Democrat Presidential candidate Biden has won the District of Columbia, Maryland, Massachusetts, and his home state of Delaware, AFP reported on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, incumbent President Donald Trump has won Oklahoma, and Kentucky.

The battle between Donald Trump and Joe Biden continues to heat up as states slowly close polling across the country.

<h2>US election 2020: Battleground states</h2>

Both the candidates are fighting it out in battleground states of Florida, Georgia, and Ohio.

As polls closed in six US states, exit polls showed Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden is set to win in Virginia even as US President Donald Trump is set to clinch West Virginia.&nbsp;&nbsp;

The polling numbers have been strong for the past month with over 100 million votes already cast as Americans came out to vote amid the coronavirus pandemic.

At 7:00 pm (0000 GMT), voting ended in Kentucky, Indiana, South Carolina, Virginia, Vermont and Georgia.

According to early results from CNN’s countrywide exit poll, economy was the most important factor for all voters in the country.

<h2>US election 2020: economy?</h2>

Even though many disagreed on the contemporary condition of the US economy, the majority agreed that the pandemic had been the source of hardships for many.

Even in early results of CNN’s poll, four in 10 people claimed that they were doing better than four years ago, while two out of 10 said that they are worse off now.

At least one-third voters referred to the economy as the key factor. One in five claimed racial injustice was a critical factor, while one in six referred to COVID-19 as the most important player in the ongoing elections.

Only one out of 10 claimed that healthcare and violence were top issues for them.

While many voters agree that economy takes precedence over the pandemic in the larger choice for their candidate, many claimed that the country and its administration should now focus on containing the pandemic more than rebuilding the economy.

Democrat Presidential candidate Biden has won the District of Columbia, Maryland, Massachusetts, and his home state of Delaware, AFP reported on Wednesday. Meanwhile, incumbent President Donald Trump has won Oklahoma, and Kentucky.

Democrat Presidential candidate Biden has won the District of Columbia, Maryland, Massachusetts, and his home state of Delaware, AFP reported on Wednesday. Meanwhile, incumbent President Donald Trump has won Oklahoma, and Kentucky. The battle between Donald Trump and Joe Biden continues to heat up as states slowly close polling across the country. US election 2020: Battleground states Both the candidates are fighting it out in battleground states of Florida, Georgia, and Ohio. As polls closed in six US states, exit polls showed Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden is set to win in Virginia even as US President Donald Trump is set to clinch West Virginia. The polling numbers have been strong for the past month with over 100 million votes already cast as Americans came out to vote amid the coronavirus pandemic. At 7:00 pm (0000 GMT), voting ended in Kentucky, Indiana, South Carolina, Virginia, Vermont and Georgia. According to early results from CNN’s countrywide exit poll, economy was the most important factor for all voters in the country. US election 2020: economy? Even though many disagreed on the contemporary condition of the US economy, the majority agreed that the pandemic had been the source of hardships for many. Even in early results of CNN’s poll, four in 10 people claimed that they were doing better than four years ago, while two out of 10 said that they are worse off now. At least one-third voters referred to the economy as the key factor. One in five claimed racial injustice was a critical factor, while one in six referred to COVID-19 as the most important player in the ongoing elections. Only one out of 10 claimed that healthcare and violence were top issues for them. While many voters agree that economy takes precedence over the pandemic in the larger choice for their candidate, many claimed that the country and its administration should now focus on containing the pandemic more than rebuilding the economy.

US election 2020: Joe Biden wins Delaware, District of Columbia, Maryland, Massachusetts, reports AFP

US election 2020: Voting is underway in the United States to elect a new president, with a fierce fight between incumbent Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden.

In Pics:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/photos/us-election-2020-heres-what-voting-looks-like-in-uncertain-times-340260" hreflang="en">US election 2020: Here's what voting looks like in uncertain times</a>

According to CNN’s preliminary exit poll, a majority of both Trump and Biden supporters claim to have cast ballots in support of their candidate, as opposed to against their opponent. However, the early findings claimed that Trump’s voter base remained more loyal to him, implying many of his voters voted for simply to ensure a counter-vote against his opponent.&nbsp;

4 out of 5 voters claimed that they voted for Trump, while only two-thirds of Biden voters claimed the same, implying Trump’s voter base is more loyal.

US election 2020: Best quality?

In terms of the quality they were looking for among their next president, many claimed it was a show of strength, ie, a strong leader. In early results, one third voters claimed so, and only a quarter wanted someone who possessed good judgment. Only one-fifth voters prioritised candidates who “cares about people like me”.

Also, less than one-fifth voters were looking for someone to unite the country.

In terms of the leader’s stand on issues, three-quarter voters claimed that the candidate’s position mattered, while less than a quarter prioritised the candidate’s personal qualities.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/us-election-2020-preliminary-poll-suggests-voters-prioritised-economy-while-casting-vote-340299" hreflang="en">US election 2020: Preliminary poll suggests voters prioritised economy while casting vote</a>

Over half a voters claimed that the Supreme Court should preserve ObamaCare as it exists.

US Supreme Court will hear arguments seeking overturning ObamaCare next Tuesday. According to early results from CNN’s countrywide exit poll, economy was the most important factor for all voters in the country.

US election 2020: Economy?

Even though many disagreed on the contemporary condition of the US economy, the majority agreed that the pandemic had been the source of hardships for many.

Even in early results of CNN’s poll, four in 10 people claimed that they were doing better than four years ago, while two out of 10 said that they are worse off now.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/us-election-2020-election-day-unfolds-smoothly-defying-fears-of-disruption-340289" hreflang="en">US Election 2020: Election day unfolds smoothly, defying fears of disruption</a>

At least one-third voters referred to the economy as the key factor. One in five claimed racial injustice was a critical factor, while one in six referred to COVID-19 as the most important player in the ongoing elections.

Only one out of 10 claimed that healthcare and violence were top issues for them.

While many voters agree that economy takes precedence over the pandemic in the larger choice for their candidate, many claimed that the country and its administration should now focus on containing the pandemic more than rebuilding the economy.

US election 2020: Voting is underway in the United States to elect a new president, with a fierce fight between incumbent Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden.

US election 2020: Voting is underway in the United States to elect a new president, with a fierce fight between incumbent Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden. In Pics: US election 2020: Here's what voting looks like in uncertain times According to CNN’s preliminary exit poll, a majority of both Trump and Biden supporters claim to have cast ballots in support of their candidate, as opposed to against their opponent. However, the early findings claimed that Trump’s voter base remained more loyal to him, implying many of his voters voted for simply to ensure a counter-vote against his opponent. 4 out of 5 voters claimed that they voted for Trump, while only two-thirds of Biden voters claimed the same, implying Trump’s voter base is more loyal. US election 2020: Best quality? In terms of the quality they were looking for among their next president, many claimed it was a show of strength, ie, a strong leader. In early results, one third voters claimed so, and only a quarter wanted someone who possessed good judgment. Only one-fifth voters prioritised candidates who “cares about people like me”. Also, less than one-fifth voters were looking for someone to unite the country. In terms of the leader’s stand on issues, three-quarter voters claimed that the candidate’s position mattered, while less than a quarter prioritised the candidate’s personal qualities. Also read: US election 2020: Preliminary poll suggests voters prioritised economy while casting vote Over half a voters claimed that the Supreme Court should preserve ObamaCare as it exists. US Supreme Court will hear arguments seeking overturning ObamaCare next Tuesday. According to early results from CNN’s countrywide exit poll, economy was the most important factor for all voters in the country. US election 2020: Economy? Even though many disagreed on the contemporary condition of the US economy, the majority agreed that the pandemic had been the source of hardships for many. Even in early results of CNN’s poll, four in 10 people claimed that they were doing better than four years ago, while two out of 10 said that they are worse off now. Also read: US Election 2020: Election day unfolds smoothly, defying fears of disruption At least one-third voters referred to the economy as the key factor. One in five claimed racial injustice was a critical factor, while one in six referred to COVID-19 as the most important player in the ongoing elections. Only one out of 10 claimed that healthcare and violence were top issues for them. While many voters agree that economy takes precedence over the pandemic in the larger choice for their candidate, many claimed that the country and its administration should now focus on containing the pandemic more than rebuilding the economy.

US election 2020: Early nationwide exit poll suggests Trump voters more loyal

US election 2020: The United States is currently voting for its next president, with a fierce fight between incumbent Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden.

According to early results from CNN’s countrywide exit poll, economy was the most important factor for all voters in the country.

US election 2020: Economy or COVID?

Even though many disagreed on the contemporary condition of the US economy, the majority agreed that the pandemic had been the source of hardships for many.

Even in early results of CNN’s poll, four in 10 people claimed that they were doing better than four years ago, while two out of 10 said that they are worse off now.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/us-elections-2020-country-entitled-to-know-who-won-on-november-3-says-trump-340238" hreflang="en">US Elections 2020: Country entitled to know who won on November 3, says Trump</a>

At least one-third voters referred to the economy as the key factor. One in five claimed racial injustice was a critical factor, while one in six referred to COVID-19 as the most important player in the ongoing elections.

Only one out of 10 claimed that healthcare and violence were top issues for them.

While many voters agree that economy takes precedence over the pandemic in the larger choice for their candidate, many claimed that the country and its administration should now focus on containing the pandemic more than rebuilding the economy.

US Election 2020: Coronavirus response?

Majority of the voters felt that the US response to COVID-19 has been inadequate. Seven out of 10 voters claimed that wearing a face covering in public is more of a public health responsibility than a personal choice.

The preliminary findings of the CNN poll also found that Trump supporters find economy the country’s top issue, (about 6 out of 10), while 3 out of 10 Biden supporters believe coronavirus is the top issue.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/us-elections-2020-trump-biden-eye-florida-as-battleground-states-hold-sway-340285" hreflang="en">US Elections 2020: Trump, Biden eye Florida as battleground states hold sway</a>

Every seven out of 10 Trump supporters believed economy rebuilding was more important than COVID-19. Among Biden supporters, it was the opposite: 8 out of 10 supporters believes that COVID-19 should take precedence.

A majority of the voters claimed that were facing hardships due to COVID-19.

Live updates <a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/us-election-2020-live-update-donald-trump-joe-biden-votes-tally-president-predictions-pennsylvania-county-begins-vote-count-how-to-follow-the-2020-us-election-results-from-india-340293">here</a>

US election 2020: The United States is currently voting for its next president, with a fierce fight between incumbent Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden.

US election 2020: The United States is currently voting for its next president, with a fierce fight between incumbent Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden. According to early results from CNN’s countrywide exit poll, economy was the most important factor for all voters in the country. US election 2020: Economy or COVID? Even though many disagreed on the contemporary condition of the US economy, the majority agreed that the pandemic had been the source of hardships for many. Even in early results of CNN’s poll, four in 10 people claimed that they were doing better than four years ago, while two out of 10 said that they are worse off now. Also read: US Elections 2020: Country entitled to know who won on November 3, says Trump At least one-third voters referred to the economy as the key factor. One in five claimed racial injustice was a critical factor, while one in six referred to COVID-19 as the most important player in the ongoing elections. Only one out of 10 claimed that healthcare and violence were top issues for them. While many voters agree that economy takes precedence over the pandemic in the larger choice for their candidate, many claimed that the country and its administration should now focus on containing the pandemic more than rebuilding the economy. US Election 2020: Coronavirus response? Majority of the voters felt that the US response to COVID-19 has been inadequate. Seven out of 10 voters claimed that wearing a face covering in public is more of a public health responsibility than a personal choice. The preliminary findings of the CNN poll also found that Trump supporters find economy the country’s top issue, (about 6 out of 10), while 3 out of 10 Biden supporters believe coronavirus is the top issue. Also read: US Elections 2020: Trump, Biden eye Florida as battleground states hold sway Every seven out of 10 Trump supporters believed economy rebuilding was more important than COVID-19. Among Biden supporters, it was the opposite: 8 out of 10 supporters believes that COVID-19 should take precedence. A majority of the voters claimed that were facing hardships due to COVID-19. Live updates here

US election 2020: Preliminary poll suggests voters prioritised economy while casting vote

Americans by the millions patiently lined up on Tuesday to cast ballots at libraries, schools and arenas amid a deadly pandemic, in an orderly show of civic duty that belied deep tensions shaping one of the most polarizing presidential campaigns in US&nbsp;history.

The face masks worn by many voters and the sight of boarded-up stores in some city centers were reminders of two big issues defining the 2020 election, with COVID-19 still ravaging parts of the country after a summer of sometimes violence-marred protests against police brutality and racism.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/key-states-in-us-elections-2020-biden-hopes-to-turn-red-georgia-into-blue-as-trump-struggles-340288" hreflang="en">Key states in US elections 2020: Biden hopes to turn 'Red' Georgia into 'Blue' as Trump struggles</a>

The FBI and the New York attorney general's office opened investigations into spates of anonymous robocalls urging people in several states to stay home.

And a federal judge ordered the U.S. Postal Service to conduct a sweep of some facilities across the country for undelivered mail-in ballots and to ship them immediately to election offices to be counted.

Civil liberties groups and law enforcement were on high alert for interference with voters at the polls, but few if any major disruptions were reported by late afternoon.

In a troubling incident in the battleground state of North Carolina, a man legally carrying an unconcealed firearm was arrested and charged with trespassing at a polling site in Charlotte.

Police said the suspect, Justin Dunn, 36, had loitered at the site after voting in the morning, "possibly intimidating other voters." A precinct official asked him to leave and he returned two hours later, when he was taken into custody, authorities said.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/us-elections-2020-trump-biden-eye-florida-as-battleground-states-hold-sway-340285" hreflang="en">US Elections 2020: Trump, Biden eye Florida as battleground states hold sway</a>

In New York City, some voting lines snaked around blocks, but in many places, from Los Angeles to Detroit and Atlanta, lines were short or non-existent. Poll workers guessed this was due to an unprecedented wave of early voting. More than 100 million ballots were cast before Election Day, a new record.

In Atlanta, about a dozen voters were lined up before sunrise at the Piedmont Park Conservancy. First in line was Ginnie House, shivering in the cold, waiting to cast a vote.

"I lost my absentee ballot and I'm not going to miss this vote," said House, 22, an actor and creative writing student, who flew back to Atlanta from New York just for the election.

She said she was voting for Democratic candidate Joe Biden, a former vice president seeking to replace the Republican incumbent Donald Trump in the White House.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/us-election-2020-aid-worker-released-from-egyptian-jail-after-trumps-intervention-asks-people-to-vote-for-biden-340283" hreflang="en">US election 2020: Aid worker released from Egyptian jail after Trump's intervention asks people to vote for Biden</a>

At a polling station in Houston, Andy Valadez was blowing a shofar, a ritual trumpet made from a ram's horn used in Jewish and some Christian ceremonies. In this instance, the horn was a way to pray for a Trump victory, Valadez said.

"We want to pray for a fair election," the 55-year-old marketing executive said, his shofar wrapped in a U.S. flag. "We believe in America and want everyone to have a safe voting experience."

TENSIONS FROM TIMES SQUARE TO TEXAS

The American Civil Liberties Union and other civil rights groups said they were watching closely for signs of voter intimidation, and the U.S. Justice Department's Civil Rights Division said it was deploying staff to 18 states.

Staff at the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, a Washington-based advocacy group, told reporters they were concerned about voting machines not working in three counties in Georgia, forcing voters to fill in paper ballots and raising concerns the paper back-ups would run out.

Business owners in some cities nailed plywood slabs over street-level windows for fear that civil unrest could break out later, especially if the election's outcome were delayed.

In New York City, the Empire State Building and Macy's department store were among those boarded up. On Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, staff had stripped the display windows at Tiffany &amp; Co. and Van Cleef &amp; Arpels of their jewels.

Although Tuesday was unfolding with relative calm, tensions had flared around the country in the run-up to Election Day.

Trump supporters driving pick-up trucks down a Texas highway on Friday surrounded a tour bus carrying Biden campaign staff. In North Carolina over the weekend, police pepper-sprayed a group of mostly Democrats marching to polling stations. And members of an anti-government militia group were charged last month with plotting to kidnap the Democratic governor of Michigan.

Trump supporters planned more vehicle caravans on Tuesday similar to those that jammed traffic in New York and elsewhere. Some election security experts worried these rolling demonstrations could intimidate voters or spiral into violent confrontations.

While Election Day voting appeared to be going smoothly in most places, there were some scattered glitches.

The North Carolina State Board of Elections on Tuesday extended voting at four polling sites that opened late. As a result, returns from early and mail-in voting statewide would be delayed until all polls were closed, the Raleigh News &amp; Observer reported.

Likewise, Hidalgo County, Texas, said on Twitter all 74 of its polling locations would stay open an extra hour after 10 sites experienced "laptop check-in issues."

Even once votes are cast, some Americans worry about a protracted ballot count in pivotal states, forcing the country to wait for days or more before a clear winner emerges if the race is close.

Trump, whose office holds no powers over state-controlled vote-tallying, has said he thinks states should simply stop counting legal ballots once Tuesday has passed.

Americans by the millions patiently lined up on Tuesday to cast ballots at libraries, schools and arenas amid a deadly pandemic, in an orderly show of civic duty that belied deep tensions shaping one of the most polarizing presidential campaigns in US history.

Americans by the millions patiently lined up on Tuesday to cast ballots at libraries, schools and arenas amid a deadly pandemic, in an orderly show of civic duty that belied deep tensions shaping one of the most polarizing presidential campaigns in US history. The face masks worn by many voters and the sight of boarded-up stores in some city centers were reminders of two big issues defining the 2020 election, with COVID-19 still ravaging parts of the country after a summer of sometimes violence-marred protests against police brutality and racism. Also read: Key states in US elections 2020: Biden hopes to turn 'Red' Georgia into 'Blue' as Trump struggles The FBI and the New York attorney general's office opened investigations into spates of anonymous robocalls urging people in several states to stay home. And a federal judge ordered the U.S. Postal Service to conduct a sweep of some facilities across the country for undelivered mail-in ballots and to ship them immediately to election offices to be counted. Civil liberties groups and law enforcement were on high alert for interference with voters at the polls, but few if any major disruptions were reported by late afternoon. In a troubling incident in the battleground state of North Carolina, a man legally carrying an unconcealed firearm was arrested and charged with trespassing at a polling site in Charlotte. Police said the suspect, Justin Dunn, 36, had loitered at the site after voting in the morning, "possibly intimidating other voters." A precinct official asked him to leave and he returned two hours later, when he was taken into custody, authorities said. Also read: US Elections 2020: Trump, Biden eye Florida as battleground states hold sway In New York City, some voting lines snaked around blocks, but in many places, from Los Angeles to Detroit and Atlanta, lines were short or non-existent. Poll workers guessed this was due to an unprecedented wave of early voting. More than 100 million ballots were cast before Election Day, a new record. In Atlanta, about a dozen voters were lined up before sunrise at the Piedmont Park Conservancy. First in line was Ginnie House, shivering in the cold, waiting to cast a vote. "I lost my absentee ballot and I'm not going to miss this vote," said House, 22, an actor and creative writing student, who flew back to Atlanta from New York just for the election. She said she was voting for Democratic candidate Joe Biden, a former vice president seeking to replace the Republican incumbent Donald Trump in the White House. Also read: US election 2020: Aid worker released from Egyptian jail after Trump's intervention asks people to vote for Biden At a polling station in Houston, Andy Valadez was blowing a shofar, a ritual trumpet made from a ram's horn used in Jewish and some Christian ceremonies. In this instance, the horn was a way to pray for a Trump victory, Valadez said. "We want to pray for a fair election," the 55-year-old marketing executive said, his shofar wrapped in a U.S. flag. "We believe in America and want everyone to have a safe voting experience." TENSIONS FROM TIMES SQUARE TO TEXAS The American Civil Liberties Union and other civil rights groups said they were watching closely for signs of voter intimidation, and the U.S. Justice Department's Civil Rights Division said it was deploying staff to 18 states. Staff at the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, a Washington-based advocacy group, told reporters they were concerned about voting machines not working in three counties in Georgia, forcing voters to fill in paper ballots and raising concerns the paper back-ups would run out. Business owners in some cities nailed plywood slabs over street-level windows for fear that civil unrest could break out later, especially if the election's outcome were delayed. In New York City, the Empire State Building and Macy's department store were among those boarded up. On Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, staff had stripped the display windows at Tiffany & Co. and Van Cleef & Arpels of their jewels. Although Tuesday was unfolding with relative calm, tensions had flared around the country in the run-up to Election Day. Trump supporters driving pick-up trucks down a Texas highway on Friday surrounded a tour bus carrying Biden campaign staff. In North Carolina over the weekend, police pepper-sprayed a group of mostly Democrats marching to polling stations. And members of an anti-government militia group were charged last month with plotting to kidnap the Democratic governor of Michigan. Trump supporters planned more vehicle caravans on Tuesday similar to those that jammed traffic in New York and elsewhere. Some election security experts worried these rolling demonstrations could intimidate voters or spiral into violent confrontations. While Election Day voting appeared to be going smoothly in most places, there were some scattered glitches. The North Carolina State Board of Elections on Tuesday extended voting at four polling sites that opened late. As a result, returns from early and mail-in voting statewide would be delayed until all polls were closed, the Raleigh News & Observer reported. Likewise, Hidalgo County, Texas, said on Twitter all 74 of its polling locations would stay open an extra hour after 10 sites experienced "laptop check-in issues." Even once votes are cast, some Americans worry about a protracted ballot count in pivotal states, forcing the country to wait for days or more before a clear winner emerges if the race is close. Trump, whose office holds no powers over state-controlled vote-tallying, has said he thinks states should simply stop counting legal ballots once Tuesday has passed.

US Election 2020: Election day unfolds smoothly, defying fears of disruption

The United States is currently voting for its next president, whereby the incumbent President Donald Trump is fighting against Democratic hopeful Joe Biden in the 2020 US elections.&nbsp;

With polling set to end soon across multiple states, Joe Biden urged Americans to vote, but taking on a more profound tone than a few hours ago.

In Pics:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/photos/us-elections-2020-crucial-states-that-could-determine-course-of-the-race-340196">Crucial states that could determine course of the race</a>

"This is our moment to prove that: Love is more powerful than hate. Hope is more powerful than fear. Light is more powerful than dark. Vote before polls close", he tweeted out.

A 3:00 IST, he had tweeted out the following: "Who we are. What we stand for. Who we are going to be. It's all at stake — and you have the power to determine the outcome".

<div class="ui-state-default" contenteditable="false">
<div class="twitter-block" draggable="false">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
This is our moment to prove that: 
 
Love is more powerful than hate. 
Hope is more powerful than fear. 
Light is more powerful than dark. 
 
Vote before polls close: <a href="https://t.co/eoxT07d7QB">https://t.co/eoxT07d7QB</a>
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) <a href="https://twitter.com/JoeBiden/status/1323753975221522433?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 3, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>
<a class="close-mark close-div" href="#" id="jqclosemark">×</a></div>

In Delaware, Biden had said, "There’s just so much in play right now … We’ll see.&nbsp;If there’s something to talk about tonight, I’ll talk about it. If not, I’ll wait ‘til the votes are counted the next day" after he was asked by reporters whether he had something to share, and whether he would commit to a plan as soon as results are announced.

In Pics:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/photos/us-election-2020-heres-what-voting-looks-like-in-uncertain-times-340260">US election 2020: Here's what voting looks like in uncertain times</a>

On being asked whether he intends to answer Trump incase the incumbent president declares victory before final counting, he said, "It depends on what he says and how he says it."

"Presidents can’t determine what votes counted or not counted and, you know, voters determine who is president," Biden said.

"No matter what he does or what he says, the votes are going to be counted", CNN quoted him as saying.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/us-elections-2020-trump-biden-eye-florida-as-battleground-states-hold-sway-340285" hreflang="en">US Elections 2020: Trump, Biden eye Florida as battleground states hold sway</a>

While talking about voting trajectory, Biden said that "It’s just so uncertain".&nbsp;"Look, you can’t think of an election in the recent past where so many states are up for grabs. The idea I’m in play in Texas, Georgia, North Carolina, Florida — I mean, come on. Texas?"

Meanwhile,&nbsp;US President Donald&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/us-elections-2020-country-entitled-to-know-who-won-on-november-3-says-trump-340238">Trump</a>&nbsp;predicted that he would win "very big" in Florida.&nbsp;

"We think we are winning Texas very big. We think we are winning&nbsp;Florida&nbsp;very big. We think we are winning Arizona very big," Trump said.

The United States is currently voting for its next president, whereby the incumbent President Donald Trump is fighting against Democratic hopeful Joe Biden in the 2020 US elections.

The United States is currently voting for its next president, whereby the incumbent President Donald Trump is fighting against Democratic hopeful Joe Biden in the 2020 US elections. With polling set to end soon across multiple states, Joe Biden urged Americans to vote, but taking on a more profound tone than a few hours ago. In Pics: Crucial states that could determine course of the race "This is our moment to prove that: Love is more powerful than hate. Hope is more powerful than fear. Light is more powerful than dark. Vote before polls close", he tweeted out. A 3:00 IST, he had tweeted out the following: "Who we are. What we stand for. Who we are going to be. It's all at stake — and you have the power to determine the outcome". This is our moment to prove that: Love is more powerful than hate. Hope is more powerful than fear. Light is more powerful than dark. Vote before polls close: https://t.co/eoxT07d7QB — Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) November 3, 2020 × In Delaware, Biden had said, "There’s just so much in play right now … We’ll see. If there’s something to talk about tonight, I’ll talk about it. If not, I’ll wait ‘til the votes are counted the next day" after he was asked by reporters whether he had something to share, and whether he would commit to a plan as soon as results are announced. In Pics: US election 2020: Here's what voting looks like in uncertain times On being asked whether he intends to answer Trump incase the incumbent president declares victory before final counting, he said, "It depends on what he says and how he says it." "Presidents can’t determine what votes counted or not counted and, you know, voters determine who is president," Biden said. "No matter what he does or what he says, the votes are going to be counted", CNN quoted him as saying. Also read: US Elections 2020: Trump, Biden eye Florida as battleground states hold sway While talking about voting trajectory, Biden said that "It’s just so uncertain". "Look, you can’t think of an election in the recent past where so many states are up for grabs. The idea I’m in play in Texas, Georgia, North Carolina, Florida — I mean, come on. Texas?" Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump predicted that he would win "very big" in Florida. "We think we are winning Texas very big. We think we are winning Florida very big. We think we are winning Arizona very big," Trump said.

US election 2020: Biden shares a profound message about love and light while the US votes

US election 2020: As the United States picks its next president, Joe Biden has found support from an American who was jailed in Egypt, and released after Donald Trump's intervention.

An American aid worker who was jailed in Egypt for three years - Aya Hijazi has extended her support to Democratic hopeful Joe Biden. Ironically, Donald Trump had intervened personally to get Hijazi out of Egyptian jail.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/win-or-lose-trump-and-bidens-parties-will-plunge-into-uncertainty-340281" hreflang="en">Win or Lose, Trump and Biden’s parties will plunge into uncertainty</a>

According to Hijazi, soon after she was released in April 2017, Trump was quick to make the release about himself, instead of focusing on the gravity of her situation.

In a tweet, she claimed that during her “most vulnerable moment in life”, Trump reminded her of the reason behind her release, ie, him.

“Trump leaned in &amp; said, ‘You know it’s I who released you, don’t you? I succeeded &amp; Obama failed’ in the most vulnerable moment of my life, 48 hrs after releasing me from prison,” Hijazi&nbsp;said in a tweet.

<div class="ui-state-default" contenteditable="false">
<div class="twitter-block" draggable="false">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Trump leaned in &amp; said, "you know it's I who released you, don't you? I succeeded &amp; Obama failed" in the most vulnerable moment of my life, 48 hrs after releasing me from prison 
It was never about me like it was never about us. It's about his ego. We deserve better <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/VoteBiden?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#VoteBiden</a> <a href="https://t.co/SMhaAHKfWi">pic.twitter.com/SMhaAHKfWi</a>
— Aya Hijazi آية حجازي (@_AyaHijazi_) <a href="https://twitter.com/_AyaHijazi_/status/1323340710674944002?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 2, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>
<a class="close-mark close-div" href="#" id="jqclosemark">×</a></div>

To make her distrust apparent, she shared a picture of herself with Donald Trump at the White House, which was clicked soon after her release. “It was never about me like it was never about us. It’s about his ego. We deserve better #VoteBiden”, she added.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/everything-is-on-the-line-proclaims-obama-while-urging-americans-to-vote-340277" hreflang="en">'Everything is on the line', proclaims Obama while urging Americans to vote</a>

According to Hijazi, Trump expects “loyalty” to ensure control. In a following tweet, she accused Trump of demanding “loyalty as a means of maintaining control.”

“But the government should not help citizens to make them loyal; it should do help b/c it’s the right thing to do #VoteBidenHarrisToSaveAmerica,” Hijazi added in her tweet, while endorsing Joe Biden as President and Kamala Harris as Vice President in the ongoing elections.

In Pics:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/photos/us-election-2020-heres-what-voting-looks-like-in-uncertain-times-340260" hreflang="en">US election 2020: Here's what voting looks like in uncertain times</a>

Hijazi was put in jail for running a nonprofit organisation which sought to help street children. After Trump’s intervention, she was released. On multiple occasions, Trump has claimed that he has&nbsp;done more for Americans who were outside abroad than previous presidents.

US election 2020: As the United States picks its next president, Joe Biden has found support from an American who was jailed in Egypt, and released after Donald Trump's intervention.

US election 2020: As the United States picks its next president, Joe Biden has found support from an American who was jailed in Egypt, and released after Donald Trump's intervention. An American aid worker who was jailed in Egypt for three years - Aya Hijazi has extended her support to Democratic hopeful Joe Biden. Ironically, Donald Trump had intervened personally to get Hijazi out of Egyptian jail. Also read: Win or Lose, Trump and Biden’s parties will plunge into uncertainty According to Hijazi, soon after she was released in April 2017, Trump was quick to make the release about himself, instead of focusing on the gravity of her situation. In a tweet, she claimed that during her “most vulnerable moment in life”, Trump reminded her of the reason behind her release, ie, him. “Trump leaned in & said, ‘You know it’s I who released you, don’t you? I succeeded & Obama failed’ in the most vulnerable moment of my life, 48 hrs after releasing me from prison,” Hijazi said in a tweet. Trump leaned in & said, "you know it's I who released you, don't you? I succeeded & Obama failed" in the most vulnerable moment of my life, 48 hrs after releasing me from prison It was never about me like it was never about us. It's about his ego. We deserve better #VoteBiden pic.twitter.com/SMhaAHKfWi — Aya Hijazi آية حجازي (@_AyaHijazi_) November 2, 2020 × To make her distrust apparent, she shared a picture of herself with Donald Trump at the White House, which was clicked soon after her release. “It was never about me like it was never about us. It’s about his ego. We deserve better #VoteBiden”, she added. Also read: 'Everything is on the line', proclaims Obama while urging Americans to vote According to Hijazi, Trump expects “loyalty” to ensure control. In a following tweet, she accused Trump of demanding “loyalty as a means of maintaining control.” “But the government should not help citizens to make them loyal; it should do help b/c it’s the right thing to do #VoteBidenHarrisToSaveAmerica,” Hijazi added in her tweet, while endorsing Joe Biden as President and Kamala Harris as Vice President in the ongoing elections. In Pics: US election 2020: Here's what voting looks like in uncertain times Hijazi was put in jail for running a nonprofit organisation which sought to help street children. After Trump’s intervention, she was released. On multiple occasions, Trump has claimed that he has done more for Americans who were outside abroad than previous presidents.

US election 2020: Aid worker released from Egyptian jail after Trump's intervention asks people to vote for Biden

Facing the toughest race of his Senate career, John Cornyn warned a small crowd of supporters from the second floor of his campaign bus last week that his party’s long-held dominance in this historically ruby-red state was at risk.

But while the three-term Texas senator demonized Democrats at length, he didn’t spend much time talking up the obvious alternative: President Donald Trump, the leader of his party, the man at the top of his ticket Tuesday.

Asked whether Trump, the man who redefined Republicanism, was an asset to Cornyn’s reelection effort, the senator was suddenly short on words.

“Absolutely,” he said, stone-faced.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/us-election-2020-social-media-firms-like-facebook-twitter-on-alert-for-election-day-misinformation-340278" hreflang="en">US election 2020: Social media firms like Facebook, Twitter on alert for Election Day misinformation</a>

Cornyn’s gentle distancing from Trump foreshadows a far less genteel battle to come. This year’s election seems likely to plunge both Republicans and Democrats into a period of disarray no matter who wins the White House. With moderates and progressives poised to battle each other on the left, and an array of forces looking to chart a post-Trump future on the right (be it in 2021 or in four years), both parties appear destined for an ideological wilderness in the months ahead as each tries to sort out its identities and priorities.

The questions facing partisans on both sides are sweeping and remain largely unresolved despite more than a year of a tumultuous presidential campaign. After Democrats cast their eyes backward several generations for a more moderate nominee, does a rising liberal wing represent their future? And what becomes of a Republican Party that has been redefined by the president’s populist approach, and politicians like Cornyn who have been in the long shadow of Trump for four years?

Traditionally, presidential elections provide clarity on how a party sees its political future. When Barack Obama won the White House in 2008, he reinvigorated a progressive public image of his increasingly diverse party. Eight years earlier, George W. Bush remade Republicanism with a message of “compassionate conservatism.”

Today, with both presidential candidates content to make the race a referendum on Trump, questions about him have overshadowed the debates raging within both parties over how to govern a country in the midst of a national crisis.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/everything-is-on-the-line-proclaims-obama-while-urging-americans-to-vote-340277" hreflang="en">'Everything is on the line', proclaims Obama while urging Americans to vote</a>

“Both sides have been content to make this election about a personality,” said Brad Todd, a Republican strategist and an author of a book about the conservative populist coalition that fueled Trump’s victory in 2016. “Therefore, we’ve not had a lot of light shown on the ideological realignment that’s occurred in the country.”

The jockeying has already begun. If Biden wins, progressive Democrats are preparing to break their election-season truce, laying plans to push for liberals in key government posts, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts as Treasury secretary. If Biden loses, progressives will argue that he failed to embrace a liberal enough platform.

Ambitious Republicans, like former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, have begun appearing in Iowa, stops that they say are on behalf of their party’s embattled Senate candidate there but that have distinctly 2024 overtones.

“The party is headed toward a reckoning, whatever happens in November, because you still have large segments of the party establishment that are not at all reconciled with the president’s victory in 2016,” said Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., who is frequently mentioned as a possible 2024 contender. “These people are still very powerful in the Republican Party, and I think we’ll have a real fight for the future.”

The emerging dynamics are particularly stark across in Texas and other states in the Sun Belt, a fast-growing region that embodies the demographic trends that will eventually reshape the nation.

For Republicans like Cornyn, the battle lines are already being drawn. Four years ago, Trump mounted a hostile takeover of the Republican Party, winning the support of the party’s base with a message that shredded mainstream conservative ideology on issues like fiscal responsibility, foreign policy and trade.

A contingent of the party’s old guard is eager to cast the president as an aberration, a detour into nationalism, populism and conspiracy theories with no serious policy underpinning.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/us-election-2020-heres-how-american-leaders-are-urging-people-to-go-out-and-vote-340269" hreflang="en">US election 2020: Here's how American leaders are urging people to go out and vote</a>

Former Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., said he expected Trump to lose and that he hoped the defeat would refocus the party from “anger and resentment” to developing an inclusive message that could win in an increasingly diverse country.

“Nothing focuses the mind like a big election loss,” said Flake, who was one of many Republicans to retire in 2018 and who has endorsed Biden for president. “The bigger the better when it comes to the president.”

He added, “Trumpism is a demographic cul-de-sac.”

Flake would like the party to resurrect its 2012 “autopsy,” an assessment commissioned by the Republican National Committee to explore why the party had lost its bid for the White House that year. The report urged the party to better embrace voters of color and women.

A co-chair of the project, Ari Fleischer, said there was no returning to the days of that message. Trump, he said, had accomplished the goal of the report, expanding the party — just in a different way.

Rather than engage women or voters of color, the president expanded Republican margins with white, working-class voters, said Fleischer, a former press secretary for Bush who has come to embrace Trump after leaving his ballot blank in 2016.

Sara Fagen, who was the White House political director for Bush, agreed: “Trumpism is cemented in,” she said. “The base of the party has changed; their priorities are different than where the Romneys and Bushes would have taken the country.”

Hawley argued that Republicans should embrace the populist energy of their voters by pursuing the breakup of big technology companies, voicing skepticism of free trade and making colleges more accountable for their high tuition costs.

“If the party is going to have a future, it’s got to become the party of working people,” he said.

Texas may provide a preview of these debates. As Democrats continue to make gains in the state and as the coronavirus rages there, moderate Republicans have tried to steer the state closer to the center while conservatives have tried to push Texas further right.

Hard-line Republican legislators, lawyers and activists have sued Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, formally censured him and protested mandates like a statewide mask order. Over the summer, the party elected a new chairman, Allen B. West, a former Florida congressman and firebrand conservative.

“The governor has continued to issue executive orders that are anything but conservative,” said Jared Woodfill, a conservative activist and Houston lawyer who has sued Abbott. “His base has left him completely.”

Democrats face their own divides over whether to use the moment of national crisis to push for far-reaching structural changes on issues like health care, economic inequality and climate change.

Like Republicans in 2012, Democrats assembled their own task force to try to unify their party after the crowded party primary this year. The group came up with recommendations that were largely broader than what Biden championed in his primary bid but that stopped short of embracing key progressive policies like “Medicare for All,” the Green New Deal and a fracking ban.

Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., a co-chair of the House Progressive Caucus and an ally of Sen. Bernie Sanders, said those plans were the “floor, not the ceiling” of what the liberal wing of the party plans to demand should Biden win. A White House victory, she argued, would give Biden a mandate to push for more sweeping overhauls.

Facing the toughest race of his Senate career, John Cornyn warned a small crowd of supporters from the second floor of his campaign bus last week that his party’s long-held dominance in this historically ruby-red state was at risk.

Facing the toughest race of his Senate career, John Cornyn warned a small crowd of supporters from the second floor of his campaign bus last week that his party’s long-held dominance in this historically ruby-red state was at risk. But while the three-term Texas senator demonized Democrats at length, he didn’t spend much time talking up the obvious alternative: President Donald Trump, the leader of his party, the man at the top of his ticket Tuesday. Asked whether Trump, the man who redefined Republicanism, was an asset to Cornyn’s reelection effort, the senator was suddenly short on words. “Absolutely,” he said, stone-faced. Also read: US election 2020: Social media firms like Facebook, Twitter on alert for Election Day misinformation Cornyn’s gentle distancing from Trump foreshadows a far less genteel battle to come. This year’s election seems likely to plunge both Republicans and Democrats into a period of disarray no matter who wins the White House. With moderates and progressives poised to battle each other on the left, and an array of forces looking to chart a post-Trump future on the right (be it in 2021 or in four years), both parties appear destined for an ideological wilderness in the months ahead as each tries to sort out its identities and priorities. The questions facing partisans on both sides are sweeping and remain largely unresolved despite more than a year of a tumultuous presidential campaign. After Democrats cast their eyes backward several generations for a more moderate nominee, does a rising liberal wing represent their future? And what becomes of a Republican Party that has been redefined by the president’s populist approach, and politicians like Cornyn who have been in the long shadow of Trump for four years? Traditionally, presidential elections provide clarity on how a party sees its political future. When Barack Obama won the White House in 2008, he reinvigorated a progressive public image of his increasingly diverse party. Eight years earlier, George W. Bush remade Republicanism with a message of “compassionate conservatism.” Today, with both presidential candidates content to make the race a referendum on Trump, questions about him have overshadowed the debates raging within both parties over how to govern a country in the midst of a national crisis. Also read: 'Everything is on the line', proclaims Obama while urging Americans to vote “Both sides have been content to make this election about a personality,” said Brad Todd, a Republican strategist and an author of a book about the conservative populist coalition that fueled Trump’s victory in 2016. “Therefore, we’ve not had a lot of light shown on the ideological realignment that’s occurred in the country.” The jockeying has already begun. If Biden wins, progressive Democrats are preparing to break their election-season truce, laying plans to push for liberals in key government posts, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts as Treasury secretary. If Biden loses, progressives will argue that he failed to embrace a liberal enough platform. Ambitious Republicans, like former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, have begun appearing in Iowa, stops that they say are on behalf of their party’s embattled Senate candidate there but that have distinctly 2024 overtones. “The party is headed toward a reckoning, whatever happens in November, because you still have large segments of the party establishment that are not at all reconciled with the president’s victory in 2016,” said Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., who is frequently mentioned as a possible 2024 contender. “These people are still very powerful in the Republican Party, and I think we’ll have a real fight for the future.” The emerging dynamics are particularly stark across in Texas and other states in the Sun Belt, a fast-growing region that embodies the demographic trends that will eventually reshape the nation. For Republicans like Cornyn, the battle lines are already being drawn. Four years ago, Trump mounted a hostile takeover of the Republican Party, winning the support of the party’s base with a message that shredded mainstream conservative ideology on issues like fiscal responsibility, foreign policy and trade. A contingent of the party’s old guard is eager to cast the president as an aberration, a detour into nationalism, populism and conspiracy theories with no serious policy underpinning. Also read: US election 2020: Here's how American leaders are urging people to go out and vote Former Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., said he expected Trump to lose and that he hoped the defeat would refocus the party from “anger and resentment” to developing an inclusive message that could win in an increasingly diverse country. “Nothing focuses the mind like a big election loss,” said Flake, who was one of many Republicans to retire in 2018 and who has endorsed Biden for president. “The bigger the better when it comes to the president.” He added, “Trumpism is a demographic cul-de-sac.” Flake would like the party to resurrect its 2012 “autopsy,” an assessment commissioned by the Republican National Committee to explore why the party had lost its bid for the White House that year. The report urged the party to better embrace voters of color and women. A co-chair of the project, Ari Fleischer, said there was no returning to the days of that message. Trump, he said, had accomplished the goal of the report, expanding the party — just in a different way. Rather than engage women or voters of color, the president expanded Republican margins with white, working-class voters, said Fleischer, a former press secretary for Bush who has come to embrace Trump after leaving his ballot blank in 2016. Sara Fagen, who was the White House political director for Bush, agreed: “Trumpism is cemented in,” she said. “The base of the party has changed; their priorities are different than where the Romneys and Bushes would have taken the country.” Hawley argued that Republicans should embrace the populist energy of their voters by pursuing the breakup of big technology companies, voicing skepticism of free trade and making colleges more accountable for their high tuition costs. “If the party is going to have a future, it’s got to become the party of working people,” he said. Texas may provide a preview of these debates. As Democrats continue to make gains in the state and as the coronavirus rages there, moderate Republicans have tried to steer the state closer to the center while conservatives have tried to push Texas further right. Hard-line Republican legislators, lawyers and activists have sued Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, formally censured him and protested mandates like a statewide mask order. Over the summer, the party elected a new chairman, Allen B. West, a former Florida congressman and firebrand conservative. “The governor has continued to issue executive orders that are anything but conservative,” said Jared Woodfill, a conservative activist and Houston lawyer who has sued Abbott. “His base has left him completely.” Democrats face their own divides over whether to use the moment of national crisis to push for far-reaching structural changes on issues like health care, economic inequality and climate change. Like Republicans in 2012, Democrats assembled their own task force to try to unify their party after the crowded party primary this year. The group came up with recommendations that were largely broader than what Biden championed in his primary bid but that stopped short of embracing key progressive policies like “Medicare for All,” the Green New Deal and a fracking ban. Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., a co-chair of the House Progressive Caucus and an ally of Sen. Bernie Sanders, said those plans were the “floor, not the ceiling” of what the liberal wing of the party plans to demand should Biden win. A White House victory, she argued, would give Biden a mandate to push for more sweeping overhauls.

Win or Lose, Trump and Biden’s parties will plunge into uncertainty

Social media firms were on high alert Tuesday against Election Day misinformation and manipulation efforts&nbsp;as voters began in-person balloting across the United States following a tumultuous campaign. 
 
Aiming to avoid the problems that occurred in the 2016 campaign, Facebook, Twitter and Google-owned YouTube were implementing policies aimed at heading off the spread of false information designed to influence or intimidate voters at the last minute. 
 
Facebook said it had activated its election hub which was monitoring the platform in real time.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/us-election-2020-heres-how-american-leaders-are-urging-people-to-go-out-and-vote-340269" hreflang="en">US election 2020: Here's how American leaders are urging people to go out and vote</a> 
 
"Our Election Operations Center will continue monitoring a range of issues in real time -- including reports of voter suppression content," said a Facebook statement posted on Twitter. 
 
"If we see attempts to suppress participation, intimidate voters, or organize to do so, the content will be removed." 
 
Facebook said its election center was also tracking other issues such as the actions by supporters of President Donald Trump to surround campaign buses for Democrat Joe Biden. 
 
"We are monitoring closely and will remove content calling for coordinated harm or interference with anyone's ability to vote," Facebook said.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/us-election-2020-trump-train-caravans-may-become-a-security-concern-on-election-day-340265" hreflang="en">US election 2020: 'Trump Train' caravans may become a security concern on election day</a> 
 
Facebook reiterated that it would place warning labels on any posts which seek to claim victory prematurely. 
 
"If a presidential candidate or party declares premature victory, we will add more specific information in the labels on candidate posts, add more specific information in the top-of-feed notifications and continue showing the latest results in our Voting Information Center," the social giant said.

Loopholes, glitches 
Along with other social platforms, the company has promised to stem misinformation around the election, including premature claims of victory, seeking to avoid a repeat of 2016 manipulation efforts. 
 
Over the past days, Facebook and Twitter added disclaimers to Trump posts calling into question the integrity of mail-in ballots. 
 
Trump's post on Twitter said a slow vote count in battleground state Pennsylvania could lead to "rampant and unchecked cheating." 
 
"It will also induce violence in the streets. Something must be done!" he tweeted. 
 
Twitter last month updated its "civic integrity policy" aiming to prevent efforts to manipulate or interfere in elections. That calls for actions against false claims for victory or any incitement to violence.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/us-election-2020-fbi-investigating-calls-urging-tens-of-thousands-of-people-to-stay-at-home-on-election-day-340243" hreflang="en">US election 2020: FBI investigating calls urging 'tens of thousands of people' to stay at home on election day</a> 
 
YouTube has also sought to limit the sharing of videos with election misinformation. Last month it began adding information panels to videos about voting by mail. 
 
Mail-in voting was added to a short list of topics that YouTube considers prone to posts containing falsehoods, such as Covid-19 and landing on the Moon, according to the Google-owned video sharing platform. 
 
The panel appears under such videos regardless of who is speaking or who uploads them, according to YouTube. 
 
Some activists noted that efforts by social platforms to curb the spread of false information was being hurt loopholes and glitches.

In Pics:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/photos/us-election-2020-heres-what-voting-looks-like-in-uncertain-times-340260" hreflang="en">US election 2020: Here's what voting looks like in uncertain times</a> 
 
The activist group Avaaz said it has found multiple examples of unverified election claims on Facebook in recent days. 
 
Some comments say the "left" is planning a "coup" if Trump wins, while others argued without any factual basis that Trump would need to win Pennsylvania by four to five points "to overcome voter fraud," according to Avaaz. 
 
Facebook acknowledged this week that some political ads banned for containing misleading information were resurfacing, with political groups copying the same content for new messages to slip through filters.

Social media firms were on high alert Tuesday against Election Day misinformation and manipulation efforts as voters began in-person balloting across the United States following a tumultuous campaign.

Social media firms were on high alert Tuesday against Election Day misinformation and manipulation efforts as voters began in-person balloting across the United States following a tumultuous campaign. Aiming to avoid the problems that occurred in the 2016 campaign, Facebook, Twitter and Google-owned YouTube were implementing policies aimed at heading off the spread of false information designed to influence or intimidate voters at the last minute. Facebook said it had activated its election hub which was monitoring the platform in real time. Also read: US election 2020: Here's how American leaders are urging people to go out and vote "Our Election Operations Center will continue monitoring a range of issues in real time -- including reports of voter suppression content," said a Facebook statement posted on Twitter. "If we see attempts to suppress participation, intimidate voters, or organize to do so, the content will be removed." Facebook said its election center was also tracking other issues such as the actions by supporters of President Donald Trump to surround campaign buses for Democrat Joe Biden. "We are monitoring closely and will remove content calling for coordinated harm or interference with anyone's ability to vote," Facebook said. Also read: US election 2020: 'Trump Train' caravans may become a security concern on election day Facebook reiterated that it would place warning labels on any posts which seek to claim victory prematurely. "If a presidential candidate or party declares premature victory, we will add more specific information in the labels on candidate posts, add more specific information in the top-of-feed notifications and continue showing the latest results in our Voting Information Center," the social giant said. Loopholes, glitches Along with other social platforms, the company has promised to stem misinformation around the election, including premature claims of victory, seeking to avoid a repeat of 2016 manipulation efforts. Over the past days, Facebook and Twitter added disclaimers to Trump posts calling into question the integrity of mail-in ballots. Trump's post on Twitter said a slow vote count in battleground state Pennsylvania could lead to "rampant and unchecked cheating." "It will also induce violence in the streets. Something must be done!" he tweeted. Twitter last month updated its "civic integrity policy" aiming to prevent efforts to manipulate or interfere in elections. That calls for actions against false claims for victory or any incitement to violence. Also read: US election 2020: FBI investigating calls urging 'tens of thousands of people' to stay at home on election day YouTube has also sought to limit the sharing of videos with election misinformation. Last month it began adding information panels to videos about voting by mail. Mail-in voting was added to a short list of topics that YouTube considers prone to posts containing falsehoods, such as Covid-19 and landing on the Moon, according to the Google-owned video sharing platform. The panel appears under such videos regardless of who is speaking or who uploads them, according to YouTube. Some activists noted that efforts by social platforms to curb the spread of false information was being hurt loopholes and glitches. In Pics: US election 2020: Here's what voting looks like in uncertain times The activist group Avaaz said it has found multiple examples of unverified election claims on Facebook in recent days. Some comments say the "left" is planning a "coup" if Trump wins, while others argued without any factual basis that Trump would need to win Pennsylvania by four to five points "to overcome voter fraud," according to Avaaz. Facebook acknowledged this week that some political ads banned for containing misleading information were resurfacing, with political groups copying the same content for new messages to slip through filters.

US election 2020: Social media firms like Facebook, Twitter on alert for Election Day misinformation

The United States is currently voting for its next president. The incumbent President Donald Trump is fighting against Democratic hopeful Joe Biden in the 2020 US elections.&nbsp;

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/us-elections-2020-country-entitled-to-know-who-won-on-november-3-says-trump-340238" hreflang="en">US Elections 2020: Country entitled to know who won on November 3, says Trump</a>

Former US President Barack Obama shared a message as parts of country begin to wind up the polling process. He has ferociously backed Joe Biden, who was the US Vice President during his presidency.&nbsp;

“This Election Day, everything is on the line. Our jobs. Our health care. Whether or not we get this pandemic under control. But here’s the good news: today, you can choose change”, the former president tweeted out.

<div class="ui-state-default" contenteditable="false">
<div class="twitter-block" draggable="false">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
This Election Day, everything is on the line. Our jobs. Our health care. Whether or not we get this pandemic under control. But here’s the good news: today, you can choose change. You can elect <a href="https://twitter.com/JoeBiden?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@JoeBiden</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/KamalaHarris?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@KamalaHarris</a>. Let’s win this thing. <a href="https://t.co/rvW2uOknpl">pic.twitter.com/rvW2uOknpl</a>
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) <a href="https://twitter.com/BarackObama/status/1323726205993033728?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 3, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>
<a class="close-mark close-div" href="#" id="jqclosemark">×</a></div>

He started off the clip with "This is it, folks. Right here, right now".

"The actions you take today will determine what kind of country we decide to be", he added.&nbsp;

While urging Americans to go out and vote, clips of Obama campaigning for Biden were shown, wherein he said: "Imagine January 20th, when we swear in president and a vice president who have a plan to get us out of this mess".

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/us-elections-2020-over-100-million-votes-cast-california-leads-in-polling-340203" hreflang="en">US Elections 2020: Over 100 million votes cast; California leads in polling</a>

He's not the only one. American leaders belonging to both the Republican and Democratic parties are urging people to vote in what many have dubbed the election of a lifetime.

As voters line up to vote during&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/us-elections-2020-over-100-million-votes-cast-california-leads-in-polling-340203">US elections</a>, Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden's vice president pick Kamala Harris said "it is going to be a tight race, let's elect Joe Biden".

"Lets talk about the opportunity we have. We are in the middle of the pandemic. We have in our hands an option to elect Joe Biden who understands the dignity of life and love," the Democratic vice-presidential hopeful declared.

In Pics:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/photos/us-election-2020-heres-what-voting-looks-like-in-uncertain-times-340260" hreflang="en">US election 2020: Here's what voting looks like in uncertain times</a>

Meanwhile, Jill Biden campaigning for her husband Joe Biden said that "Florida is a very important state. We're hoping to win it."

Pitching for her husband, Jill Biden told voters that "character's on the ballot and Joe and Donald Trump could not be more opposite."

The United States is currently voting for its next president. The incumbent President Donald Trump is fighting against Democratic hopeful Joe Biden in the 2020 US elections.

The United States is currently voting for its next president. The incumbent President Donald Trump is fighting against Democratic hopeful Joe Biden in the 2020 US elections. Also read: US Elections 2020: Country entitled to know who won on November 3, says Trump Former US President Barack Obama shared a message as parts of country begin to wind up the polling process. He has ferociously backed Joe Biden, who was the US Vice President during his presidency. “This Election Day, everything is on the line. Our jobs. Our health care. Whether or not we get this pandemic under control. But here’s the good news: today, you can choose change”, the former president tweeted out. This Election Day, everything is on the line. Our jobs. Our health care. Whether or not we get this pandemic under control. But here’s the good news: today, you can choose change. You can elect @JoeBiden and @KamalaHarris. Let’s win this thing. pic.twitter.com/rvW2uOknpl — Barack Obama (@BarackObama) November 3, 2020 × He started off the clip with "This is it, folks. Right here, right now". "The actions you take today will determine what kind of country we decide to be", he added. While urging Americans to go out and vote, clips of Obama campaigning for Biden were shown, wherein he said: "Imagine January 20th, when we swear in president and a vice president who have a plan to get us out of this mess". Also read: US Elections 2020: Over 100 million votes cast; California leads in polling He's not the only one. American leaders belonging to both the Republican and Democratic parties are urging people to vote in what many have dubbed the election of a lifetime. As voters line up to vote during US elections, Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden's vice president pick Kamala Harris said "it is going to be a tight race, let's elect Joe Biden". "Lets talk about the opportunity we have. We are in the middle of the pandemic. We have in our hands an option to elect Joe Biden who understands the dignity of life and love," the Democratic vice-presidential hopeful declared. In Pics: US election 2020: Here's what voting looks like in uncertain times Meanwhile, Jill Biden campaigning for her husband Joe Biden said that "Florida is a very important state. We're hoping to win it." Pitching for her husband, Jill Biden told voters that "character's on the ballot and Joe and Donald Trump could not be more opposite."

'Everything is on the line', proclaims Obama while urging Americans to vote

US election 2020:&nbsp;The incumbent President of the United States, Donald Trump&nbsp;is currently vying for a second run in the White House against Democratic hopeful Joe Biden. Over the last few months, representatives of both the Republican party and the Democratic party have attacked each other on various issues, ranging from the effectiveness of masks, and external interference in the elections. But on the day of reckoning, all could be seen using available platforms to urge the American people to exercise their democratic right.&nbsp;

Incumbent President Donald Trump posted a clip showcasing the basic ideals of his presidency. Take a look.

<div class="ui-state-default" contenteditable="false">
<div class="twitter-block" draggable="false">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<a href="https://t.co/zX4bqgtWqH">pic.twitter.com/zX4bqgtWqH</a>
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1323692020880297986?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 3, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>
<a class="close-mark close-div" href="#" id="jqclosemark">×</a></div>

His rival in the election, Democrat Joe Biden posted an image saying "Let's make history".

<div class="ui-state-default" contenteditable="false">
<div class="twitter-block" draggable="false">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Let’s make history, <a href="https://twitter.com/KamalaHarris?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@KamalaHarris</a>. <a href="https://t.co/JKF6spZZd0">pic.twitter.com/JKF6spZZd0</a>
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) <a href="https://twitter.com/JoeBiden/status/1323706008200376320?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 3, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>
<a class="close-mark close-div" href="#" id="jqclosemark">×</a></div>

Biden's Vice President hopeful Kamala Harris had a lot to say! Read below.

<div class="ui-state-default" contenteditable="false">
<div class="twitter-block" draggable="false">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
One day, our children and grandchildren are going to look us in the eye and ask what we did in this moment. 
 
And I want to be able to say, we did everything we could to fight for our country and their future. Go vote.
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) <a href="https://twitter.com/KamalaHarris/status/1323709075801153537?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 3, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>
<a class="close-mark close-div" href="#" id="jqclosemark">×</a></div>

Joe Biden shared another message:&nbsp;

<div class="ui-state-default" contenteditable="false">
<div class="twitter-block" draggable="false">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
This is our moment to choose: 
 
Hope over fear. 
Unity over division. 
Science over fiction. 
Truth over lies. 
 
Vote: <a href="https://t.co/eoxT07d7QB">https://t.co/eoxT07d7QB</a>
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) <a href="https://twitter.com/JoeBiden/status/1323722695297695745?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 3, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>
<a class="close-mark close-div" href="#" id="jqclosemark">×</a></div>

Trump's 2016 rival, Hillary Clinton who lost the 2016 elections directly referred to climate change, and urged Americans to vote like the future is watching.

<div class="ui-state-default" contenteditable="false">
<div class="twitter-block" draggable="false">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Vote like the future's watching. <a href="https://t.co/CaL2VUJ1EG">https://t.co/CaL2VUJ1EG</a>
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) <a href="https://twitter.com/HillaryClinton/status/1323692471252062208?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 3, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>
<a class="close-mark close-div" href="#" id="jqclosemark">×</a></div>

Trump's daughter Ivanka, who has been fiercely involved in campaigning for US elections hit out with the following:

<div class="ui-state-default" contenteditable="false">
<div class="twitter-block" draggable="false">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Let’s do this!! 🇺🇸<a href="https://t.co/MGWt09vs6m">https://t.co/MGWt09vs6m</a> 
 
<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Vote?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Vote</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Vote2020?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Vote2020</a> <a href="https://t.co/3x8d4eOWW3">pic.twitter.com/3x8d4eOWW3</a>
— Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/IvankaTrump/status/1323712290902913031?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 3, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>
<a class="close-mark close-div" href="#" id="jqclosemark">×</a></div>

<div class="ui-state-default" contenteditable="false">
<div class="twitter-block" draggable="false">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
VOTE for the PEACE✌️President — ⁦<a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@realDonaldTrump</a>⁩ is leading with strength and ending the endless foreign wars! <a href="https://t.co/PaiKeKGRmu">pic.twitter.com/PaiKeKGRmu</a>
— Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/IvankaTrump/status/1323714551121141760?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 3, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>
<a class="close-mark close-div" href="#" id="jqclosemark">×</a></div>

Former First Lady of the United States, Michelle Obama called on the people to go out and make their voices heard.

<div class="ui-state-default" contenteditable="false">
<div class="twitter-block" draggable="false">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
TODAY is Election Day. There are no do overs. Show up, have your voice heard, and vote. <a href="https://t.co/9gwUiQQ22l">https://t.co/9gwUiQQ22l</a>
— Michelle Obama (@MichelleObama) <a href="https://twitter.com/MichelleObama/status/1323696842132082688?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 3, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>
<a class="close-mark close-div" href="#" id="jqclosemark">×</a></div>

Dr Jill Biden, who is married to Democratic hopeful Joe Biden also shared a message on election day:

<div class="ui-state-default" contenteditable="false">
<div class="twitter-block" draggable="false">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Can you imagine waking up on a Saturday morning and the headlines aren’t about some late-night tweet-storm? 
 
I can. We just need to vote.
— Dr. Jill Biden (@DrBiden) <a href="https://twitter.com/DrBiden/status/1323718938396643333?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 3, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>
<a class="close-mark close-div" href="#" id="jqclosemark">×</a></div>

Harris' husband also tweeted in support of his wife. Take a look.

<div class="ui-state-default" contenteditable="false">
<div class="twitter-block" draggable="false">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
From all staff/family call last night. I’m so proud of ⁦my wife ⁦<a href="https://twitter.com/KamalaHarris?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@KamalaHarris</a>⁩ even prouder of this entire ⁦<a href="https://twitter.com/JoeBiden?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@JoeBiden</a>⁩ team. Let’s get this done! <a href="https://t.co/XK4mUFnwM6">pic.twitter.com/XK4mUFnwM6</a>
— Doug Emhoff (@DouglasEmhoff) <a href="https://twitter.com/DouglasEmhoff/status/1323707747225997344?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 3, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>
<a class="close-mark close-div" href="#" id="jqclosemark">×</a></div>

&nbsp;

US election 2020: The incumbent President of the United States, Donald Trump is currently vying for a second run in the White House against Democratic hopeful Joe Biden.

US election 2020: The incumbent President of the United States, Donald Trump is currently vying for a second run in the White House against Democratic hopeful Joe Biden. Over the last few months, representatives of both the Republican party and the Democratic party have attacked each other on various issues, ranging from the effectiveness of masks, and external interference in the elections. But on the day of reckoning, all could be seen using available platforms to urge the American people to exercise their democratic right. Incumbent President Donald Trump posted a clip showcasing the basic ideals of his presidency. Take a look. pic.twitter.com/zX4bqgtWqH — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 3, 2020 × His rival in the election, Democrat Joe Biden posted an image saying "Let's make history". Let’s make history, @KamalaHarris. pic.twitter.com/JKF6spZZd0 — Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) November 3, 2020 × Biden's Vice President hopeful Kamala Harris had a lot to say! Read below. One day, our children and grandchildren are going to look us in the eye and ask what we did in this moment. And I want to be able to say, we did everything we could to fight for our country and their future. Go vote. — Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) November 3, 2020 × Joe Biden shared another message: This is our moment to choose: Hope over fear. Unity over division. Science over fiction. Truth over lies. Vote: https://t.co/eoxT07d7QB — Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) November 3, 2020 × Trump's 2016 rival, Hillary Clinton who lost the 2016 elections directly referred to climate change, and urged Americans to vote like the future is watching. Vote like the future's watching. https://t.co/CaL2VUJ1EG — Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) November 3, 2020 × Trump's daughter Ivanka, who has been fiercely involved in campaigning for US elections hit out with the following: Let’s do this!! 🇺🇸https://t.co/MGWt09vs6m #Vote #Vote2020 pic.twitter.com/3x8d4eOWW3 — Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) November 3, 2020 × VOTE for the PEACE✌️President — ⁦@realDonaldTrump⁩ is leading with strength and ending the endless foreign wars! pic.twitter.com/PaiKeKGRmu — Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) November 3, 2020 × Former First Lady of the United States, Michelle Obama called on the people to go out and make their voices heard. TODAY is Election Day. There are no do overs. Show up, have your voice heard, and vote. https://t.co/9gwUiQQ22l — Michelle Obama (@MichelleObama) November 3, 2020 × Dr Jill Biden, who is married to Democratic hopeful Joe Biden also shared a message on election day: Can you imagine waking up on a Saturday morning and the headlines aren’t about some late-night tweet-storm? I can. We just need to vote. — Dr. Jill Biden (@DrBiden) November 3, 2020 × Harris' husband also tweeted in support of his wife. Take a look. From all staff/family call last night. I’m so proud of ⁦my wife ⁦@KamalaHarris⁩ even prouder of this entire ⁦@JoeBiden⁩ team. Let’s get this done! pic.twitter.com/XK4mUFnwM6 — Doug Emhoff (@DouglasEmhoff) November 3, 2020 ×

US election 2020: Here's how American leaders are urging people to go out and vote

Lines of honking SUVs, pickup trucks and motorcycles, flying flags for US President Donald Trump are raising&nbsp;security&nbsp;concerns,&nbsp;election&nbsp;experts&nbsp;say&nbsp;- particularly on the country's last&nbsp;day&nbsp;of voting.

One of the&nbsp;caravans, known as "Trump Trains," sparked a confrontation on a highway outside Austin, Texas, on Friday, when it surrounded a campaign bus for Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, and one member allegedly sideswiped a car, leading to&nbsp;an FBI investigation. On Sunday, a Trump caravan in Richmond, Virginia left the roadway to drive on the grass near the Lee Monument, Richmond police said on Facebook. Members allegedly pepper sprayed a woman, police said, and they are investigating reports that an unoccupied car was shot.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/us-election-2020-fbi-investigating-calls-urging-tens-of-thousands-of-people-to-stay-at-home-on-election-day-340243" hreflang="en">US election 2020: FBI investigating calls urging 'tens of thousands of people' to stay at home on election day</a>

A slew of Trump Train events are planned for Tuesday, the United States' official&nbsp;Election&nbsp;Day, according to posts on Facebook and interviews with organizers. Several are advertised as ending or going past polling stations.&nbsp;Election&nbsp;security&nbsp;experts&nbsp;say&nbsp;they are&nbsp;concerned the rallies could break laws, intimidate voters or spiral into violent confrontations.

"The Austin thing shows that it's not noise," said Michael Greenberger, the director of the Center for Health and Homeland&nbsp;Security&nbsp;at the University of Maryland.

"Disruption tomorrow is going to be the kind of thing that we haven't seen in our prior federal&nbsp;elections," he predicts.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/us-elections-2020-country-entitled-to-know-who-won-on-november-3-says-trump-340238" hreflang="en">US Elections 2020: Country entitled to know who won on November 3, says Trump</a>

Most Trump Train events have gone off peacefully, and the three organizers who Reuters spoke to Monday&nbsp;stressed that they condemn what happened in Texas.

A Reuters review of public Facebook events Monday&nbsp;afternoon found about a dozen "Trump Train"&nbsp;caravans&nbsp;planned for&nbsp;Election&nbsp;Day. More are likely to be organized through private groups,&nbsp;experts&nbsp;said.

Several public itineraries include plans to drive past, or through, polling locations. State and federal laws make voter intimidation illegal, and many states have laws https://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/electioneering.aspx against campaigning on or near polling stations.

One such event, organized on Facebook in southeastern Maryland's Wicomico County, outlines a route that goes past the Civic Center and the "election&nbsp;office." The organizer, who gave his name as Mark F. when contacted through Facebook, told Reuters the caravan of vehicles plans to slowly drive through the parking lot of the Civic Center, one of the county's nine voting centers.

Election&nbsp;officials have asked him to change the route, he said, but as of Monday&nbsp;afternoon he hadn't decided whether to accede to their request and drive on the road next to the site instead.

"There's nobody that can stop us," he said, arguing that Trump supporters had the right to be on county property making a last-minute appeal to voters. "I'm going to let everybody know that Biden's not the way to go," he said.

In Pics:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/photos/us-election-2020-heres-what-voting-looks-like-in-uncertain-times-340260" hreflang="en">US election 2020: Here's what voting looks like in uncertain times</a>

He timed the event for about 3:15 in the afternoon, when he said he thinks the site will be most heavily crowded with voters.

Trump retweeted a video of the Austin caravan on Saturday, commenting "I LOVE TEXAS!" The Trump campaign didn't immediately respond to a request for comment about Tuesday's planned&nbsp;caravans.

Greenberg, who is advising officials on&nbsp;security&nbsp;at polling places, said he hoped the incident in Texas would deter more extreme Trump supporters.

"I think having the FBI&nbsp;saying they're looking at Austin&nbsp;may&nbsp;cause some people, not everyone, to think twice about interference."

For more stories on the US election, click&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/us-election">here</a>

For live updates, click&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/live-us-election-2020-donald-trump-joe-biden-more-than-98-million-voted-to-elect-the-next-president-340039">here</a>

Lines of honking SUVs, pickup trucks and motorcycles, flying flags for US President Donald Trump are raising security concerns, election experts say - particularly on the country's last day of voting.

Lines of honking SUVs, pickup trucks and motorcycles, flying flags for US President Donald Trump are raising security concerns, election experts say - particularly on the country's last day of voting. One of the caravans, known as "Trump Trains," sparked a confrontation on a highway outside Austin, Texas, on Friday, when it surrounded a campaign bus for Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, and one member allegedly sideswiped a car, leading to an FBI investigation. On Sunday, a Trump caravan in Richmond, Virginia left the roadway to drive on the grass near the Lee Monument, Richmond police said on Facebook. Members allegedly pepper sprayed a woman, police said, and they are investigating reports that an unoccupied car was shot. Also read: US election 2020: FBI investigating calls urging 'tens of thousands of people' to stay at home on election day A slew of Trump Train events are planned for Tuesday, the United States' official Election Day, according to posts on Facebook and interviews with organizers. Several are advertised as ending or going past polling stations. Election security experts say they are concerned the rallies could break laws, intimidate voters or spiral into violent confrontations. "The Austin thing shows that it's not noise," said Michael Greenberger, the director of the Center for Health and Homeland Security at the University of Maryland. "Disruption tomorrow is going to be the kind of thing that we haven't seen in our prior federal elections," he predicts. Also read: US Elections 2020: Country entitled to know who won on November 3, says Trump Most Trump Train events have gone off peacefully, and the three organizers who Reuters spoke to Monday stressed that they condemn what happened in Texas. A Reuters review of public Facebook events Monday afternoon found about a dozen "Trump Train" caravans planned for Election Day. More are likely to be organized through private groups, experts said. Several public itineraries include plans to drive past, or through, polling locations. State and federal laws make voter intimidation illegal, and many states have laws https://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/electioneering.aspx against campaigning on or near polling stations. One such event, organized on Facebook in southeastern Maryland's Wicomico County, outlines a route that goes past the Civic Center and the "election office." The organizer, who gave his name as Mark F. when contacted through Facebook, told Reuters the caravan of vehicles plans to slowly drive through the parking lot of the Civic Center, one of the county's nine voting centers. Election officials have asked him to change the route, he said, but as of Monday afternoon he hadn't decided whether to accede to their request and drive on the road next to the site instead. "There's nobody that can stop us," he said, arguing that Trump supporters had the right to be on county property making a last-minute appeal to voters. "I'm going to let everybody know that Biden's not the way to go," he said. In Pics: US election 2020: Here's what voting looks like in uncertain times He timed the event for about 3:15 in the afternoon, when he said he thinks the site will be most heavily crowded with voters. Trump retweeted a video of the Austin caravan on Saturday, commenting "I LOVE TEXAS!" The Trump campaign didn't immediately respond to a request for comment about Tuesday's planned caravans. Greenberg, who is advising officials on security at polling places, said he hoped the incident in Texas would deter more extreme Trump supporters. "I think having the FBI saying they're looking at Austin may cause some people, not everyone, to think twice about interference." For more stories on the US election, click here For live updates, click here

US election 2020: 'Trump Train' caravans may become a security concern on election day

US Election 2020: Trump warns of violence

The incumbent President of the United States, Donald Trump, who is currently vying for a second run in the White House against Democratic hopeful Joe Biden recently claimed that the state of Pennsylvania could be marred by “cheating” in voting, which could trigger violence in the state.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="http://13.235.153.162/node/340194" hreflang="en">Undeterred by pandemic, Americans prepare to render a verdict on Trump</a>

The United States is voting for their next president right now, with tensions running high across the country, owing to the clashes that have become violent in multiple cities over the year. The protests in the US began after the death of George Floyd, who was knelt on by a police officer and eventually died. This triggered a series of clashes between protesters and the government on multiple occasions. Many such deaths at the hand of policemen followed, stirring more trouble in the country.

US Election 2020: Trump denounces mail-in voting |&nbsp;US election 2020: Joe Biden vs Donald Trump

Donald Trump has repeatedly denounced mail-in voting, claiming it would lead to fraud in the ongoing elections, and has attributed his potential loss to this unproven “rigging” on multiple occasions.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="http://13.235.153.162/world/US-election-2020-donald-trump-solid-chance-of-winning-340168" hreflang="en">On US election day, Trump says he has a 'solid chance of winning'</a>

As of now, over 100 million Americans have already voted in the elections, proving how much the Americans trusted provisions for early voting. The coronavirus pandemic has also played a large role in deciding how voters cast their ballots.

While Trump warns of violence, the White House has been fenced up to avert any crisis.&nbsp;

The record numbers inducted across the country point to how seriously the elections are being taken by voters this time around, which may be a valid response to the pandemic, which has killed the most people in the world in the US, along with the country’s economic woes, and heightened racial tensions.

US election 2020: The Pennsylvania connect |&nbsp;US election 2020: Joe Biden vs Donald Trump

Recently, the Supreme Court had allowed Pennsylvania to count mail-votes that even arrive upto three days after Election Day. But Trump believes that this would lead to cheating “at a very high level”, while also calling it “very dangerous”.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="http://13.235.153.162/world/biden-may-secure-narrow-win-against-donald-trump-in-us-election-2020-survey-340103" hreflang="en">Biden may secure narrow win against Donald Trump in US Election 2020: Survey</a>

Following this, he put out a Tweet whereby he claimed that the SC decision could “induce violence in the street”. During a rally in Wisconsin, Trump had claimed that this decision could “put our country in danger”.

Naturally, Twitter flagged Trump’s tweet as potentially misleading.

Trump has also claimed that the results of election be made available on the same night. In fact, it has sometimes taken at least a month for the votes to be fully counted. In 2000, counting finished by Mid-December in a tight race between George W Bush and Al Gore, which was also taken to the Supreme Court.

For more stories on the US election, click <a href="https://www.wionews.com/us-election">here</a>

For live updates, click <a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/live-us-election-2020-donald-trump-joe-biden-more-than-98-million-voted-to-elect-the-next-president-340039">here</a>

US Election 2020: Trump warns of violence The incumbent President of the United States, Donald Trump, who is currently vying for a second run in the White House against Democratic hopeful Joe Biden recently claimed that the state of Pennsylvania could be marred by “cheating” in voting, which could trigger violence in the state.

US Election 2020: Trump warns of violence The incumbent President of the United States, Donald Trump, who is currently vying for a second run in the White House against Democratic hopeful Joe Biden recently claimed that the state of Pennsylvania could be marred by “cheating” in voting, which could trigger violence in the state. Also read: Undeterred by pandemic, Americans prepare to render a verdict on Trump The United States is voting for their next president right now, with tensions running high across the country, owing to the clashes that have become violent in multiple cities over the year. The protests in the US began after the death of George Floyd, who was knelt on by a police officer and eventually died. This triggered a series of clashes between protesters and the government on multiple occasions. Many such deaths at the hand of policemen followed, stirring more trouble in the country. US Election 2020: Trump denounces mail-in voting | US election 2020: Joe Biden vs Donald Trump Donald Trump has repeatedly denounced mail-in voting, claiming it would lead to fraud in the ongoing elections, and has attributed his potential loss to this unproven “rigging” on multiple occasions. Also read: On US election day, Trump says he has a 'solid chance of winning' As of now, over 100 million Americans have already voted in the elections, proving how much the Americans trusted provisions for early voting. The coronavirus pandemic has also played a large role in deciding how voters cast their ballots. While Trump warns of violence, the White House has been fenced up to avert any crisis. The record numbers inducted across the country point to how seriously the elections are being taken by voters this time around, which may be a valid response to the pandemic, which has killed the most people in the world in the US, along with the country’s economic woes, and heightened racial tensions. US election 2020: The Pennsylvania connect | US election 2020: Joe Biden vs Donald Trump Recently, the Supreme Court had allowed Pennsylvania to count mail-votes that even arrive upto three days after Election Day. But Trump believes that this would lead to cheating “at a very high level”, while also calling it “very dangerous”. Also read: Biden may secure narrow win against Donald Trump in US Election 2020: Survey Following this, he put out a Tweet whereby he claimed that the SC decision could “induce violence in the street”. During a rally in Wisconsin, Trump had claimed that this decision could “put our country in danger”. Naturally, Twitter flagged Trump’s tweet as potentially misleading. Trump has also claimed that the results of election be made available on the same night. In fact, it has sometimes taken at least a month for the votes to be fully counted. In 2000, counting finished by Mid-December in a tight race between George W Bush and Al Gore, which was also taken to the Supreme Court. For more stories on the US election, click here For live updates, click here

US election 2020: To close his bid for reelection, Trump warns of potential violence in Pennsylvania - a key state

US election 2020: Marred by robocalls?

The United States is currently voting for its next president. The incumbent President Donald Trump is fighting against Democratic hopeful Joe Biden in the 2020 US elections, and now the Federal Bureau Investigation (FBI) is dealing with an unusual threat: robocalls.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/us-elections-2020-country-entitled-to-know-who-won-on-november-3-says-trump-340238" hreflang="en">US Elections 2020: Country entitled to know who won on November 3, says Trump</a>

A Homeland Security official was quoted by Reuters as saying that people across the country are receiving suspicious calls, urging them to stay at home on the day of election.

Even though the FBI did not explain the calls in detail, they claimed that they are currently looking into the matter.

US election 2020: Voters being targeted?

According to state and local officials in the United States, two separate automated call campaigns are currently reaching out Americans on their most important election of the century.

Reuters reported that the purpose of the calls still remains unclear, and so does its origins. In conversation with the news agency, experts claimed that one of the campaigns urged people to stay at home, without mentioning the ongoing US elections or voting at all.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/what-are-naked-ballots-and-a-red-mirage-your-guide-to-us-election-lingo-340231" hreflang="en">What are 'naked ballots' and a 'red mirage'? Your guide to US election lingo</a>

"There's a little bit of confusion about this one across the industry," Giulia Porter, vice president of RoboKiller told Reuters.

RoboKiller tracks robocalls and telemarketers, and has been actively following the campaign.

US election 2020: Stay home?

The audio of one of these calls was shared by RoboKiller, and an automated female voice could be heard asking people to stay at home.

"Hello. This is just a test call. Time to stay home. Stay safe and stay home”, it said.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/us-election-2020-to-close-his-bid-for-reelection-trump-warns-of-potential-violence-in-pennsylvania-a-key-state-340223" hreflang="en">US election 2020: To close his bid for reelection, Trump warns of potential violence in Pennsylvania - a key state</a>

Porter added that the call had been made over millions of times in the last 11 months, but its attempt to reach more people jumped dramatically today, while the US votes to choose its next president.

In the list of top spam calls, the call is currently at #5 or #6, fluctuating from time to time.

Porter claimed that the call is being sent out at a very high volume. "This robocall is being sent at a very high volume," she said.&nbsp; According to Porter, at leasts “thousands or tens of thousands” of people had received such robocalls.

For more stories on the US election, click&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/us-election">here</a>

For live updates, click&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/live-us-election-2020-donald-trump-joe-biden-more-than-98-million-voted-to-elect-the-next-president-340039">here</a>

US election 2020: Marred by robocalls? The United States is currently voting for its next president. The incumbent President Donald Trump is fighting against Democratic hopeful Joe Biden in the 2020 US elections, and now the Federal Bureau Investigation (FBI) is dealing with an unusual threat: robocalls.

US election 2020: Marred by robocalls? The United States is currently voting for its next president. The incumbent President Donald Trump is fighting against Democratic hopeful Joe Biden in the 2020 US elections, and now the Federal Bureau Investigation (FBI) is dealing with an unusual threat: robocalls. Also read: US Elections 2020: Country entitled to know who won on November 3, says Trump A Homeland Security official was quoted by Reuters as saying that people across the country are receiving suspicious calls, urging them to stay at home on the day of election. Even though the FBI did not explain the calls in detail, they claimed that they are currently looking into the matter. US election 2020: Voters being targeted? According to state and local officials in the United States, two separate automated call campaigns are currently reaching out Americans on their most important election of the century. Reuters reported that the purpose of the calls still remains unclear, and so does its origins. In conversation with the news agency, experts claimed that one of the campaigns urged people to stay at home, without mentioning the ongoing US elections or voting at all. Also read: What are 'naked ballots' and a 'red mirage'? Your guide to US election lingo "There's a little bit of confusion about this one across the industry," Giulia Porter, vice president of RoboKiller told Reuters. RoboKiller tracks robocalls and telemarketers, and has been actively following the campaign. US election 2020: Stay home? The audio of one of these calls was shared by RoboKiller, and an automated female voice could be heard asking people to stay at home. "Hello. This is just a test call. Time to stay home. Stay safe and stay home”, it said. Also read: US election 2020: To close his bid for reelection, Trump warns of potential violence in Pennsylvania - a key state Porter added that the call had been made over millions of times in the last 11 months, but its attempt to reach more people jumped dramatically today, while the US votes to choose its next president. In the list of top spam calls, the call is currently at #5 or #6, fluctuating from time to time. Porter claimed that the call is being sent out at a very high volume. "This robocall is being sent at a very high volume," she said. According to Porter, at leasts “thousands or tens of thousands” of people had received such robocalls. For more stories on the US election, click here For live updates, click here

US election 2020: FBI investigating calls urging 'tens of thousands of people' to stay at home on election day

No matter the land, food is synonymous with emotions. We throw parties when we are happy. Sometimes even eat something to make us feel better in bouts of sadness. But we are true to our salt, and quite proud of our respective culinary traditions. We are passionate about our food.

Pramila Jayapal, US Congresswoman of Indian heritage, got the taste of how strong sentiments around food are.

It started with just a tweet. Jayapal posted a photo of 'Paneer Tikka' and said that it was her comfort food.

"Compulsive, night-before-election activity: make comfort food. That’s paneer tikka tonight, in honor of electing #KamalaHarris Veep tomorrow since she just said on Instagram that her favorite North Indian food is any kind of tikka! Let’s go, people! VOTE! #BidenHarris2020" she tweeted

<div class="ui-state-default" contenteditable="false">
<div class="twitter-block" draggable="false">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Compulsive, night-before-election activity: make comfort food. That’s paneer tikka tonight, in honor of electing <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/KamalaHarris?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#KamalaHarris</a> Veep tomorrow since she just said on Instagram that her favorite North Indian food is any kind of tikka! Let’s go, people! VOTE! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BidenHarris2020?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BidenHarris2020</a> <a href="https://t.co/gqyT7BotgG">pic.twitter.com/gqyT7BotgG</a>
— Pramila Jayapal (@PramilaJayapal) <a href="https://twitter.com/PramilaJayapal/status/1323482279029583872?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 3, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>
<a class="close-mark close-div" href="#" id="jqclosemark">×</a></div>

&nbsp;

But...and it's a major but! Many on Twitter disagreed with Jayapal who was saying the tasty looking dish in her tweet was 'Paneer Tikka'.

Paneer Tikka is a north Indian dish that is usually made with Indian cottage cheese along with veggies and is usually barbecued or lightly cooked and eaten from a skewer.

The dish Jayapal cooked appeared more like a curry

<div class="ui-state-default" contenteditable="false">
<div class="twitter-block" draggable="false">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/PaneerTikka?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#PaneerTikka</a> died a premature death in this curry <a href="https://t.co/7fOxVn3gfp">https://t.co/7fOxVn3gfp</a>
— टंकीBaba (@rkgeemail) <a href="https://twitter.com/rkgeemail/status/1323536371567398913?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 3, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>
<a class="close-mark close-div" href="#" id="jqclosemark">×</a></div>

&nbsp;

Fans of the dish were so up in arms against Jayapal's tweet that Paneer Tikka started trending. The tweets were full of sarcasm sometimes.

A user posted a picture of a spicy soup, and invited Jayapal to have what he claimed was 'kheer' an Indian sweet dish, far cry from anything spicy.

<div class="ui-state-default" contenteditable="false">
<div class="twitter-block" draggable="false">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
ये लो खीर खाओ <a href="https://t.co/yYvAx6Q0NI">pic.twitter.com/yYvAx6Q0NI</a>
— How Dare You Isolated Monk ? (@IsolatedMonk) <a href="https://twitter.com/IsolatedMonk/status/1323536175190011906?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 3, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>
<a class="close-mark close-div" href="#" id="jqclosemark">×</a></div>

&nbsp;

Some users were rolling eyes

<div class="ui-state-default" contenteditable="false">
<div class="twitter-block" draggable="false">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
who's gonna tell her that's not paneer tikka... <a href="https://t.co/mejabynS4G">https://t.co/mejabynS4G</a>
— Saanvi is looking for sherlock moots •Zaira stan• (@daisysonofjohn) <a href="https://twitter.com/daisysonofjohn/status/1323528221061599232?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 3, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>
<a class="close-mark close-div" href="#" id="jqclosemark">×</a></div>

&nbsp;

Jayapal made a follow-up tweet sharing the recipe and this time, she called the dish 'Paneer Tikka Masala' instead of just 'Paneer Tikka'.

The addition of the word 'masala' took the preparation closer to resembling the one in the photo as 'Paneer Tikka Masala' is a curry dish.

<div class="ui-state-default" contenteditable="false">
<div class="twitter-block" draggable="false">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
By popular demand, the recipe for Paneer Tikka Masala, slightly adapted from the fabulous <a href="https://twitter.com/twosleevers?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@twosleevers</a>! You can either eat the tikka on its own, or add the masala (sauce) which is like a curry. Enjoy! <a href="https://t.co/0tNyEZOWN4">pic.twitter.com/0tNyEZOWN4</a>
— Pramila Jayapal (@PramilaJayapal) <a href="https://twitter.com/PramilaJayapal/status/1323506998625755138?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 3, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>
<a class="close-mark close-div" href="#" id="jqclosemark">×</a></div>

So what do you like? Paneer Tikka or Paneer Tikka Masala?

No matter the land, food is synonymous with emotions. We throw parties when we are happy. Sometimes even eat something to make us feel better in bouts of sadness.

No matter the land, food is synonymous with emotions. We throw parties when we are happy. Sometimes even eat something to make us feel better in bouts of sadness. But we are true to our salt, and quite proud of our respective culinary traditions. We are passionate about our food. Pramila Jayapal, US Congresswoman of Indian heritage, got the taste of how strong sentiments around food are. It started with just a tweet. Jayapal posted a photo of 'Paneer Tikka' and said that it was her comfort food. "Compulsive, night-before-election activity: make comfort food. That’s paneer tikka tonight, in honor of electing #KamalaHarris Veep tomorrow since she just said on Instagram that her favorite North Indian food is any kind of tikka! Let’s go, people! VOTE! #BidenHarris2020" she tweeted Compulsive, night-before-election activity: make comfort food. That’s paneer tikka tonight, in honor of electing #KamalaHarris Veep tomorrow since she just said on Instagram that her favorite North Indian food is any kind of tikka! Let’s go, people! VOTE! #BidenHarris2020 pic.twitter.com/gqyT7BotgG — Pramila Jayapal (@PramilaJayapal) November 3, 2020 × But...and it's a major but! Many on Twitter disagreed with Jayapal who was saying the tasty looking dish in her tweet was 'Paneer Tikka'. Paneer Tikka is a north Indian dish that is usually made with Indian cottage cheese along with veggies and is usually barbecued or lightly cooked and eaten from a skewer. The dish Jayapal cooked appeared more like a curry #PaneerTikka died a premature death in this curry https://t.co/7fOxVn3gfp — टंकीBaba (@rkgeemail) November 3, 2020 × Fans of the dish were so up in arms against Jayapal's tweet that Paneer Tikka started trending. The tweets were full of sarcasm sometimes. A user posted a picture of a spicy soup, and invited Jayapal to have what he claimed was 'kheer' an Indian sweet dish, far cry from anything spicy. ये लो खीर खाओ pic.twitter.com/yYvAx6Q0NI — How Dare You Isolated Monk ? (@IsolatedMonk) November 3, 2020 × Some users were rolling eyes who's gonna tell her that's not paneer tikka... https://t.co/mejabynS4G — Saanvi is looking for sherlock moots •Zaira stan• (@daisysonofjohn) November 3, 2020 × Jayapal made a follow-up tweet sharing the recipe and this time, she called the dish 'Paneer Tikka Masala' instead of just 'Paneer Tikka'. The addition of the word 'masala' took the preparation closer to resembling the one in the photo as 'Paneer Tikka Masala' is a curry dish. By popular demand, the recipe for Paneer Tikka Masala, slightly adapted from the fabulous @twosleevers! You can either eat the tikka on its own, or add the masala (sauce) which is like a curry. Enjoy! pic.twitter.com/0tNyEZOWN4 — Pramila Jayapal (@PramilaJayapal) November 3, 2020 × So what do you like? Paneer Tikka or Paneer Tikka Masala?

Why Paneer Tikka was trending on US election day

The stock market has given a key indication&nbsp;of who is going to win the US presidential election in 2020.

With two days to go until the US Presidential election, the stock market’s Friday fall spells trouble for President Donald Trump’s re-election hopes.

In 2016, the S&amp;P 500 indicator had predicted that the incumbent party in the White House—the Democrats—would be replaced.

And now the stock market's ‘presidential predictor’, as it's known by market analysts, is officially signalling that Joe Biden will win the election.

Meanwhile, US President and Republican candidate for US elections Donald Trump has taken over the lead in Iowa State. On the other hand, Joe Biden is handily beating Donald Trump in national polls.

In the poll, conducted by Selzer &amp; Co for the Des Moines Register and Mediacom between 26 and 29 October, Trump led by 48% to 41% for Biden. In September, the same poll showed the two men tied at 47%.

In September's Iowa Poll, the candidates were tied at 47% to 47%.

The state swung in favour for the Obama-Biden presidential ticket in 2008 and 2012, before flipping to Trump in 2016. 
 
(With inputs from agencies)

The stock market has given a key indication of who is going to win the US presidential election in 2020. With two days to go until the US Presidential election, the stock market’s Friday fall spells trouble for President Donald Trump’s re-election hopes.

The stock market has given a key indication of who is going to win the US presidential election in 2020. With two days to go until the US Presidential election, the stock market’s Friday fall spells trouble for President Donald Trump’s re-election hopes. In 2016, the S&P 500 indicator had predicted that the incumbent party in the White House—the Democrats—would be replaced. And now the stock market's ‘presidential predictor’, as it's known by market analysts, is officially signalling that Joe Biden will win the election. Meanwhile, US President and Republican candidate for US elections Donald Trump has taken over the lead in Iowa State. On the other hand, Joe Biden is handily beating Donald Trump in national polls. In the poll, conducted by Selzer & Co for the Des Moines Register and Mediacom between 26 and 29 October, Trump led by 48% to 41% for Biden. In September, the same poll showed the two men tied at 47%. In September's Iowa Poll, the candidates were tied at 47% to 47%. The state swung in favour for the Obama-Biden presidential ticket in 2008 and 2012, before flipping to Trump in 2016. (With inputs from agencies)

Who will win US Election 2020: The stock market has made its prediction

US President and Republican candidate for US elections Donald Trump has taken over the lead in Iowa state. On the other hand, Joe Biden is handily beating Donald Trump in national polls. 
 
<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/trump-suggests-he-might-try-to-fire-fauci-post-election-339759">Also read: Trump suggests he might try to fire Fauci post-election</a> 
 
In the poll, conducted by Selzer &amp; Co for the Des Moines Register and Mediacom between 26 and 29 October, Trump led by 48% to 41% for Biden. In September, the same poll showed the two men tied at 47%. 
 
In September's Iowa Poll, the candidates were tied at 47% to 47%. 
 
<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/us-election-2020-honking-gets-a-new-meaning-in-american-politics-339813">Also read: Honking gets a new meaning in American politics</a> 
 
The state swung in favour for the Obama-Biden presidential ticket in 2008 and 2012, before flipping to Trump in 2016. 
 
Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/us-election-2020-president-donald-trumps-wildest-prediction-till-date-338554" hreflang="en">US election 2020: President Donald Trump's wildest prediction till date</a> 
 
Trump won 51.15% of the votes in the 2016 presidential election, while his then-Democratic rival garnered 41.74 per cent of the ballots. 
 
Earlier in October, a Monmouth University Poll revealed that Trump was ahead with 48 per cent compared to Biden's 47 per cent. 
 
Both Trump and Biden campaigned in Iowa in October. 
 
With just two days left for the November 3 US presidential election, a new poll placing President Donald Trump in a lead against his Democratic rival in the battleground state of Iowa shows the last-minute shift in support towards Trump. 
 
The Register’s pre-election poll has been a critical marker of which candidates will carry the state and Iowa has emerged as a critical battleground in Tuesday's election.&nbsp;

(With inputs from agencies)

US President and Republican candidate for US elections Donald Trump has taken over the lead in Iowa state. On the other hand, Joe Biden is handily beating Donald Trump in national polls.

US President and Republican candidate for US elections Donald Trump has taken over the lead in Iowa state. On the other hand, Joe Biden is handily beating Donald Trump in national polls. Also read: Trump suggests he might try to fire Fauci post-election In the poll, conducted by Selzer & Co for the Des Moines Register and Mediacom between 26 and 29 October, Trump led by 48% to 41% for Biden. In September, the same poll showed the two men tied at 47%. In September's Iowa Poll, the candidates were tied at 47% to 47%. Also read: Honking gets a new meaning in American politics The state swung in favour for the Obama-Biden presidential ticket in 2008 and 2012, before flipping to Trump in 2016. Also read | US election 2020: President Donald Trump's wildest prediction till date Trump won 51.15% of the votes in the 2016 presidential election, while his then-Democratic rival garnered 41.74 per cent of the ballots. Earlier in October, a Monmouth University Poll revealed that Trump was ahead with 48 per cent compared to Biden's 47 per cent. Both Trump and Biden campaigned in Iowa in October. With just two days left for the November 3 US presidential election, a new poll placing President Donald Trump in a lead against his Democratic rival in the battleground state of Iowa shows the last-minute shift in support towards Trump. The Register’s pre-election poll has been a critical marker of which candidates will carry the state and Iowa has emerged as a critical battleground in Tuesday's election. (With inputs from agencies)

US election 2020: Most respected political poll shows Trump leads Joe Biden in Iowa

Honking has got a new meaning in the US politics with the annoying sound replacing clapping, cheers and even boos in election campaigns, in particularly the drive-in car rallies of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris.

Drive-in car rallies have become a signature election event of the Democratic Party which has taken the innovative path wherein a select group of supporters gather in a parking lot to be addressed by the party’s top leadership as part of its efforts to maintain social distancing due to the coronavirus.

Both Biden, 77, and Harris, 56, ask their supporters sitting in their cars to honk to express their sentiments.

In fact, honking in the election rallies of the Democratic Party has replaced all kinds of emotion in election rallies.

In the election rallies of Republican incumbent President Donald Trump, thousands of his supporters cheer, clap and chant slogans like “We Love You” and “Four More Years.”

Most of these drive-in car rallies are very selective in nature and they are not publicised. In their rallies, it’s all honking.

The level of honking reflects the sentiments, happiness and anger of their supporters.

On Sunday at a drive-in rally attended by less than 100 cars, invited by the local campaign officials, every time Harris’ supporters got excited with her remarks, they honked. Every time she was critical of Trump, they honked. Every time she spoke about “Black Lives Matter”, they honked.

It was once in a while that some of the supporters peeked out of their car windows. Those who were standing outside their cars ensured that they were maintaining social distancing as they clapped. There were no cheers at all. Same was the case with shouting slogans.

Unlike the Trump rallies, which are publicised locally much in advance and people are encouraged to participate, the car drive-in rallies of Biden and Harris are by invitation only.

The invitees are asked to drive in at the rally venue well in advance. Volunteers of the Biden campaign check the names, do a temperature check of all those inside the car.

A maximum of three people is allowed inside the car, whose names are required to be informed to the campaign much in advance.

Before the cars are driven into the venue, all of them go through a security check which takes time, at least a few minutes per car.

Biden and Harris's supporters patiently go through the process to listen to their leaders. Unlike in the past, or practice of their predecessors like Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, neither Biden nor Harris interacts with the crowd. Gone are the days of shaking hands across the rope, giving autographs or taking selfies.

Some of the enterprising supporters on Sunday took selfies while Harris was speaking. Over the past few days, she has been delivering identical speeches at all her rallies. On Sunday, she was in Georgia and North Carolina including in this city.

At the Fayetteville drive-in rally, she asked her supporters to go out and vote if they have not voted yet.

Honking has got a new meaning in the US politics with the annoying sound replacing clapping, cheers and even boos in election campaigns, in particularly the drive-in car rallies of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris.

Honking has got a new meaning in the US politics with the annoying sound replacing clapping, cheers and even boos in election campaigns, in particularly the drive-in car rallies of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris. Drive-in car rallies have become a signature election event of the Democratic Party which has taken the innovative path wherein a select group of supporters gather in a parking lot to be addressed by the party’s top leadership as part of its efforts to maintain social distancing due to the coronavirus. Both Biden, 77, and Harris, 56, ask their supporters sitting in their cars to honk to express their sentiments. In fact, honking in the election rallies of the Democratic Party has replaced all kinds of emotion in election rallies. In the election rallies of Republican incumbent President Donald Trump, thousands of his supporters cheer, clap and chant slogans like “We Love You” and “Four More Years.” Most of these drive-in car rallies are very selective in nature and they are not publicised. In their rallies, it’s all honking. The level of honking reflects the sentiments, happiness and anger of their supporters. On Sunday at a drive-in rally attended by less than 100 cars, invited by the local campaign officials, every time Harris’ supporters got excited with her remarks, they honked. Every time she was critical of Trump, they honked. Every time she spoke about “Black Lives Matter”, they honked. It was once in a while that some of the supporters peeked out of their car windows. Those who were standing outside their cars ensured that they were maintaining social distancing as they clapped. There were no cheers at all. Same was the case with shouting slogans. Unlike the Trump rallies, which are publicised locally much in advance and people are encouraged to participate, the car drive-in rallies of Biden and Harris are by invitation only. The invitees are asked to drive in at the rally venue well in advance. Volunteers of the Biden campaign check the names, do a temperature check of all those inside the car. A maximum of three people is allowed inside the car, whose names are required to be informed to the campaign much in advance. Before the cars are driven into the venue, all of them go through a security check which takes time, at least a few minutes per car. Biden and Harris's supporters patiently go through the process to listen to their leaders. Unlike in the past, or practice of their predecessors like Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, neither Biden nor Harris interacts with the crowd. Gone are the days of shaking hands across the rope, giving autographs or taking selfies. Some of the enterprising supporters on Sunday took selfies while Harris was speaking. Over the past few days, she has been delivering identical speeches at all her rallies. On Sunday, she was in Georgia and North Carolina including in this city. At the Fayetteville drive-in rally, she asked her supporters to go out and vote if they have not voted yet.

US election 2020: Honking gets a new meaning in American politics

Tuesday’s election will be seen globally as a referendum on the durability of democracy. If American democracy, long a beacon, cannot self-correct, then all democracies are at risk. European nations have watched with alarm as President Donald Trump has set about undermining American democracy while attacking the very foundations — the European Union and NATO — that allowed war-torn Europe to become whole, democratic and free.

The Oval Office was once the focal point of the respect the United States commanded around the world; no longer. It has become impossible for democracies today to believe it is in their national interest to take Trump’s America seriously. With this president, there are simply too many petulant reversals of course. The presidency and dishonesty have become synonymous. Alliances are founded on trust. When that goes, they begin to dissolve.

Hence the talk in European capitals of the need to “contain” the United States, a verb once reserved for the Soviet Union. America, under Trump, has lost the credibility and legitimacy that were cornerstones of its influence.

Allies believe a second Trump term could lead to the United States’ leaving NATO, following the decision to leave the World Health Organization. Departure from the World Trade Organization is also possible. Trump has yet to encounter a multilateral organization he does not want dead.

The values of liberty, democracy, freedom of expression and the rule of law for which the United States has stood, albeit with conspicuous failings, over the postwar decades have been abandoned. Despite the horrors of Vietnam and Abu Ghraib, and Cold War support for dictatorial regimes, America led not just because it had a huge army and nuclear arsenal, but also because it shared beliefs with its allies and worked with them. The United States has become a values-free international actor under a president who has led a values-free life.

This American abdication has allowed President Vladimir Putin of Russia to proclaim liberalism “obsolete.” It has led Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany to say Europeans must “take our fate into our own hands.” It has empowered President Xi Jinping of China to offer his country’s one-party system as an alternative model for developing countries. It has turned the phrase “leader of the free world,” as applied to the United States, into a laughable notion.

The Trump administration has unrelentingly undermined proven international relationships. America-first nationalism (even on vaccine development) has replaced the stabilizing commitment of the United States to multilateral institutions, a rules-based order and painstakingly negotiated international accords, like the Paris Agreement on climate change and the Iran nuclear deal.

Over the past four years, America has come close to exiting the global community of democracies. Trump is far more comfortable with autocrats like Putin and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia than with a democratic leader like Merkel. (She has, for the president, the added drawback of being a woman.)

Human rights have all but disappeared from the American agenda. This has been evident in the brutality at the Mexican border. America has long had a complicated relationship with immigration, but underlying it there has always existed, as a core element in the national identity, a commitment to openness and an understanding that constant demographic renewal was a unique source of American strength. By ripping children from their parents (545 of those children have not been reunited), barring entry from some majority-Muslim countries and largely closing American doors to refugees, Trump has trampled on the idea of America as a land of immigrants.

The aura that once set America apart has dimmed. The country, under Trump, has lost its compassion; it has appeared crueler to the world. Trump has severed America from the idea of America. Liberty’s torch cannot be the symbol of a country committed to building walls.

Trump’s nationalism has done great harm. The pandemic has been the first major global crisis since 1945 in which the United States has gone AWOL. Nobody is inclined to trust in the competence of an America whose response to the pandemic has been so incoherent that it now comfortably leads the world in coronavirus cases and deaths. Trump’s “fake news” accusations and lies about the coronavirus have been relentless.

The democratic framework of the United States rests on certain principles: checks and balances, a vigorous free press, an independent judiciary, protection of the individual against forms of racial, religious or sexual prejudice. All these principles, inspirations to democracies across the world, have been attacked by Trump. He has turned the Department of Justice into his personal fief. The president has even refused to commit to leaving office if he loses the election.

None of this has been lost on a world where the United States once built democracies: in Germany, in Japan, throughout Central Europe after the collapse of the Soviet imperium.

In the European Union the realization that it may now stand alone against Russia, China and the United States in embodying liberal democratic principles and the defense of human rights has come as a painful, if galvanizing, shock.

Almost four years of Trump’s rule has left an anchorless international order, in which an old American-led system is dead and the new is not yet born. How far a Joe Biden presidency could reverse this dangerous drift is an open question. But the damage is deep; the old status quo will not return.

A second Trump term of erratic American belligerence meeting growing Chinese assertiveness would be pregnant with the possibility of violence. The big powers would be on the march, freed of the multilateral safety net slowly constructed in the second half of the 20th century. America-the-beacon would be lost, and the world darker still.

Tuesday’s election will be seen globally as a referendum on the durability of democracy. If American democracy, long a beacon, cannot self-correct, then all democracies are at risk.

Tuesday’s election will be seen globally as a referendum on the durability of democracy. If American democracy, long a beacon, cannot self-correct, then all democracies are at risk. European nations have watched with alarm as President Donald Trump has set about undermining American democracy while attacking the very foundations — the European Union and NATO — that allowed war-torn Europe to become whole, democratic and free. The Oval Office was once the focal point of the respect the United States commanded around the world; no longer. It has become impossible for democracies today to believe it is in their national interest to take Trump’s America seriously. With this president, there are simply too many petulant reversals of course. The presidency and dishonesty have become synonymous. Alliances are founded on trust. When that goes, they begin to dissolve. Hence the talk in European capitals of the need to “contain” the United States, a verb once reserved for the Soviet Union. America, under Trump, has lost the credibility and legitimacy that were cornerstones of its influence. Allies believe a second Trump term could lead to the United States’ leaving NATO, following the decision to leave the World Health Organization. Departure from the World Trade Organization is also possible. Trump has yet to encounter a multilateral organization he does not want dead. The values of liberty, democracy, freedom of expression and the rule of law for which the United States has stood, albeit with conspicuous failings, over the postwar decades have been abandoned. Despite the horrors of Vietnam and Abu Ghraib, and Cold War support for dictatorial regimes, America led not just because it had a huge army and nuclear arsenal, but also because it shared beliefs with its allies and worked with them. The United States has become a values-free international actor under a president who has led a values-free life. This American abdication has allowed President Vladimir Putin of Russia to proclaim liberalism “obsolete.” It has led Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany to say Europeans must “take our fate into our own hands.” It has empowered President Xi Jinping of China to offer his country’s one-party system as an alternative model for developing countries. It has turned the phrase “leader of the free world,” as applied to the United States, into a laughable notion. The Trump administration has unrelentingly undermined proven international relationships. America-first nationalism (even on vaccine development) has replaced the stabilizing commitment of the United States to multilateral institutions, a rules-based order and painstakingly negotiated international accords, like the Paris Agreement on climate change and the Iran nuclear deal. Over the past four years, America has come close to exiting the global community of democracies. Trump is far more comfortable with autocrats like Putin and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia than with a democratic leader like Merkel. (She has, for the president, the added drawback of being a woman.) Human rights have all but disappeared from the American agenda. This has been evident in the brutality at the Mexican border. America has long had a complicated relationship with immigration, but underlying it there has always existed, as a core element in the national identity, a commitment to openness and an understanding that constant demographic renewal was a unique source of American strength. By ripping children from their parents (545 of those children have not been reunited), barring entry from some majority-Muslim countries and largely closing American doors to refugees, Trump has trampled on the idea of America as a land of immigrants. The aura that once set America apart has dimmed. The country, under Trump, has lost its compassion; it has appeared crueler to the world. Trump has severed America from the idea of America. Liberty’s torch cannot be the symbol of a country committed to building walls. Trump’s nationalism has done great harm. The pandemic has been the first major global crisis since 1945 in which the United States has gone AWOL. Nobody is inclined to trust in the competence of an America whose response to the pandemic has been so incoherent that it now comfortably leads the world in coronavirus cases and deaths. Trump’s “fake news” accusations and lies about the coronavirus have been relentless. The democratic framework of the United States rests on certain principles: checks and balances, a vigorous free press, an independent judiciary, protection of the individual against forms of racial, religious or sexual prejudice. All these principles, inspirations to democracies across the world, have been attacked by Trump. He has turned the Department of Justice into his personal fief. The president has even refused to commit to leaving office if he loses the election. None of this has been lost on a world where the United States once built democracies: in Germany, in Japan, throughout Central Europe after the collapse of the Soviet imperium. In the European Union the realization that it may now stand alone against Russia, China and the United States in embodying liberal democratic principles and the defense of human rights has come as a painful, if galvanizing, shock. Almost four years of Trump’s rule has left an anchorless international order, in which an old American-led system is dead and the new is not yet born. How far a Joe Biden presidency could reverse this dangerous drift is an open question. But the damage is deep; the old status quo will not return. A second Trump term of erratic American belligerence meeting growing Chinese assertiveness would be pregnant with the possibility of violence. The big powers would be on the march, freed of the multilateral safety net slowly constructed in the second half of the 20th century. America-the-beacon would be lost, and the world darker still.

How Trump lowered America’s standing in the world

China's military aggression has led to an unexpected outcome. It's benefitting one of Beijing's adversaries, the US and its defence industry. American defence companies are picking up major defence contracts from American allies. Countries like India and Taiwan are now turning to American defence equipment to boost their defences against the dragon.

China triggered its border standoff with India back in May. After multiple rounds of talks, China hasn't pulled back. Indian soldiers have now dug in for the long haul. They needed special gear for an extended winter deployment. The US was happy to step in.

Reports say, India has acquired 11 thousand sets of extended cold weather clothing from the US Army. These sets have come from the stock-holdings of the US Army. 
&nbsp; 
India is not the only country that reached out to the US for defence supplies. As China' aggression grows, American allies have been dialling Washington for arms and ammunition. The American defence industry has won multiple contracts. Taiwan tops the list of major purchases.. Two major deals were announced in one week.

Also Read | <a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/trumps-hard-line-immigration-policies-go-before-voters-339028">Trump's hard-line immigration policies go before voters</a>

The first one was worth 1.8 billion dollars. For cruise missiles, rocket launchers and surveillance equipment. Weapons, that can target the Chinese mainland.

China announced sanctions. But a second deal followed. A package worth 2.4 billion dollars. This includes 400 Harpoon anti-ship missiles, 1000 launcher transporters, Radar and support systems.

Taipei has said American weapons will enhance Taiwan's combat capabilities against the Chinese. The US government has steadily backed its defence industry. Lockdowns haven't affected major arms deals.&nbsp;

<div class="ui-state-default" contenteditable="false">
<div class="twitter-block" draggable="false">
<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/gravitas-chinas-military-aggression-boosts-demand-for-american-weapons-339139/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>
</div>
<a class="close-mark close-div" href="#" id="jqclosemark">×</a></div>

In October, the US announced major arms sales to South Korea, Egypt, Finland, Romania and Taiwan. By May, the US state department approved weapons sales to India, Morocco and the Philippines. These deals were worth 2.2 billion dollars. In addition to this, the UAE was given 150 million dollars in blanket funds. This was to repair and support aircraft fleets.

The UAE has a big purchase order for America. A deal for F-35 fighter jets. A purchase that could be worth 10 billion dollars. It seems that China's aggression has come as a boon to the American defence industry. As Beijing continues to make territorial claims, US arms manufacturers are raking in the Moolah.

China's military aggression has led to an unexpected outcome. It's benefitting one of Beijing's adversaries, the US and its defence industry. American defence companies are picking up major defence contracts from American allies.

China's military aggression has led to an unexpected outcome. It's benefitting one of Beijing's adversaries, the US and its defence industry. American defence companies are picking up major defence contracts from American allies. Countries like India and Taiwan are now turning to American defence equipment to boost their defences against the dragon. China triggered its border standoff with India back in May. After multiple rounds of talks, China hasn't pulled back. Indian soldiers have now dug in for the long haul. They needed special gear for an extended winter deployment. The US was happy to step in. Reports say, India has acquired 11 thousand sets of extended cold weather clothing from the US Army. These sets have come from the stock-holdings of the US Army. India is not the only country that reached out to the US for defence supplies. As China' aggression grows, American allies have been dialling Washington for arms and ammunition. The American defence industry has won multiple contracts. Taiwan tops the list of major purchases.. Two major deals were announced in one week. Also Read | Trump's hard-line immigration policies go before voters The first one was worth 1.8 billion dollars. For cruise missiles, rocket launchers and surveillance equipment. Weapons, that can target the Chinese mainland. China announced sanctions. But a second deal followed. A package worth 2.4 billion dollars. This includes 400 Harpoon anti-ship missiles, 1000 launcher transporters, Radar and support systems. Taipei has said American weapons will enhance Taiwan's combat capabilities against the Chinese. The US government has steadily backed its defence industry. Lockdowns haven't affected major arms deals. × In October, the US announced major arms sales to South Korea, Egypt, Finland, Romania and Taiwan. By May, the US state department approved weapons sales to India, Morocco and the Philippines. These deals were worth 2.2 billion dollars. In addition to this, the UAE was given 150 million dollars in blanket funds. This was to repair and support aircraft fleets. The UAE has a big purchase order for America. A deal for F-35 fighter jets. A purchase that could be worth 10 billion dollars. It seems that China's aggression has come as a boon to the American defence industry. As Beijing continues to make territorial claims, US arms manufacturers are raking in the Moolah.

Chinese aggression comes as boon to the US

The United States is hitting records in daily coronavirus cases. But China, the country first afflicted with the scourge, is having a different experience.

Unlike the Trump administration, which has said it is prioritizing opening the economy while essentially giving up on controlling the pandemic, China moved aggressively to stop the virus. The result: China’s economy is growing, and life there is returning to a semblance of normal, while the United States is struggling with a third wave of infections and the prospect of new restrictions.

Economic growth in China has surged, hitting 4.9% in the latest quarter, and consumer spending has slowly started to recover. Residents are once again flocking into malls, bars, concert halls and hair salons, while schools, subways and offices are crowded.

China has effectively sealed off its borders from the outside world and doubled down on efforts to eradicate the virus. When a crop of cases emerges, the government swiftly shuts down vast areas and quickly tests millions of people to help keep local transmissions near zero.

China’s authoritarian government has the ability to act in a way that democracies that must be accountable to the public cannot. But it has demonstrated that the way to open the economy is to first safeguard public health.

While Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, has said the United States is “not going to control the pandemic,” China’s approach has helped to restore confidence and allow businesses to reopen.

During a recent national holiday in China, when hundreds of millions of people went on trips nationwide, tourists crammed shoulder to shoulder to celebrate along the banks of the Huangpu River in Shanghai, some without masks. At Yellow Mountain, in the eastern province of Anhui, thousands of people squeezed into narrow hiking trails, bumping into each other as they passed by granite peaks and pine trees.

“People aren’t panicked anymore,” said Eric Xie, who works at an internet company in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou. “You can eat at restaurants, go to movies and play sports. Life has basically returned to normal.”

As with much in the COVID era, the normalcy comes with an asterisk. Xie said he rarely goes on work trips anymore, instead speaking with clients by video. He said people had largely grown accustomed to wearing masks on subways and buses, even though Hangzhou has not had a coronavirus case in months.

“It has become a habit,” he said. “It’s just part of life. People accept it.”

China’s success would have seemed improbable when the virus emerged in the central city of Wuhan late last year.

The Chinese government was denounced for trying to initially cover up the virus and to silence those who tried to warn about the outbreak. The decision to lock down Wuhan, a city of 11 million, for 76 days was widely criticized as inhumane and damaging to the livelihoods of ordinary families.

For months, President Donald Trump has been one of Beijing’s fiercest opponents. He has railed against the “China virus” on Twitter and has made attacks on the Chinese Communist Party a centerpiece of his campaign.

But China now represents the extreme, Communist version of a highly managed, scientifically backed approach that has worked in South Korea, Japan, New Zealand, Taiwan and other democracies. To varying degrees, they are emphasizing the collective good over personal freedoms, a formula that has allowed them to keep cases relatively low.

In these places, people take heed when officials mandate masks and impose social distancing restrictions, even if sometimes begrudgingly. They put up with mandatory quarantines and invasive government tracking efforts. They support closing the borders and limiting entry, in most cases, to residents only.

By contrast, the pandemic has become highly politicized in the United States, where there have been more than 9 million cases and 228,000 deaths. Wearing masks has become a divisive issue, and many Americans have resisted government limits on their movements.

As with much in China, the government leaves little room for dissent or debate over its authoritarian approach to combating the virus, and the population is forced to acquiesce to the party’s demands. Yet many people in China say they are relieved that the pandemic seems to be under control, especially as the United States and countries in Europe confront a crush of new cases.

“People don’t feel the restrictions are too severe,” said Vivian Gao, 26, who works at a cultural tourism company in Shanghai. “The results are good.”

When tourism came to a halt amid the outbreak, Gao’s company cut her salary for several months by two-thirds, to about $300 a month, straining her budget. Now she says the firm’s employees have all returned to the office, and customers are once again lining up to shop and dine.

“Life is back on track,” said Gao, whose salary has been restored.

Gao said she believed China’s top-down model was better equipped to handle the pandemic than the U.S. political system, which she said placed too much emphasis on individual freedom.

“In China, a word from a superior can be heard immediately and implemented quickly,” Gao said. “It’s the difference between individualism and collectivism.”

The distinction between the two countries has fueled a propaganda frenzy, with officials highlighting the surge in cases in the United States to tout the strength of China’s authoritarian system and deflect attention from domestic problems.

The Chinese foreign ministry has said the pandemic has “torn the emperor’s new clothes” off American democracy. A recent commentary in Global Times, a brash tabloid controlled by the party, called the situation in the United States a “huge human rights tragedy,” echoing language that American politicians often use against China.

The failure of many western countries to contain the pandemic has helped Chinese President Xi Jinping bolster his party, which came under attack for its early missteps in handling the crisis.

“The message is, ‘Look at the way the United States and Europe are dealing with a simple matter of life and death — and look at how your government under the Communist Party and Xi Jinping have dealt with the exact same issue,’” said Steve Tsang, director of the China Institute at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London.

Tsang said the party’s success in handling the pandemic would strengthen Xi’s grip on power, especially if the Chinese economy continues to outperform other countries. “It will simply reinvigorate him in his efforts to tighten up control of society,” he said.

China, though, can’t declare outright victory.

The economy remains in a precarious position, and its strength depends in large part on whether the party can maintain a sense of confidence among the public. With a vaccine still many months away, business owners worry the virus could resurface and once again bring life in China to a standstill.

Jane Shao, president of Lumière Pavilions, a Chinese movie theater chain, said sales had largely recovered since last year because customers believe they can be safe in public. The widespread use of apps in China that verify people’s health has helped reduce fears about the virus, she said.

Even so, Shao said there was a “long way to go” and that she was worried about the possibility of scattered outbreaks.

“I can’t expect we will live in a panic-free society before vaccines are introduced,” she said.

The country is also navigating a fine line between encouraging people to be vigilant about the virus and fueling paranoia.

When a single asymptomatic case of the coronavirus was detected last week in Kashgar, in the western region of Xinjiang, authorities rushed to lock down the city. Officials demanded that more than 4 million people undergo tests for the virus, eventually finding nearly 200 cases, largely asymptomatic.

The mass testing effort followed similar drives in the cities of Wuhan, Beijing, Qingdao and Urumqi, after clusters of cases emerged.

China’s authoritarian hammer has been a staple of its strategy from the outset, helping it move quickly and bluntly to vanquish resurgences of the virus. But the government’s tactics also provoked anger among residents, who say authorities have at times reacted too harshly.

Yibulayinaji, a 38-year-old owner of a pilaf stand in Kashgar, said shops had been ordered to close, and residents were staying indoors.

“We don’t know when they’ll allow us to reopen, but right now, we can’t do any business,” he said in a telephone interview. “We can’t go out. We can’t go anywhere.”

The United States is hitting records in daily coronavirus cases. But China, the country first afflicted with the scourge, is having a different experience. Unlike the Trump administration, which has said it is prioritizing opening the economy while essentially giving up on controlling the pandemic, China moved aggressively to stop the virus.

The United States is hitting records in daily coronavirus cases. But China, the country first afflicted with the scourge, is having a different experience. Unlike the Trump administration, which has said it is prioritizing opening the economy while essentially giving up on controlling the pandemic, China moved aggressively to stop the virus. The result: China’s economy is growing, and life there is returning to a semblance of normal, while the United States is struggling with a third wave of infections and the prospect of new restrictions. Economic growth in China has surged, hitting 4.9% in the latest quarter, and consumer spending has slowly started to recover. Residents are once again flocking into malls, bars, concert halls and hair salons, while schools, subways and offices are crowded. China has effectively sealed off its borders from the outside world and doubled down on efforts to eradicate the virus. When a crop of cases emerges, the government swiftly shuts down vast areas and quickly tests millions of people to help keep local transmissions near zero. China’s authoritarian government has the ability to act in a way that democracies that must be accountable to the public cannot. But it has demonstrated that the way to open the economy is to first safeguard public health. While Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, has said the United States is “not going to control the pandemic,” China’s approach has helped to restore confidence and allow businesses to reopen. During a recent national holiday in China, when hundreds of millions of people went on trips nationwide, tourists crammed shoulder to shoulder to celebrate along the banks of the Huangpu River in Shanghai, some without masks. At Yellow Mountain, in the eastern province of Anhui, thousands of people squeezed into narrow hiking trails, bumping into each other as they passed by granite peaks and pine trees. “People aren’t panicked anymore,” said Eric Xie, who works at an internet company in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou. “You can eat at restaurants, go to movies and play sports. Life has basically returned to normal.” As with much in the COVID era, the normalcy comes with an asterisk. Xie said he rarely goes on work trips anymore, instead speaking with clients by video. He said people had largely grown accustomed to wearing masks on subways and buses, even though Hangzhou has not had a coronavirus case in months. “It has become a habit,” he said. “It’s just part of life. People accept it.” China’s success would have seemed improbable when the virus emerged in the central city of Wuhan late last year. The Chinese government was denounced for trying to initially cover up the virus and to silence those who tried to warn about the outbreak. The decision to lock down Wuhan, a city of 11 million, for 76 days was widely criticized as inhumane and damaging to the livelihoods of ordinary families. For months, President Donald Trump has been one of Beijing’s fiercest opponents. He has railed against the “China virus” on Twitter and has made attacks on the Chinese Communist Party a centerpiece of his campaign. But China now represents the extreme, Communist version of a highly managed, scientifically backed approach that has worked in South Korea, Japan, New Zealand, Taiwan and other democracies. To varying degrees, they are emphasizing the collective good over personal freedoms, a formula that has allowed them to keep cases relatively low. In these places, people take heed when officials mandate masks and impose social distancing restrictions, even if sometimes begrudgingly. They put up with mandatory quarantines and invasive government tracking efforts. They support closing the borders and limiting entry, in most cases, to residents only. By contrast, the pandemic has become highly politicized in the United States, where there have been more than 9 million cases and 228,000 deaths. Wearing masks has become a divisive issue, and many Americans have resisted government limits on their movements. As with much in China, the government leaves little room for dissent or debate over its authoritarian approach to combating the virus, and the population is forced to acquiesce to the party’s demands. Yet many people in China say they are relieved that the pandemic seems to be under control, especially as the United States and countries in Europe confront a crush of new cases. “People don’t feel the restrictions are too severe,” said Vivian Gao, 26, who works at a cultural tourism company in Shanghai. “The results are good.” When tourism came to a halt amid the outbreak, Gao’s company cut her salary for several months by two-thirds, to about $300 a month, straining her budget. Now she says the firm’s employees have all returned to the office, and customers are once again lining up to shop and dine. “Life is back on track,” said Gao, whose salary has been restored. Gao said she believed China’s top-down model was better equipped to handle the pandemic than the U.S. political system, which she said placed too much emphasis on individual freedom. “In China, a word from a superior can be heard immediately and implemented quickly,” Gao said. “It’s the difference between individualism and collectivism.” The distinction between the two countries has fueled a propaganda frenzy, with officials highlighting the surge in cases in the United States to tout the strength of China’s authoritarian system and deflect attention from domestic problems. The Chinese foreign ministry has said the pandemic has “torn the emperor’s new clothes” off American democracy. A recent commentary in Global Times, a brash tabloid controlled by the party, called the situation in the United States a “huge human rights tragedy,” echoing language that American politicians often use against China. The failure of many western countries to contain the pandemic has helped Chinese President Xi Jinping bolster his party, which came under attack for its early missteps in handling the crisis. “The message is, ‘Look at the way the United States and Europe are dealing with a simple matter of life and death — and look at how your government under the Communist Party and Xi Jinping have dealt with the exact same issue,’” said Steve Tsang, director of the China Institute at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. Tsang said the party’s success in handling the pandemic would strengthen Xi’s grip on power, especially if the Chinese economy continues to outperform other countries. “It will simply reinvigorate him in his efforts to tighten up control of society,” he said. China, though, can’t declare outright victory. The economy remains in a precarious position, and its strength depends in large part on whether the party can maintain a sense of confidence among the public. With a vaccine still many months away, business owners worry the virus could resurface and once again bring life in China to a standstill. Jane Shao, president of Lumière Pavilions, a Chinese movie theater chain, said sales had largely recovered since last year because customers believe they can be safe in public. The widespread use of apps in China that verify people’s health has helped reduce fears about the virus, she said. Even so, Shao said there was a “long way to go” and that she was worried about the possibility of scattered outbreaks. “I can’t expect we will live in a panic-free society before vaccines are introduced,” she said. The country is also navigating a fine line between encouraging people to be vigilant about the virus and fueling paranoia. When a single asymptomatic case of the coronavirus was detected last week in Kashgar, in the western region of Xinjiang, authorities rushed to lock down the city. Officials demanded that more than 4 million people undergo tests for the virus, eventually finding nearly 200 cases, largely asymptomatic. The mass testing effort followed similar drives in the cities of Wuhan, Beijing, Qingdao and Urumqi, after clusters of cases emerged. China’s authoritarian hammer has been a staple of its strategy from the outset, helping it move quickly and bluntly to vanquish resurgences of the virus. But the government’s tactics also provoked anger among residents, who say authorities have at times reacted too harshly. Yibulayinaji, a 38-year-old owner of a pilaf stand in Kashgar, said shops had been ordered to close, and residents were staying indoors. “We don’t know when they’ll allow us to reopen, but right now, we can’t do any business,” he said in a telephone interview. “We can’t go out. We can’t go anywhere.”

US says virus can’t be controlled, China aims to prove it wrong

The U.S. State Department notified Congress it approved the sale of 50 Lockheed Martin Co&nbsp;F-35 jets to the United Arab Emirates in a deal that could be worth $10 billion, sources said on Thursday, potentially setting up a showdown with lawmakers over the deal.

The United States and the UAE aim to have a letter of agreement for the F-35 jets in time for UAE National Day celebrated on Dec. 2, Reuters reported in September.

The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations and House of Representatives Foreign Affairs committees, whose members have criticized the UAE`s role in civilian deaths in Yemen, have the right to review, and block, weapons sales under an informal review process.

Israel initially balked at the prospective sale but last week dropped its opposition after what it described as U.S. guarantees that Israeli military superiority would be preserved.

Any deal must satisfy a longstanding agreement with Israel that any U.S. weapons sold in the region must not impair Israel`s "qualitative military edge," guaranteeing U.S. weapons furnished to Israel are "superior in capability" to those sold to its neighbors.

"We all face a common threat," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in an apparent allusion to Iran, told reporters on Thursday when asked about reports of the impending UAE jet sale.

"But with that said, it was important that the (Israeli) defense establishment received this clear American undertaking to preserve our qualitative military edge," added Netanyahu, who earlier on Thursday hosted visiting Pentagon chief Mark Esper.

Representative Eliot Engel, chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, confirmed that an informal notification was sent to Congress on Thursday. "As Congress reviews this sale, it must be clear that changes to the status quo will not put Israel`s military advantage at risk," he said.

The sources said the Trump administration aims to send formal notifications for the deal in the coming days. Once formally notified, Congress can choose to pass legislation to block the sale.

Typically the informal notification process for complex deals like the F-35 sale is 40 days, but the Trump administration is cutting it to just a few days to meet the goal of a UAE National Day signing ceremony, the sources said.

"Rushing these sales is not in anyone`s interest," Engel warned in his statement.

Senator Bob Menendez, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, made clear he would not automatically support the deal in a statement adding that "recklessly accelerating the timeline around a reportedly artificial deadline precludes sufficient consideration."

The UAE, one of Washington`s closest Middle East allies, has long expressed interest in acquiring the stealthy F-35 jets and was promised a chance to buy them in a side deal when it agreed to normalize relations with Israel.

Because of the qualitative military edge restriction, in the past the F-35 has been denied to Arab states, while Israel has about 24 of the jets. Israel is currently slated to purchase 50 of the fighters.

The U.S. State Department notified Congress it approved the sale of 50 Lockheed Martin Co F-35 jets to the United Arab Emirates in a deal that could be worth $10 billion, sources said on Thursday, potentially setting up a showdown with lawmakers over the deal.

The U.S. State Department notified Congress it approved the sale of 50 Lockheed Martin Co F-35 jets to the United Arab Emirates in a deal that could be worth $10 billion, sources said on Thursday, potentially setting up a showdown with lawmakers over the deal. The United States and the UAE aim to have a letter of agreement for the F-35 jets in time for UAE National Day celebrated on Dec. 2, Reuters reported in September. The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations and House of Representatives Foreign Affairs committees, whose members have criticized the UAE`s role in civilian deaths in Yemen, have the right to review, and block, weapons sales under an informal review process. Israel initially balked at the prospective sale but last week dropped its opposition after what it described as U.S. guarantees that Israeli military superiority would be preserved. Any deal must satisfy a longstanding agreement with Israel that any U.S. weapons sold in the region must not impair Israel`s "qualitative military edge," guaranteeing U.S. weapons furnished to Israel are "superior in capability" to those sold to its neighbors. "We all face a common threat," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in an apparent allusion to Iran, told reporters on Thursday when asked about reports of the impending UAE jet sale. "But with that said, it was important that the (Israeli) defense establishment received this clear American undertaking to preserve our qualitative military edge," added Netanyahu, who earlier on Thursday hosted visiting Pentagon chief Mark Esper. Representative Eliot Engel, chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, confirmed that an informal notification was sent to Congress on Thursday. "As Congress reviews this sale, it must be clear that changes to the status quo will not put Israel`s military advantage at risk," he said. The sources said the Trump administration aims to send formal notifications for the deal in the coming days. Once formally notified, Congress can choose to pass legislation to block the sale. Typically the informal notification process for complex deals like the F-35 sale is 40 days, but the Trump administration is cutting it to just a few days to meet the goal of a UAE National Day signing ceremony, the sources said. "Rushing these sales is not in anyone`s interest," Engel warned in his statement. Senator Bob Menendez, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, made clear he would not automatically support the deal in a statement adding that "recklessly accelerating the timeline around a reportedly artificial deadline precludes sufficient consideration." The UAE, one of Washington`s closest Middle East allies, has long expressed interest in acquiring the stealthy F-35 jets and was promised a chance to buy them in a side deal when it agreed to normalize relations with Israel. Because of the qualitative military edge restriction, in the past the F-35 has been denied to Arab states, while Israel has about 24 of the jets. Israel is currently slated to purchase 50 of the fighters.

Trump admin moves forward with sale of 50 F-35 jets to UAE, notifies Congress

Two former eBay Inc&nbsp;employees pleaded guilty on Thursday to participating in a cyber stalking campaign against a Massachusetts couple whose online newsletter was viewed by top executives as critical of the e-commerce company.

Federal prosecutors in Boston said former eBay employees Stephanie Stockwell and Brian Gilbert and others harassed the couple through Twitter and sent them disturbing packages like a bloody Halloween pig mask and live spiders and cockroaches during the August 2019 campaign.

They pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit cyber stalking and conspiring to tamper with a witness, becoming the latest ex-members of eBay`s security and global intelligence team to admit wrongdoing. Three other former employees have also pleaded guilty.

"I made a mistake, and I need to own up to it," Gilbert said during a hearing held virtually due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Prosecutors agreed to recommend a 24-month prison sentence for Stockwell, the former manager of eBay`s global intelligence center, and no more than 37 months for Gilbert, a former senior manager of special operations for its global security team.

They are among seven defendants, including onetime eBay security executives James Baugh and David Harville, who prosecutors said targeted the couple in Natick, Massachusetts, with threatening messages and unwanted deliveries.

Prosecutors said the defendants also conducted covert surveillance in a bid to terrorize the couple and deter them from criticizing eBay.

They did so after two top executives expressed frustration with the newsletter, EcommerceBytes. The executives included former Chief Executive Devin Wenig, who a person familiar with the matter has said is the "Executive 1" identified in court papers.

Wenig, a former executive of Thomson Reuters, has not been charged and has denied knowing about the scheme.&nbsp;

Two former eBay Inc employees pleaded guilty on Thursday to participating in a cyber stalking campaign against a Massachusetts couple whose online newsletter was viewed by top executives as critical of the e-commerce company.

Two former eBay Inc employees pleaded guilty on Thursday to participating in a cyber stalking campaign against a Massachusetts couple whose online newsletter was viewed by top executives as critical of the e-commerce company. Federal prosecutors in Boston said former eBay employees Stephanie Stockwell and Brian Gilbert and others harassed the couple through Twitter and sent them disturbing packages like a bloody Halloween pig mask and live spiders and cockroaches during the August 2019 campaign. They pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit cyber stalking and conspiring to tamper with a witness, becoming the latest ex-members of eBay`s security and global intelligence team to admit wrongdoing. Three other former employees have also pleaded guilty. "I made a mistake, and I need to own up to it," Gilbert said during a hearing held virtually due to the coronavirus pandemic. Prosecutors agreed to recommend a 24-month prison sentence for Stockwell, the former manager of eBay`s global intelligence center, and no more than 37 months for Gilbert, a former senior manager of special operations for its global security team. They are among seven defendants, including onetime eBay security executives James Baugh and David Harville, who prosecutors said targeted the couple in Natick, Massachusetts, with threatening messages and unwanted deliveries. Prosecutors said the defendants also conducted covert surveillance in a bid to terrorize the couple and deter them from criticizing eBay. They did so after two top executives expressed frustration with the newsletter, EcommerceBytes. The executives included former Chief Executive Devin Wenig, who a person familiar with the matter has said is the "Executive 1" identified in court papers. Wenig, a former executive of Thomson Reuters, has not been charged and has denied knowing about the scheme.

Ex-eBay employees admit to cyber stalking campaign targetting couple

It's understandable to want to party or arrange a get together in times of the pandemic but it's another matter to go ahead with it. What can start as a cozy affair and chitchats may soon turn into something else altogether if any of the invitees are infected with coronavirus. A similar thing happened in Suffolk County in New York. A 16th birthday party turned into a 'superspreader' event as dozens of attendees contracted coronavirus.

The party took place on September 25 at plush Miller Place Inn on Long Island. It was attended by over 80 people and 37 were left infected with coronavirus. This is not all, more than 270 people had to be quarantined.

"We've never seen a super-spreader event like this before in Suffolk County," tweeted the area's county executive on Wednesday.

"People have to act responsibly so that we do not have another economic setback."

New York state has largely kept coronavirus under control in recent months after 33,000 residents died from the virus, mainly in the spring.

But in recent weeks, infections have multiplied in some areas, especially in neighbourhoods with large Orthodox Jewish populations.

Governor Andrew Cuomo closed non-essential businesses and capped places of worship at ten people in the so-called red zones.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio defended the measures on Thursday, citing tightened restrictions in Europe where cases are on the rise.

"If for a few weeks we're asking people to do something exceptional to help stop a problem from growing and stop it from spreading, I think that's fair," he said.

(With AFP inputs)

It's understandable to want to party or arrange a get together in times of the pandemic but it's another matter to go ahead with it. What can start as a cozy affair and chitchats may soon turn into something else altogether if any of the invitees are infected with coronavirus.

It's understandable to want to party or arrange a get together in times of the pandemic but it's another matter to go ahead with it. What can start as a cozy affair and chitchats may soon turn into something else altogether if any of the invitees are infected with coronavirus. A similar thing happened in Suffolk County in New York. A 16th birthday party turned into a 'superspreader' event as dozens of attendees contracted coronavirus. The party took place on September 25 at plush Miller Place Inn on Long Island. It was attended by over 80 people and 37 were left infected with coronavirus. This is not all, more than 270 people had to be quarantined. "We've never seen a super-spreader event like this before in Suffolk County," tweeted the area's county executive on Wednesday. "People have to act responsibly so that we do not have another economic setback." New York state has largely kept coronavirus under control in recent months after 33,000 residents died from the virus, mainly in the spring. But in recent weeks, infections have multiplied in some areas, especially in neighbourhoods with large Orthodox Jewish populations. Governor Andrew Cuomo closed non-essential businesses and capped places of worship at ten people in the so-called red zones. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio defended the measures on Thursday, citing tightened restrictions in Europe where cases are on the rise. "If for a few weeks we're asking people to do something exceptional to help stop a problem from growing and stop it from spreading, I think that's fair," he said. (With AFP inputs)

New York: 'Sweet 16' party turns into a COVID-19 'superspreader' event

The United States is exactly a week away from the day of voting. The town halls and the presidential debates are done, and the campaigning is headed towards a conclusion.

Pre-election voting has been underway for weeks now and it has surpassed all pre-election ballots cast in the history of America, more than 62 million Americans have voted already. These record-breaking figures are only set to grow.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="http://13.235.153.162/world/campaigning-for-us-presidential-election-enters-final-week-338396" hreflang="en">Campaigning for US presidential election enters final week</a>

The candidates are doing everything they can to woo undecided voters. Both Trump and Biden recently held clashing rallies on the same day in Pennsylvania. Trump addressed three boisterous events, while Biden made a low-key appearance at a voter activation centre.

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/gravitas-us-election-2020-americans-are-breaking-early-voting-records-338422/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>

"He wants to shut down the whole country. And we're rounding the turn. You know, all they want to talk about is covid. By the way, on November 4th, you won't be hearing so much about it. Covid, covid, covid", Donald Trump said. 
 
"The bottom line is Donald Trump is the worst possible president, the worst possible person to try to lead us through this pandemic. I don't think he just, he either doesn't have any idea what to do or he just doesn't care. I'm never gonna give up. You know, Mr President, you have to have a little bit of shame, just a little bit of shame because people are dying'', Joe Biden said.

''He made his speech and he said that he doesn't do this kind of rallies because of covid, you know. No, he doesn't do them because nobody shows up. That's why nobody shows up. Covid, covid, covid'', President Trump retorted with.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="http://13.235.153.162/world/us-elections-over-64-million-votes-cast-will-voter-turnout-percentage-be-the-highest-ever-338306" hreflang="en">US elections: Over 64 million votes cast, will voter turnout percentage be the highest ever?</a>

''We're going to be travelling, continue to travel. But the big difference between us and reason why looks like we're not traveling, we're not putting on super spreaders'', Joe Biden said.

After weeks of high voltage political theatrics, the vacant Supreme Court seat has finally been filled. Conservative judge Amy Coney Barrett has been confirmed to the court with 52-48 votes. She has succeeded the late liberal judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg. It is a lifetime appointment and a major pre-election political victory for Donald Trump. Barrett has taken the first of the two oaths at the White House.

Barrett has taken the oath, but the legal troubles for Donald Trump are only mounting. Recently, a federal judge denied President Trump's request to be replaced as the defendant in a defamation lawsuit, which was filed by a woman.

&nbsp;She says Trump had raped her in a Manhattan department store in the 1990s. Trump's lawyers argued that he should be replaced as the defendant because he was forced to respond to the lawsuit to prove that he was fit to be president.

The judge ruled that Trump's denials of the rape allegations fall outside his scope of employment. So he couldn't be replaced.

The United States is exactly a week away from the day of voting. The town halls and the presidential debates are done, and the campaigning is headed towards a conclusion.

The United States is exactly a week away from the day of voting. The town halls and the presidential debates are done, and the campaigning is headed towards a conclusion. Pre-election voting has been underway for weeks now and it has surpassed all pre-election ballots cast in the history of America, more than 62 million Americans have voted already. These record-breaking figures are only set to grow. Also read: Campaigning for US presidential election enters final week The candidates are doing everything they can to woo undecided voters. Both Trump and Biden recently held clashing rallies on the same day in Pennsylvania. Trump addressed three boisterous events, while Biden made a low-key appearance at a voter activation centre. "He wants to shut down the whole country. And we're rounding the turn. You know, all they want to talk about is covid. By the way, on November 4th, you won't be hearing so much about it. Covid, covid, covid", Donald Trump said. "The bottom line is Donald Trump is the worst possible president, the worst possible person to try to lead us through this pandemic. I don't think he just, he either doesn't have any idea what to do or he just doesn't care. I'm never gonna give up. You know, Mr President, you have to have a little bit of shame, just a little bit of shame because people are dying'', Joe Biden said. ''He made his speech and he said that he doesn't do this kind of rallies because of covid, you know. No, he doesn't do them because nobody shows up. That's why nobody shows up. Covid, covid, covid'', President Trump retorted with. Also read: US elections: Over 64 million votes cast, will voter turnout percentage be the highest ever? ''We're going to be travelling, continue to travel. But the big difference between us and reason why looks like we're not traveling, we're not putting on super spreaders'', Joe Biden said. After weeks of high voltage political theatrics, the vacant Supreme Court seat has finally been filled. Conservative judge Amy Coney Barrett has been confirmed to the court with 52-48 votes. She has succeeded the late liberal judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg. It is a lifetime appointment and a major pre-election political victory for Donald Trump. Barrett has taken the first of the two oaths at the White House. Barrett has taken the oath, but the legal troubles for Donald Trump are only mounting. Recently, a federal judge denied President Trump's request to be replaced as the defendant in a defamation lawsuit, which was filed by a woman. She says Trump had raped her in a Manhattan department store in the 1990s. Trump's lawyers argued that he should be replaced as the defendant because he was forced to respond to the lawsuit to prove that he was fit to be president. The judge ruled that Trump's denials of the rape allegations fall outside his scope of employment. So he couldn't be replaced.

US election 2020: With a week to go, here's what is abuzz

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will travel to Sri Lanka on Tuesday for a two-day visit during which he will hold talks with the top Lankan leadership, as America seeks to balance China's growing influence in the region and to advance the common goals for a free and open Indo-Pacific.

Pompeo arrived in India on Monday along with Defence Secretary Mark T Esper for the third edition of the US-India 2+2 dialogue with their counterparts in New Delhi.

After his India visit, Pompeo will travel to Sri Lanka later Tuesday on an invitation extended by his Sri Lankan counterpart Dinesh Gunawardena.

Pompeo, the highest-level US official to visit Sri Lanka during the tenure of President Donald Trump, will hold official discussions with the Lankan leadership covering several areas of the multifaceted engagement between the two countries.

He will hold talks in Colombo on October 28, Cabinet spokesman and minister Keheliya Rambukwella said.

Pompeo is expected to meet President Gotabaya Rajapaksa alongside his brother and prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa.

Sri Lanka will emphasise its need to maintain the independence of its foreign policy during the talks with Pompeo, Regional Cooperation Minister in the foreign ministry Tharaka Balasuriya told reporters on Tuesday.

"He will be here to discuss bilateral issues and regional issues," Balasuriya said. "We will be making our position clear".

Pompeo will also visit the St Anthony's Church in north Colombo, one of the Churches devastated by last year's deadly Easter Sunday attacks.

"Secretary Pompeo will travel to Colombo to underscore the commitment of the United States to a partnership with a strong, sovereign Sri Lanka and to advance our common goals for a free and open Indo-Pacific region," the US State Department said in a statement last week.

The Chinese military has been flexing its muscles in the strategically vital Indo Pacific region and is also engaged in hotly contested territorial disputes in both the South China Sea (SCS) and the East China Sea (ECS).

Early this month, India, the US, Japan and Australia agreed to step up coordination in creating a free and open Indo-Pacific.

Pompeo's visit is being seen here as part of the US effort to have Sri Lanka on its side vis-a-vis China.

The opposition JVP held a protest opposite the US embassy urging America to end its alleged interference in Sri Lanka.

Pompeo's visit to Lanka comes two weeks after a high-powered Chinese delegation led by ruling Communist Party Politburo member Yang Jiechi visited Colombo.

Just a day before Pompeo's visit to Colombo, the Chinese Embassy here accused the US of interfering in the relations between China and Sri Lanka.

"We are firmly opposed to the United States taking the opportunity of the State Secretary's visit to sow and interfere in China-Sri Lanka relations, and to coerce and bully Sri Lanka,? the Embassy said in a statement on Monday.

It said that China and Sri Lanka have enough wisdom to handle relations with each other and do not need a third party to dictate.

The statement hoped that the US will "correct the ugly practices of arbitrarily interfering in other countries' domestic and foreign affairs."

China is one of the biggest investors in various infrastructure projects in Sri Lanka. But there has been criticism, both locally and internationally, and growing concerns that China has lured Sri Lanka into a debt trap.

The previous Maithripala Sirisena government had entered into a 99-year lease with China in 2017 as a settlement of its debt by way of equity.

Sri Lanka's economy, especially the tourism sector, has been hit hard since last year - initially by the Easter Sunday attacks, which killed over 250 people and later by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

The Reserve Bank of India in July this year signed necessary documents for extending a USD 400 million currency swap facility to Sri Lanka to boost the nation's draining foreign exchange reserves due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The currency swap arrangement will remain available till November 2022.&nbsp;

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will travel to Sri Lanka on Tuesday for a two-day visit during which he will hold talks with the top Lankan leadership, as America seeks to balance China's growing influence in the region and to advance the common goals for a free and open Indo-Pacific.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will travel to Sri Lanka on Tuesday for a two-day visit during which he will hold talks with the top Lankan leadership, as America seeks to balance China's growing influence in the region and to advance the common goals for a free and open Indo-Pacific. Pompeo arrived in India on Monday along with Defence Secretary Mark T Esper for the third edition of the US-India 2+2 dialogue with their counterparts in New Delhi. After his India visit, Pompeo will travel to Sri Lanka later Tuesday on an invitation extended by his Sri Lankan counterpart Dinesh Gunawardena. Pompeo, the highest-level US official to visit Sri Lanka during the tenure of President Donald Trump, will hold official discussions with the Lankan leadership covering several areas of the multifaceted engagement between the two countries. He will hold talks in Colombo on October 28, Cabinet spokesman and minister Keheliya Rambukwella said. Pompeo is expected to meet President Gotabaya Rajapaksa alongside his brother and prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa. Sri Lanka will emphasise its need to maintain the independence of its foreign policy during the talks with Pompeo, Regional Cooperation Minister in the foreign ministry Tharaka Balasuriya told reporters on Tuesday. "He will be here to discuss bilateral issues and regional issues," Balasuriya said. "We will be making our position clear". Pompeo will also visit the St Anthony's Church in north Colombo, one of the Churches devastated by last year's deadly Easter Sunday attacks. "Secretary Pompeo will travel to Colombo to underscore the commitment of the United States to a partnership with a strong, sovereign Sri Lanka and to advance our common goals for a free and open Indo-Pacific region," the US State Department said in a statement last week. The Chinese military has been flexing its muscles in the strategically vital Indo Pacific region and is also engaged in hotly contested territorial disputes in both the South China Sea (SCS) and the East China Sea (ECS). Early this month, India, the US, Japan and Australia agreed to step up coordination in creating a free and open Indo-Pacific. Pompeo's visit is being seen here as part of the US effort to have Sri Lanka on its side vis-a-vis China. The opposition JVP held a protest opposite the US embassy urging America to end its alleged interference in Sri Lanka. Pompeo's visit to Lanka comes two weeks after a high-powered Chinese delegation led by ruling Communist Party Politburo member Yang Jiechi visited Colombo. Just a day before Pompeo's visit to Colombo, the Chinese Embassy here accused the US of interfering in the relations between China and Sri Lanka. "We are firmly opposed to the United States taking the opportunity of the State Secretary's visit to sow and interfere in China-Sri Lanka relations, and to coerce and bully Sri Lanka,? the Embassy said in a statement on Monday. It said that China and Sri Lanka have enough wisdom to handle relations with each other and do not need a third party to dictate. The statement hoped that the US will "correct the ugly practices of arbitrarily interfering in other countries' domestic and foreign affairs." China is one of the biggest investors in various infrastructure projects in Sri Lanka. But there has been criticism, both locally and internationally, and growing concerns that China has lured Sri Lanka into a debt trap. The previous Maithripala Sirisena government had entered into a 99-year lease with China in 2017 as a settlement of its debt by way of equity. Sri Lanka's economy, especially the tourism sector, has been hit hard since last year - initially by the Easter Sunday attacks, which killed over 250 people and later by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The Reserve Bank of India in July this year signed necessary documents for extending a USD 400 million currency swap facility to Sri Lanka to boost the nation's draining foreign exchange reserves due to the coronavirus pandemic. The currency swap arrangement will remain available till November 2022.

Pompeo to hold talks with Lankan leadership during two-day Colombo visit

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is set to boost efforts by the world’s largest Muslim movement to recontextualize Islam during a forthcoming visit to Indonesia as part of a three-nation Asian tour. The tour is likely to be the secretary’s last official trip prior to next month’s US presidential election.

Mr. Pompeo’s engagement with Nahdlatul Ulama, a powerful Islamic grouping in Indonesia, with an estimated following of 50 million people, takes on added significance against the backdrop of the Trump administration’s push for a definition of human rights that redefines notions of freedom of religion at the expense of other basic rights in advance of a hard fought election that Donald J. Trump could lose.

It also comes as French President Emmanuel Macron kicked into high gear his self-declared mission of reforming what he has termed an Islam that “is a religion that is in crisis all over the world” in the wake of the gruesome murder of Samuel Paty, a 47-year old teacher.

Mr. Paty was killed by an 18-year old youth of Chechen descent after he used cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed in a class about freedom of expression.

The Indonesia-leg at the end of Mr. Pompeo’s tour, which is first taking him to India and Sri Lanka, similarly comes as Nahdlatul Ulama, an independent civil society movement, competes globally with Saudi, United Arab Emirates, and Turkish state-backed efforts to garner religious soft power and shape the definition of what constitutes moderate Islam.

Also Read | <a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/trump-is-seeking-second-term-to-help-himself-and-his-wealthy-friends-says-ex-us-president-barack-obama-337789">Trump is seeking second term to help himself and his wealthy friends, says Ex-US President Barack Obama</a>

Nahdlatul Ulama was founded almost a century ago in opposition to Wahhabism, the austere interpretation of Islam, that has largely guided Saudi Arabia since its founding in 1932.

Mr. Pompeo and his top aides are scheduled to participate in two days of events in the Indonesian capital organized by Nahdlatul Ulama to nurture “the shared civilizational aspirations” of Indonesia, the United States and Islam, defined by the group with the Qur’anic phrase that the faith is “a source of universal love and compassion.”

By giving Nahdlatul Ulama the State Department’s seal of approval, Mr. Pompeo is implicitly acknowledging the fact that the group unlike its rivals in the quest for religious soft power has started to put its money where its mouth is.

Unlike its soft power rivals, Nahdlatul Ulama has spelt out its definition of moderate Islam with its adoption in 2015 of the concept of Nusantara (Archipelago) or humanitarian Islam that calls for a full embrace of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights (UNHDR).

Countries like Saudi Arabia and the UAE project themselves as models of undefined forms of moderate Islam manifested by engagement in inter-faith dialogue and varying degrees of religious tolerance.

They have, however, stopped short of addressing theologically problematic concepts like that of kafirs or infidels, the Muslim reference to non-Muslims, slavery, dhimmis, people of the book that Islam recognizes but accords a lesser status than Muslims, apostasy, and blasphemy.

They have also manoeuvred in inter-faith gatherings to evade unrestricted support of the UN human rights declaration.

By contrast, Nahdlatul Ulama has taken initial steps in that direction even if it still has a ways to go. Thousands of the group’s religious scholars issued a fatwa or religious opinion that eliminated the notion of infidels, effectively removing one pillar of Muslim perceptions of religious supremacy.

Based on statements by Nahdlatul Ulama leaders, the group’s scholars are likely to next do away with the legal concept of slavery.

The group’s litmus test will be if and when it takes on apostasy and blasphemy, concepts that are certain to be far more emotive and controversial. Nahdlatul Ulama officials say the group has long accepted in practice conversion away from Islam.

Mr. Pompeo’s acknowledgement of Nahdlatul Ulama further suggests that the State Department recognizes that religious reform is more likely to successfully be enacted by independent civil society actors with proper religious credentials and a significant following rather than states.

It is a recognition that by implication highlights the limitations of efforts by states, including Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Turkey, to define the essence of Islam as well as Mr. Macron’s ambition to solve the faith’s problems for it.

Mr. Pompeo lands in Jakarta shortly after signing the Geneva Consensus Declaration alongside a host of countries that propagate conservative values and rank low on Georgetown University’s Women, Peace and Security Index.

The declaration seeks to promote women’s rights and health and strengthen the family but emphasizes that “in no case should abortion be promoted as a method of family planning.”

It stipulates that there is “no international right to abortion, nor any international obligation on the part of States to finance or facilitate abortion.”

The declaration’s signatories include Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the UAE, Iraq, Sudan, South Sudan, Libya, Egypt, Belarus, Hungary, and Indonesia.

Many of the signatories are members of the Group of Friends, a block of 25 nations in the United Nations that seeks to pre-empt any expansion of rights for girls, women, and LGBT people and weaken international support for the Beijing Declaration, a landmark 1995 agreement that stands as an internationally recognized progressive blueprint for women’s rights.

Much of the group’s positions are coordinated by the Center for Family and Human Rights, or C-Fam, a small but influential far-right group that focuses on abortion, sexual orientation and gender identity. C-Fam has worked closely with the State Department dating back to the administration of US President George W. Bush.

Accompanied by among others Mary Ann Glendon, the head of the State Department’s Commission on Unalienable Rights, Mr. Pompeo’s arrival in Jakarta also comes after the centre-right Centrist Democrat International (IDC-CDI), the world’s largest alliance of political parties, acknowledged the Commission’s report as “a re-affirmation of the spirit and substance of fundamental human rights.”

Indonesia’s National Awakening Party (PKB), which has five seats in President Joko Widodo’s cabinet and is an influential member of IDC-CDI, is closely associated with Nahdlatul Ulama.

Critics have charged that the Commission’s report fuels assertions that there are too many human rights and prioritizes religious liberty and property rights at the expense of protections against discrimination particularly on the basis of gender.

As a result, Mr. Pompeo’s endorsement of Nahdlatul Ulama could prove to be a double-edged sword. It strengthens the group’s proposition, yet also identifies it with one faction in a global battle that not only seeks to define the soul of Islam but also fundamentally shape what constitutes a human right.

(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL.)

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is set to boost efforts by the world’s largest Muslim movement to recontextualize Islam during a forthcoming visit to Indonesia as part of a three-nation Asian tour.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is set to boost efforts by the world’s largest Muslim movement to recontextualize Islam during a forthcoming visit to Indonesia as part of a three-nation Asian tour. The tour is likely to be the secretary’s last official trip prior to next month’s US presidential election. Mr. Pompeo’s engagement with Nahdlatul Ulama, a powerful Islamic grouping in Indonesia, with an estimated following of 50 million people, takes on added significance against the backdrop of the Trump administration’s push for a definition of human rights that redefines notions of freedom of religion at the expense of other basic rights in advance of a hard fought election that Donald J. Trump could lose. It also comes as French President Emmanuel Macron kicked into high gear his self-declared mission of reforming what he has termed an Islam that “is a religion that is in crisis all over the world” in the wake of the gruesome murder of Samuel Paty, a 47-year old teacher. Mr. Paty was killed by an 18-year old youth of Chechen descent after he used cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed in a class about freedom of expression. The Indonesia-leg at the end of Mr. Pompeo’s tour, which is first taking him to India and Sri Lanka, similarly comes as Nahdlatul Ulama, an independent civil society movement, competes globally with Saudi, United Arab Emirates, and Turkish state-backed efforts to garner religious soft power and shape the definition of what constitutes moderate Islam. Also Read | Trump is seeking second term to help himself and his wealthy friends, says Ex-US President Barack Obama Nahdlatul Ulama was founded almost a century ago in opposition to Wahhabism, the austere interpretation of Islam, that has largely guided Saudi Arabia since its founding in 1932. Mr. Pompeo and his top aides are scheduled to participate in two days of events in the Indonesian capital organized by Nahdlatul Ulama to nurture “the shared civilizational aspirations” of Indonesia, the United States and Islam, defined by the group with the Qur’anic phrase that the faith is “a source of universal love and compassion.” By giving Nahdlatul Ulama the State Department’s seal of approval, Mr. Pompeo is implicitly acknowledging the fact that the group unlike its rivals in the quest for religious soft power has started to put its money where its mouth is. Unlike its soft power rivals, Nahdlatul Ulama has spelt out its definition of moderate Islam with its adoption in 2015 of the concept of Nusantara (Archipelago) or humanitarian Islam that calls for a full embrace of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights (UNHDR). Countries like Saudi Arabia and the UAE project themselves as models of undefined forms of moderate Islam manifested by engagement in inter-faith dialogue and varying degrees of religious tolerance. They have, however, stopped short of addressing theologically problematic concepts like that of kafirs or infidels, the Muslim reference to non-Muslims, slavery, dhimmis, people of the book that Islam recognizes but accords a lesser status than Muslims, apostasy, and blasphemy. They have also manoeuvred in inter-faith gatherings to evade unrestricted support of the UN human rights declaration. By contrast, Nahdlatul Ulama has taken initial steps in that direction even if it still has a ways to go. Thousands of the group’s religious scholars issued a fatwa or religious opinion that eliminated the notion of infidels, effectively removing one pillar of Muslim perceptions of religious supremacy. Based on statements by Nahdlatul Ulama leaders, the group’s scholars are likely to next do away with the legal concept of slavery. The group’s litmus test will be if and when it takes on apostasy and blasphemy, concepts that are certain to be far more emotive and controversial. Nahdlatul Ulama officials say the group has long accepted in practice conversion away from Islam. Mr. Pompeo’s acknowledgement of Nahdlatul Ulama further suggests that the State Department recognizes that religious reform is more likely to successfully be enacted by independent civil society actors with proper religious credentials and a significant following rather than states. It is a recognition that by implication highlights the limitations of efforts by states, including Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Turkey, to define the essence of Islam as well as Mr. Macron’s ambition to solve the faith’s problems for it. Mr. Pompeo lands in Jakarta shortly after signing the Geneva Consensus Declaration alongside a host of countries that propagate conservative values and rank low on Georgetown University’s Women, Peace and Security Index. The declaration seeks to promote women’s rights and health and strengthen the family but emphasizes that “in no case should abortion be promoted as a method of family planning.” It stipulates that there is “no international right to abortion, nor any international obligation on the part of States to finance or facilitate abortion.” The declaration’s signatories include Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the UAE, Iraq, Sudan, South Sudan, Libya, Egypt, Belarus, Hungary, and Indonesia. Many of the signatories are members of the Group of Friends, a block of 25 nations in the United Nations that seeks to pre-empt any expansion of rights for girls, women, and LGBT people and weaken international support for the Beijing Declaration, a landmark 1995 agreement that stands as an internationally recognized progressive blueprint for women’s rights. Much of the group’s positions are coordinated by the Center for Family and Human Rights, or C-Fam, a small but influential far-right group that focuses on abortion, sexual orientation and gender identity. C-Fam has worked closely with the State Department dating back to the administration of US President George W. Bush. Accompanied by among others Mary Ann Glendon, the head of the State Department’s Commission on Unalienable Rights, Mr. Pompeo’s arrival in Jakarta also comes after the centre-right Centrist Democrat International (IDC-CDI), the world’s largest alliance of political parties, acknowledged the Commission’s report as “a re-affirmation of the spirit and substance of fundamental human rights.” Indonesia’s National Awakening Party (PKB), which has five seats in President Joko Widodo’s cabinet and is an influential member of IDC-CDI, is closely associated with Nahdlatul Ulama. Critics have charged that the Commission’s report fuels assertions that there are too many human rights and prioritizes religious liberty and property rights at the expense of protections against discrimination particularly on the basis of gender. As a result, Mr. Pompeo’s endorsement of Nahdlatul Ulama could prove to be a double-edged sword. It strengthens the group’s proposition, yet also identifies it with one faction in a global battle that not only seeks to define the soul of Islam but also fundamentally shape what constitutes a human right. (Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL.)

US Secretary of State Pompeo set to boost Indonesian religious reform efforts

Senior officials of the Trump administration said on Saturday that the US was closely watching the situation surrounding India-China standoff in Ladakh and would want to ensure that the situation does not escalate. This has come ahead of the 2+2 dialogue between India and USA.

In an online briefing, the officials said that the US welcomed India's involvement in Southeast Asia as well as in the South China Sea.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Secretary of Defence Mark Esper are due to come to India for 2+2 dialogue next week. They will meet India's Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Foreign Minister S Jaishankar.

On Friday, US State Department said that it was important to work with "like-minded" countries like India to counter China's increasing aggressive behaviour.

Speaking at the Washington Foreign Press Center, a US administration official said, "And as the United States, Japan, Australia, and India (QUAD) are getting together to cooperate on one issue or another, if there are other countries that want to participate in those discussions or those activities, the door is always open."

<div class="ui-state-default" contenteditable="false">
<div class="twitter-block" draggable="false">
<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/india-us-22-talks-esper-pompeo-to-also-meet-nsa-ajit-doval-and-pm-modi-337586/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>
</div>
<a class="close-mark close-div" href="#" id="jqclosemark">×</a></div>

&nbsp;

"Secretary Pompeo and Minister Jaishankar, along with their Japanese and Australian counterparts, met in Tokyo on October 6th for the second Quad meeting of foreign ministers. Given China`s increasingly aggressive behavior across the India-Pacific from the Himalayas to the South China Sea, it`s more important than ever that we work with like-minded partners such as India."&nbsp;

Also Read | <a href="https://www.wionews.com/india-news/its-official-india-and-usa-will-hold-22-dialogue-next-week-337003">It's official: India and USA will hold 2+2 dialogue next week</a> 
 
Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) is the informal strategic dialogue between India, USA, Japan and Australia. Earlier this week, India had announced the participation of Australia in the upcoming Malabar exercise alongside the US and Japan.

Talking to media persons, the State Department official said the foundational concept behind the Quad is one of the vibrant democracies working together towards a common vision of a free and open India-Pacific region.&nbsp;

(With ANI inputs)

Senior officials of the Trump administration said on Saturday that the US was closely watching the situation surrounding India-China standoff in Ladakh and would want to ensure that the situation does not escalate.

Senior officials of the Trump administration said on Saturday that the US was closely watching the situation surrounding India-China standoff in Ladakh and would want to ensure that the situation does not escalate. This has come ahead of the 2+2 dialogue between India and USA. In an online briefing, the officials said that the US welcomed India's involvement in Southeast Asia as well as in the South China Sea. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Secretary of Defence Mark Esper are due to come to India for 2+2 dialogue next week. They will meet India's Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Foreign Minister S Jaishankar. On Friday, US State Department said that it was important to work with "like-minded" countries like India to counter China's increasing aggressive behaviour. Speaking at the Washington Foreign Press Center, a US administration official said, "And as the United States, Japan, Australia, and India (QUAD) are getting together to cooperate on one issue or another, if there are other countries that want to participate in those discussions or those activities, the door is always open." × "Secretary Pompeo and Minister Jaishankar, along with their Japanese and Australian counterparts, met in Tokyo on October 6th for the second Quad meeting of foreign ministers. Given China`s increasingly aggressive behavior across the India-Pacific from the Himalayas to the South China Sea, it`s more important than ever that we work with like-minded partners such as India." Also Read | It's official: India and USA will hold 2+2 dialogue next week Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) is the informal strategic dialogue between India, USA, Japan and Australia. Earlier this week, India had announced the participation of Australia in the upcoming Malabar exercise alongside the US and Japan. Talking to media persons, the State Department official said the foundational concept behind the Quad is one of the vibrant democracies working together towards a common vision of a free and open India-Pacific region. (With ANI inputs)

US wants to ensure India-China standoff doesn't escalate

LAWRENCEBURG, Ind. — For 20 years, off and on, I’ve lived in this small, blue-collar town about 30 minutes west of Cincinnati. My grandparents, immigrants from Germany, bought my old farmhouse, on 15 acres, during World War II. I’ve always felt that this town embodies much of what I love about the Midwest: friendliness, a lack of pretension and a prevailing sense of decency among neighbors.

A few weeks ago, I met up with a good friend, an 84-year-old retiree named Frank, who lives nearby. He told me that he’d put up a “Biden-Harris” lawn sign, and within 36 hours it had been stolen. In response, his girlfriend taped another sign to the inside of their ranch home’s front window. Frank immediately took it down. “The chair I like to sit in is right there,” he explained. “The next time they come, I’m afraid it might be a brick, or a bullet.” Just a few years ago, I would have said that Frank was overreacting. Now I’m not so sure.

Over the past four years, my hometown has become radicalized. This is a loaded word, but it’s the only way to describe it.

As recently as 2008, I saw Bill Clinton speak at our community center, where the crowd was so large that people had to listen to him from loudspeakers in a nearby firehouse. The mood was electric. “People are broke at the end of every month,” he said. “This has to change.” He promised that with Democratic leadership, it would. An aggressive new energy policy would bring jobs, with higher incomes.

And this promise was very welcome. At the time, the best job I could find was at a call center, selling home security systems. But I felt hopeful. I stuck an Obama sign in my yard and a campaign bumper sticker on my old Corolla. Like a lot of my neighbors, I believed that Democrats would, in fact, improve the town’s fortunes, and on election night, Barack Obama carried the state.

But things didn’t improve. Not really. The latest census reports median household income in Lawrenceburg as $30,735, with a little over 32 percent of us in poverty. And in 2014, according to The New York Times, our small county (which is over 97 percent white) sent more people to prison than San Francisco. In January, our hospital cited a “higher number of uninsured patients” as a reason it needed to “right-size” its work force by laying off 31 employees and eliminating behavioral health services.

And there are darker omens. Last fall, my teenage nephew came running into the house, wide-eyed, saying he’d found a human skull in the woods. I followed him until, panting at the bottom of a ravine, I saw the skull trapped in a thicket of sticks and leaves, missing several of its front teeth. The police arrived, and for the rest of the night, I watched from my bedroom window as flashlights swept over the long grass, through the woods, until they were finally swallowed by darkness.

It was an overdose, an officer told me later, the victim most likely another casualty of the nation’s opioid epidemic. (In 2017, in this county, there were 80 opioid prescriptions for every 100 residents.) The young man seemed to have died higher up on the hill, where they found more of his remains. The rain must have washed his skull down the slope.

The skull felt like a portent, but also a turning point. Months later, I noticed a vendor at a roadside stand selling Trump flags. “Trump 2020: Keep America Great,” one read. Another read “Trump 2020: No More [Expletive].” It was more than half a year away from the election, and I remember thinking: Why flags? A flag was something people fought under, and for; something people carried to war. By the summer, another vendor popped up selling flags with even bolder slogans like “Trump 2020: [Expletive] Your Feelings,” “Liberty or Die,” “Make Liberals Cry Again.” The economy was in the dumps but the flag business was booming.

And not just Trump flags. In the past few months, I have seen three Confederate flags hoisted in neighbors’ yards, where previously I’d seen none. Just a few weeks ago, two masked men appeared outside our high school, holding a large KKK flag and fliers, apparently scouting for young recruits.

At times, all of this has felt like a horror movie, where it starts off happily enough — in a sun-drenched, idyllic farmhouse — and then the darkness slowly takes over. The change has occurred so slowly that at times, I hardly noticed it, until one day I barely recognized my hometown.

Last week, I drove down for a closer look at the nearest Trump stand, where alongside the flags hung Trump T-shirts. One read, “I’m a Deplorable.” And it reminded me of my grandparents, of how they felt while still in Germany: willing to work as hard as anyone but seeing no way to improve their circumstances. In my more charitable moments, I can see my neighbors’ xenophobia and racism and their Trump-loving thuggishness as symptoms of alienation from people who feel forsaken and disdained. This is, perhaps, the part of me that still feels deeply connected to where I live. But I’ve been appalled by the ugliness I’ve seen here this past year. And more often, in the dwindling autumn light, I find myself staring at my grandparents’ old farmhouse and wondering if it’s finally time to pack my bags.

LAWRENCEBURG, Ind. — For 20 years, off and on, I’ve lived in this small, blue-collar town about 30 minutes west of Cincinnati. My grandparents, immigrants from Germany, bought my old farmhouse, on 15 acres, during World War II.

LAWRENCEBURG, Ind. — For 20 years, off and on, I’ve lived in this small, blue-collar town about 30 minutes west of Cincinnati. My grandparents, immigrants from Germany, bought my old farmhouse, on 15 acres, during World War II. I’ve always felt that this town embodies much of what I love about the Midwest: friendliness, a lack of pretension and a prevailing sense of decency among neighbors. A few weeks ago, I met up with a good friend, an 84-year-old retiree named Frank, who lives nearby. He told me that he’d put up a “Biden-Harris” lawn sign, and within 36 hours it had been stolen. In response, his girlfriend taped another sign to the inside of their ranch home’s front window. Frank immediately took it down. “The chair I like to sit in is right there,” he explained. “The next time they come, I’m afraid it might be a brick, or a bullet.” Just a few years ago, I would have said that Frank was overreacting. Now I’m not so sure. Over the past four years, my hometown has become radicalized. This is a loaded word, but it’s the only way to describe it. As recently as 2008, I saw Bill Clinton speak at our community center, where the crowd was so large that people had to listen to him from loudspeakers in a nearby firehouse. The mood was electric. “People are broke at the end of every month,” he said. “This has to change.” He promised that with Democratic leadership, it would. An aggressive new energy policy would bring jobs, with higher incomes. And this promise was very welcome. At the time, the best job I could find was at a call center, selling home security systems. But I felt hopeful. I stuck an Obama sign in my yard and a campaign bumper sticker on my old Corolla. Like a lot of my neighbors, I believed that Democrats would, in fact, improve the town’s fortunes, and on election night, Barack Obama carried the state. But things didn’t improve. Not really. The latest census reports median household income in Lawrenceburg as $30,735, with a little over 32 percent of us in poverty. And in 2014, according to The New York Times, our small county (which is over 97 percent white) sent more people to prison than San Francisco. In January, our hospital cited a “higher number of uninsured patients” as a reason it needed to “right-size” its work force by laying off 31 employees and eliminating behavioral health services. And there are darker omens. Last fall, my teenage nephew came running into the house, wide-eyed, saying he’d found a human skull in the woods. I followed him until, panting at the bottom of a ravine, I saw the skull trapped in a thicket of sticks and leaves, missing several of its front teeth. The police arrived, and for the rest of the night, I watched from my bedroom window as flashlights swept over the long grass, through the woods, until they were finally swallowed by darkness. It was an overdose, an officer told me later, the victim most likely another casualty of the nation’s opioid epidemic. (In 2017, in this county, there were 80 opioid prescriptions for every 100 residents.) The young man seemed to have died higher up on the hill, where they found more of his remains. The rain must have washed his skull down the slope. The skull felt like a portent, but also a turning point. Months later, I noticed a vendor at a roadside stand selling Trump flags. “Trump 2020: Keep America Great,” one read. Another read “Trump 2020: No More [Expletive].” It was more than half a year away from the election, and I remember thinking: Why flags? A flag was something people fought under, and for; something people carried to war. By the summer, another vendor popped up selling flags with even bolder slogans like “Trump 2020: [Expletive] Your Feelings,” “Liberty or Die,” “Make Liberals Cry Again.” The economy was in the dumps but the flag business was booming. And not just Trump flags. In the past few months, I have seen three Confederate flags hoisted in neighbors’ yards, where previously I’d seen none. Just a few weeks ago, two masked men appeared outside our high school, holding a large KKK flag and fliers, apparently scouting for young recruits. At times, all of this has felt like a horror movie, where it starts off happily enough — in a sun-drenched, idyllic farmhouse — and then the darkness slowly takes over. The change has occurred so slowly that at times, I hardly noticed it, until one day I barely recognized my hometown. Last week, I drove down for a closer look at the nearest Trump stand, where alongside the flags hung Trump T-shirts. One read, “I’m a Deplorable.” And it reminded me of my grandparents, of how they felt while still in Germany: willing to work as hard as anyone but seeing no way to improve their circumstances. In my more charitable moments, I can see my neighbors’ xenophobia and racism and their Trump-loving thuggishness as symptoms of alienation from people who feel forsaken and disdained. This is, perhaps, the part of me that still feels deeply connected to where I live. But I’ve been appalled by the ugliness I’ve seen here this past year. And more often, in the dwindling autumn light, I find myself staring at my grandparents’ old farmhouse and wondering if it’s finally time to pack my bags.

The radicalization of a small American town

In a fresh development in tussle between US and China in South China Sea, the US said on Friday that it will deploy coast guard patrol ships in western Pacific Ocean to counter Chinese activities in disputed fishing grounds of South China Sea.

US National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien accused China of "Illegal" and "unregulated" fishing as well as "harassment" of fishing boats from regional countries.

In a statement, he said that the US Coast Guard "is strategically homeporting significantly enhanced Fast Response Cutters...in the western Pacific." &nbsp;

Also Read: <a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/chinas-illegal-distant-water-fishing-destroying-economies-environment-337444">China's illegal distant water fishing destroying economies, environment</a> 
 
US has regularly accused China of breaking international law by sending warships to escort Chinese fishing vessels into fishing grounds of other countries.

In July, US Defense Secretary Mark Esper slammed a "catalog of bad behavior" in the South China Sea over the previous months and accused the Chinese military of having sunk a Vietnamese fishing boat, harassing Malaysian oil and gas development and escorting Chinese fishing fleets into Indonesia's exclusive economic zone.

Also Read: <a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/xi-jinping-invokes-chinese-military-takes-thinly-veiled-swipe-at-us-337456">Xi Jinping invokes Chinese military; takes thinly-veiled swipe at US</a> 
 
O'Brien added that the Coast Guard, which is under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), was also studying whether to permanently station several of its patrol ships in the area of American Samoa in the South Pacific.

Last month, Indonesia protested about an incursion by Chinese coastguard ships in its exclusive economic zone, which is situated between its own territorial waters and international waters and where the state claims exclusive rights to exploit natural resources.

China claims almost the whole of the South China Sea as its own, a claim contested by several countries including Malaysia, Taiwan,the Philippines, and Indonesia.

(With AFP inputs)

In a fresh development in tussle between US and China in South China Sea, the US said on Friday that it will deploy coast guard patrol ships in western Pacific Ocean to counter Chinese activities in disputed fishing grounds of South China Sea.

In a fresh development in tussle between US and China in South China Sea, the US said on Friday that it will deploy coast guard patrol ships in western Pacific Ocean to counter Chinese activities in disputed fishing grounds of South China Sea. US National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien accused China of "Illegal" and "unregulated" fishing as well as "harassment" of fishing boats from regional countries. In a statement, he said that the US Coast Guard "is strategically homeporting significantly enhanced Fast Response Cutters...in the western Pacific." Also Read: China's illegal distant water fishing destroying economies, environment US has regularly accused China of breaking international law by sending warships to escort Chinese fishing vessels into fishing grounds of other countries. In July, US Defense Secretary Mark Esper slammed a "catalog of bad behavior" in the South China Sea over the previous months and accused the Chinese military of having sunk a Vietnamese fishing boat, harassing Malaysian oil and gas development and escorting Chinese fishing fleets into Indonesia's exclusive economic zone. Also Read: Xi Jinping invokes Chinese military; takes thinly-veiled swipe at US O'Brien added that the Coast Guard, which is under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), was also studying whether to permanently station several of its patrol ships in the area of American Samoa in the South Pacific. Last month, Indonesia protested about an incursion by Chinese coastguard ships in its exclusive economic zone, which is situated between its own territorial waters and international waters and where the state claims exclusive rights to exploit natural resources. China claims almost the whole of the South China Sea as its own, a claim contested by several countries including Malaysia, Taiwan,the Philippines, and Indonesia. (With AFP inputs)

US to deploy coast guard to tackle China's 'illegal' fishing in South China Sea

Ahead of next week's 2+2 dialogue between US and India, US State Department said that situation at Line of Actual Control between India and China will be discussed. The 2+ 2 meeting is due to take place on 26th and 27th October. This the third such dialogue between India and the US. US secretary of state Mike Pompeo and US Defence secretary Mark Esper will be visiting India to meet their Indian counterparts.

"Certainly, I think the situation on the Line of Actual Control will be – will probably be discussed at some point, and we’re watching the situation closely. &nbsp;I think both sides have expressed a desire to de-escalate violence," said Dean Thompson, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs. He was speaking with reporters in Washington.

"The Third India-US 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue will entail a comprehensive discussion on cross-cutting bilateral issues of mutual interest. In addition, both sides will also exchange views on salient regional and global issues," said MEA Spokesperson Anurag Srivastav on Thursday during the weekly virtual press conference.

India and China are engaged in a tensed standoff at LAC in eastern Ladakh, which started in the month of April. The situation got worse in June after 20 Indian soldiers died in Galwan valley due to Chinese aggressiveness, and even though Chinese also suffered casualties, they never came out with any number.

On Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement (BECA) a military pact, Thompson said, "We’re in the process of finalizing a lot of the discussions right now, and so I know that BECA and other agreements are in the works. &nbsp;I’m not going to, I think, commit to anything right this minute, but we do expect to have several items highlighted as we go through the trip."

BECA will be the last of the 4 foundational military pacts that will be signed to increase interoperability and share information. India and US have already signed the Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement (COMCASA) in 2018, Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA) in 2016, General Security Of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA) in 2002.

Asked about the 2+2 happening just a week before the US goes to the election, the state department official said, "the 2+2 had previously been scheduled, has been delayed, and this was an opportunity where schedules worked out to get together, so that’s really what’s driving the opportunity for this trip right now."

"There’s a lot happening in the relationship with India and with our other partners in the region, and so the fact that we could go now, that we could have this discussion, is driven by the situation in the region and what – where we’re headed," the official added.

The previous two dialogues were held in New Delhi in September 2018 and in Washington DC in December 2019. US Secretary of state will be on a four-country tour next week, starting with India, followed by Sri Lanka, Maldives and Indonesia.

Ahead of next week's 2+2 dialogue between US and India, US State Department said that situation at Line of Actual Control between India and China will be discussed.

Ahead of next week's 2+2 dialogue between US and India, US State Department said that situation at Line of Actual Control between India and China will be discussed. The 2+ 2 meeting is due to take place on 26th and 27th October. This the third such dialogue between India and the US. US secretary of state Mike Pompeo and US Defence secretary Mark Esper will be visiting India to meet their Indian counterparts. "Certainly, I think the situation on the Line of Actual Control will be – will probably be discussed at some point, and we’re watching the situation closely. I think both sides have expressed a desire to de-escalate violence," said Dean Thompson, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs. He was speaking with reporters in Washington. "The Third India-US 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue will entail a comprehensive discussion on cross-cutting bilateral issues of mutual interest. In addition, both sides will also exchange views on salient regional and global issues," said MEA Spokesperson Anurag Srivastav on Thursday during the weekly virtual press conference. India and China are engaged in a tensed standoff at LAC in eastern Ladakh, which started in the month of April. The situation got worse in June after 20 Indian soldiers died in Galwan valley due to Chinese aggressiveness, and even though Chinese also suffered casualties, they never came out with any number. On Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement (BECA) a military pact, Thompson said, "We’re in the process of finalizing a lot of the discussions right now, and so I know that BECA and other agreements are in the works. I’m not going to, I think, commit to anything right this minute, but we do expect to have several items highlighted as we go through the trip." BECA will be the last of the 4 foundational military pacts that will be signed to increase interoperability and share information. India and US have already signed the Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement (COMCASA) in 2018, Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA) in 2016, General Security Of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA) in 2002. Asked about the 2+2 happening just a week before the US goes to the election, the state department official said, "the 2+2 had previously been scheduled, has been delayed, and this was an opportunity where schedules worked out to get together, so that’s really what’s driving the opportunity for this trip right now." "There’s a lot happening in the relationship with India and with our other partners in the region, and so the fact that we could go now, that we could have this discussion, is driven by the situation in the region and what – where we’re headed," the official added. The previous two dialogues were held in New Delhi in September 2018 and in Washington DC in December 2019. US Secretary of state will be on a four-country tour next week, starting with India, followed by Sri Lanka, Maldives and Indonesia.

Situation at LAC will be discussed during 2+2 dialogue with India: US State Department

India-born judge Amit Mehta has been assigned US Justice Department's lawsuit against Google. Amit Mehta is an Obama appointee and is a district judge. US Justice Department has filed a civil antitrust lawsuit against Google to stop it from unlawfully maintaining monopolies through anticompetitive and exclusionary practices in the search and search advertising markets and to remedy the competitive harms.

"As one of the wealthiest companies on the planet with a market value of $1 trillion, Google is the monopoly gatekeeper to the internet for billions of users and countless advertisers worldwide. For years, Google has accounted for almost 90 percent of all search queries in the United States and has used anti-competitive tactics to maintain and extend its monopolies in search and search advertising," the Justice Department said.

More on Amit Mehta

Mehta was appointed to the United States District Court for the District of Columbia on December 22, 2014. 
Born in Patan, Gujarat, Mehta received his BA in Political Science and Economics from Georgetown University in 1993 and his JD from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1997. After law school, Mehta worked in a law firm in San Francisco before clerking for Susan Graber of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.&nbsp;

Following his clerkship, Mehta worked at a Washington, DC-based law firm. In 2002, Mehta joined the District of Columbia Public Defender Service as a staff attorney.

Mehta served on the Board of Directors of the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project and is the former co-chair of the District of Columbia Bar's Criminal Law and Individual Rights Section Steering Committee.&nbsp;

He is also a former Director of Facilitating Leadership in Youth, a non-profit organization dedicated to after-school activities and mentoring for at-risk youth, according to his profile on the website of US District Court, District of Columbia.

US Justice Department has filed lawsuit against Google alongwith 11 Attorney Generals of various US states.

The participating state Attorneys General offices represent Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, South Carolina, and Texas.

(With PTI inputs)

India-born judge Amit Mehta has been assigned US Justice Department's lawsuit against Google. Amit Mehta is an Obama appointee and is a district judge. US Justice Department has filed a civil antitrust lawsuit against Google to stop it from unlawfully maintaining monopolies through anticompetitive and exclusionary practices in the search and search advertising markets and to remedy the competitive harms.

India-born judge Amit Mehta has been assigned US Justice Department's lawsuit against Google. Amit Mehta is an Obama appointee and is a district judge. US Justice Department has filed a civil antitrust lawsuit against Google to stop it from unlawfully maintaining monopolies through anticompetitive and exclusionary practices in the search and search advertising markets and to remedy the competitive harms. "As one of the wealthiest companies on the planet with a market value of $1 trillion, Google is the monopoly gatekeeper to the internet for billions of users and countless advertisers worldwide. For years, Google has accounted for almost 90 percent of all search queries in the United States and has used anti-competitive tactics to maintain and extend its monopolies in search and search advertising," the Justice Department said. More on Amit Mehta Mehta was appointed to the United States District Court for the District of Columbia on December 22, 2014. Born in Patan, Gujarat, Mehta received his BA in Political Science and Economics from Georgetown University in 1993 and his JD from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1997. After law school, Mehta worked in a law firm in San Francisco before clerking for Susan Graber of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Following his clerkship, Mehta worked at a Washington, DC-based law firm. In 2002, Mehta joined the District of Columbia Public Defender Service as a staff attorney. Mehta served on the Board of Directors of the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project and is the former co-chair of the District of Columbia Bar's Criminal Law and Individual Rights Section Steering Committee. He is also a former Director of Facilitating Leadership in Youth, a non-profit organization dedicated to after-school activities and mentoring for at-risk youth, according to his profile on the website of US District Court, District of Columbia. US Justice Department has filed lawsuit against Google alongwith 11 Attorney Generals of various US states. The participating state Attorneys General offices represent Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, South Carolina, and Texas. (With PTI inputs)

India-born Judge Amit Mehta to decide on lawsuit against Google

Usa, News on Usa, stories on Usa, articles on Usa, Usa stories at Wion, Usa news, Usa latest news