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Electoral College Votes to Affirm Biden’s Victory over Trump
The U.S. Electoral College has voted to affirm the November 3 presidential election, making Joe Biden the 46th president-elect of the United States.
Mr Biden and his running mate, Kamala Harris, also won the popular votes, earning 81.3 million votes, compared to the incumbent Donald Trump’s 74.2 million votes. The Biden-Harris ticket beat the Trump-Pence ticket by about 4.45 percentage points.
President-elect Biden has been officially awarded 306 of the 538 Electoral College votes in the 2020 presidential elections. A candidate requires 270 votes to win.
With the elections results now affirmed, in what comes next in the U.S. electoral process, the Congress will formally receive and tally the Electoral College votes and again confirm Mr Biden’s win on January 6. The official oath of office is slated for January 20.
President Trump has refused to concede the elections and has, so far, instigated about 50 litigations across the country in an attempt to overturn the outcome of the elections. Mr Trump’s legal team has suffered overwhelming and almost uniform failures. The Trump team also suffered two major losses last week when the Supreme Court declined to nullify the presidential elections outcome in Pennsylvania and declined to allow the state of Texas to file a lawsuit challenging electoral outcomes in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, states won by Mr Biden.
This dashed Mr Trump’s hope, which he had hinged on the Supreme Court, which he helped tilt to a 6:3 conservative majority.
In what has been one of the most contentious elections in US history, the entire post-election period has been wrought with bickering and protests. On Saturday, President Trump’s supporters flocked to Washington, D.C. to protest the Supreme Court’s Friday rulings and to declare support for Mr. Trump, who continues to insist with no credible evidence that the elections were rigged against him. In Michigan, the state’s Electoral College members voted behind locked doors in the light of threats of violence against them.
With the elections now certified by the Electoral College, President-elect Biden and Vice-president-elect Harris we’ll take the oath of office on January 20, 2021.
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The first hostages freed from Gaza under a long-awaited ceasefire agreement are back in Israel. The news sparked jubilant scenes in Tel Aviv where large crowds gathered ahead of their release.
The three freed Israeli hostages – the first of 33 to be released over the next six weeks – are Romi Gonen, Doron Steinbrecher and Emily Damari. They are said to be in good health and are receiving treatment at a medical center in Tel Aviv.
In exchange, 90 Palestinian prisoners and detainees are set to be released by Israel from Ofer Prison in the occupied West Bank.
The Israeli military withdrew from several locations in southern and northern Gaza after the truce began earlier on Sunday, an Israeli military official told CNN.
Displaced Gazans have started returning to their homes, while the aid trucks laden with much-needed supplies have crossed into Gaza. Here’s what we know about how the ceasefire deal will work.
Hamas, despite suffering devastating losses, is framing the Gaza ceasefire agreement as a victory for itself, and a failure for Israel.
One of Hamas’ main goals for taking some 250 people during its brazen October 7, 2023, attack on Israel was to secure the release of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails. As Israel pounded Gaza in response, Hamas vowed not to return the hostages until Israel withdrew its forces from the enclave, permanently ended the war, and allowed for rebuilding.
Source: CNN
The leader of UK’s Conservative Party, Kemi Badenoch, has said she doesn’t want Britain to be like Nigeria that is plagued by “terrible governments.”
Speaking on Thursday at an event organised by Onward, a British think tank producing research on economic and social issues, Badenoch expressed fears that Britain may become like Nigeria if the system is not reformed.
“And why does this matter so much to me? It’s because I know what it is like to have something and then to lose it,” Badenoch told the audience.
“I don’t want Britain to lose what it has.
“I grew up in a poor country and watched my relatively wealthy family become poorer and poorer, despite working harder and harder as their money disappeared with inflation.
“I came back to the UK aged 16 with my father’s last £100 in the hope of a better life.
“So I have lived with the consequences of terrible governments that destroy lives, and I never, ever want it to happen here.”
Badenoch has been in the news of late after she dissociated herself from Nigeria, saying she has nothing to do with the Islamic northern region.
She also accused the Nigeria Police of robbing citizens instead of protecting them.
She said: “My experience with the Nigeria Police was very negative. Coming to the UK, my experience with the British Police was very positive.
“The police in Nigeria will rob us (laughter). When people say I have this bad experience with the police because I’m black, I say well…I remember the police stole my brother’s shoe and his watch.”
