In August 1974, Richard Nixon resigned the U.S. presidency. President Gerald Ford stepped to the podium and said, “My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over.”
That’s all people wanted Tuesday night — an end to the nightmare. Just some sweet, blessed relief. Sorry folks. By popular demand of over 66,800,000 Americans, the nightmare continues.
Ethiopia faces the prospect of bitter and bloody civil conflict after its prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, ordered a military response to an “attack” by the ruling party of the restive Tigray region on a camp housing federal troops.
“Our defence forces … have been ordered to carry out their mission to save the country. The final point of the red line has been crossed. Force is being used as the last measure to save the people and the country,” Abiy said.
Election Day itself went off far more smoothly than many election officials would have predicted seven months ago, as the pandemic took hold in the middle of primary season. But for months, those officials warned that the expected influx of mail-in votes this year could mean a longer wait before the winner of the presidency was known.
Voters flocked to the polls on Tuesday despite the threat of the coronavirus and long lines to choose between President Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger, Joe Biden, in an election that will influence how the U.S. confronts everything from the pandemic to race relations for years to come.
A judge ordered the U.S. Postal Service to sweep some mail processing facilities on Tuesday afternoon for delayed ballots and immediately dispatch them for delivery in election battlegrounds such Pennsylvania and Florida among other places.
Affected by the order are central Pennsylvania, northern New England, greater South Carolina, south Florida, Colorado, Arizona, Alabama and Wyoming as well as the cities of Atlanta, Houston, Philadelphia, Detroit and Lakeland, Florida.
Every morning, I wake up to the sound of a new nail thudding into the coffin of yet another institution of U.S. democracy. From the craven and brazen police violence this summer to the sitting president’s encouragement of white supremacist militias, to protesters disappearing and being held without charge, to the president’s outright refusal to commit to a peaceful transfer of power, it’s clear that American democracy is on life support.
President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he would only declare victory in his reelection bid “if there’s victory,” following months of concerns and a recent report that he plans to declare himself the winner on election night even if it only looks like he’s ahead.
“I think we’ll have victory,” he said in an interview with “Fox and Friends,” when asked when he would declare it. “Only when there’s victory. There’s no reason to play games.”
In the final sprint of the presidential campaign, both the Biden and Trump camps set their eyes on Pennsylvania, aptly referred to as the Keystone State, a crucial contest that may determine the next president of the United States.
President Trump rallied supporters Monday in Wilkes-Barre two days after holding four separate events across Pennsylvania. Vice President Pence campaigned on Monday in Latrobe and Erie, a county that swung from Obama to Trump in 2016.
On this warm October afternoon, 30 people have gathered for a shield building party in West Oakland’s Lil Bobby Hutton Park. They kneel on a tarp splotched with spray-paint and glitter, stenciling slogans onto two–by–four-foot plywood rectangles with rounded corners that have been buzz-sawed in batches of three. The shields are hefty, but are easily carried with one arm through the straps that are being attached to each one after it’s painted, along with a strip of foam to protect the forearm of someone carrying it for hours.
The shields are a project of the Oakland Builders Collective, a volunteer crew that has spent the past few months making 500 shields for protesters to use to protect themselves. So far, the collective has provided custom-made shields to more than 10 activist groups in 5 Bay Area cities. Even with the help of dozens of volunteers like those who have come out today, it is “already beyond capacity,” says Forrest Schmidt, one of the group’s founders.