Only last week, Biden’s team spent $45 million on air…reports Asian Lite News
Joe Biden.
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s campaign has spent a record amount of money on television and digital advertising than any other presidential candidate in the US’ history.
Data from Advertising Analytics, a non-partisan firm, revealed on Friday that the former Vice President has spent more than $582 million on television advertising since launching his campaign last year, The Hill news website reported.
Only last week, Biden’s team spent $45 million on air.
Biden’s campaign has another $57 million in television time reserved over the final 10-day sprint to the November 3 Election Day.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump’s campaign has spent $342 million in the last two years, according to Advertising Analytics.
The two sides dropped $160 million on television and digital ads in just the past seven days.
Biden, Trump and their allies have run more than 100,000 advertisements per week since the beginning of October, according to counts maintained by the Wesleyan Media Project.
Most ads were run in Phoenix, Arizona; Charlotte, North Carolina; and Des Moines, Iowa; the three swing states that Trump won in 2016.
About 2,163 candidates are in the fray for 284 out of 568 seats in the country’s House of Representatives…reports Asian Lite News
Egyptians voted in the first phase of the parliamentary polls in 14 provinces amid tight security measures and precautions against the Covid-19 pandemic.
About 2,163 candidates are in the fray for 284 out of 568 seats in the country’s House of Representatives, reports Xinhua news agency.
Half of the seats are allocated to individual candidates while the rest to party lists.
The Egyptian President will appoint 28 members according to the law, increasing the total seats of the House of Representatives to 596.
Some 33 million out of Egypt’s total 63 million eligible voters are entitled to cast their votes in the first stage, which is held under full judiciary supervision with the participation of at least 11,000 judges, besides the monitoring of local and foreign media, human rights organizations and candidate representatives.
Security has been intensified around 10,240 polling stations in the 14 provinces, with the military and the Interior Ministry vowing to immediately interfere to stop any violations, threats or acts of aggression that would affect the electoral process.
The Ministry’s security plan includes deployment at vital institutions as well as patrols in main squares and streets to ensure the security of citizens and properties during the voting process.
Earlier on Saturday, Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly cast his vote at one of the districts of Giza, urging all citizens to exercise their right to elect their own representatives.
The first phase of Egypt’s parliamentary elections was held right after the three-day voting of expatriates in 124 countries on October 21-23.
The second stage is scheduled to be held on November 7-8 in the remaining 13 provinces including the capital Cairo, Suez, North Sinai and South Sinai.
The result of the first stage is expected to be announced by November 1, according to the schedule released by the National Election Authority (NEA).
The NEA said the run-off rounds of the first stage inside the country, if any, will be held on November 23-24 and those of the second on December 7-8.
In August, Egyptians elected the country’s first Senate with 300 members, one third of whom are appointed by the President.
The newly created Senate will be an advisory body without legislative authority.
As of Monday, nearly 720,000 voters in Harris County had cast their ballot in person or by mail…reports Asian Lite News
Voter turnout in Harris County, Texas, after seven days of early voting for the November 3 presidential election has surpassed the figure recorded during the 2016 polls.
As of Monday, nearly 720,000 voters in Harris County had cast their ballot in person or by mail, the Houston-based KHOU TV station said in a news report on Tuesday evening.
This figure represented 52 per cent of the total voter turnout in 2016 and 73 per cent of the early voter turnout that year.
Voters in the County broke another record during the first four days of the early voting, casting more than 100,000 ballots each day, with an average about 10,000 votes per hour.
“This turnout is not an accident,” the KHOU TV station quoted Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo as saying on Tuesday.
The county nearly tripled the number of early voting sites to a record 122. Ten of those are new drive-thru voting sites.
A spokesman for the Texas Secretary of State’s Office reported on Tuesday that more than 4.6 million of the state’s residents have cast their ballots during the first week of early voting.
In the 2016 election, Texas, a major battleground state, swung in President Donald Trump’s favour.
He won 52.23 per cent of the votes, while his then Democratic rival Hillary Clinton garnered 52.23 per cent of the ballots.
“one of the most inspiring things about this year has been to see so many young Americans fired up, organizing, marching and fighting for change.” said Obama…reports Asian Lite News
As he readies to hit the campaign trail for Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, former US President Barack Obama urged the country’s youth to vote in the November 3 election, as their “generation can be the one that creates a new normal in America”.
In a video posted on his Twitter account on Tuesday, Obama said: “one of the most inspiring things about this year has been to see so many young Americans fired up, organizing, marching and fighting for change.
“Your generation can be the one that creates a new normal in America. One that’s fairer, where the system treats everybody equally and gives everybody opportunity.
“We can come out of this moment stronger than before.”
The video came a day before Obama’s appearance at a Philadelphia event as part of the campaign trail for Biden, who was his Vice President from January 20, 2009 to January 20, 2017.
One of the most inspiring things about this year has been seeing so many young people organizing, marching, and fighting for change. And to change the game on any of the issues we care about, we've got to vote for @JoeBiden and @KamalaHarris. pic.twitter.com/vfHnP4XPxK
In Tuesday’s vide, Obama said about Biden that he him “better than almost anybody”, CNN reported.
“I trust him to be a great President. He’s different. He’s on the right side of the issues . “He’ll get the job done. And Joe and Kamala will want you to keep pushing them to get the job done,” the former leader added.
According to Democratic Party sources, the former President is also expected to travel to other key battleground states ahead of the November 3 election.
Joe Biden.
During the Democratic National Convention in August, Obama spoke live from the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia in support of his former Vice President.
Meanwhile, latest polls have revealed that Biden had a comfortable lead against President Donald Trump in Pennsylvania, a key battleground state.
A Monmouth University poll out earlier this month showed that 54 per cent of registered voters preferred Biden over 42 per cent who backed Trump.
The state had swung in Trump’s favour in the 2016 presidential election, giving him 48.18 per cent of the votes against his then Democratic rival Hillary Clinton’s 47.46 per cent.
Sunday’s event also coincided with the 13th anniversary of the October 18, 2007 attack on the homecoming procession of late Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in Karachi that killed more than 200 people…reports Hamza Ameer
Just two days after its debut power show, the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), an alliance comprising 11 of the country’s opposition parties, staged its second public rally in the port city of Karachi.Hamza Ameer Reports
The rally was held on Sunday evening at the Bagh-i-Jinnah, where leaders of the opposition parties shared the stage and called on people to intensify the anti-government movement, which they said would soon yield fruit in the ouster of Prime Minister Imran Khan.
The gathering was addressed by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Vice President Maryam Nawaz, Pakistan Peoples Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, who has been appointed as the alliance’s first phase chief, among others.
However, former Prime Minister and PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif was not given the opportunity to give an address the rally through video link, like he did during the PDM’s first power show on October 16 in Gujranwala city.
Sunday’s event also coincided with the 13th anniversary of the October 18, 2007 attack on the homecoming procession of late Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in Karachi that killed more than 200 people.
The speakers lashed out at Prime Minister Khan for lacking the mandate to rule the country and for what they called sheer bad governance, causing serious hardships to the countrymen due to the ruined state of the economy.
“We would not become afraid of threats of imprisonment by the incumbent puppet rulers of the country. In the past also, we have not been frightened by the Karsaz bomb blasts,” said Bhutto-Zardari.
“The incompetent and ineligible Prime Minister had to be sent packing as during his regime, innocent citizens were being killed and incidents of enforced disappearances continued. Ailing citizens were unable to buy medicines due to sheer price-hike.
“Economy of the country had been ruined during the present government owing to the sheer inefficiency of the present rulers,” he added.
The PPP Chairman said the current rulers assumed power not by votes but on the directions of someone else, hinting towards the powerful military establishment.
“The movement of the PDM was aimed at restoring sovereignty of the people in the country in accordance with the Constitution. “
In her address, Maryam Nawaz said that Khan’s responsive speech to Gujranwala public gathering showed that he was under immense pressure and had become mentally upset.
“Every word of the speech of Imran Khan and his body language had shown that he had become afraid and people wanted to see the same frightened Imran Khan. Imran Khan’s latest speech had shown that he lacked training to conduct in a graceful manner while being under pressure.
Pakistan PM Imran Khan
“On the one hand, the electronic media had been banned from covering the speech of Nawaz Sharif via video-link but on the other hand, it seemed that Imran Khan had secretly listened to the former premier’s speech” she added.
The PML-N Vice President said the incumbent government instead of fulfilling its promises to build houses and give employment to the people, had rendered people jobless and they had also been deprived of their livelihood.
“The PDM’s movement would continue till the time the supremacy of Constitution and law would be fully restored along with the independence of the media and judiciary.”
Akhtar Mengal, Chairman of the Balochistan National Party, slammed the government for failing to bring any respite, relief to the families of the missing persons of his province, who he said had been continuing with their protest drive.
“Gas and electricity had become expensive in the country but the lives of people of Balochistan had become too cheap and many of them mercilessly killed without any sin.
“Such a democratic order should be restored in the country where smaller nationalities of the Federation were given maximum autonomy as had been promised to them at the time of the creation of Pakistan,” he added.
Meanwhile, JMaulana Fazlur Rehman said the struggle of the alliance against the government would continue until complete democracy is restored in the country.
“The present rulers lacked both aptitude or eligibility to rule the country. The government had done compromise on the Kashmir issue in total disregard to the sacrifices by the Kashmiri people,” he added.
The PDM is now scheduled to hold its third rally in Quetta on October 25, which will be followed by the fourth in Peshawar on November 22, fifth in Multan on November 30 and the last one in Lahore on December 13.
The first five-year term of the Senate will end in 2025…Reports Asian Lite News
Egypts Senate members took the constitutional oath during the opening procedural session of the Upper House of Parliament.
The opening session was held at the headquarters of the Shura Council here on Sunday, the Al Ahram newspaper said in a report.
According to Egypt’s amended constitution in 2019, a 300-seat Senate is elected, with 100 members to be elected via the individual candidacy system. another 100 through party lists and the remaining 100 to be appointed by the President .
The first five-year term of the Senate will end in 2025.
Sunday’s development came after the month-long Senate elections concluded on September. 16
Pro-government Mostaqbal Watan (Future of Homeland) Party candidates won the majority (around 70 per cent) of 200 open seats, followed by the People’s Republican Party (six seats), Al-Wafd (six seats), and independents (six seats).
The political parties of El-Tagammu, the Congress, Modern Egypt, Reform and Development, Guardians of the Nation, the National Movement, and the Egyptian Social Democratic Party took the remaining seats.
The list of appointed members was announced on Saturday.
Washington, Aug. 21, 2020 (Xinhua) — U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to reporters in Washington D.C., the United States, on Feb. 28, 2020. (Photo by Ting Shen/Xinhua/IANS)
“I hope she’s in good shape, because a number of people in her group have caught Covid-19, so we all wish her best said Trump….Reports Asian Lite News
US President Donald Trump has wished Democratic Vice Presidential nominee Kamala Harris “the best” and hoped that she was “in good shape” after an aide and a flight crew member involved in his rival Joe Bidens presidential campaign tested positive for the novel coronavirus, the media reported.
The President made the remarks while addressing supporters at re-election rally in Muskegon, Michigan, on Saturday evening, The Hill news website reported.
Kamala Devi Harris
“I hope she’s in good shape, because a number of people in her group have caught Covid-19, so we all wish her best.
“Do we all wish her best? Yes, we do. We hope she’s doing well,” he added.
Following the positive cases, Harris had suspended her campaign travel as a precaution.
The California Senator and her husband underwent Covid-19 tests and the couple was declared negative.
In an announcement on Saturday, the Biden campaign announced that Harris will return to the campaign trail on Monday with trips planned to Orlando and Jacksonville, Florida.
With just 18 days left for the November 3 election, Biden also has $432 million worth of cash in hand, while the Trump campaign has $251.4 million…Reports Asian LIte News
US President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign and the Republican National Committee have announced a joint fundraising haul of $247.8 million in September, but it was far behind than the $383 million raised by his Democratic rival Joe Biden.
In September 2016, the then Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton had only raised $154 million, CNN said in a report on Friday.
In a video announcing the latest figure, Biden shared the news with a grassroots supporter.
“That’s more money than I’ve ever raised in my whole life. I’m really humbled by it.”
kamala Harris.
With just 18 days left for the November 3 election, Biden also has $432 million worth of cash in hand, while the Trump campaign has $251.4 million.
Despite the disadvantage, the Trump campaign said that it was confident they will have enough resources to sustain the effort to re-elect the President.
Taking to Twitter on Thursday, Tim Murtaugh, the campaign’s communications director, said: “President Trump hits final stretch with strength, resources, record and huge ground game needed to spread message and secure re-election.”
The two events took place on Thursday night. While Biden’s town hall was hosted by ABC News in Philadelphia, Trump’s 60-minute appearance in Miami was organised by NBC News….Reports Asian Lite News
Symbolising the deep chasm in US politics, President Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger Joe Biden could not even agree on holding a debate and instead participated in two separate town hall events flinging accusations against each other.
The two events took place on Thursday night. While Biden’s town hall was hosted by ABC News in Philadelphia, Trump’s 60-minute appearance in Miami was organised by NBC News.
With only 19 days left before the November 3 Election Day, Trump was hit with tough questions on his Covid-19 response and on race, while Biden faced questions on his past support for a controversial crime bill that hit minorities hard.
Biden’s performance was gaffe-free, while Trump was often his combative self and there was nothing dramatic that could immediately impact the election.
Foreign policy hardly figured in the two events.
The second presidential debate, initially slated to be held in Miami on October 15, was cancelled after Trump refused to participate in a virtual face-off following his Covid-19 diagnosis.
US President Donald Trump formallt accepts Republican nomination.
Biden had howewer, agreed to decision by the Commission on Presidential Debates over the virtual format.
After the debate was scrapped, the two networks offered the rivals the town hall meetings.
The defining moment in Trump’s hour-long event was when he unequivocally denounced White supremacists, which he had not done explicitly at his debate.
He then challenged Biden to denounce the Antifa – the so-called anti-fascist movement – which is behind a lot of the violence and looting in recent months during the protests against police brutality and racism that is backed by the Democrats.
But he would not give a straight answer when asked about a fringe right-wing group called QAnon which spreads conspiracy theories about a “satanic” paedophile organisation with connections to Democrats.
He said he did not know them, but it was good they were against paedophilia.
On his Covid-19 response he brought out his usual defence that he imposed the ban on China travel early, while Biden and others were against it, and was ambiguous about when his own coronavirus tests showing negativity had been conducted saying he could not remember.
Meanwhile, Biden’s meeting moderated by President Bill Clinton’s former aide and now an ABC anchor George Stephanopoulos was a more sedate affair.
The only foreign policy issue of significance in either meetings came when a Trump supporter asked him about the president’s success in opening Israel to more Arab countries and Kosovo and Serbia normalising relations.
Giving Trump a grudging compliment, he said that the US was alone and insecure, estranged from NATO allies and added that “we are in a situation where in the Far East we find ourselves in the western Pacific, where we are isolated as well” with no mention of the Indo-Pacific where India has been asked to take on a greater role with Australia and Japan.
“China is making moves,” he said.
Race issues also came up in the Biden meeting when a young man asked him about the crime legislations that he had supported while in Senate that imposed disproportionate sentences on minorities.
Biden admitted, “It was a mistake”, but went on to defend it saying that the mistakes were at the local and state level and not federal.
Trump was asked by an African-American teacher about the risks young minority youth like her son and students face from police.
Trump, Biden trade early jabs in first presidential debate.
He said that he had undone some of the provisions in those crime legislations, cutting down the sentences given to minorities, and he went on to boast citing the pre-coronavirus low unemployment rate for African-Americans that he was the president who had done the most for them after Abraham Lincoln, who has abolished slavery.
Trump would not give a straight answer about his taxes or his finances, which were published by The New York Times based on what it said were his documents it had received.
Trump often seemed ill at ease as he was grilled by Savannah Guthrie, an anchor who has been critical of him on air.
The President and Biden are still scheduled to face-off in the third presidential debate on October 22.
With only 19 days left before the November 3 Election Day, nearly 16 million Americans have already cast their ballots in early voting
This November 3rd will be the one of the most highly contested presidential elections in the modern era…Reports Asian Lite News
The New York Police Department (NYPD) is gearing up for potential protests in the state and the city ahead of the November 3 presidential election, the force announced in a memo.
In the memo from Commissioner Dermot Shea issued on Wednesday, the NYPD said that it will require most personnel to report for duty in uniform and “be prepared for deployment” starting October 25 in order to regulate the expected protests, reports Xinhua news agency.
“This November 3rd will be the one of the most highly contested presidential elections in the modern era.
“There is also a strong likelihood that the winner of the presidential election may not be decided for several weeks.
“Accordingly, we should anticipate and prepare for protests growing in size, frequency, and intensity leading up to the election and likely into the year 2021,” the memo added.
Demonstrators have recently taken over city streets and also across the state of New York to protest against police brutality since the killing of African-American George Floyd in Minneapolis in May.
MINNEAPOLIS, May 30, 2020 (Xinhua) — Protesters hold their hands in the air during a protest in Minneapolis, the United States, May 29, 2020. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey announced on Friday a mandatory nighttime curfew following three straight nights of growing protests and violence in the biggest city in U.S. midwest state of Minnesota over the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, in police custody. (Photo by Angus Alexander/Xinhua/IANS)
A preliminary report by New York Attorney General Letitia James on the handling of protests over the summer said 2,000 arrests were made, reports CNN.
The July report also included a review of social media video that showed an NYPD vehicle accelerating through a crowd of protesters.
