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The odds of Vice President Kamala Harris being elected as president in November improved noticeably over the past 24 hours according to a number of leading bookmakers, following the publication of a poll putting her two points ahead of Republican candidate Donald Trump in a straight matchup.

On Tuesday morning, betting companies Bet365 and William Hill were offering odds of 7/4 (36.4 percent) on Harris being elected to the White House this year, but this has since been cut to 6/4 (40 percent) for the former and 11/8 (42.1 percent) for the latter as of 5 a.m. ET on Wednesday. Over the same period, the odds of Harris winning in November went from 13/8 (38.1 percent) to 11/8 (42.1 percent) according to Sky Bet, another leading bookmaker.

China’s chip industry may have found a way to make an advanced chip that can power a 5G smartphone, but it can’t yet make a chip powerful enough to run AI applications. And that dependence on chip imports, restricted by a U.S. ban, could now be putting China’s tech sector at a disadvantage in the race to dominate AI.

Chinese tech firms are rationing the use of their AI services because of a lack of computing power, the result of a shortage of chips, reports The Information.

China's theft of intellectual property in technology, including in AI, and other trade secrets is a major threat to the West, global intelligence leaders warn.

Intelligence leaders from the U.S., Canada, United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand — collectively known as the Five Eyes — explain that the scale of China's theft is unprecedented. FBI Director Christopher Wray believes China is the "defining threat of this generation."

The head of Saudi Arabia’s new investment fund for semiconductor and artificial intelligence technology said the country would divest from China if it were asked to do so by the US.

“So far the requests have been to keep manufacturing and supply chains completely separate, but if the partnerships with China would become a problem for the US, we will divest,” said Amit Midha, the chief executive officer of Alat, an investment firm backed by $100 billion in capital from the Public Investment Fund.

The U.S. is currently beating China in the competition for leadership approval in much of the world. But, as a new Gallup report shows, this approval can depend a great deal on who is in power.

Based on relative net approval scores, the U.S. enjoyed an advantage in 81 out of 133 countries that Gallup surveyed in 2023, while China had an advantage in 52.

Beijing grabbed headlines last week by declaring its resolve to address the country’s deep property slump with 300 billion yuan ($42 billion) of central bank funding for state-owned enterprises to buy up vacant apartments. That money, along with relaxed mortgage rules, briefly offered a slight hope that the government finally is coming to grips with a crisis that has undermined China’s economy.

The reality is that Beijing’s measures are a mere drop in an ocean of empty or unfinished apartment buildings, moribund developers who have defaulted on at least $124.5 billion of dollar debt, and hundreds of millions of homeowners who once bet on a now-collapsed property bubble. It also is bad news for an economy that over the past two decades came to rely on the property sector—and the industries like construction that it turbocharged—to provide between 20 and 30 percent of the growth that fueled China’s economic “miracle.”

China is in the midst of a profound economic crisis. Growth rates are flagging as an unsustainable mountain of debt piles up; China’s debt-to-GDP ratio reached a record 288% in 2023. But even that eye-popping figure does not capture the uncomfortable fact that much of it was borrowed to buy assets that no longer yield enough income to repay the debt. This is especially true in the housing sector, where sales have fallen by a third since the pre-pandemic peak, and new construction is down 60%. This is one of the worst housing crashes in the world over the last three decades.

Many Western pundits and politicians view this crisis as a sign of the bankruptcy of China’s leadership and economic system. But it is more akin to the cyclical debt crises that have plagued capitalist countries throughout history. An apt comparison is Japan’s crisis of 1989, which ended decades of high growth and rising asset prices, fueled by a ballooning debt bubble. Japan’s Nikkei stock index peaked in late 1989 and fell almost 80% over the next 13 years. Real estate prices fell for two decades starting in 1991. Neither of these major asset classes has exceeded the pre-crisis price peak ever since. Japan transitioned from being the fastest growing major economy during 1954-73, typically growing over 10% per year, to the slowest, with growth averaging only 1.75% per year from 1981 to 2023. China may be facing similarly prolonged difficulties.

Listed below are some constraints that show how in the US the development of dangerous infectious agents, referred to as “select agents”, is controlled – perhaps misuse even prevented – through technical and administrative hurdles: I. Re-creating an already existing dangerous virus for malicious intent is a complex scientific endeavor. (i) It requires considerable scientific knowledge and experience and, more importantly, considerable financial support. That support usually comes from government and private agencies (NIH, NAF, etc.), organizations that carefully screen at multiple levels all applications for funding of ALL biological research. (ii) It requires an environment suitable for experimenting with dangerous infectious agents (containment facilities). Any work in containment facilities is also carefully regulated. II. Genetic engineering to synthesize or modify organisms relies on chemical synthesis of DNA. Synthesizing DNA is automated and carried out with sophisticated, expensive instruments. The major problem of DNA synthesis, however, is that the product is not error-free. Any single mistake in the sequence of small DNA segments (30–60 nucleotides) or large segments (>500 nucleotides) can ruin the experiment. Companies have developed strategies to produce and deliver error free, synthetic DNA, which investigators can order electronically from vendors, such as Integrated DNA Technologies (US), GenScript (US) or GeneArt (Germany). This offers a superb and easy way to control experimental procedures carried out in any laboratory: the companies will automatically scan ordered sequences in extensive data banks to monitor relationship to sequences of a select agent. If so, the order will be stalled until sufficient evidence has been provided by the investigator that she/he is carrying out experiments approved by the authorities. The entire complex issue of protecting society from the misuse of select agents has been discussed in two outstanding studies [11, 12]. III. Engineering a virus such that it will be more harmful (more contagious, more pathogenic) is generally difficult because, in principle, viruses have evolved to proliferating maximally in their natural environment. That is, genetic manipulations of a virus often lead to loss of fitness that, in turn, is unwanted in the bioterrorist agent.

The threat of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict expanding from Gaza to other fronts increases significantly as the war escalates. The likelihood of direct Iranian military involvement remains highly improbable. Iran still prefers to rely on its proxies, although, in recent years, it has shown a growing willingness to conduct direct offensive operations against Israel from Syria using drones and rockets. While the interests of Iran and Hizballah are still inclined toward avoiding an all-out confrontation as much as possible, the potential for the convergence of fronts against Israel is gradually rising, involving Hamas from Gaza; Hizballah from Lebanon; and, potentially, pro-Iranian militias from Syria, Iraq, and Yemen. This reality necessitates Israel to decide whether it is advantageous to seize the current situation for a preemptive strike against Hizballah, which would reshape the Middle Eastern landscape in Gaza and Lebanon. While the Israeli military has prepared for the potential of a multi-front campaign for the last few years, dividing military efforts between the north and the south could jeopardize the primary endeavor against Hamas and the prospects of achieving strategic objectives against both Hamas and Hizballah.

At the same time, her team has been quick to tamp down any suggestion that she meaningfully disagrees with Biden’s approach. (“The difference is not in substance but probably in tone,” a Harris adviser told The Nation’s Joan Walsh in a recent profile.) Therefore, while Harris could be less resistant to pressure on Gaza than Biden, she will still, as she might put it, be operating in the context of what came before her. It is up to us, the organizers and activists, to make it so that the future Harris administration not only can but must hold Israel to account—not just with words but with real action.

The Uncommitted National Movement has indicated that it will back any candidate at the convention and mobilize voters on their behalf in November so long as that candidate backs a permanent ceasefire and an arms embargo. In its statement, the movement wrote:

The Biden administration may soon endorse a proposal before the World Trade Organization (WTO) that would suspend patent protections on Covid-19 treatments and tests and, in doing so, thwart existing WTO standards. This move would be enormously unpopular with American voters, according to a new  released today by the Bayh-Dole Coalition.

Seven in ten voters believe that it is important for the Biden administration to preserve WTO standards for protecting IP. And 77% are at least slightly concerned that the pending proposal would stifle medical research and kill American manufacturing jobs.

Medicare’s ability to negotiate drug prices as part of the Inflation Reduction Act could be another focus for a Harris presidency — and a concern for much of the pharmaceutical industry. “It’s likely something she can tout as an achievement of both hers and Biden’s,” said Lindsay Bealor Greenleaf, head of state and federal policy at the consulting firm ADVI Health, while adding that her policies for implementing drug-related provisions in the IRA could “be more aggressive than the current administration.” One area the industry worries about involves so-called march-in rights, which allow the federal government to seize the patents of some high-cost drugs and create more competition that could lower prices. The Biden administration has yet to wield that power, though it has said it would have the right to.

Measured antitrust enforcement protects American capitalism and competition Harris’ antitrust record as California Attorney General suggests a more measured approach to antitrust enforcement compared to the current environment and the evolving MAGA economic principles promised by Trump-Vance. For example, when campaigning to be California attorney general in 2010, Harris warned against “shortsighted” antitrust enforcement, emphasizing government “can't stand in the way of business growth and development.” In contrast, business leaders were horrified when President Trump weaponized antitrust as a cudgel to obtain more favorable news coverage. They have similarly resented what is viewed as antitrust overreach by certain Biden officials, led by Lina Khan at the FTC and Jonathan Kanter at the DOJ. While J.D. Vance is one of Khan’s loudest defenders—recently declaring, “I look at Lina Khan as one of the few people in the Biden Administration that I think is doing a pretty good job.” In contrast, many in the business community are expecting new antitrust leadership under President Harris, who has reportedly expressed skepticism toward Khan’s expansive view of antitrust powers, echoing concerns from progressive allies such as Congressman Ro Khanna.

The last time Vice President Kamala Harris tried to win the White House, she staked out aggressive positions on climate change, calling for a ban on fracking, a tax on carbon pollution and $10 trillion in spending to fight global warming. But one past action stands out as something that could be both an asset to Ms. Harris as well as an albatross.

As a senator in 2019, Ms. Harris cosponsored the Green New Deal, a nonbinding resolution that was centered around the idea that addressing climate change required significant changes in the economy. It called for converting the electric grid to 100 percent clean energy this decade, declared clean air, clean water and healthy food to be basic human rights. But it also endorsed free health care and affordable housing for all Americans.

The president sought to use the address to outline the stakes in the election, which both Biden and Harris have framed as a choice between freedom and chaos, but he tried to steer clear of overt campaigning from his official office.

“The great thing about America is here, kings and dictators do not rule,” Biden said. “The people do. History is in your hands. The power is in your hands. The idea of America — lies in your hands.”

Even though President Joe Biden won’t be on the ballot in November, voters still will be weighing his legacy.

As Vice President Kamala Harris moves to take his place as the Democratic standard-bearer, Biden's accomplishments remain very much at risk should Republican Donald Trump prevail.

In the nationwide polling average maintained by The Hill and Decision Desk HQ (DDHQ), former President Trump leads Harris by 2 points.

The situation, however, is very fluid. These numbers include polls from both before and after Biden exited the race and endorsed Harris.

Former President Donald Trump turned his ire on Vice President Harris in Charlotte, N.C., describing her as “a new victim to defeat.”

Trump repeatedly mispronounced Harris first name, Kamala, while describing her as more radical than Biden and “a danger to democracy.” US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris speaks at her campaign headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, on July 22, 2024. POLITICS As she is poised to be the Democratic nominee, here are 5 facts about Kamala Harris “Something happened to me when I got shot,” he said at a rally Wednesday night. “I became nice. And when you're dealing with these people, they're very dangerous people when you're dealing with them. You can't be too nice. You really can't be, so if you don't mind, I'm not going to be nice — is that OK?” The crowd roared. They chanted: “Fight. Fight. Fight,” a rallying cry that echoes through his events after a failed assassination attempt. Harris has not shied away from her own attacks. In her first major speech as the likely nominee on Tuesday, Harris boasted of her background as a prosecutor and said that experience would come in handy against Trump. “I took on perpetrators of all kinds — predators who abused women, fraudsters who ripped off consumers, cheaters who broke the rules for their own gain,” she said in Wisconsin. “So hear me when I say, I know Donald Trump's type.” On Wednesday, Trump responded. He was anything but nice. Bar chart: If November’s presidential election were held today, whom would you support? Donald Trump: 46%. Kamala Harris: 45%. Undecided: 9%. ELECTIONS Poll: Presidential race hits a reset with Harris vs. Trump In very personal terms, he went on to call her “Lyin’ Kamala Harris” and "the most incompetent and far left vice president in American history.” He told supporters she was “a radical, crazy person” on issues like gun rights and abortion. “You've been terrible at everything you've done,” he said, as though speaking to her directly. “You're ultra liberal. And we don't want you here. We don't want you anywhere, Kamala. You're fired.” It was Trump’s first rally since President Biden dropped out of the presidential race and only his second since the attempt on his life

US vice-president Kamala Harris has now secured enough delegates to replace Joe Biden as the Democratic party’s presidential candidate against Donald Trump in this year’s election. The question is how she would fare against Trump in November. A poll on Monday by Morning Consult, the first to be conducted since Biden dropped out of the race, gave Trump a two-point lead over Harris, at 47 per cent to 45 per cent. It was down sharply from the six-point advantage the former president enjoyed over the 81-year-old incumbent. The survey also found that more Democratic voters now feel strongly motivated to vote than Republicans, by 27 per cent to 24 per cent. Trump remains a clear but not prohibitive favourite to win back the White House, according to prediction markets, but Harris’s odds have narrowed.

After President Biden ended his re-election bid and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for the Democratic Party’s nomination, questions have turned to her electoral viability — and how she might perform against former President Donald J. Trump. Across recent polls, Ms. Harris trails Mr. Trump by two percentage points nationally, 46 percent to 48 percent, according to The New York Times’s polling average on Sunday.