Kamala Harris has accepted her historic nomination as the US Democratic party’s vice-presidential candidate, running with Joe Biden for the White House.

In a speech to her party convention, the first US woman of colour on a major-party ticket assailed President Donald Trump’s “failure of leadership”.

The California senator pledged to speak “truths” to the American public.

Mr Biden and Ms Harris will challenge Mr Trump and his Vice-President Mike Pence in the election on 3 November.

The coronavirus pandemic has forced Democrats to abandon the cheering throngs, fanfare and razzmatazz of the typical party convention in favour of a virtual event of pre-recorded and live speeches.

The grand finale of the four-night conference will see Mr Biden, the Democratic presidential nominee, deliver a speech on Thursday.

“We’re at an inflection point,” she said, speaking live from a largely empty hotel ballroom in Mr Biden’s hometown of Wilmington, Delaware.

Attacking Mr Trump, she continued: “The constant chaos leaves us adrift. The incompetence makes us feel afraid. The callousness makes us feel alone. It’s a lot.

“And here’s the thing: We can do better and deserve so much more.

“We must elect a president who will bring something different, something better, and do the important work.”

Ms Harris – the child of immigrants from India and Jamaica – pledged that she and Mr Biden would revive a country fractured by the coronavirus pandemic and racial tension.

“There is no vaccine for racism,” she said. “We’ve got to do the work.”

She continued: “Donald Trump’s failure has cost lives and livelihoods.”

“Right now, we have a president who turns our tragedies into political weapons,” she added.

President Trump swiftly hit back, tweeting about Ms Harris’ previous attack on Mr Biden over his record on race issues, while they were both rivals for the Democratic White House nomination.

Biden Selects California Senator Kamala Harris as Running Mate

WILMINGTON, DELAWARE – Joe Biden named California Sen. Kamala Harris as his running mate on Tuesday, making history by selecting the first Black woman to compete on a major party’s presidential ticket and acknowledging the vital role Black voters will play in his bid to defeat President Donald Trump.

In choosing Harris, Biden is embracing a former rival from the Democratic primary who is familiar with the unique rigor of a national campaign. Harris, a 55-year-old first-term senator, is also one of the party’s most prominent figures and quickly became a top contender for the No. 2 spot after her own White House campaign ended. 

Harris joins Biden in the 2020 race at a moment of unprecedented national crisis. The coronavirus pandemic has claimed the lives of more than 150,000 people in the U.S., far more than the toll experienced in other countries. Business closures and disruptions resulting from the pandemic have caused an economic collapse. Unrest, meanwhile, has emerged across the country as Americans protest racism and police brutality.

FILE – Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden speaks about his plans to combat racial inequality at a campaign event in Wilmington, Delaware, July 28, 2020.

Trump’s uneven handling of the crises has given Biden an opening, and he enters the fall campaign in strong position against the president. In adding Harris to the ticket, he can point to her relatively centrist record on issues such as health care and her background in law enforcement in the nation’s largest state. 

Harris’ record as California attorney general and district attorney in San Francisco was heavily scrutinized during the Democratic primary and turned off some liberals and younger Black voters who saw her as out of step on issues of systemic racism in the legal system and police brutality. She tried to strike a balance on these issues, declaring herself a “progressive prosecutor” who backs law enforcement reforms.

Biden, who spent eight years as President Barack Obama’s vice president, has spent months weighing who would fill that same role in his White House. He pledged in March to select a woman as his vice president, easing frustration among Democrats that the presidential race would center on two white men in their 70s. 

Biden’s search was expansive, including Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a leading progressive, Florida Rep. Val Demings, whose impeachment prosecution of Trump won plaudits, California Rep. Karen Bass, who leads the Congressional Black Caucus, former Obama national security adviser Susan Rice and Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, whose passionate response to unrest in her city garnered national attention.

A woman has never served as president or vice president in the United States. Two women have been nominated as running mates on major party tickets: Democrat Geraldine Ferraro in 1984 and Republican Sarah Palin in 2008. Their party lost in the general election. 

The vice presidential pick carries increased significance this year. If elected, Biden would be 78 when he’s inaugurated in January, the oldest man to ever assume the presidency. He’s spoken of himself as a transitional figure and hasn’t fully committed to seeking a second term in 2024. If he declines to do so, his running mate would likely become a front-runner for the nomination that year.

Born in Oakland to a Jamaican father and Indian mother, Harris won her first election in 2003 when she became San Francisco’s district attorney. In the role, she created a reentry program for low-level drug offenders and cracked down on student truancy.

She was elected California’s attorney general in 2010, the first woman and Black person to hold the job, and focused on issues including the foreclosure crisis. She declined to defend the state’s Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage and was later overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court.

As her national profile grew, Harris built a reputation around her work as a prosecutor. After being elected to the Senate in 2016, she quickly gained attention for her assertive questioning of Trump administration officials during congressional hearings. In one memorable moment last year, Harris tripped up Attorney General William Barr when she repeatedly pressed him on whether Trump or other White House officials pressured him to investigate certain people.

Harris launched her presidential campaign in early 2019 with the slogan “Kamala Harris For the People,” a reference to her courtroom work. She was one of the highest-profile contenders in a crowded Democratic primary and attracted 20,000 people to her first campaign rally in Oakland. 

But the early promise of her campaign eventually faded. Her law enforcement background prompted skepticism from some progressives, and she struggled to land on a consistent message that resonated with voters. Facing fundraising problems, Harris abruptly withdrew from the race in December 2019, two months before the first votes of the primary were cast.

One of Harris’ standout moments of her presidential campaign came at the expense of Biden. 
During a debate, Harris said Biden made “very hurtful” comments about his past work with segregationist senators and slammed his opposition to busing as schools began to integrate in the 1970s. 

“There was a little girl in California who was a part of the second class to integrate her public schools, and she was bused to school every day,” she said. “And that little girl was me.”
Shaken by the attack, Biden called her comments “a mischaracterization of my position.”

The exchange resurfaced recently one of Biden’s closest friends and a co-chair of his vice presidential vetting committee, former Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd, still harbors concerns about the debate and that Harris hadn’t expressed regret. The comments attributed to Dodd and first reported by Politico drew condemnation, especially from influential Democratic women who said Harris was being held to a standard that wouldn’t apply to a man running for president. 

Some Biden confidants said Harris’ campaign attack did irritate the former vice president, who had a friendly relationship with her. Harris was also close with Biden’s late son, Beau, who served as Delaware attorney general while she held the same post in California. 

But Biden and Harris have since returned to a warm relationship. 

“Joe has empathy, he has a proven track record of leadership and more than ever before we need a president of the United States who understands who the people are, sees them where they are, and has a genuine desire to help and knows how to fight to get us where we need to be,” Harris said at an event for Biden earlier this summer. 

At the same event, she bluntly attacked Trump, labeling him a “drug pusher” for his promotion of the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for the coronavirus, which has not been proved to be an effective treatment and may even be more harmful. After Trump tweeted “when the looting starts, the shooting starts” in response to protests about the death of George Floyd, a Black man, in police custody, Harris said his remarks “yet again show what racism looks like.”

Harris has taken a tougher stand on policing since Floyd’s killing. She co-sponsored legislation in June that would ban police from using chokeholds and no-knock warrants, set a national use-of-force standard and create a national police misconduct registry, among other things. It would also reform the qualified immunity system that shields officers from liability.

The list included practices Harris did not vocally fight to reform while leading California’s Department of Justice. Although she required DOJ officers to wear body cameras, she did not support legislation mandating it statewide. And while she now wants independent investigations of police shootings, she didn’t support a 2015 California bill that would have required her office to take on such cases.

“We made progress, but clearly we are not at the place yet as a country where we need to be and California is no exception,” she told The Associated Press recently. But the national focus on racial injustice now shows “there’s no reason that we have to continue to wait.”

(CNN)International students who are pursuing degrees in the United States will have to leave the country or risk deportation if their universities switch to online-only courses, Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced Monday.The move may affect thousands of foreign students who come to the United States to attend universities or participate in training programs, as well as non-academic or vocational studies.Universities nationwide are beginning to make the decision to transition to online courses as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. At Harvard, for example, all course instruction will be delivered online, including for students living on campus. For international students, that opens the door to them having to leave the US.”There’s so much uncertainty. It’s very frustrating,” said Valeria Mendiola, 26, a graduate student at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. “If I have to go back to Mexico, I am able to go back, but many international students just can’t.”In a news release Monday, ICE said that students who fall under certain visas “may not take a full online course load and remain in the United States,” adding, “The U.S. Department of State will not issue visas to students enrolled in schools and/or programs that are fully online for the fall semester nor will U.S. Customs and Border Protection permit these students to enter the United States.”The agency suggested that students currently enrolled in the US consider other measures, like transferring to schools with in-person instruction. There’s an exception for universities using a hybrid model, such as a mix of online and in-person classes.Brad Farnsworth, vice president of the American Council on Education, said the announcement caught him and many others by surprise.”We think this is going to create more confusion and more uncertainty,” said Farnsworth, whose organization represents about 1,800 colleges and universities. “What we were hoping to see was more appreciation for all the different possible nuances that campuses will be exploring.”One concern with the new guidance, Farnsworth said, is what would happen if the public health situation deteriorates in the fall and universities that had been offering in-person classes feel they have to shift all courses online to stay safe.Visa requirements for students have always been strict and coming to the US to take online-only courses has been prohibited.”These are not some fly-by-night universities, these aren’t scams, these are legit universities who would normally have in-person curricula but for coronavirus,” said Theresa Cardinal Brown, director of immigration and cross-border policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center. ”The bigger issue is some of these countries have travel restrictions on and they can’t go home, so what do they do then?” she added. “It’s a conundrum for a lot of students.”Harvard University President Larry Bacow said in a statement Monday evening that “we are deeply concerned that the guidance issued today by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement imposes a blunt, one-size-fits-all approach to a complex problem giving international students, particularly those in online programs, few options beyond leaving the country or transferring schools.”The guidance, Bacow continued, “undermines the thoughtful approach taken on behalf of students by so many institutions, including Harvard, to plan for continuing academic programs while balancing the health and safety challenges of the global pandemic.””We will work closely with other colleges and universities around the country to chart a path forward,” he said.The Trump administration has made a litany of changes to the US immigration system, citing the coronavirus pandemic, that have resulted in barring swaths of immigrants from coming to the country.Last month, the White House issued an immigration proclamation dramatically curtailing legal immigration to the US sending hundreds of people and businesses into a scramble to understand whether their future plans are derailed.In the proclamation, the administration argued that the “extraordinary circumstances” posed by coronavirus called for the suspension of employment-based visas. But immigrant advocates, industries and experts say the administration is taking advantage of the pandemic to make sweeping immigration changes and advance its agenda to slash legal immigration.Monday’s announcement, like the changes that preceded it, could similarly result in many foreign students who often pay high tuition to have to return to their home country.According to the Migration Policy Institute, a think tank based in Washington, DC, about 1.2 million students who fall under the affected visas were enrolled and registered at more than 8,700 schools nationwide as of March 2018.Farnsworth said he sees the announcement as part of a larger pattern of moves by the administration that “have not set the right tone.””This is going to create I think more anxiety on the part of international students, and for those who are still thinking about where they’re going to go in the fall, I think this may push them in the direction of attending a university in another country,” he said.While students might have the option to transfer to a college or university offering in-person courses, it might be difficult to come by amid continued concerns over coronavirus. Some schools have announced plans to bring students back but shorten semesters, as well as cancel nearly all in-person classes through the semester.This story has been updated with additional quotes and information.

Dozens of scientists doing research funded by Mark Zuckerberg said Facebook should not be letting President Donald Trump use the social media platform to “spread both misinformation and incendiary statements.”

The researchers, including 60 professors at leading U.S. research institutions, wrote the Facebook CEO on Saturday asking Zuckerberg to “consider stricter policies on misinformation and incendiary language that harms people,” especially during the current turmoil over racial injustice.

The letter calls the spread of “deliberate misinformation and divisive language” contrary to the researchers’ goals of using technology to prevent and eradicate disease, improve childhood education and reform the criminal justice system.

Their mission “is antithetical to some of the stances that Facebook has been taking, so we’re encouraging them to be more on the side of truth and on the right side of history as we’ve said in the letter,” said Debora Marks of Harvard Medical School, one of three professors who organized it.

The others are Martin Kampmann of the University of California-San Francisco and Jason Shepherd of the University of Utah. All have grants from a Chan Zuckerberg Initiative program working to prevent, cure and treat neurodegenerative disorders including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.

They said the letter had more than 160 signatories. Shepherd said about 10 percent are employees of foundations run by Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan.

The letter objects specifically to Zuckerberg’s decision not to at least flag as a violation of Facebook’s community standards Trump’s post that stated “when the looting starts, the shooting starts” in response to unrest in Minneapolis over the death of George Floyd, a black man, while in police custody. The letter’s authors called the post “a clear statement of inciting violence.”

Twitter had both flagged and demoted a Trump tweet using the same language.

In a statement, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative noted that the philanthropic organization is separate from Facebook and said “we are grateful for our staff, partners and grantees” and “respect their right to voice their opinions, including on Facebook policies.”

Some Facebook employees have publicly objected to Zuckerberg’s refusal to take down or label misleading or incendiary posts by Trump and other politicians. But Zuckerberg — who controls a majority of voting shares in the company — has so far refused.

On Friday, Zuckerberg said in a post that he would review “potential options for handling violating or partially-violating content aside from the binary leave-it-up or take-it-down decisions”

“I know many of you think we should have labeled the President’s posts in some way last week,” he wrote. “Our current policy is that if content is actually inciting violence, then the right mitigation is to take that content down — not let people continue seeing it behind a flag. There is no exception to this policy for politicians or newsworthiness.” 

WASHINGTON, D.C.— in light of the Christianity Today publication requiring his evacuation, Trump considered the magazine a “left-wing cloth” and stated, “I have helped out Christianity than Jesus.”

“That is to say, the name of the magazine is Christianity Today, and who is helping out Christians today? Not Jesus. He vanished; nobody realizes what befell him. In any case, I’m out there consistently shielding holy places from insane nonconformists.”

While Trump conceded that Jesus did a few things for Christianity before, Trump said he was accomplishing all the more now and it was progressively significant. “I’m naming appointed authorities to help secure strict rights,” Trump expressed. “What number of judges has Jesus designated? He says something regarding making a decision about individuals later on, however I ain’t seen it.”

Besides, Trump affirmed that he “spared Christmas.” “Look what I’ve done,” he said. “You can say ‘Cheerful Christmas’ currently. Truth be told, in the event that you state ‘Merry Christmas’ and don’t promptly make it understood you’re alluding to Christmas, you go to jail. What has Jesus at any point accomplished for Christmas? Be conceived? He needs credit for that? Please.”

SOURCE;BABYLON.COM

US representatives are asking President Donald Trump to shield Christians confronting continuous ruthless oppression from Islamic gatherings in Nigeria.

Two Republican Senators, Iowa representatives Joni Ernst and Chuck Grassley as of late sent the president a letter, requesting that he consider sending an exceptional emissary to help end the Christian massacre in Nigeria, as per CBN News.

In their letter, the legislators point to 40,000 Nigerian passings attached to the Islamic fear based oppressor bunch Boko Haram.

Alongside other Islamic activists known as the Fulani herders, the Boko Haram has since a long time ago compromised the lives of Christians in the West African nation.

Two years back during a gathering, President Trump asked Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari to secure “honest regular citizens everything being equal.”

Be that as it may, Ernst and Grassley need progressively done to ensure the lives of Christians.

Be that as it may, the prevailing press in the United States has remained generally quiet as the Muslim psychological militants’ cruel executing of Nigerian Christians seethes on.

In what is being noted as precise direct war against Christianity in Nigeria, Pastors, Christian Leaders and Seminarians are either being captured or slaughtered each week.

Christians in Nigeria have been the objective of numerous assaults by the horrible Boko Haram jihadist Islamist psychological oppressors, herders assaults and numerous other hijacking lately.

Nigeria positions as the twelfth most exceedingly awful nation on the planet on Open Doors USA’s 2020 World Watch List of nations where Christians are most seriously oppressed. Nigeria was in December, recorded in the U.S. Express Department’s exceptional watch rundown of nations that endure or take part in serious infringement of strict opportunity due to the “absence of successful government reaction and the absence of legal cases being presented in that nation”.

A previous report a month ago, uncovered that around 620 Christians were killed in the African nation by Islamic activists during the initial five months of 2020 alone.

The International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (ISCLRL), a non-legislative association, discharged the report which likewise cautioned activist Fulani herders and the Boko Haram have strengthened their enemy of Christian viciousness in the old Middle Belt and Northeast districts of the nation with the copying or obliterating of Christian focuses of love and learning. Furthermore, many homes have been wrecked.

Muslim Scholar Converts to Christianity, Says Bible Has Authority Over Qur’an

“The barbarities against Christians have gone unchecked and ascended to disturbing apogee with the nation’s security powers and concerned political on-screen characters looking the other way or plotting with the Jihadists,” the report said.

The association additionally evaluated that in excess of 32,000 Christians have been slaughtered there by Islamic aggressors since 2009. The killings are to a great extent an aftereffect of expanded fear based oppressor assaults from Boko Haram splinter gatherings and overnight assaults did by radicalized Muslim traveling Fulani herders against overwhelmingly Christian cultivating networks in Nigeria’s Middle Belt.

Okay petition God for Christians living in Nigeria? If it’s not too much trouble supplicate they will get harmony and comfort, and that one day they’ll have the option to rehearse their confidence straightforwardly unafraid of death.

Boko Haram Behead Christian Bride, Bridal Party En course to Wedding

American gospel music legend and Pastor Donnie McClurkin has blamed Donald Trump’s choice to revive church structures, saying the activity is a “determined” move by the head of state to win political kindness from the religious network regardless of their security.

President Trump reported Friday that he was proclaiming temples and spots of love as “basic places that offer fundamental types of assistance,” and said that he would “abrogate” governors to permit them to open “at the present time.”

“This political ploy to pick up favor from the religious network, seven (7) months before a political decision, is determined. It is hazardous, foolish and untrustworthy,” McClurkin said in a Facebook live communicate.

Donnie McClurkin claims President Trump gave the announcement “without meeting explicit measurements given by the logical clinical specialists.”

“There has been a race to revive States that are truly being hit with this pandemic. There has been a race to make individuals ascend, and forego rules and get over into regularity,” Donnie McClurkin said.

“Try not to permit these political moves to energize you, and get you restless to return into the asylum and put individuals’ lives in danger. No, we are shrewd, the Bible says ‘in a huge number of advisors there is security.’ There is a direction of clinical and logical specialists that God has given us favor to get notification from. What’s more, in spite of the fact that they are wavering to some degree, they are still not saying that it is protected. They are stating; you are at most minimal hazard in the event that you keep social separating; you are at a lower chance on the off chance that you abstain from grasping individuals in chapel and keep a 6 feet separation. Notwithstanding, that isn’t stating it is protected, however you are at a lower hazard – and this hazard is amplified if our holy places are compacted with individuals that are anxious to escape the house; anxious to get once more into the haven,” McClurkin expressed.

The multi-grant winning vocalist asked that Perfecting Church in Freeport N.Y. where he is Pastor, will stay shut until it is “protected to accumulate” in the place of love.

The 60-year-old said the service association we will keep on inclining towards and stick to “sensible” clinical science and the “trustworthy” specialists and clinical specialists.

McClurkin who has been conceived again for a long time said his choice did not depend on the absence of confidence or dread – and won’t make him “any to a lesser extent a righteous man” if a few people are disillusionment.

“It’s anything but an absence of confidence. It isn’t being frightened. The congregation never shut. Despite the fact that we were unable to come into the asylum, the congregation developed firmly, vigorously. What’s more, it occurred through ‘online networking’. God set up innovation methodicallly realizing this day would come. Decades prior, He made us impeccable this thing called web-based social networking in light of the fact that He realized this day would come, and it is a method of service,” the multi-grant winning vocalist noted.

Donnie McClurkin accepts computerized live-streams are satisfactory to serve the Church people group during the pandemic lockdown.

Then, other Church pioneers in U.S applauded trump’s choice to train Churches to revive.

President of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and of Samaritan’s Purse, a global Christian help association, Franklin Graham expressed gratitude toward Trump and said “no inquiry, places of worship are basic.”

“Much obliged to you President Donald J. Trump for safeguarding America’s confidence networks. No inquiry, places of worship are fundamental to our individual lives and to the fate of our nation. I accept ministers can avoid potential risk, following rules gave by the CDC, to open up securely, and I anticipate witnessing that. Keep on appealing to God for the President to have insurance and intelligence from God as he drives our country through this season of pandemic–and let him realize what this choice way to you,” he said.

Protestant minister and TV preacher John Hagee said by permitting Churches to revive President Trump was “securing our strict opportunities.” The service has just continued its in-person Church administrations.