Photo: Science Photo Library RF
1 Donald Trump Projected To Win The Presidency
After being told for weeks to not expect to know the results of the 2024 presidential election for days after the polls closed, early this morning it became clear that former President Donald Trump had won. The moment that tipped the race was when NBC News, CBS News, AP News, and Fox News all called the battleground state of Pennsylvania for Trump. Added to his wins in North Carolina, Georgia, and other states he was always expected to win, Trump stood at 267 of the 270 electoral votes needed to win. That meant that winning any other state that hadn’t yet been called would give him the electoral votes for a victory. As of 3 am Eastern time, Trump held a 15-percentage-point lead in Alaska, which has three electoral votes. Trump spoke to the election night watch party in West Palm Beach, Florida around 2:30 am, at almost the same instant that AP News joined other news services in calling Pennsylvania for him. The crowd of thousands attending the watch party of Vice President Kamala Harris at her alma mater Howard University went home after being told just before 1 am Eastern time that Harris wouldn’t be addressing supporters last night. While the victory wasn’t completely assured, when he took the stage to congratulate his supporters he held leads in five other swing states. In his speech this morning, Trump called for the country to unite, saying “It’s time to put the divisions of the past four years behind us. It’s time to unite.” The former and apparent future president added “We have to put our country first for at least a period of time. We have to fix it.”
2 Hurricane Rafael Hitting Cuba Today, Possibly Headed For Louisiana Next
Tropical Storm Rafael strengthened into a Category 1 hurricane near the Cayman Islands last night. The storm was forecast to “rapidly intensify” into a Category 2 before making landfall today in western Cuba. The storm is then expected to reenter the Gulf of Mexico while still at hurricane strength, and then make its way northwest toward the coast of Louisiana. Rafael is expected to lose strength and organization as it approaches the Gulf Coast, making landfall there as a tropical storm. As of the 12 am update from the National Hurricane Center, Rafael had maximum sustained winds of 85 mph.
3 Officials Suspect Russia Of Putting Incendiary Packages On Cargo Planes Headed To America
Security officials suspect that Russian intelligence was behind the plot to put incendiary devices in packages on cargo planes headed to North America and Europe. One of the devices caught fire at a courier hub in Germany, while another one went off in an English warehouse. Russia has denied any involvement in the packages. Last month, Poland said it had arrested four people suspected to be linked to a “foreign intelligence operation” and was looking for two others. Polish officials said that the group had also tested a way to send such rigged packages to the US and Canada.
