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Joint session of US congress certified victory of Joe Biden after US Capitol storming

US Capitol storming

Congress ratified Joe Biden’s election victory after a day in which a mob of Trump supporters had stormed the Capitol. President Trump issued a statement saying that there would be an “orderly transition” on January 20. Subsequently, Biden forged ahead with his Justice picks.

After authorities regained control of the Capitol complex, Congress returned to work, holding two rounds of votes that culminated in affirmation of Biden’s win early Thursday.

Joe Biden was formally recognized by Congress as the next U.S. president early Thursday, ending two months of failed challenges by his predecessor, Donald Trump that exploded into violence at the U.S. Capitol as lawmakers met to ratify the election result.

Also read: Trends in Foreign Policy of US

The Democratic president-elect’s victory was sealed after House and Senate members fended off a final round of objections to the November 3 election outcome raised by a handful of Republicans on Trump’s behalf. The proceedings were disrupted for several hours as pro-Trump demonstrators overran police lines, besieged the House chamber and entered the Senate chamber, sending lawmakers fleeing for safety.

Mike Pence defied Trump

Before the storming of the US Capitol complex by Trump supporters, US Vice-President Mike Pence had rejected pressure from President Donald Trump to refuse to certify President-elect Joe Biden’s election win, saying that he (Trump) does not have the authority anymore.

“It is my considered judgement that my oath to support and defend the constitution constrains me from claiming unilateral authority to determine which electoral votes should be counted and which should not,” Pence had said in a statement prior to the joint session of Congress that finally certified Biden’s win.

Pence’s refusal to comply with Trump’s wishes was expected as he had conveyed his decision to the president in a meeting, that he does not have the constitutional authority to reject or overturn the election. But Trump, unable to accept the election outcome had persisted, openly called for his deputy to “come through”.

Merrick Garland introduced by Biden as his Attorney General pick

Joe Biden introduced his choice for U.S. attorney general, Merrick Garland, during an event in Wilmington, Delaware. Garland is currently a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in Washington. But he is likely best known as a nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court who was refused even a hearing by Senate Republicans after President Barack Obama nominated him to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia in 2016.

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Changes being brought in by the transition team in the White House in domestic and foreign policies

Biden

The transition team of Biden is handling the new orientations of the domestic and foreign policies of the administration of the incoming president-elect.

Biden’s take on domestic issues

The incoming team of the new President-elect of the USA is gradually getting in a final shape and so are its policies and various associated architectures. Data shows that Biden was propelled to victory by the youth, who find hopes in his arrival, especially after the events of the current year in context of the pandemic and the black lives matter movement. In the face of Covid19, which had caused economic distress around the world, the National Economic Council (NEC) of the US saw expansion under the incoming President Joe Biden. The team, especially Biden took a jibe at Trump regarding the Russian hack and over the virus aid. Bided stated that the Russian cyberattack occurred on Trump’s watch. He also stressed that after his inauguration, more relief would come in matters of Virus aid and the economic distress caused by the Coronavirus pandemic. David Kamin, who was an official in the Obama administration, has been made the deputy director of the NEC. A top economic advisor to Senator Elizabeth Warren’s 2020 presidential campaign, Bharat Ramamurti, will work as the deputy director in the NEC for Financial Reform and Consumer Protection, as has been recently revealed by Biden’s team. Joe Biden as President would have Joelle Gamble as the Special assistant for Economic Policy.

Biden in a recent speech called for unity among the Americans. He stressed on the need to work in a bipartisan way in the face of the pandemic. Biden also underscored that the American voters have made it clear in the election of 2020, that they want the government to reach and work across the aisle in the matters of national concerns. Biden also castigated the Trump administration for failing to deal with the issue of cybersecurity by either downgrading or eliminating the cyber-coordinators in both the White House and at the State department levels. It also included the firing of the director of the Cyberspace and Infrastructure security agency. President-elect Biden stressed on the importance of cybersecurity in an age where so much of the work is dependent on “being online” and hence on the need to treat cybersecurity with seriousness.

In the spirit of his call for unity, Biden had appreciated the Trump administration’s speed to bring out the vaccine but expressed dismay at the Defence Department not briefing the new team with reference to the transition meetings. The US Congress in response to the economic damage resulted due to the Covid19 pandemic, had recently passed a $900 billion coronavirus relief package. While Trump had been out of sight in the days ahead of Christmas, and had said little about the Russian cyber-hack, the stimulus bill, his election loss or even the roll-out of vaccine, Biden stepped in to fill the void and called the stimulus bill a down payment on a bigger bill. Trump while still reluctant to accept his defeat had called the Coronavirus relief bill a disgrace. The interesting thing to note is that while the victory of Joe Biden has been officially affirmed, Trump is still in a denial mode. It got reflected when he said with regards to the Coronavirus relief package that the next administration, which he said will be his, will have to deal with it.

Biden as a measure to assure the US citizens of the safety of the vaccine publicly received his first dose of the vaccine for the novel Coronavirus, produced by Pfizer & BioNtech

Biden’s take on foreign policy

By bringing in experienced professionals on the table, Biden is set to replace diplomacy by tweet and unpredictability of Trump and his chaotic nature with a suave & polished approach to foreign policy. The prominent challenges for the incoming team would be over various matters like climate change, trade war with China, peace in Middle East & Afghanistan and many others. Biden had also raised hopes when he indicated that he will bring the USA back into commitment for the Paris climate accords of 2015. The naming of Kerry as the climate envoy had been appreciated by many. Some have pointed out the slow pace of climate diplomacy under Kerry, but the fact that he was the main driver of the climate accords of 2015 cannot be avoided. Compared to the complete denial of climate change by Trump, Kerry can certainly push the climate deals and commitments ahead. A crucial engagement for the US under Biden would in the matter of the Iranian nuclear deal which it had exited under Trump. The exit of the US from the Iranian nuclear deal or the JCPOA had led Iran to go ahead with its Uranium enrichment. But, after the beginning of the transition of Biden, there have been talks of possible reentry of the US into the deal. The Iranians have shown hopes that they are ready to coordinate with IAEA and would “rapidly reverse” the infringements once the other participating nations in the deal led by the US perform their duties. The assassination of the Iranian nuclear scientist may complicate the approach platform for the USA nevertheless the chances are still bright for re-engagement of the US with Iran.

Inclusion of Jake Sullivan as the National security advisor, Antony Blinken as the secretary of state, Linda Thomas as the US ambassador to the UN, would enable Biden to bring the US back into the centrestage of world politics and global diplomacy leadership from which it withdrew under Trump. Biden most likely will engage with the world in the same way as Bill Clinton did in the 1990s.

The cabinet of Biden has been identified as the multicultural dream-team. Apart from two white men-Blinken and Sullivan, it has Lloyd Austin III, a  retired four-star general as the secretary of defense, and a black running the pentagon, a Taiwanese American, Katherine Tai chosen as the US trade representative and two Indian Americans- Neera Tanden and Kamala Harris chosen as the head of office of management and budget and the Vice president respectively.

Important to note is the inclusion of Jake Sullivan, who is drawing a humbler and introspecting approach to foreign policy and diplomacy of the US. Sullivan is known to work upon the connection of the foreign policy for the middle class. In other words, he would try to bridge the domestic issues and the needs of the foreign policy of USA while bringing the country in the centre of leadership, without incurring too much cost of being a world leader.

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New President-elect Joe Biden looks forward to developing a secure and peaceful Indo-Pacific region

The new President-elect 2020, Joe Biden has already begun planning out for a better future for the Americans and their relations with other countries. On Wednesday, November 11, Biden had talked with the leaders of Japan, Australia, and South Korea to maintain a peaceful and steady Indo-Pacific region. The leaders from the 3 countries had given congratulatory calls to the President-elect for his astonishing victory in the US Presidential elections 2020.

As per the call readouts issued by the transition team, he had discussed this matter with Yoshihide Suga, the Prime Minister of Japan, Moon Jae, the President of South Korea, and Scott Morrison, the Prime Minister of Australia.

In his discussion with PM Suga, Biden emphasized his desires to strengthen the US-Japan relationship and expressed his commitment to the US-Japan commitment under Article V. According to the call readouts, he also thanked Suga for congratulating him for winning the elections and had complimented the PM in turn for his unshakable leadership in Japan.

During his call with Moon Jae, Biden underscored his wish to build up a stronger alliance between South Korea and the US focusing on developing a secure and prosperous Indo-Pacific region. He had discussed working together on some of the shared challenges such as Climate change and North Korea, along with developing a strong alliance to strengthen democracy. Biden also congratulated Moon for handling the Covid-19 pandemic with utter determination as a strong and dedicated leader.

Australia and US have a common-shared history and value as mentioned by Joe Biden in his talks with the Australian Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, as per the readouts of their call. He discussed how the two countries have always supported each other constantly since the time of World War I. The two leaders focused upon working together against some of the common challenges such as Climate change, Covid-19 pandemic, global economic recovery, and development of a secure Indo-Pacific region.

Joe Biden became the new President-elect on November 8, 2020, after receiving 290 electoral college votes, defeating Donald Trump in the election battle.

The author is a student member of Amity Centre of Happiness

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Biden moves ahead with plans of action by forming task force while Trump remains in denial mode

After the reporting of counting confirmed (by the Associated Press, the Decision Desk HQ, the NBC News Service, and others) that the Democrat leader Joe Biden has won the presidential race, the president-elect has moved ahead with a plan to contain the pandemic and to unite and heal the country. Biden has taken his firm steps toward claiming the Presidency. All of this is happening with Donald Trump in his denial mode refusing to believe the counting and the results.

Biden has promised a much more muscular response to the Covid19 pandemic than he says Trump has made. Till now the virus has infected 9.7 million people in the U.S. and killed more than 236,000 people as daily case counts continue to rise. In this regard, on Monday, President-elect Biden formed a task force under the name of COVID advisory board which would have three co-chairs. One of the co-chairs is Vivek Murthy, an Indo-American surgeon general. The other two co-chairs are David Kessler and Marcella Nunez- Smith. David Kessler had been the Commissioner of the USFDA from 1990-to 1997 and Vivek Murthy had been vocal on issues like gun-control and opioid crisis. Murthy has experience as the Vice-Admiral of the US Public Health Service Commissioned Corps. In this role, he had dealt with crises like Ebola, Zika, and Flint water crisis. The advisory board has 13 members in total.

Apart from the main issues like Covid19 crisis in which the US is the worst-hit nation in the world, Biden is simultaneously moving towards the appointments to White House staff jobs. Maintaining his standard and well-appreciated stance of coordinating across the aisle with the Republican leaders, he reasserted his stance of coordination and good working relationship with the leaders of the GOP.

On the other hand, Trump’s denial had thrown many Republicans into shock with many unable to embrace the position held by Trump, throwing the White House staff into a situation of power vaccum. He seems to be avoiding or unable to digest the fact that Biden stands to win around 306 Electoral College votes, which is way beyond the required threshold of 270 needed to win the Presidency. Trump’s campaign is raising money for a legal fight to challenge the counting though it is understood by observers that he does not have enough to cut through Biden’s count of electoral college votes.

As required under the 57-year-old Presidential Transition Act, the administrator of the General Services Administration, a Trump appointee, has so far not formally acknowledged that Biden has won the election. Certification by the GSA administrator allows the transition teams to fan across the federal government, access expanded office space, start tapping into $6 million of funding, and study detailed agency briefing books.

Former President George W. Bush has not been a Trump supporter and at one point was also slammed by Trump for not supporting him on critical ideological issues. Bush has only spoken in particularly fraught moments over the last four years. In the current environment of denial and avoidance, George W. Bush sent a clear signal to the Republican Party to back away from the brink of outright denialism as Trump toys with a legal fight that could spur a transition crisis. To put the message and his intention clearly, Bush issued a statement saying that he had called Biden, whom he referred to as the president-elect. He said that he had congratulated Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris on their victory, and offered his support during the transition.

Biden, after getting congratulatory messages from leaders around the world, and from Republicans like Bush, had said that his mandate is to curb the pandemic, rebuild the economy, fight climate change, root out the systemic racism, and expand access to health care. Apart from forming the task force on Covid19, Biden has promised to return US into the Paris climate accord of 2015. He further added that he would attempt to restore a bipartisan spirit in a bitterly divided Washington. A prominent Biden ally, Democratic Senator Chris Coon of Delaware, called on Trump to back the talks on a New Coronavirus Relief Package during the time before Biden is sworn into the White House, adding that this way the outgoing President can show some graciousness. Jim Kenney, mayor of Philadelphia, stated in a press meet that Trump should put his big boys pants on, accept his defeat, and leave the office with grace.

Trump’s denialism to accept his defeat got evinced recently when he fired the Defence Secretary Mark Esper over the latter’s opposition over using the military on the streets during protests over racial injustice earlier this year. Representative Adam Smith, Democrat of Washington and Chairman of House Armed Services Committee responded to this latest firing by stating that this is not just childish but also reckless.

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Joe Biden defeated Trump to become the President elect of USA: calls for unity, to leave the rhetoric behind, and to get together to heal

Joe Biden became president-elect this Saturday after winning the pivotal state of Pennsylvania.  He defeated Trump in an election he made about character of the nation and the President. The former vice president had amassed 273 Electoral College votes after winning Pennsylvania’s 20 electors, surpassing the 270 needed to win the White House and defeat President Donald Trump. Biden’s votes touched 290 as per the Associated Press.

Mechanism of electoral votes

The winner of the election is determined through a system called the electoral college. Each of the 50 states, plus Washington DC, is given a number of electoral college votes, adding up to a total of 538 votes. More populous states get more electoral-college votes than smaller ones. A candidate needs to win 270 electoral-college votes (50% plus one) to win the election. In every state except two, Maine and Nebraska, the candidate that gets the most votes wins all of the state’s electoral-college votes. Due to these rules, a candidate can win the election without getting the most votes at the national level. This happened at the last election, in which Donald Trump won a majority of electoral-college votes although more people voted for Hillary Clinton across the US.

Results reporting

The Associated Press (AP) calls out the election results. AP “call” the winner in a state when they determine that the trailing candidate has no path to victory. This can happen before 100% of votes in a state have been counted. Estimates for the total votes in each state are also provided by AP. The numbers update throughout election night, as more data on voter turnout becomes available.

After four years of Trump’s incessant lies, bullying and vilification of his political opponents, Biden said, he was running to restore the character of the nation and bring dignity back to the White House. Biden, who turns 78 at the end of this month, will become the oldest president when he is inaugurated in January in the midst of the worst public health emergency in 100 years, the deepest economic slump since the 1930s and a national reckoning on racism and police brutality, (which the nation witnessed in Minneapolis) that is still unresolved.

Biden’s victory capped one of the longest and most tumultuous campaigns in modern history, in which he maintained an aggressive focus on Trump’s widely criticized handling of the Covid-19 pandemic. A majority of voters said that rising coronavirus cases were a significant factor in their vote.

Biden regularly criticized Trump as unfit for office of the POTUS and positioned his campaign as a “battle for the soul of America.” He promised from the outset of his run to heal and unite the country if he won, and made central to his closing message a pledge to represent both those who voted for him as well as those who did not when he got to the White House.

In a statement issued, Biden said that he was “honoured” by the news and reiterated the calls for unity that had been a hallmark of his campaign speeches in recent weeks.

“I am honoured and humbled by the trust the American people have placed in me and in Vice President-elect Harris,” Biden said.

“With the campaign over, it’s time to put the anger and the harsh rhetoric behind us and come together as a nation. It’s time for America to unite. And to heal,” he said. “We are the United States of America. And there is nothing we can not do, if we do it together.”

His running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris, said in a tweet that “this election is about so much more” than Biden and herself. “It’s about the soul of America and our willingness to fight for it. We have a lot of work ahead of us. Let’s get started,” she said.

Biden will be sworn in as the 46th U.S. president on January 20. Harris will become the first female, first Black, and first South Asian American vice president.

As president, Biden will immediately be confronted with a bitterly divided nation in the throes of a pandemic that has already killed 236,000 Americans. Trump has exacerbated the split by minimizing the effects of the pandemic, and has not even said whether he would recognize the outcome of the election.

He will also have to corral a fractious Democratic Party with unresolved tensions between its progressive and centrist wings.

Biden, who turns 78 on November 20 and will be the oldest incoming president in U.S. history, first ran for the nation’s highest office more than 30 years ago. A longtime moderate, he has stressed bipartisanship for decades, and his long Senate career was typified by his willingness to work across the aisle with Republican colleagues.

Biden led Trump 253 to 214 in the projected Electoral College vote tally heading into saturday, as tracked by NBC News. Biden had higher vote totals in four key states, Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and Pennsylvania. But all four had remained rated by NBC News Decision Desk as too close to call. In addition to the projected Electoral College vote, Biden also won the popular vote, and he set a record for winning the most votes by any candidate in U.S. history.

Trump has repeatedly and falsely declared victory, including in multiple states where Biden is the projected winner. The president has also repeated unfounded conspiracy theories and tried to cast doubt on the integrity of the tabulation process.

In a lengthy statement released after the race was called, a defiant Trump said, “We all know why Joe Biden is rushing to falsely pose as the winner, and why his media allies are trying so hard to help him: they do not want the truth to be exposed. The simple fact is this election is far from over. Joe Biden has not been certified as the winner of any states, let alone any of the highly contested states headed for mandatory recounts, or states where our campaign has valid and legitimate legal challenges that could determine the ultimate victor.”

Trump added that, “Beginning Monday, our campaign will start prosecuting our case in court to ensure election laws are fully upheld and the rightful winner is seated.” Trump’s motorcade was seen earlier Saturday morning pulling into the Trump National Golf Club, in Washington, D.C.

Biden had expressed clear confidence in a victory once all the votes were counted, speaking regularly since polls closed Tuesday as an anxious nation waited for states to complete their tallies.

With 92 percent of the expected vote across the country counted, Biden has led Trump 50.5 percent to 47.7 percent in the popular vote, a contrast to Trump, who lost the popular vote in 2016 while winning the Electoral College. The 74,478,345 votes that have so far been counted for him is the largest number of votes won in the U.S. by any presidential candidate.

The Trump campaign, with the aim of asserting his re-election, has filed multiple lawsuits, several of which have already been thrown out, and more are expected. His campaign has also said that it would ask for a recount in Wisconsin, where Biden is the apparent winner.

Trump has continually generated unfounded fears about the vote tabulation process, firing off tweets demanding that officials halt counting and leave ballots uncounted in those places where analysts think that the remaining votes favor Democrats. In the early hours of November 4, Wednesday morning, with millions of votes still uncounted, Trump falsely claimed that he had won. On Thursday, he had held a press conference where he made a series of false election fraud claims.

Biden, who ran for president in 1988 and 2008, emerged victorious from a bruising Democratic primary earlier this year that at one point included more than 20 candidates, becoming the party’s apparent nominee just as a global pandemic was erupting. He was quickly forced to take his campaign virtual and did not resume campaign travel until the end of the summer. When he did, his events were largely in front of small, socially distanced groups of reporters, and live-streamed for supporters.

When the general election finally kicked into high gear after Labor Day, an avalanche of news events inserted historic chaos and urgency into the race.

What now

Usually, the losing candidate concedes but Mr Trump has vowed to contest the election results on several fronts. Responding to the Pennsylvania results, his campaign put out a statement saying that this election is not over.

A recount will be held in Georgia, where the margins are tight, and Mr Trump wants the same in Wisconsin. He has also vowed to take legal action to the Supreme Court, alleging voting fraud without any evidence. If the election result is challenged, it would require legal teams to challenge this in the state courts. State judges would then need to uphold the challenge and order a recount, and Supreme Court justices could then be asked to overturn a ruling.

Meanwhile, votes in some states are continuing to be counted and results are never official until final certification, which occurs in each state in the weeks following the election. This must be done before 538 chosen officials (electors) from the Electoral College, which officially decides who wins the election, meet in their state capitals to vote on December 14.

The electors’ votes usually mirror the popular vote in each state. However, in some states, this is not a formal requirement. The new president is officially sworn into office on January 20, after a transition period to give them time to appoint cabinet ministers and make plans.

The hand-over of power takes place at a ceremony known as the inauguration, which is held on the steps of the Capitol building in Washington DC. After the ceremony, the new president makes the way to the White House to begin their four-year term in office.

(Source: NBC News, BBC News, CNN News, the Guardian News)

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Final Presidential debate 2020 – Biden says that USA is entering into a ‘dark winter’ as the percentage of Covid-19 deaths keeps on increasing

Taking part in the final presidential campaign debate on October 22, for the elections of 2020, Joe Biden slammed the current President of the USA, Donald Trump, claiming that he has no plans to get rid of the ‘dark winter’ of Covid-19 deaths across the country. The debate was televised from Nashville and it was moderated by Kristen Welker, who pleaded for civility before the debate began. The presidential candidates did not shake hands as a safety measure against Covid-19.

Trump said that the citizens may not worry as Covid-19 related deaths would soon be handled and contained due to the rapidly growing medical research and experimentation to release a vaccine as soon as possible. He also gave the example of his recovery from the Covid-19 infection.

While Biden disagrees with the president’s empty words, he said –“Anyone who is responsible for that many deaths should not remain as president of the United States of America.” He further added that all the Americans are about to go into a ‘dark winter’ as the number of Covid-19 deaths keeps on increasing and that Trump has no solid plan to tackle the situation.

To this, Trump responded with a consolidating approach that the vaccine is almost ready and would be announced within weeks. He also stated that he will try to reopen the US as soon as possible. He denied Biden’s claims and said that there is going to be ‘no dark winter’.

Even though Trump tried to deviate from the pandemic situation, Biden kept the focus of the entire debate on the Covid-19 pandemic and addressed how 6 out of 10 people in the country believe that Covid-19 has gone out of control. This data was released by the Quinnipiac University poll done earlier the same day as the debate was held.

Trump took a similar approach as he did against Hilary Clinton during the 2016 presidential election debates, where he threw accusations at Joe Biden on how he profited from corrupt business relationships involving his son, Hunter Biden, when he was the Vice President under Barack Obama. He said that Biden owes an ‘explanation’ to all the Americans.

Many observers noted that Biden seemed to have won the final debate of this year’s presidential election while many others claim that the restrain and discipline shown by Trump in the second debate was quite commendable.

Keeping in mind the social distancing norms, many American voters have decided to participate in the early voting system, according to which Biden leads with 51% of votes while Trump remains at 41% as revealed in the Quinnipiac University poll. However, for the past few decades, the results of presidential campaigns have been quite unpredictable, so it is hard to say what would be the final outcome.

The author is a student member of Amity Centre of Happiness.

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First Presidential debate 2020- from tax returns to use of Arabic

Democratic Presidential candidate, Joe Biden hours before the beginning of the Presidential debate released his tax returns. The details show that he has paid nearly $ 300,000 in federal taxes in 2019, which is almost 30% of his adjusted gross income of $ 985,000.  The Vice Presidential nominee from the Democratic party, Kamala Harris has been showed to have paid $1.19 million in federal taxes from an income of about $ 3.1 million. These came after the pandemonium generated over the media on the findings by the New York Times that the incumbent President had paid just $750  as taxes in 2016 and 2017 and none in other years,  adjusting the taxes under heavy business loss and tax maneuvers.

Subsequently, the time of the first Presidential debate of 2020 came. This debate can beyond any doubt be classified as chaotic. The numerous interruptions which Biden had to face from his opponent while he was presenting his points made the debate go haywire. The POTUS threw his volley of blames related to Biden’s family and voter fraud which were countered by Biden. The Democratic Presidential nominee argued that Trump’s own FBI director Christopher Wray had refuted such claims of voter frauds on the ground of absence of evidence. At one point of time the moderator Chris Wallace had to ask Trump to ask his supporters to stay calm. Biden firmly stated that the citizens must come out and vote and act against all kinds of fear. He seemed to gradually acclimatize to the chaotic nature of the debate.

One particularly interesting moment arose during the debate, when Trump started claiming that he will soon release his tax returns. He also took a jibe at Biden stating that he has paid millions of dollars in tax.  Biden who had already disclosed his tax returns of 2019 asked in a sarcastic tone when Trump will disclose his. In the middle of this exchange Biden used the Arabic phrase “Inshallah” which translates into God willing. This came as a surprise to all. Observers state that this simply means that Biden said that hopefully (God willing) someday Trump will actually disclose his Tax returns. It is important to note that some linguistics experts opine that the use of this phrase in the context of such political debates means that the expected outcome (that Trump will actually disclose his tax returns) is too good to be true.

Research director of the European Council of foreign relations and former American Diplomat, Jeremy Shapiro observed that the first presidential debate of 2020 was another sign of the degradation of the American democracy. The debate, he added did not provide any hint of planned out foreign policy steps by the contenders. Shapiro added that the debate points towards the decline of the culture of America which seems to have been accelerated by the Covid situation in USA. He further added that the debate not only strongly hinted at the absence of the USA from the role of global leadership role, but also indicated the failure and incompetence to deal with it. Thomas Gomart, director of the French Institute of International Relations, observed that the debate gave a signal to the world that USA is slowly withdrawing into itself. He further added that Trump had explicitly walked away from the global leadership role and Biden may be doing it implicitly. Gomart’s observation is not wrong at least with Trump. The current POTUS had withdrawn USA from the trade alliance of Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Climate deal- the Paris accord of 2015 which were platforms and mechanisms to prove and strengthen the role of USA as a global leader in trade and mitigation efforts towards Climate change.

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Joe Biden asserts that Economic & Cultural dynamism have been brought by Indian-Americans within USA

Joe Biden, the Democratic Presidential Candidate, and former Vice President made a statement on Tuesday, September 22, 2020, applauding the hard work of all the Indian Americans who have helped in the country’s economic growth in this difficult time of a pandemic. He also said that they have brought a cultural dynamism in the United States which he is thankful for.

A national virtual fundraiser was organized by the Indian Americans on Tuesday, which was attended by 268 people where Biden had assured the mega-donors and all the members of this community of addressing their immigration-related issues. He said that these are the people with a bright future and he, as a president would make sure to address their concerns regarding the H1-B visa and legal immigration in the USA.

Addressing the Indian Americans, Biden said that they have helped forge an economic and cultural dynamism in this country. He further asserted that this is a continuation of the understanding who Americans are; that they are a nation of immigrants.

He acknowledged the work of all the talented Indian Americans who are entrepreneurs – running successful businesses across the globe, the innovators who lead some of the greatest influential companies and those who laid the base for the Silicon Valley.

Focusing upon the harmful actions taken by the incumbent President of the USA -Donald Trump on the H-1-B visa, Biden said that Trump promotes racial injustice and climate crisis in the country which only make things worse.

Biden assured that as president, he is going to draw on the best, not the worst, beat the pandemic and build the economy back. He also asserted that his efforts would be to help the kids get a good education and make sure healthcare is a right, not a privilege, and build an immigration system that powers our economy and reflects the American values.

The fundraiser program was opened by Seema Sadanandan, a senior policy advisor to the campaign. She invited the former Surgeon General- Dr. Vivek Murthy to initiate the program by talking a little about Biden and his relationship with him.

Murthy stated that Joe Biden is the kind of guy he would love to bring home to have dinner with his mom and dad. He appraised the former Vice President for being authentic and genuine. Murthy further added that Biden says what he thinks and that is something he likes about him.

Indian-Americans and their well-wishers among the traditional US citizens have high hopes from Joe Biden as a president. The National Finance Committee Member of the Biden campaign, Ajay Jain Bhutoria made a statement that Biden will bring about change, hope, unity, and healing to the nation.

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Moderna CEO states that expecting a vaccine approval by October is unlikely

Out of the nine US companies that are in their final stages of clinical trials for vaccine development against Copvid-19, Moderna becomes the first biotech firm to publish the blueprints of its study on Thursday, September 17, 2020.

Following this, Pfizer, another US-based biotech firm is currently in the later stages of its phase-3 clinical trials. Additional pressure is now faced by the company after Moderna has already released its study layout. The CEO of Pfizer has repeatedly claimed that the company will have its final results by October, as expected by the president.

In the run-up to the upcoming US-elections in November, the US government led by Donald Trump has been pressurizing the organizations involved in the Covid-19 vaccine development, to lay off the criticism faced by them for poor management of the pandemic.

On Wednesday, September 16, 2020, the US president made a statement claiming that the vaccine will gain approval by the month of October. This raises concerns that the White House will be pressurizing the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for approval of their vaccine which might be troublesome regarding the effectiveness and safety of the drug.

The healthcare experts and the officials in the Republican President’s Administration say that it is nearly impossible to predict the results of ongoing trials and it is unlikely to expect a vaccine approved by the end of this year, leave alone by the end of October.

Joe Biden, presidential nominee from the Democratic Party made a statement on Wednesday, September 16 that Donald Trump cannot be trusted in matters related to his response to his claims of having an approved vaccine ready by October.

The CEO of Moderna said that they will be finalizing the effectiveness of the vaccine by November and that expecting this to be done by October is far-fetched.

The immunization trials are not that easy. Moderna officials claim that the results are studied by comparing a group of people who are naturally infected by the virus, with another group that has been administered with the vaccine. The dropping rate of infection in the USA will further delay this process, maybe till December.

A total of 25,296 volunteers have been registered by Moderna on Thursday, September 17, for its phase-3 clinical trials, out of which 10,025 have been administered with second dose of the drug after 28 days of the first dose. Around 28% of the participants are from various racial minority groups, to obtain statistically representative results for various communities hit disproportionally by the pandemic.

The Covid-19 infections that occur only after 2 weeks of the second dose of test vaccine administration are recorded, to give the vaccine sufficient time to start acting.

The trial protocol of Moderna has the key information for stopping rules, interim analyses, and efficacy assumptions as stated by the director of the Scripps Research Institute, Eric Topol. He further added applause for the transparency of Moderna.

The final stage of vaccine development is the phase-3 clinical trials, in which the drug is administered and studied on human participants to test its side-effects, safety, and effectiveness.

A committee of independent experts has been finalized for short-term analysis of the trials to verify the high statistical threshold of vaccine effectiveness and to record any serious side-effects. As per the FDA, the minimum value of percentage for a vaccine to gain approval is to reduce the infection chances by 50%.

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US Polls: Donald Trump says ‘Joe Biden is on drugs’; Biden hits back

President Donald Trump has claimed that his Democratic opponent Joe Biden has taken drugs to improve his performance in debates.

Early on, when there were multiple Democratic candidates lined up on stage, Biden was “a disaster” and “grossly incompetent,” Trump said. But at a later debate where Biden was one-on-one with leftist rival Bernie Sanders, “he was OK.”

Trump repeated his demand that Biden should undergo a drug test before their first of three presidential debates scheduled for September 29. “I would take one too,” he said.

Trump has for months tried to persuade voters that Biden is suffering from mental decline.

Reacting to the claims, Biden called Trump ‘fool’, in an interview. “He’s a fool. The comments were just foolish,” Biden said in an interview with NBC affiliate WFLA of Tampa.

Trump made similar unfounded claims about Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential election, when he unsuccessfully challenged her to take a drug test, too, because “I don’t know what’s going on with her.”