Page 31 - Us Elections

US Cong okays short-term extension to buy more time for final spending deal

Congress passed another short-term spending measure Thursday that would keep one set of federal agencies operating through March 8 and another set through March 22, avoiding a shutdown for parts of the federal government that would otherwise kick in Saturday. The bill now goes to President Joe Biden to be signed into law. The short-term extension is the fourth in recent months, and many lawmakers expect it to be the last for the current fiscal year. House Speaker Mike Johnson said negotiators had completed six of the annual spending bills that fund federal agencies and had almost final agreement on the others. We'll get the job done, Johnson said as he exited a closed-door meeting with Republican colleagues. The House acted first Thursday. The vote to approve the extension was 320-99. It easily cleared the two-thirds majority needed for passage. Democrats overwhelmingly voted to avert a partial shutdown. But the vote was much more divided with Republicans, 113 in support and 97 ...

Biden, Trump tour US-Mexico border, highlight immigration as election issue

Three hundred miles apart, President Joe Biden and likely Republican challenger Donald Trump walked the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas Thursday, dueling trips underscoring how important immigration has become for the 2024 election and how much each man wants to use it to his advantage. Each chose an optimal location to make his points, their schedules remarkably similar. They each got a briefing on operations and issues, walked along the border and gave remarks that overlapped. But that's where the comparisons ended. Biden, who sought to spotlight how Republicans tanked a bipartisan border security deal on Trump's orders, went to the Rio Grande Valley city of Brownsville. For nine years, this was the busiest corridor for illegal crossings, but they have dropped sharply in recent months. The president walked a quiet stretch of the border along the Rio Grande, and received a lengthy operations briefing from Homeland Security agents who talked to him bluntly about what more they needed.

Donald Trump to stay on Illinois ballot as he appeals January 6 ban

The decision removes the possibility of a fresh showdown threatening Trump's appearance on a primary ballot, for now

Biden, Trump win in Michigan primaries, edging closer to 2024 rematch

Trump easily defeated his final major challenger, Nikki Haley, according to the Associated Press and other news organizations

Chatbots' incorrect responses on US polls threaten to disenfranchise voters

With presidential primaries underway across the U.S., popular chatbots are generating false and misleading information that threatens to disenfranchise voters, according to a report published Tuesday based on the findings of artificial intelligence experts and a bipartisan group of election officials. Fifteen states and one territory will hold both Democratic and Republican presidential nominating contests next week on Super Tuesday, and millions of people already are turning to artificial intelligence -powered chatbots for basic information, including about how their voting process works. Trained on troves of text pulled from the internet, chatbots such as GPT-4 and Google's Gemini are ready with AI-generated answers, but prone to suggesting voters head to polling places that don't exist or inventing illogical responses based on rehashed, dated information, the report found. The chatbots are not ready for primetime when it comes to giving important, nuanced information about ...

Donald Trump wins South Carolina, beating Nikki Haley in her home state

Donald Trump won South Carolina's Republican primary on Saturday, beating former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley in her home state and further consolidating his path to a third straight GOP nomination. Trump has now swept every contest that counted for Republican delegates, with wins already in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The former president's latest victory will likely increase pressure on Haley, who was Trump's former representative to the UN and South Carolina governor from 2011 to 2017, to leave the race. A 2020 general rematch between Trump and President Joe Biden is becoming increasingly inevitable. Haley has vowed to stay in the race through at least the batch of primaries on March 5, known as Super Tuesday, but was unable to dent Trump's momentum in her home state despite holding far more campaign events and arguing that the indictments against Trump will hamstring him against Biden. South Carolina's first-in-the-South primary has historically been a

March Fed pivot ruled out, May rate cut less likely: Vikram Sahu

Sahu says the US elections and Fed pivot will benefit emerging markets (EMs) this year

Stalled US aid for Ukraine shows GOP's shift away from confronting Russia

At about 2 a.m. last Tuesday, Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin stood on the Senate floor and explained why he opposed sending more aid to help Ukraine fend off the invasion launched in 2022 by Russian President Vladimir Putin. I don't like this reality," Johnson said. Vladimir Putin is an evil war criminal. But he quickly added: Vladimir Putin will not lose this war. That argument that the Russian president cannot be stopped so there's no point in using American taxpayer dollars against him marks a new stage in the Republican Party's growing acceptance of Russian expansionism in the age of Donald Trump. The GOP has been softening its stance on Russia ever since Trump won the 2016 election following Russian hacking of his Democratic opponents. There are several reasons for the shift. Among them, Putin is holding himself out as an international champion of conservative Christian values and the GOP is growing increasingly sceptical of overseas entanglements. Then there's ...

US cannot be the last nation to ban Chinese app TikTok, says Nikki Haley

Describing Chinese-owned app TikTok as dangerous, Republican presidential aspirant Nikki Haley has said that when countries like India and Nepal have banned this social media platform, the US cannot be the last nation to do the same. What everybody needs to know is China is controlling all of that, Haley, the Indian-American former US Ambassador to the UN, said during a Fox News town hall. If you want to know how it affects you, just imagine by having that app on your phone, China can now see your finances, they can now see who your contacts are. They can see what you click on, why you click on it and how it affects you. They can impact what you see. And they can impact what you hear. That is the dangerous part of TikTok, Haley, 52, said on Sunday. And India has banned it. You had Nepal just banned it because it was causing social disruption. America can't be the last country to ban TikTok. Let's end it now and stop it so it doesn't hurt our children any further, Haley said in ...

US electoral financing based on pvt fundraising, transparency: Top official

America's electoral financing system is based on private fundraising and emphasis on transparency, with a candidate allowed to accept up to USD 3,300 from any individual while the limit for party committees is USD 41,300, according to a top US Federal Election Commission official. Ellen L Weintraub, Vice Chair of the US's Federal Election Commission, spoke to PTI in an interview taken following the recent landmark ruling by India's Supreme Court to scrap the central government's electoral bonds scheme of anonymous political funding, calling it "unconstitutional" and ordering disclosure of the bond's donors, amount and recipients by March 13. We have a system that is based on private fundraising, but public transparency. Most of the money is raised privately, but it does have to be disclosed on a regular basis, Weintraub said. The Federal Election Commission (FEC) is the independent regulatory agency charged with administering and enforcing the federal campaign finance law. The FEC,

US elections 2024: Donald Trump clinches victory at Virgin Islands caucus

Donald Trump amassed another win at a Republican caucus held Thursday in the U.S. Virgin Islands, where officials flouted several GOP party rules, including holding the contest earlier than allowed. The caucus is the third Republican contest held this election season with delegates at stake, with Trump receiving 73.98% of the votes and Nikki Haley 26.02%. I want to thank you all. We had a tremendous victory, Trump said in brief remarks by phone to those who gathered in St. Thomas to hear the results. We expected to win, but we didn't expect to win by that much. You are incredible people I will never forget. Voters in St. Croix, St. Thomas and St. John flocked to a variety of venues, including a rum bar, to nominate their candidate using ranked-choice voting. 'The weather is terrible, but we've had a great turnout, said Valerie Stiles, a 71-year-old who works in retail sales and voted early on Thursday. Stiles, who has lived 31 years on St. Croix, said many voters are angry about l

Biden wins primary in Nevada, while votes still being counted for GOP race

Nevada's dueling presidential caucuses and primaries this week are creating confusion among voters, and those who cast ballots in the first contest Tuesday had the option of supporting none of these candidates. Nikki Haley ran in Tuesday's Republican primary, which won't count for the GOP nomination, while Donald Trump is the only major candidate in Thursday's Republican caucuses, which does. The split races have undercut the influence of the third state on the GOP calendar. It also may have brought a ho-hum approach to Tuesday's contests, where the day started with lower-than-expected voter turnout. In the first two hours after polls opened, officials said 183 people had voted in person in Washoe County, the state's second-largest county by population. In Clark County, home to Las Vegas and Nevada's most-populated county, 2,298 people voted in person during the same two-hour period. Nevada voters also have the option to vote by mail or before election day. There was also a Democrat

He's not for anything; he's against everything: Biden slams Trump in speech

"The American people get it. They understand what's going on," he said during the speech

Biden wins South Carolina's Democratic primary, gears up for reelection bid

President Joe Biden has won South Carolina's Democratic primary, notching an overwhelming 2024 victory in the state that vaulted him to the White House four years ago. Biden on Saturday defeated the other longshot Democrats on South Carolina's ballot, including Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips and author Marianne Williamson. The president's campaign had invested heavily in driving up turnout for Biden, aiming to test-drive efforts to mobilize Black voters, who are a key part of the Democratic vote in South Carolina and central to Biden's strategy for victory in November.

Donald Trump races toward 2024 Biden rematch after New Hampshire win

The back-to-back wins put Trump on track to deliver a knockout blow to Haley next month in her home state of South Carolina and turn his attention to all-but-certain rematch with President Joe Biden

Equity, money markets in the US remain polarised, says Chris Wood

Another key development in the US, that the global equity markets would eye over the next few months, is how the political landscape shapes up ahead of the presidential elections

Donald Trump 2.0?

A second term might increase global risks

Trump's comeback endorsed by former rival Burgum ahead of Iowa caucuses

North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum endorsed Donald Trump's comeback bid for the White House on Sunday ahead of the Iowa caucuses, a month after he ended his own longshot campaign for the Republican nomination. Burgum appeared on stage with the former president at a rally in Indianola, where he heaped praise for Trump. "I've had an opportunity to have a front-row seat," Burgum said. "I've seen President Trump and what he's been able to do. I've seen it as a business leader and I've seen it as a governor. I've seen the difference that President Trump can make." The support from Burgum, who did not build a substantial base in his own presidential campaign, is unlikely to make a difference in the Monday caucuses, which polls indicate Trump is likely to dominate. But it reflects the sense of inevitability surrounding Trump's candidacy as his remaining rivals try to build their movement against him. When Burgum dropped out, he blamed his inability to resonate in the race on the Republican

Trump criticises Ramaswamy publicly ahead of Iowa caucus

Former US president Donald Trump for the first time has lashed out at his rival Vivek Ramaswamy, who is most closely aligned with him in the race for the Republican nomination, accusing the Indian-American entrepreneur of engaging in deceitful campaign tricks". Trump's remarks came ahead of the Iowa caucuses on Monday, marking the beginning of the long process by which the Republicans and Democrats choose their nominees for the presidential election. The comments come after a series of remarks and posts by Ramaswamy, 38, that have angered Trump and his team. Trump's criticism stemmed from shirts that Ramaswamy's campaign is handing out that say 'Save Trump, Vote Vivek' on them. Ramaswamy posted a photo with a group of young men wearing them after his event in Rock Rapids, Iowa, on Saturday, which caught the former president's attention. Vivek started his campaign as a great supporter, the best President in generations,' etc. Unfortunately, now all he does is disguise his support i

Bill Ackman contributes $1 mn to support Dean Phillips to challenge Biden

Ackman's support of Phillips, 54, amplifies some of the worst fears of the Biden campaign: Donors and voters are unenthusiastic about reelecting the 81-year-old president