USA

US Election: Kamala Harris Gets 82 Nobel Prize Winners’ Endorsement

Published

1 day ago

November 3, 2024

Eric

No fewer than 80 Nobel Prize winners have endorsed Kamala Harris for the presidency, warning that Donald Trump would “jeopardize any advancements in our standards of living” given his earlier proposals for enormous cuts to science funding.

In an open letter, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times, 82 Nobel prize winners from the US in the fields of physics, chemistry, economics and medicine, said “this is the most consequential presidential election in a long time, perhaps ever, for the future of science and the United States”.

The letter, which commends Harris for recognizing that “the enormous increases in living standards and life expectancies over the past two centuries are largely the result of advances in science and technology”, called Trump a potential threat to progress who could “jeopardize any advancements in our standards of living and impede our responses to climate change”.

The Nobel laureates range from a physicist involved in the discovery of remnant light from the Big Bang, to an immunologist instrumental in the development of a specific type of COVID-19 vaccine.

They includes signatories who won Nobels this month such as the molecular biologist Gary Ruvkun, the chemist David Baker, the physicist John Hopfield and the economist Daron Acemoglu.

Driven by concerns over the significant cuts to science funding proposed during Trump’s tenure, coupled with what he perceives as the former president’s adversarial stance toward science and academia, Joseph Stiglitz, an economist at Columbia University who won the Nobel memorial prize in economic sciences in 2001, said he was motivated by the “enormous cuts in science budgets” that Trump proposed during his presidency, as well as former president’s “anti-science” and “anti-university” stances.

“I hope it’s a wake-up call for people,” Stiglitz told the New York Times about the letter. “A consequence of this election is the really profound impact that his agenda has on science and technology.”

The letter also lauds Harris for her understanding of the invaluable contributions immigrants make to scientific progress on a national and global scale.

On Thursday, in a separate letter obtained by CNN, 23 living US recipients of the Nobel prize in economics, have expressed their endorsement of Harris’s economic agenda, deeming it “vastly superior” to the economic strategies proposed by Trump.

“While each of us has different views on the particulars of various economic policies, we believe that, overall, Harris’s economic agenda will improve our nation’s health, investment, sustainability, resilience, employment opportunities, and fairness and be vastly superior to the counterproductive economic agenda of Donald Trump,” they wrote.

USA

Trump Rejects Another Kamala Harris’ Challenge to Debate on CNN

Published

1 month ago

September 23, 2024

Eric

Donald Trump, on Saturday, rejected another debate with Vice President Kamala Harris before the U.S presidential election, hours after the Democratic candidate’s campaign said she had agreed to an October 23 matchup with her Republican rival on CNN.

“Vice President Harris is ready for another opportunity to share a stage with Donald Trump, and she has accepted CNN’s invitation to a debate on October 23. Donald Trump should have no problem agreeing to this debate,” Jen O’Malley Dillon, the chair of the Harris campaign, said in a statement.

Trump stuck to his previous position that there would not be another debate before voters go to the polls in the November 5 election.

“The problem with another debate is that it’s just too late. Voting has already started,” the former U.S president told supporters at a rally in Wilmington, North Carolina.

Harris and Trump debated each other for the first time on September 10, in a contest that polls showed she won.

Trump debated President Joe Biden in June.

Biden’s shaky performance in that debate rattled Democrats and prompted strategists to ask whether their party should take the unprecedented step of replacing the 81-year old president as their candidate. Biden withdrew from the race for the White House in July.

USA

Kamala Harris Chooses Tim Walz As Presidential Running Mate

Published

3 months ago

August 6, 2024

Eric

Vice President Kamala Harris has picked Minnesota Gov., Tim Walz, as her presidential running mate, ahead of the forthcoming American election in November.

He will join her this evening at a rally in Philadelphia, kicking off a swing through battleground states, says NBCnews.

USA

Biden Steps Down from Re-Election Bid, Says ‘It’s in the Best Interest of the Country’

Published

4 months ago

July 21, 2024

Eric

President of the United States of America, Joe Biden, has announced his resignation from seeking reelection into the White House.

Biden, who made the announcement on Sunday, said much as he would love to return to the Oval Office, his decision to quit the race is in the interest of the Democratic Party and country.

The Full Speech

“My Fellow Americans, Over the past three and a half years, we have made great progress as a Nation,” Biden said.

My Fellow Americans,

Over the past three and a half years, we have made great progress as a Nation. Today, America has the strongest economy in the world. We’ve made historic investments in rebuilding our Nation, in lowering prescription drug costs for seniors, and in expanding affordable health care to a record number of Americans. We’ve provided critically needed care to a million veterans exposed to toxic substances. Passed the first gun safety law in 30 years. Appointed the first African American woman to the Supreme Court. And passed the most significant climate legislation in the history of the world. America has never been better positioned to lead than we are today.

I know none of this could have been done without you, the American people. Together, we overcame a once in a century pandemic and the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. We’ve protected and preserved our Democracy. And we’ve revitalized and strengthened our alliances around the world.

It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President. And while it has been my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term.

I will speak to the Nation later this week in more detail about my decision. For now, let me express my deepest gratitude to all those who have worked so hard to see me reelected. I want to thank Vice President Kamala Harris for being an extraordinary partner in all this work. And let me express my heartfelt appreciation to the American people for the faith and trust you have placed in me.

“I believe today what I always have: that there is nothing America can’t do – when we do it together. We just have to remember we are the United States of America.”

Some Americans and top democrats had raised concerns over Biden’s health following his botched presidential debate with Donald Trump, Republican Party nominee.