The US election is officially open: North Carolina on Friday launched vote-by-mail operations for the Nov. 3 contest between US President Donald Trump and former US vice president Joe Biden, the Democratic presidential candidate, which is getting uglier by the hour.
With two months until election day, Trump is seizing on fears over violent protests in US cities and questioning the integrity of voting by mail, while challenger Biden intensified his criticism of a “deplorable” leader who he said is not fit for office.
Worries about the unabated spread of COVID-19 are expected to prompt a surge in the number of ballots cast by mail, as millions seek to avoid polling stations.
Photo: AFP
In a country on edge over the health crisis and a national reckoning about race, the next 60 days is to test the ability of the world’s largest economy to organize its election while profoundly changed by a pandemic that has killed more than 187,000 Americans.
North Carolina was to begin mailing out more than 600,000 ballots, in response to a major spike in demand.
Other key battleground states such as Wisconsin — which both candidates visited in the past few days — are to follow in the coming weeks.
How Americans vote has become another flashpoint in an increasingly divisive political landscape.
A poll by USA Today and Suffolk University showed that 56 percent of Republican voters surveyed said they would go in person to vote, while only 26 percent of Democrats plan to do the same.
As he seeks a second four-year term, Trump has for months sowed doubt among his base about the legitimacy of an election with a significant number of mail-in votes.
The tense campaign battle heated up on Thursday when The Atlantic magazine reported — citing four anonymous sources who said they had firsthand knowledge of the discussions — that Trump had referred to US Marines buried in a World War I cemetery in France as “losers” and “suckers” for getting killed in action.
The backlash was swift, and Trump sent a barrage of tweets to defend himself.
“The Atlantic magazine is dying, like most magazines, so they make up a fake story in order to gain some relevance,” wrote the president, who went on to assail the report as “a disgrace” in a briefing to White House reporters.
The report left Biden as angry as he has appeared on the campaign trail.
“I just think it is sick, it is deplorable, it is so un-American, it is so unpatriotic,” Biden said of Trump’s quoted remarks, which the Democrat said he believed were accurately reported.
“Who the heck does he think he is?” he added.
CLOSURES: Several forest recreation areas have been closed as a precaution, while some ferry and flight services have been suspended or rescheduled A land warning for Tropical Storm Danas was issued last night at 8:30pm, as the storm’s outer bands began bringing heavy rain to southeastern regions, including Hualien and Taitung counties, and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春半島), according to the Central Weather Administration (CWA). As of 9:15pm, the storm was approximately 330km west-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost tip, moving north-northeast at 10-20kph, the CWA reported. A sea warning had already been issued at 8:30am yesterday. The storm had maximum sustained winds near its center of 83kph, with gusts of up to 108kph, according to the CWA. As of 9:30pm last night, Kaohsiung, Tainan,
POWERFUL DETERRENT: Precision fire and dispersed deployment of units would allow Taiwanese artillery to inflict heavy casualties in an invasion, a researcher said The nation’s military has boosted its self-defense capability with the establishment of a new company equipped with the US-supplied High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS). The company, part of the army’s 58th Artillery Command, is Taiwan’s first HIMARS unit. Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄), who presided over the formation ceremony in Taichung on Friday, called the unit a significant addition to the nation’s defensive strength, saying it would help deter adversaries from starting a war. The unit is made up of top-performing soldiers who received training in the US, according to the Ministry of National Defense. The HIMARS can be equipped with
UNILATERAL: The move from China’s aviation authority comes despite a previous 2015 agreement that any changes to flight paths would be done by consensus The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday slammed Beijing for arbitrarily opening the M503 flight route’s W121 connecting path, saying that such unilateral conduct disrespected the consensus between both sides and could destabilize the Taiwan Strait and the wider region. The condemnation came after the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) earlier yesterday announced it “has activated the W121 connecting path of the M503 flight route,” meaning that west-to-east flights are now permitted along the path. The newly activated west-to-east route is intended to “alleviate the pressure caused by the increase of flights,” China’s state-run Xinhua news agency quoted China’s Taiwan Affairs Office
STRONG WINDS: Without the Central Mountain Range as a shield, people should be ready for high-speed winds, CWA weather forecaster Liu Yu-chi said Danas was yesterday upgraded to a typhoon and could grow stronger as it moves closely along the nation’s west coastline, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Hsinchu and Chiayi cities, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung, as well as Hsinchu, Miaoli, Changhua, Yunlin, Nantou, Chiayi, Penghu and Pingtung counties have canceled work and school today. Work and school in Keelung, Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan, and Yilan, Taitung, Hualien, Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties would continue as usual, although offices and schools would be closed in Taoyuan’s Luju (蘆竹), Dayuan (大園), Guangyin (觀音) and Sinwu (新屋) districts. As of 5pm yesterday, the typhoon’s
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