day are "illegal", although no evidence has yet been given.

To much ridicule, Trump's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, led a press conference from the parking lot of a Philadelphia gardening center called Four Seasons after the campaign failed to successfully book the luxury hotel by the same name. Giuliani and Trump alike have refused to concede the election, pinning their hopes on a series of legal actions against what they claim is electoral fraud.

Younger voters were overwhelmingly in favor of the Biden-Harris ticket. The president and vice president-elect both expressed their gratitude to minorities, especially the Africa American community, for coming out in their millions to vote and help them win.

Joe Biden was elected with the largest number of votes in US history. However, due to the coronavirus pandemic, many of those votes were sent in by mail, posing a challenge for electoral workers who had to count the unprecedented number of ballots. The delay in counting led to the early appearance of victory for Trump in several key states that Biden eventually won, such as Pennsylvania.

Locals from the Indian village of Painganadu in Tamil Nadu state celebrated the election of Kamala Harris as vice president. Harris' maternal grandfather was born in the neighboring village of Thulasendrapuram, south of Chennai. Biden and Harris have also been congratulated by an increasing number of politicians and heads of state from across the world.

Marianne Hoenow, an American woman from Connecticut, celebrated the election of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in front of the Brandenburg Gate, next to the US embassy in Berlin. German Chancellor Angela Merkel also congratulated the election winners, calling the relationship between Berlin and Washington "indispensable."