Pascal Arogorn Ibe
…Trump’s lead in Pennsylvania narrowed, catching up with Biden in Arizona
.….Iran’s supreme leader mocks US democracy
Leading U.S. Presidential candidate Joe Biden is already revealing his policy direction, once he gets into office on 20 January, 2021.
He said he would return the United States to the UN brokered Paris Climate Agreement.
Outgoing President Trump withdrew the US from the agreement, which the Obama administration had signed.
The withdrawal became effective on Thursday.
But Biden in a tweet said:
“Today, the Trump Administration officially left the Paris Climate Agreement. And in exactly 77 days, a Biden Administration will rejoin it.”
The accord is a collective agreement among nearly 200 countries that aims to prevent the earth’s temperatures from rising 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial revolution temperatures.
Climate scientists claim this will have disastrous consequences if exceeded.
The consequences could be rising sea levels and more extreme weather events, such as hurricanes, drought and wildfires.
In 2017, Trump announced his intention to withdraw from the agreement, claiming it could be economically detrimental and cost 2.5 million Americans their jobs by 2025.
Trump’s lead in Pennsylvania narrowed, catching up with Biden in Arizona
President Donald Trump’s wide margin lead in Pennsylvania, one of the key battlegrounds, has been narrowed by challenger, Joe Biden.
Likewise, Trump is catching up very fast with Biden in another battleground of Arizona.
The race to the White House is getting tighter.
On Wednesday, Trump led in Pennsylvania with over 500,000 votes, but as at Thursday morning, Biden has narrowed the gap to 164,000 votes, with more votes still to be counted.
Eleven percent of the votes in Pennsylvania have not been counted and many of them are mail votes, believe to be in favour of Biden.
As it stands, Trump has polled 3,215,969 votes (50.7%), while Biden has 3,051,555 votes (48.1%)
Trump has raised allegation of electoral fraud against him in Pennsylvania. The State has 20 electoral votes.
In a tweet, Trump said: “They are working hard to make up 500,000 vote advantage in Pennsylvania disappear — ASAP. Likewise, Michigan and others!”
According to Trump, “They are finding Biden votes all over the place — in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan. So bad for our Country!”
In Arizona, where Biden has been leading comfortably, as at Wednesday, Trump has sprung up surprise, narrowing the lead drastically.
The biggest county in Arizona has just released the second of two sets of new votes promised Wednesday night – shrinking Joe Biden’s lead there by just over 10,000 votes.
Updated vote totals released by Maricopa County after 2:30 a.m. Thursday show Biden with 912,585 votes and Trump with 838,071.
Previously, Maricopa, the state’s most populous county, was reporting 887,457 votes for Biden and 802,160 for Trump.
The release came as Maricopa County officials were forced to close the Phoenix election office building to the public due to growing pro-Trump protests outside.
as it stands, Biden leads in Arizona after garnering 1,469,341 (50.5%), with Trump trailing with 1,400,951 votes (48.1%).
Biden now lead with 68,000 votes in Arizona, with 14 percent of the votes yet to be counted. Arizona has 11 electoral votes.
Iran’s supreme leader mocks US democracy
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has mocked the rancorous aftermath of election day in the United States, saying that the vote has exposed the reality of US democracy.
Well over 24 hours after the last polling stations closed in the US state of Alaska, the battle for the White House remains undecided.
US President Donald Trump has caused disquiet among even leaders of his own Republican Party by flatly alleging fraud, while his Democratic challenger Joe Biden’s campaign team has accused the incumbent of seeking to deny the electoral rights of tens of thousands of postal voters.
“What a spectacle!” supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei tweeted late Wednesday.
“One says this is the most fraudulent election in US history. Who says that? The president who is currently in office.
“His rival says Trump intends to rig the election! This is how #USElections & US democracy are.”
The deepening polarisation of US politics since Trump’s surprise election victory four years ago has drawn expressions of concern even from Western allies, with Germany warning of a “very explosive situation” in the aftermath of the poll.
Despite US allegations that Tehran sought to use social media to influence voters in the run-up to polling day, Iran’s leadership has publicly insisted it favours neither candidate, despite their sharply divergent policies towards Tehran.
Trump has led a campaign of “maximum pressure” against the Islamic republic, pulling Washington out of a multilateral deal on Iran’s nuclear programme and reimposing crippling unilateral sanctions.
Biden has signalled he is ready to rejoin the landmark nuclear agreement struck in 2015 when he served as vice president under Trump’s predecessor Barack Obama.
But on Tuesday, Khamenei insisted the outcome of the election would have no impact on Iranian policy.
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