International

Kamala Harris set to name running mate ahead of swing state tour

Published

8 months ago

August 5, 2024

US Vice-President Kamala Harris

Kamala Harris set to name running mate ahead of swing state tour

WASHINGTON: A new poll confirmed Sunday that Kamala Harris — set to name her vice presidential pick imminently — has drawn level with Donald Trump, transforming a White House race that the Republican had been increasingly confident he was going to win.

As the November 5 election rapidly approaches, Harris has erased the growing lead that Trump was building before President Joe Biden dropped his reelection bid.

According to the CBS News/YouGov poll released Sunday, Harris has a one percent advantage on Trump nationwide — compared to Trump’s previous five point edge on Biden.

In the swing states that decide the Electoral College contest in US elections, Harris and Trump — who shocked the world with his 2016 presidential victory but was beaten by Biden in 2020 — are equal.

These are considered good numbers for a Democratic candidate who parachuted into the race only last month, when Biden bowed to mounting concerns over his mental acuity and ability at 81 years old to serve a second term.

But Harris, who is Biden’s vice president and the first Black and South Asian woman ever in the role, is in a sprint to define herself to voters before Trump does.

A big moment in that process will be when Harris announces her choice for running mate in a historic bid to become America’s first female president.

“It’s her first major decision that she’s making as an executive, so it tells you about her thought process,” Amy Walter, a polling expert from Cook Political Report newsletter, told CBS News.The CBS poll, which echoes numerous other surveys indicating rapid gains by Harris, shows that Trump is still favored by voters on the key issue of the economy.

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Only 25 percent said they expected to be better off financially if Harris wins, compared to 45 percent who said so about Trump.

However, when it comes to trust in the candidates’ temperament, the poll shows voters prefer the former California prosecutor to Trump, a convicted felon who has made a career out of publicly insulting those who oppose him — including while president.

The issue of cognitive health, which used to bedevil Biden, is now a liability for 78-year-old Trump, the poll found. Only 51 percent of respondents thought Trump is mentally capable for the presidency, compared to 64 percent for Harris.

The Democrats believe that if you “make this referendum on Trump rather than a referendum on the current state of the economy, then we have a real opportunity to win,” Cook said.

Trump was riding high politically last month after surviving an assassination attempt at a rally, then using the Republican convention to highlight his image of vigor against the physically frail Biden.

But with Biden’s dramatic exit and Harris’s fast start, he’s scrambling to recalibrate.

At a rally on Saturday in the swing state of Georgia, Trump called Harris a “Marxist” and a “radical left freak,” claiming she would cause an “economic crash.” On Wednesday, he shocked many when he told an audience of Black journalists that Harris had “turned Black” out of political expediency.

On Saturday, the Harris campaign said Trump was “scared” to debate her after he turned down a previously scheduled televised debate on ABC, while saying he’d be ready to debate her on Fox News — a network that has for years given him support.

Who will she choose as runningmate?

All paths to the White House run through a handful of swing states, and Harris will kick off her five-day run Tuesday in the largest — Pennsylvania — as she builds momentum for her showdown with Republican Donald Trump on November 5.

Expectations are that Harris will pick a white man to balance the ticket — and likely a moderate Democrat who would help counterweigh attacks on Harris from Republicans that she is too far to the left.

The three figures seen as heading the short list — Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro and Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona — were all visiting Harris in Washington on Sunday, The Washington Post reported.

“At this moment, we face a choice between two visions for our nation: one focused on the future and the other on the past… This campaign is about people coming together, fueled by love of country, to fight for the best of who we are,” she posted on X.

Fresh from winning enough delegate votes to secure the Democratic nomination, the country’s first female, Black and South Asian vice president heads into the national convention in Chicago in two weeks in total control of her party.

In a campaign that is barely two weeks old, the 59-year-old former prosecutor has obliterated fundraising records, attracted huge crowds and dominated social media on her way to erasing the polling leads Trump had built before President Joe Biden quit the race.

Next on the agenda is a vice presidential pick, with an announcement expected any time before her rally Tuesday evening alongside the mystery nominee in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania’s largest city.

The Keystone State is the most prized real estate among the closely fought battlegrounds that decide the Electoral College system.

It is part of the “blue wall” that carried Biden to the White House in 2020, alongside Michigan and Wisconsin — two states where Harris is due to woo crowds on Wednesday.

Pennsylvania is governed by 51-year-old Democrat Shapiro, a frontrunner in the so-called “veepstakes” shortlist.

Later in the week, Harris will tour the more racially diverse Sun Belt and southern states of Arizona, Nevada, Georgia and North Carolina, as she seeks to shore up the Black and Hispanic vote that had been peeling away from the Democrats.

Just a month ago, Trump was in cruise control, having opened a significant lead in swing state polling after a dismal debate performance by Biden, with the Republican tycoon keeping the country in suspense over his own vice presidential pick.

Trump’s White House bid was upended on July 21 when 81-year-old Biden, facing growing concerns about his age and lagging polling numbers, exited the race and backed Harris.

Energetic and two decades younger than 78-year-old Trump, the vice president has made a fast start, raising $310 million in July, according to her campaign — more than double Trump’s haul.

While Biden made high-minded appeals for a return to civility and the preservation of democracy, Harris has focused on the future, making voters’ hard-fought “freedom” the touchstone of her campaign.

She and her allies have also been more aggressive than the Biden camp — mocking Trump for reneging on his commitment to a September 10 debate and characterizing the convicted felon as an elderly crook and “weird.”

While she has disavowed some of the leftist positions she took during her ill-fated 2020 primary campaign, Harris hasn’t given a wide-ranging interview since jumping into the race, and rally-goers will look for more detail on her plans for the country.

Meanwhile Trump and his Republicans have struggled to adapt to their new adversary or hone their attacks against Harris — at first messaging that she was dangerously liberal on immigration and crime, before suggesting she was lying about being Black.

Kamala Harris set to name running mate ahead of swing state tour

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AI will replace doctors, teachers, others in 10 years – Bill Gates

Published

16 hours ago

March 27, 2025

Trends Admin

Bill Gates

AI will replace doctors, teachers, others in 10 years – Bill Gates

Bill Gates, a co-founder of Microsoft, has claimed that improvements in artificial intelligence (AI) over the next decade may render humans superfluous for the majority of work.

In a recent interview with comedian Jimmy Fallon on NBC’s The Tonight Show in February, the billionaire philanthropist discussed how AI may take over many facets of life and business.

Gates remarked that expertise is currently “rare”, emphasising the continuous reliance on human specialists in industries such as medicine and education.

For example, we continue to rely on highly trained individuals, such as “a great doctor” or “a great teacher”, whose knowledge cannot be simply replaced by AI.

However, “with AI, over the next decade, that will become free, commonplace — great medical advice, great tutoring,” Gates said.

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In other words, Gates believes that the world is entering a new era of “free intelligence”, as he described in a recent interview with Harvard University professor and happiness specialist Arthur Brooks.

According to Gates, this transition will result in rapid breakthroughs in AI-powered technology, making them more accessible and affecting almost every part of our lives.

These breakthroughs will vary from more effective treatments and diagnoses to widely available AI instructors and virtual assistants.

“It’s very profound and even a little bit scary — because it’s happening very quickly, and there is no upper bound,” Gates told Brooks.

The discussion of how humans will fit into an AI-powered future continues.

Some analysts suggest that artificial intelligence will improve human productivity rather than completely replacing labour, hence driving economic growth and creating new jobs.

However, Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman cautions that technological improvements in the coming years will disrupt the nature of most occupations across nearly all industries, potentially exerting a “hugely destabilising” influence on the workforce.

AI will replace doctors, teachers, others in 10 years – Bill Gates

International

Poland suspends migrants’ right to apply for asylum

Published

19 hours ago

March 27, 2025

Trends Admin

Poland suspends migrants’ right to apply for asylum

Poland has temporarily suspended the right of migrants arriving in Poland via its border with Belarus to apply for asylum.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced it would be happening after the controversial bill, which will allow Polish authorities to suspend this right for up to 60 days at a time, was signed into law by President Andrzej Duda.

Tusk had said it would be adopted “without a moment’s delay” while Duda said the changes were needed to strengthen security on the country’s borders.

But the law has been criticized by rights groups including Human Rights Watch, which said the EU should take legal action against Poland if it was implemented.

The group urged the country’s parliament last month to reject the bill, saying it “flies in the face of Poland’s international and EU obligations” and could “effectively completely seal off the Poland-Belarus border, where Polish authorities already engage in unlawful and abusive pushbacks”.

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The government said previously the suspension would only be applied temporarily to people who pose a threat to state security, for example large groups of aggressive migrants trying to storm the border.

Exemptions will be made for unaccompanied minors, pregnant women, the elderly or unwell, anyone exposed to “real risk of serious harm” by being returned and citizens of countries accused of conducting the instrumentalization of migration – like Belarus

Tusk has dismissed criticism from human rights groups.

“Nobody is talking about violating human rights, the right to asylum, we are talking about not granting applications to people who illegally cross the border in groups organised by Lukashenko,” he said in October.

Since 2021, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Finland have seen a huge increase in the number of people crossing into their countries illegally from Belarus and Russia.

Polish authorities have sent thousands of troops and border guards to police its border with Belarus and built a 5.5-metre-high steel fence along 186 km of the frontier where at times several thousand migrants have been left stranded.

Rights groups estimate more than one hundred people have died on the borders between Belarus and Poland, Lithuania and Latvia since 2021.

EU eastern flank countries and the European Commission have accused the Belarusian and Russian authorities of weaponising migration to create a new route into the EU to destabilize the bloc.

Poland suspends migrants’ right to apply for asylum

BBC

International

Trump slaps 25% tariffs on car imports to US

Published

19 hours ago

March 27, 2025

Trends Admin

US President Donald Trump

Trump slaps 25% tariffs on car imports to US

US President Donald Trump has slapped new 25% import duties on autos and car parts entering the US, threatening to escalate the global trade war.

Trump said the additional duties would go into effect on April 2, with levies on businesses importing autos beginning the next day. Charges for parts are scheduled to begin in May or later.

The president stated that the proposal would result in “tremendous growth” for the auto industry, saying that it would boost jobs and investment in the United States.

However, analysts believe the measure will result in a temporary stoppage of significant US vehicle production, higher costs, and strained relations with allies.

Last year, the US imported approximately eight million cars, accounting for approximately $240 billion (£186 billion) in trade and roughly half of total sales.

Mexico is the top foreign supplier of cars to the US, followed by South Korea, Japan, Canada, and Germany.

Trump’s latest move could disrupt global car trade and supply chains. Many US car companies have operations in Mexico and Canada under the terms of the long-standing free trade agreement.

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However, the new taxes on parts from Canada and Mexico are exempt until US Customs and Border Patrol establish a method to assess the duties, according to the White House. Every day, billions of dollars in goods cross borders between neighbouring countries.

On Wednesday, General Motors’ stock fell almost 3%. The sell-off spread to other firms, including Ford, following the president’s speech that reaffirmed the tariffs.

When asked during a news conference if there was any chance he would change his mind, Trump responded no, later adding, “This is permanent.”

“If you build your car in the United States there is no tariff,” he said.

Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba stated that his government would consider all measures in reaction to the taxes.

Japan, home to several major automakers, is the world’s second-largest vehicle exporter.

Japanese automakers’ shares, including Toyota, Nissan, and Honda, sank in early trading in Tokyo.

A tariff is a levy on imports levied by the government and paid by the company importing the goods.

Trump has welcomed the instrument, intending to use it to target a wide range of imported goods as part of a larger effort to defend American industries and increase production.

However, while the rules can protect domestic industries, they also increase costs for businesses that rely on imported parts, such as carmakers.

According to the Anderson Economic Group, 25% tariffs on parts from Mexico and Canada alone could increase the cost of a car by $4,000 to $10,000, depending on the type.