Kamala Harris

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      in US Politics

      Vogue's Kamala Harris cover photos spark controversy: 'Washed out mess'

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      Vogue magazine became embroiled in a “whitewashing” controversy on Sunday when it tweeted photographs of its February cover star, Kamala Harris.Two images of the US vice-president-elect were released. One, a full-length shot in front of what appeared to be a glossy pink silk drape, drew the ire of social media critics.One user called it a “washed out mess of a cover”. “Kamala Harris is about as light skinned as women of color come and Vogue still fucked up her lighting,” the observer wrote.Others criticized Vogue’s editor-in-chief. “What a mess up,” wrote New York Times contributor Wajahat Ali. “Anna Wintour must really not have Black friends and colleagues. I’ll shoot shots of VP Kamala Harris for free using my Samsung and I’m 100% confident it’ll turn out better than this Vogue cover.”Last year, Wintour apologized to staff members in a letter for “mistakes” in publishing photographs and articles seen as insensitive to minorities.“Vogue has not found enough ways to elevate or give space to Black editors, writers, photographers, designers, and other creators,” Wintour wrote. “We have made mistakes too, publishing images or stories that have been hurtful or intolerant. I want to take full responsibility for those mistakes.”Vogue denied to the New York Post it had lightened Harris’s skin after the shoot, but the assurance failed to quell the wave of disapproval.“The pic itself isn’t terrible as a pic. It’s just far, far below the standards of Vogue. They didn’t put thought into it. Like homework finished the morning it’s due,” the LGBTQ activist Charlotte Clymer tweeted.Vogue has not confirmed which of the two photographs it will use for its print cover, or if it will publish both. Each image was shot by Tyler Mitchell, who was 23 when he came to prominence photographing Beyoncé for Vogue in 2018.According to the Post, Harris and her team had control over her clothes, hair and makeup. She chose her own casual black jacket and pants and a pair of Converse Chuck Taylor boots for one photo, a powder blue Michael Kors pantsuit for the other.Harris’s appearance on the Vogue cover is likely to attract the attention of Donald Trump, who complained last month that his model wife, first lady Melania Trump, had not graced a single magazine cover in his four years in the White House, having been snubbed by “elitist snobs” in the fashion industry.The previous first lady, Michelle Obama, featured in numerous fashion shoots, including the cover of Vogue in December 2016. More

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      in US Politics

      Congress certifies Biden and Harris win hours after deadly attack on Capitol – video

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      With all electoral college votes counted, the US Congress has certified Joe Biden’s win in the election. Biden and Kamala Harris will take over as president and vice-president on 20 January. The confirmation of the vote was delayed when pro-Trump rioters stormed the Capitol building in the afternoon of 6 January
      Congress certifies Joe Biden as next US president hours after pro-Trump mob storms Capitol – live
      America shaken after pro-Trump mob storms US Capitol building More

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      in US Politics

      Can Kamala Harris as vice-president be both loyal deputy and heir apparent?

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      American vice-presidents occupy what can be one of the most powerful positions in all of the federal US government and yet it can also be one of the least powerful. Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris is going to soon find out where her tenure will land.
      Harris is in a unique position among the near 50 vice-presidents in American history. She enters the office with the strong possibility that the incoming president, Joe Biden, won’t run for re-election, thus teeing her up as a future occupant of the Oval Office far more than normal.
      That has triggered intense speculation on how Harris will approach her job over the next four years as she treads a fine line between being Biden’s loyal deputy but also his heir apparent.
      Thus far the division of labor between Biden and Harris has only been described in broad terms. Incoming administration officials expect Harris not to have a separate policy portfolio and the issues Biden focuses on will be the ones she focuses on.
      Biden and Harris have said the Biden administration will follow the example of the Obama administration when Biden was President Barack Obama’s go-to man for greasing the wheels of Congress. Even before he nominated Harris, Biden described his own vice-presidential relationship with Obama as a model for the way he would work with his own deputy.
      Yet Biden and Harris bring remarkably different experiences and assets to the role. While Biden helped offset criticism that Obama was too young and inexperienced, Harris has helped ease concern about Biden’s age and excite legions of Democrats who were disappointed to see a white man lead the ticket.
      Harris, the daughter of immigrants from Jamaica and India, will be the first woman and first woman of color to serve as vice-president.
      “She comes into office with real star quality and that goes a long way because she’s got sway with various constituencies,” said Roy Neel, who served as chief of staff to Vice-President Al Gore during Bill Clinton’s presidency. “She ran for president. She’s smart and able and she’s got relationships in the Senate – not as deep as Biden. They have an opportunity to be a helluva team.”
      Harris has been active in the weeks since Biden won the election. She headlined a rally for the Democratic candidates in the upcoming Georgia runoff elections that will decide control of the US Senate. The vice-president-elect has had a major role in Biden’s cabinet selections as well. More

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      in US Politics

      Joe Biden and Kamala Harris named Time magazine's 2020 person of the year

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      Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have been named Time magazine’s person – or persons – of the year for 2020.The magazine said: “Together, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris offered restoration and renewal in a single ticket. And America bought what they were selling: after the highest turnout in a century, they racked up 81 million votes and counting, the most in presidential history, topping Trump by some 7 million votes and flipping five battleground states.”The accolade for Biden sees him follow in the footsteps of Barack Obama (2012) and Donald Trump (2016). Last year’s winner was climate activist Greta Thunberg.Biden, 78, who served two terms as vice president to Barack Obama, will become the oldest person to assume the office of US president when he is sworn in on 20 January. Harris will become the first woman, the first Black and the first person of Asian descent to be inaugurated vice president.The Person of the Year is usually an individual, but multiple people have been named in the past. In recent years the magazine has also taken to recognizing groups or movements. In 2017, the magazine selected “The Silence Breakers” of the MeToo movement, and in 2018, chose to designate journalists who were imprisoned or killed for their work.Prior to naming this year’s winner on Thursday, the magazine announced four finalists, included Biden and Trump – as well as two broader categories: the movement for racial justice, and frontline healthcare workers and Dr Anthony Fauci, the country’s leading infectious diseases scientist. Trump has been on the shortlist every year since he won the 2016 election.Time has named a person of the year since 1927. The selection represents “an individual but sometimes multiple people who greatly impacted the country and world during the calendar year”, the magazine says. The designation is not necessarily an honor. Rather, it recognizes figures who have “influenced the news, for better or for worse,” according to the magazine.Along with its Person of the Year honor, Time magazine named the Korean pop group BTS as its Entertainer of the Year, and basketball star LeBron James was crowned Athlete of the Year. More

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      Kamala Harris named world's third most powerful woman on Forbes list

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      Kamala Harris has become the third most powerful woman in the world by virtue of being elected as America’s next vice-president, according to the latest rankings of a popular annual power list.The Democratic senator from California was catapulted right into the No 3 spot for her debut on Forbes magazine’s world’s 100 most powerful women list. She appears just below Christine Lagarde, president of the European Central Bank, and the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, who made the top spot for the 10th straight year, in the 2020 list published this week.Forbes highlighted Harris’s victory as Joe Biden’s running mate in the Democratic win over Donald Trump and his vice-president, Mike Pence, in the November race for the White House, noting she will be America’s first female vice-president and the first person of color in that role.Harris, who was the attorney general of California before being elected to the US Senate, will be the first Black American and first Asian American to be elected vice-president.She made a speech after the election victory in which she noted that she may be the first but she will not be the last woman in that role, and Forbes pointed to the break-out moment in her debate against Pence before the election when she confidently and calmly blocked Pence’s repeated interruptions by declaring: “Mr Vice-President, I’m speaking.”That riposte “launched a thousand memes (and even a handful of T-shirts), but it also became a rallying cry for women across America”, Forbes noted.Beyond the stand-out moment for Harris and US politics, the 2020 list prominently featured female leaders who have earned accolades on the world stage for their handling of the coronavirus pandemic.Women from prime ministers to corporate executives earned spots in the list for their achievements helping mitigate and control the deadly contagious virus, which has infected more than 67 million people and caused 1.54 million deaths, Forbes said.New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, Taiwan’s president, Tsai Ing-wen, Finland’s prime minister, Sanna Marin, Lagarde, who was previously head of the International Monetary Fund, and the Tokyo governor, Yuriko Koike, were particularly effective, it said.“Where they differ in age, nationality and job description, they are united in the ways they have been using their platforms to address the unique challenges of 2020,” Forbes said on its website.It quoted Norway’s prime minister, Erna Solberg, also on the list, who said recently that “countries where human rights are respected and where women are able to reach top positions in society are also the countries that are the best-equipped to handle crises by Covid-19”.New Zealand eliminated coronavirus infections with a strict lockdown, reporting just over 2,000 cases of the virus and 25 deaths.Taiwan kept the pandemic under control after instituting strict restrictions and largely closing its borders in January, long before western countries, limiting cases of the virus to just over 700 and seven deaths, it said.Of the 17 newcomers to the Forbes list, Carol Tomé, chief executive of United Parcel Service, where delivery volumes soared during lockdowns, and Linda Rendle, chief executive of Clorox, which boosted production of cleaning goods as demand ballooned amid the surging virus, were noted for their work.At CVS Health, also in the US, Karen Lynch, who becomes chief executive in February, took over the pharmacy giant’s Covid response and extensive network of testing sites. In 2021, she will be responsible for overseeing vaccine distribution at the company’s nearly 10,000 US pharmacy locations.Stacey Cunningham, the first woman to head the New York stock exchange, made the “swift” decision to shut down in-person trading as the virus was spreading in March, it said.Britain’s Queen Elizabeth was just 46th on the list.Reuters contributed reporting More

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      in Elections

      Biden plans to urge all Americans to wear masks for 100 days after inauguration

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      President-elect and vice-president-elect Kamala Harris pledge to receive Covid vaccines as soon as possibleJoe Biden intends to call for all Americans to wear masks for 100 days after he becomes president in an attempt to bring down infection rates, as the coronavirus crisis continues to rage out of control in the US.The president-elect and vice-president-elect, Kamala Harris, have also committed to receiving coronavirus vaccinations as soon as possible when, as expected, the first vaccines are approved by US regulators. Continue reading… More

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      in Elections

      'A cabinet that looks like America': Harris hails Biden's diverse picks

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      President-elect Joe Biden formally introduced his first round of cabinet nominations on Tuesday, a move broadly welcomed as a restoration of the old Washington and international order after the turmoil of the Trump administration.
      Biden has also blunted criticism from progressives on his left flank by emphasising diversity and the fight against the climate crisis, although the Democratic party’s internal fractures are far from healed.
      Speaking in Wilmington, Delaware on Tuesday, the president-elect said: “It’s a team that reflects the fact that America is back. Ready to lead the world, not retreat from it. Once again sit at the head of the table, ready to confront our adversaries and not reject our allies. Ready to stand up for our values.”
      Vice president-elect Kamala Harris added: “When Joe asked me to be his running mate, he told me about his commitment to making sure we selected a cabinet that looks like America – that reflects the very best of our nation. That is what we have done.”
      Biden said that in John Kerry, a former secretary of state and presidential nominee, America would have a full-time climate leader for the first time, someone with “a seat at every table around the world”. Biden also said the 2004 nominee, “one of my closest friends”, would be “speaking for America on one of the most prescient threats of our time. No one I trust more.”
      The former vice-president spoke at a blue lectern labelled “Office of the president elect”, on a stage with a matching blue backdrop. He promised to restore America’s global and moral leadership, ensuring service personnel and diplomats are “free of politics”.
      He added: “They’ll not only repair but also reimagine American foreign policy and national security for the next generation.” More

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      in US Politics

      Obama hails arrival of a more 'caring government' as memoir launches – video

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      In an interview marking the launch of his memoir A Promised Land, Barack Obama tells Oprah Winfrey that the election of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will help lead the US back to the ‘competent, caring government we so badly need’. 
      He lamented the standard of governance over the past four years, saying Biden and Harris will ‘level set’ and show that the presidency will not label journalists ‘enemies of the state’ or ‘routinely lie’  
      A Promised Land by Barack Obama review – memoir of a president
      Obama scolds ‘petulant’ Trump but reveals conservative sympathies More