News
Trump, Harris notch first statewide wins as polls close
Republican Donald Trump won eight states in Tuesday’s U.S. presidential election while Democrat Kamala Harris captured three states and Washington, D.C., Edison Research projected, but the outcome of the race remained uncertain with critical battleground states unlikely to be called for hours or even days.
The early results were as anticipated, with the contest expected to come down to seven swing states – Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, and Wisconsin.
Opinion polls showed the rivals neck and neck in all seven going into Election Day.
As of 8 p.m. ET (0100 GMT on Wednesday), polls had closed in 25 states.
Trump had 90 electoral votes after winning Kentucky, Indiana, West Virginia, Alabama, Florida, Oklahoma, Missouri, and Tennessee; Harris had gained 27 electoral votes from Vermont, Maryland, Massachusetts and Washington, D.C. A candidate needs a total of 270 votes in the state-by-state Electoral College to claim the presidency.
Nearly three-quarters of voters say American democracy is under threat, according to preliminary national exit polls from Edison, reflecting the nation’s deep anxiety after a contentious campaign.
Democracy and the economy ranked by far as the most important issues for voters, with around a third of respondents citing each, followed by abortion and immigration.
The poll showed 73 per cent of voters believed democracy was in jeopardy against 25 per cent who said it was secure.
The data underscored the depth of polarization in a nation where divisions have only grown starker during a fiercely competitive race.
Trump employed increasingly apocalyptic rhetoric while stoking unfounded fears that the election system cannot be trusted.
Harris warned that a second Trump term would threaten the underpinnings of American democracy.
The figures represent just a slice of the tens of millions of people who voted, both before and on Election Day, and the preliminary results are subject to change during the evening as more people are surveyed.
Hours before polls closed, Trump claimed on his Truth Social site without evidence that there was “a lot of talk about massive CHEATING” in Philadelphia, echoing his false claims in 2020 that fraud had occurred in large, Democratic-dominated cities. In a subsequent post, he also asserted there was fraud in Detroit.
“I don’t respond to nonsense,” Detroit City Clerk Janice Winfrey told Reuters.
A Philadelphia city commissioner, Seth Bluestein, replied on X, “There is absolutely no truth to this allegation. It is yet another example of disinformation.
“Voting in Philadelphia has been safe and secure.”
Trump, whose supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, after he claimed the 2020 election was rigged, voted earlier near his home in Palm Beach, Florida.
“If I lose an election, if it’s a fair election, I’m gonna be the first one to acknowledge it,” Trump told reporters.
His campaign has suggested he may declare victory on election night even while millions of ballots have yet to be counted, as he did four years ago.
The winner may not be known for days if the margins in battleground states are as slim as expected.
Millions of Americans waited in orderly lines to cast ballots, with only sporadic disruptions reported across a handful of states, including several non-credible bomb threats that the FBI said appeared to originate from Russian email domains.
Trump planned to watch the results at his Mar-a-Lago club before speaking to supporters at a nearby convention center, according to sources familiar with the planning.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk, a prominent Trump backer, said he would watch the results at Mar-a-Lago with Trump.
Trump attended a morning meeting about turnout but appeared bored by the data talk, according to one source briefed on the meeting. All Trump wanted to know, the source said, was: “Am I going to win?”
Harris, who had previously mailed her ballot to her home state of California, spent some of Tuesday in radio interviews encouraging listeners to vote.
Later, she was due to address students at Howard University, a historically Black college in Washington where Harris was an undergraduate.
“To go back tonight to Howard University, my beloved alma mater, and be able to hopefully recognise this day for what it is, is really full circle for me,” Harris said in a radio interview.
A dizzying race churned by unprecedented events – two assassination attempts against Trump, President Joe Biden’s surprise withdrawal and Harris’ rapid rise – remained too close to call after billions of dollars in spending and months of frenetic campaigning.
No matter who wins, history will be made.
Harris, 60, the first female vice president, would become the first woman, Black woman and South Asian American to win the presidency.
Trump, 78, the only president to be impeached twice and the first former president to be criminally convicted, would also become the first president to win non-consecutive terms in more than a century.
Control of both chambers of Congress is also up for grabs.
Democrats had only a narrow path to defend their Senate majority after Republican Jim Justice flipped a West Virginia seat on Tuesday.
The House of Representatives looked like a toss-up.
In Dearborn, Michigan, Nakita Hogue, 50, was joined by her 18-year-old college student daughter, Niemah Hogue, to vote for Harris.
The daughter said she takes birth control to help regulate her period, while her mother recalled needing surgery after she had a miscarriage in her 20s, and both feared Republican lawmakers would seek to restrict reproductive healthcare.
“For my daughter, who is going out into the world and making her own way, I want her to have that choice,” Nakita Hogue said. “She should be able to make her decisions.”
At a library in Phoenix, Arizona, Felicia Navajo, 34, and her husband Jesse Miranda, 52, arrived with one of their three young kids to vote for Trump.
Miranda, a union plumber, immigrated to the U.S. from Mexico when he was four years old, and said he believed Trump would do a better job of fighting inflation and controlling immigration.
“I want to see good people come to this town, people that are willing to work, people who are willing to just live the American dream,” Miranda said. (Reuters/NAN)
The Minister of State for Defence, Dr Bello Muhammad Matawalle, and Chief of Defence Staff, General Christopher Gwabin Musa, arrived in Maiduguri, Borno State, on Friday for a high-level operational visit to Operation HADIN KAI (OPHK), the military’s counter-insurgency campaign in the North East.
The visit, according to a statement by Ahmad Dan Wudil, the minister’s media aide, aims to evaluate the troops’ operational readiness, boost morale among frontline personnel, and review strategies to restore lasting peace and stability in the region.
The statement underscored the Armed Forces of Nigeria’s commitment to safeguarding the nation’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
The trip comes amid growing concerns over resurgent attacks by Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) in Borno State.
Earlier this month, Governor Babagana Zulum warned that the security situation was deteriorating, with insurgents dislodging military formations in areas such as Wulgo, Wajiroko, and Sabon Gari.
Zulum urged the federal government and security agencies to act decisively to prevent a reversal of the gains made in the fight against insurgency.
“While we appreciate the tremendous support from the federal government and the military, the current shift in focus away from the North East risks undermining our progress,” Zulum said, highlighting the need for renewed efforts to curb the escalating violence.
The minister’s visit signals a renewed commitment to addressing the security challenges in Borno, where sporadic attacks have raised fears among residents and displaced communities.
Operation HADIN KAI remains a cornerstone of Nigeria’s efforts to combat insurgency and restore stability to the troubled region.
By Israel Bulus, Kaduna
As Nigeria joins the global community to mark World Malaria Day 2025, the Caleb Danladi Foundation has stepped up its efforts to combat the disease, with a special focus on protecting vulnerable populations.
Aligning with this year’s theme, “Malaria Ends With Us: Reinvest, Reimagine, Reignite,” the Foundation facilitated the re-enrollment of hundreds of women, children, and other at-risk groups into the Kaduna State Health Insurance Scheme.
Founder of the Foundation, Captain Caleb Danladi, disclosed that the organisation fully funded the beneficiaries’ insurance premiums to enhance their access to malaria prevention and treatment services.
Speaking during Friday’s commemoration, Danladi lamented that malaria continues to claim countless lives, particularly in underserved communities.
“Healthcare is a right, not a privilege,” he said. “On this World Malaria Day, we reaffirm our commitment to saving lives through direct support, strong advocacy, and strategic investments in community health solutions.”
He emphasised the need for sustained investments in healthcare and a reimagined approach to delivering equitable services across communities.
Danladi also urged government agencies, healthcare workers, and development partners to strengthen collaboration efforts aimed at eradicating malaria, noting that safeguarding the health and dignity of Nigerians especially women and children is a shared responsibility.
The Director-General (D-G) of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, stated that Africa would be minimally impacted by the tariffs imposed by the President of the United States of America (USA), Donald Trump.
Okonjo-Iweala made the remark during an interview with Nigerian journalists at the Spring Meetings of the World Bank in Washington D.C. on Friday.
She explained that only 6.5 per cent of Africa’s exports go to the USA, while 4.4 per cent of its imports come from the U.S., meaning that the impact on the continent would be minimal.
“The trade of the continent is very limited with the USA. We have done the analysis, and the impact on the continent as a whole is not significant,” she said.
However, she noted that Africa’s limited trade with the USA was also not ideal, as it hindered economic growth.
The D-G emphasised that Africa needed to focus on utilising its own resources to reach its full potential, as aid was declining, and the continent required more investment.
She pointed out that Africa must strengthen internal trade, citing Lesotho as an example.
In spite of Lesotho exporting 200 million dollars’ worth of textiles to the USA, the country faced challenges due to the shrinking U.S. market.
Okonjo-Iweala noted that Africa spent 7 billion dollars annually on importing textiles, suggesting that Lesotho should instead focus on selling textiles within African markets.
She also urged the USA to consider the effects of tariffs on least-developed countries, calling for a reassessment of the reciprocal tariffs in poorer nations.
Okonjo-Iweala concluded that Africa needed more investments and should work towards boosting intra-Africa trade, which remained underdeveloped.
“We cannot trade more externally, where our trade is only 3 per cent of world trade, or internally, where intra-Africa trade is 16 to 20 per cent at most,” she said.(NAN)