Vice President Kamala Harris gave her Election 2024 Closing Argument Speech last night on the Capitol Ellipse as more than 75,000 people joined her in calling for an end to chaos and hatred and a return to the America we all know and love.
“Growing up, I was blessed to have family by blood and family by love, who instilled in me the values of community, compassion and faith that have always defined our nation at its best. I’ve lived the promise of America.
“I’ve spent my life fighting for the people who have been hurt and counted out, but never stopped believing that in our country, anything is possible. I’ve lived the promise of America, and I see the promise of America in all of you, in all of you, I see it. I see it in the young people who are voting for the first time, who are determined to live free from gun violence and to protect our planet and to shape the world they inherit. I see it in the women who refuse to accept a future without reproductive freedom, and the men who support them do.”
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The prediction market Polymarket has skyrocketed into mainstream consciousness during the 2024 U.S. elections, with the platform reporting that users have placed $2.7 billion in bets over whether Donald Trump or Kamala Harris will be elected president in early November.
But analysts at two crypto research firms have found evidence of rampant wash trading on Polymarket, even as its odds have been shared widely across social media and mainstream media outlets. Donald Trump currently has a 67% chance of winning, according to the platform.
In separate investigations completed by the blockchain firms Chaos Labs and Inca Digital and shared exclusively with Fortune, analysts found that Polymarket activity exhibited signs of wash trading, a form of market manipulation where shares are bought and sold, often simultaneously and repeatedly, to create a false impression of volume and activity. Chaos Labs found that wash trading constituted around one-third of trading volume on Polymarket’s presidential market, while Inca Digital found that a “significant portion of the volume” on the market could be attributed to potential wash trading, according to its report.
...Both Chaos Labs and Inca Digital found another anomaly on Polymarket: The purported trading volume on its presidential market, reported in U.S. dollars on Polymarket’s website, does not match the on-chain data. Inca found the actual transaction volume on the presidential betting market to be around $1.75 billion, compared with Polymarket’s reported figure of $2.7 billion.
As Kamala Harris and Donald Trump face off, the fate of US democracy, science and evidence-based policy hangs in the balance.
Next week, US voters will go to the polls to elect a new president, along with members of the House of Representatives and the Senate. This election will take place at a time of extreme uncertainty, both for the United States and for the world. The two candidates, Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump, represent vastly different views of the challenges and opportunities that the country faces, and the role of the United States on the international stage.
Like all elections, the 5 November vote is about much more than science. However, the fate of scientific research, evidence-based lawmaking and the government’s receptiveness to independent science-policy advice will be key determinants of the country’s future course and long-term well-being. And, as we reported in a News Feature on 23 October (Nature 634, 770–774; 2024), US science could be at an inflection point: the election and a range of domestic and global forces could challenge the primacy that the country has held since the Second World War.
A priority for both the winning presidential candidate and the new members of Congress must be ensuring that US science continues to thrive. This is essential if the world is to solve shared challenges, such as the climate crisis, inequality and societal divisions — and that means retaining the openness and collaborative spirit that have characterized US science for much of the past 75 years. US scientists work with peers around the world, which has helped to position the country at the centre of fundamental, applied and translational research, while creating bonds of friendship and collegiality between US researchers and their international collaborators. These bonds are needed now more than ever.
You’re right that Democrats’ biggest target is Arizona: If they pick up two seats each in the Senate and House, they would secure full control of the state government—a first since 1966.
But that’s not all.
There’s Wisconsin, most notably. The victory of a liberal justice in 2023 paved the way for a ruling that struck down GOP gerrymanders. Now, the legislative elections are taking place under radically different maps that give Democrats a chance to flip the chambers; that’s especially true in the Assembly, since only half of the state Senate is up this year.
The New Hampshire House ended in a near-draw two years ago; if Democrats flip it this year, they would end GOP control over the state no matter what happens in the governor’s race. This chamber often comes down to tiny margins: It has 400 seats—that’s a national high, by far—and 30 races went to a recount two years ago; six were decided by a margin under 10 votes.
On Monday evening, CNN took the rare step of removing a panelist during a commercial break as far-right activist Ryan Girdusky was banned from the network after he made a violently bigoted joke directed at progressive Arab-American commentator Mehdi Hasan, implying that he was a member of the terrorist group Hamas.
“There is a line that was crossed there, and it’s not acceptable to me; it’s not acceptable to us at this network,” NewsNight host Abby Phillip said after the program returned from the break. It was the right decision, but unfortunately, Girdusky’s disgraceful conduct is part of a much larger problem within mainstream journalism of platforming extremist Republicans.
...Republicans have chosen extremism over centrism. And never get called on it. Instead, Democrats, who are an objectively moderate party, are frequently questioned about whether the party is too far to the left. It’s an absurd situation considering that Democratic leaders don’t even want to have nationalized health care, the bare minimum for any party to be considered “leftist.”
...Gidursky, a known racist who previously wrote articles for the white nationalist activist Richard Spencer and gave friendly interviews with the Proud Boys hate group, has been actively working to ban Black and LGBT authors from school curricula. He should’ve never been on CNN.
Since CNN was purchased by the Republican-dominated Warner Brothers Discovery media conglomerate, putting more Republicans on the air has been a requirement by the top management. But this strategy is backfiring: for every viewer attracted by a right-wing guest, CNN risks alienating twice as many center-left viewers who are tired of watching what has become little more than a televised food fight.
...Most educated guesses assume that Trump and Johnson are “secretly” talking about installing Trump as president through a “contingent election,” whereby the House of Representatives, not the Electoral College, determines the president. I think the plot goes deeper than that, but let’s start with the contingent election idea.
To understand how this could work, you have to understand the 12th Amendment of the Constitution. Here’s the key language: “The person having the greatest number of votes for President, shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed; and if no person have such majority, then from the persons having the highest numbers not exceeding three on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by states, the representation from each state having one vote[.]”
... the 12th Amendment provides that the president is the person who wins the majority of the “whole number of Electors appointed.” That “whole number” is supposed to be 538. But one potential reading of the amendment is that Trump doesn’t have to win 270 Electoral College votes but just a majority of however many electors show up. Trump’s goal, I believe, is to decrease the number of electors appointed until he wins.
… What this means is that Republicans just have to delay long enough to pass those deadlines. They don’t have to win; they just have to stall.
There are currently 27 states with Republican state legislatures, including Arizona, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and Wisconsin. There are currently 26 Republican governors running states like Florida, Georgia, Nevada, and Virginia. If some of these people are able to delay certification past the deadline, the “whole number of Electors appointed” would be diminished, lowering the number of electors Trump would need to hold a majority.
In an installation that recalls an iconic image from Portland’s political past, a satirical statue of former President Donald J. Trump popped up on a downtown thoroughfare Sunday, just 10 days before voters nationwide will decide whether he will get a second chance to return to the White House.
The statue, on Southwest 6th Avenue between Alder and Morrison streets, depicts Trump in his trademark loose-fitting suit, feet encased in loafers, mouth twisted into a smirk and hair feathered high in a pompadour of sorts, with his right hand curled in a suggestive fashion.
The Trump form is standing atop a plinth with a plaque on it that reads: “In honor of a lifetime of sexual assault.” It continues with one of the former president’s most infamous quotes: “I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they just let you do it. You can do anything. Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything.”
The two New York Yankees fans who were ejected from Game 4 of the World Series after ripping the ball from Los Angeles Dodgers star Mookie Betts’ glove will be banned from Yankee Stadium for Wednesday’s Game 5.
Midway through the bottom of the first inning, Betts ran towards the right field line and the corner wall in an attempt to catch a foul ball from Yankees second baseman Gleyber Torres. After Betts appeared to catch the ball, one of the fans in the front row pried open the outfielder’s glove as the ball popped loose while the other grabbed the Dodgers star’s other hand.
“The Yankees and Major League Baseball maintain a zero-tolerance policy toward the type of behavior displayed last night. These fans will not be permitted to attend tonight’s game in any capacity.”
Here are MORE ways that YOU can ACT right now to make a difference in this election – from wherever you live!
This time next Wednesday night it’ll all be over (and hopefully we’ll known who won!) So…
What are YOU doing to make a difference in this election? Don’t panic — tell us about it in the comments!
The crew of the Overnight News Digest consists of founder Magnifico, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, Chitown Kev, jeremybloom, Magnifico, annetteboardman, Rise above the swamp, Besame and jck. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) eeff, Interceptor 7, Man Oh Man, wader, Neon Vincent, palantir, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse (RIP), ek hornbeck (RIP), rfall, ScottyUrb, Doctor RJ, BentLiberal, Oke (RIP) and jlms qkw