A Trump victory in one New Hampshire village and a Biden win in another: the first 26 votes counted in the presidential election have set off an online argument that’s surely a taste of what’s to come across the country.
The New Hampshire hamlets of Dixville Notch and Millsfield both open their polling locations at midnight, and announce their results before anywhere else in the US.
In the early hours of Tuesday morning, Dixville Notch announced a landslide win for Joe Biden, with the Democrat taking all five of the community’s votes. Fifteen miles away in Millsfield, Donald Trump scored a convincing victory, taking 16 votes to Biden’s five.
Nothing about these results was surprising. Dixville Notch voted 4-2 for Hillary Clinton in 2016, while Millsfield voted for Trump by 16 votes to four that year. Millsfield is located inside a deep red district, but New Hampshire as a whole is trending toward Biden, if the polls are to be believed. The most recent surveys put the former vice president between eight and 10 points ahead in a state that Hillary Clinton managed to scrape a 0.3 point win out of in 2016.
America’s first 26 election-day votes set off a storm of argument online. Democrats and liberals touted Biden’s flawless victory in Dixville Notch as a sign of things to come, and the media wrote up headlines on his five-point win.
Biden is the first presidential candidate to sweep Dixville Notch since Richard Nixon in 1960.
Outraged liberals slammed the “white” electorate of Millsfield for voting Trump, and began crossing the tiny township off their imaginary travel itineraries.
Twenty-six votes is a drop in the ocean compared to the nearly 100 million early votes cast so far nationwide. However, the online squabbling over the first New Hampshire tallies is likely a neat microcosm of what will follow across the country on Tuesday.
By calling races, the media wields enormous influence over the final result. Fox News’ decision to call Florida for George W. Bush in 2000, for example, is widely considered to be the final nail in the coffin of Al Gore’s presidential bid, even though Bush was behind at the time. As the day wears on, Trump’s supporters – already distrustful of the media – will likely continue to ream liberal-leaning news outlets for covering the Dixville Notches of the country and not the Millsfields.
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And, as the results come in, both sides will surely abuse and attack each other online. The climate of hostility surrounding this year’s election has led business owners in America’s largest cities to board up their storefronts in anticipation of post-election violence. A number of groups, among them Black Lives Matter and various ‘Antifa’ organizations, have promised to take to the streets if Donald Trump is re-elected.
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The YPG claims the Turkish president failing to win another term would be payback for Ankara’s counter-terrorism operations in Syria
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s defeat in this month’s presidential election would serve as “revenge” for Türkiye’s military operations in Syria, a top official of the People’s Defense Units (YPG) has said.
Salih Muslim, one of the leaders of the YPG — a Syrian militant group affiliated with the Turkish Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and designated by Ankara as a terrorist organization — said in an interview with Medya Haber Kurdish TV channel that his organization has grown frustrated with Türkiye’s counterterrorism operations ongoing in the northern part of Syria since 2016, Daily Sabah reported.
“Now, we have an opportunity in our hands,” Muslim said, stressing that the YPG is eager to see Erdogan unseated. “It’s the first time we have such a thing happening in elections.” He added that “If we can win at the ballot box, we will take all the revenge from [the defeat of] one person.”
Muslim’s statement comes as several members of the YPG and the PKK have openly expressed support for Erdogan’s main challenger, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, as the two head into a runoff election on May 28. In the previous round, held on May 14, both candidates failed to secure an outright majority with Erdogan gaining just over 49.4% of the vote while Kilicdaroglu received 44.96%.
Kilicdaroglu has vowed to mend Ankara’s relations with NATO and revive Türkiye’s EU membership talks, which have been effectively stalled since 2016. He has also accused Russia of spreading “conspiracies” and “deep fakes” apparently referring to footage circulating online purportedly linking him to the PKK, and told Moscow to get its “hands off the Turkish state.” Russia has rejected the accusations.
Somalis cheer on Türkiye’s Erdogan to win re-election
Erdogan has repeatedly accused his rival of “colluding with terrorists” and threatening to undo Türkiye’s achievements in its war on terror. He has also blasted Kilicdaroglu for trying to “detach” the country from Russia.
Türkiye has been waging low-intensity warfare against Kurdish militias along its Syrian and Iraqi borders for four decades, in a back-and-forth campaign that has claimed the lives of over 40,000 people.
The PKK and its affiliates have been waging an insurgency since 1984 demanding political and cultural autonomy with the final goal of establishing an independent Kurdish State, laying claim to territories in southeast Türkiye and northern parts of Iraq and Syria.
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Li Hui visited Kiev to share Beijing’s views on a political settlement to the Ukraine crisis
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has met with China’s newly appointed special envoy for Eurasian affairs, Li Hui, who traveled to Kiev to convey Beijing’s views on a diplomatic resolution to Ukraine’s conflict with Russia.
According to a statement published on Thursday by the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Li held talks with Zelensky as well as the head of the Ukrainian President’s Office, Andrey Yermak, Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba, and representatives from several other ministries.
Beijing said both sides had agreed that the recent phone call between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Zelensky had outlined the direction for future relations between their two nations, which it stated should be built on mutual respect and sincerity.
During his trip, Li reiterated that Beijing is willing to serve as a peace broker to help reach a political resolution to the conflict with Russia, based on the principles outlined in a 12-point roadmap published by China in late February.
“There is no panacea in resolving the crisis. All parties need to start from themselves, accumulate mutual trust, and create conditions for ending the war and engaging in peace talks,” Li said, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s statement.
The special envoy’s two-day trip to Ukraine is the first leg of a wider European tour, during which he is expected to visit Poland, France, Germany, and Russia. Beijing has explained that the trip aims to promote communication toward “a political settlement of the Ukraine crisis.”
Hungary backs Chinese plan for Ukraine
China’s peace efforts have been welcomed by Russia as well as some European nations such as Hungary, and have been praised for acknowledging the national interests of both parties.
The roadmap, however, has been criticized by some in the West. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg claimed that China lacked “credibility” as it has refused to condemn Russia’s actions in Ukraine. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell insisted that “the only thing that can be called a peace plan is Zelensky’s proposal.”
The Ukrainian president has demanded that Russia must withdraw from territories that Kiev claims as its own, as well as pay war reparations and face an international tribunal. The Kremlin has dismissed the initiative, claiming it does not take into consideration “the realities on the ground,” including the new status of four former Ukrainian regions as part of Russia.
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Pakistan’s Supreme Court has ordered the release of former prime minister Imran Khan, whose arrest earlier this week triggered deadly protests across the country, Geo TV news channel has reported.
The court considered an appeal by Khan’s legal team on Thursday, ruling that the arrest of the opposition figure was illegal, according to the broadcaster.
The leader of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party was detained on an order from the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Tuesday as soon as he arrived at a lower court in connection with a graft case against him. He has been held at a police compound in the capital, Islamabad, since then.
Khan’s spokesperson told Al Jazeera that the 70-year-old was apprehended in court before he could even appear before the judges, which was “in violation of all laws.” The PTI party claimed that it was not an arrest, but “an abduction,” and called on its supporters to take the streets.
Pakistan deploys army after Imran Khan’s arrest
Pakistan has been gripped by violent protests for the last three days, with demonstrators clashing with security forces and setting government buildings on fire in major cities across the country. The government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has deployed the military in an attempt to curb the unrest.
Some 2,500 of Khan’s supporters, including some top figures in his party, have been arrested so far. Local media have reported at least 11 protesters killed and hundreds of police officers wounded.
Numerous criminal cases have been launched against Khan since his removal from office after a no-confidence vote in April 2022. The PTI leader, who remains highly popular in the country, denies all accusations against him.
The politician claimed a year ago that he had been deposed as a result of a US-led “international conspiracy” and accused his opponents of receiving money from foreign forces.
Khan has been making active attempts to return to power since then, staging massive rallies across the country. The former premier survived an assassination attempt last November, escaping with a non-life-threatening leg wound after several bullets were fired at him.
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