An army of global journalists is descending on the US to cover Election Day today in a reflection of unprecedented worldwide interest in the US presidential election.
“Our audience’s interest in the US presidential election this time is definitely much higher than the last time four years ago,” said Keiko Matsuyama, who is coordinating an 11-member team for Japan’s TV Asahi’s US vote coverage.
“Our viewers — as well as we reporters — are interested in the rise of the first African-American US president. Also, interest is mounting about US policies to address the financial crisis,” she said.
TV Asahi, one of Japan’s private broadcasters, said it would begin live coverage of the results from 10:30am Japan time tomorrow.
Japanese aren’t the only viewers caught up in the historic election.
“There has been a huge interest in Africa,” said Constance Ikokwu, Washington correspondent from the Nigerian newspaper This Day.
“There is an emotional attachment between Africans and Senator [Barack] Obama,” she said.
Because of media fascination with the most prominent African-American candidate to date, as well as polls that show Obama leading his Republican rival Senator John McCain, more journalists have chosen to base themselves in Chicago than in Phoenix, Arizona, where McCain serves as senator.
“I don’t think we have ever seen media interest in a US presidential election this high,” said Keith Peterson, Media Relations Officer at the State Department’s Washington Foreign Press Center. “The numbers of reporters have been astonishing, especially those coming in for the last couple of weeks.”
Some reporting teams are making the rounds of the US to try and capture everyday realities in the country.
The daily Clarin newspaper out of Buenos Aires has sent reporters along the legendary Route 66, which cuts across the country, to “meet people, go inside towns and post Internet photos, videos and blogs” about their experiences, said Marcelo Cantelmi, chief international editor.
For French channels Canal Plus and I-Tele, anchor Michel Denisot will report to a team of special correspondents in Chicago, Phoenix and New York.
In all, 50 team members will combine to broadcast eight hours of continuous coverage on a special show called American Night. US veteran broadcaster Dan Rather will comment exclusively for European audiences on voting day.
“There is enormous curiosity about Barack Obama, who has become something of a phenomenon in French society,” said Laurence Haim, the chief New York editor of Canal Plus. “People want to see if someone who is an outsider and is black is going to win the US presidential election.”
However, she lamented the “extremely difficult access for foreign media.”
In India, the US presidential debates were broadcast live on major channels.
“We are very interested in what happens in the elections for obvious reasons — the implications for Asia, India in particular, and the economic crisis,” said Amit Baruah, foreign editor of the English daily the Hindustan Times.
Al-Jazeera said it was sending 12 extra journalists to key locations in the US, such as swing states Florida, Ohio, Virginia, Colorado and Illinois.
“The interest in the region is tremendous, as we have already found out through several months of coverage,” said Abderrahim Foukara, Washington bureau chief at al-Jazeera. “That is so for at least two reasons: US involvement in the [Middle East] region and Barack Obama being the first African-American presidential candidate with a real chance of becoming president of the United States.”
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS