Donald Trump elected 47th US president

The Republican candidate has won at least 277 Electoral College votes, per The Associated Press.

Donald Trump has been elected to return to the White House as the 47th United States president.

The vote was called for the Republican candidate by The Associated Press news agency early on Wednesday. His victory has been met by international congratulations but is likely to add further uncertainty to a turbulent geopolitical situation.

Results showed Trump beating Vice President Kamala Harris in a race far less tight than expected as he triumphed in key battleground states.

Victory in Wisconsin after earlier triumphs in Georgia, North Carolina and Pennsylvania saw the former president clear the threshold of the 270 Electoral College votes required to clinch the White House in Tuesday’s election.

Trump’s victory in those swing states currently sees him with 277 electoral votes against 224 for Harris. Polls had predicted a much tighter race, but it appears that anger fuelled the Republican’s remarkable comeback from defeat in 2020 and widespread condemnation of his refusal to accept the result.

That refusal sparked a violent insurrection at the US Capitol, and Trump was also convicted of felony charges and survived two assassination attempts.

However, his campaign, which has seen him demonise his political opponents, immigrants and many minorities, tapped into the frustrations of many voters in a bitterly polarised nation.

Speaking to his supporters as he declared victory, Trump claimed he had won “an unprecedented and powerful mandate”.

Anger and resentment

Scott Lucas, a professor of international politics at the University of Dublin, told Al Jazeera that Trump’s victory stemmed from frustrations that have been bubbling within the US public for years.

“There is anger and resentment in the US, which has been there for quite some time. It’s been a trauma since 9/11. It’s been there with the financial crash in 2008-2009. It was there in 2016 when Trump exploited it, and he exploited it again,” Lucas said, adding that Trump was able to do that because the “political system is damaged”.

Concern over the economy, and inflation in particular, under President Joe Biden was a major focus of the campaign.

That also encouraged opposition to the support Washington is giving to Ukraine in its war against Russia. Meanwhile, the failure to rein in Israel’s wars on Gaza and Lebanon has angered Muslim and liberal voters.

Those complex geopolitical issues will test Trump, who is known for his simplistic claims of being capable of quickly solving such issues.

He has promised to end the war in Ukraine in a day, an idea that has Kyiv wary that it could face pressure to strike a deal to hand over territory to Russia. NATO allies, meanwhile, fear Trump will weaken the alliance’s mutual defence guarantees.

Trump is also a strong supporter of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and has boasted he will end the war with Hamas in Gaza in hours.

“Your historic return to the White House offers a new beginning for America and a powerful recommitment to the great alliance between Israel and America. This is a huge victory!” Netanyahu said in a statement after Trump declared victory.

The enthusiasm in Israel also stems from the incoming president’s hawkish approach to Iran, which he is likely to reassert.

China is also braced for a more confrontational relationship with the US under Trump, who is expected to revive staunchly nationalistic trade policies, putting both allies and rivals on edge.

‘Much more dangerous era’

However, at home, supporters will look to Trump to put the focus on the welfare of US citizens while following through on promises to enact an agenda that would transform nearly every aspect of American government.

That will include plans to launch the largest deportation effort in the nation’s history and use the Department of Justice to punish his enemies.

The result is that “we are going into a much more dangerous era for Americans and for the world because this will not be a coherent US policy for America but one pursued for Trump,” Lucas said.

Sad news about Brad Pitt. The announcement was made by the great actor himself:

Actor Brad Pitt revealed in a recent interview that he suffers from prosopagnosia, a rare neurological disorder also known as “facial blindness.”

Dani Blum describes the disorder’s signs, causes, and remedies in an article for the New York Times.

Borna Bonakdarpour, a behavioral neurologist at Northwestern Medicine, claims that face blindness—not color blindness or general vision impairment—is the main symptom of prosopagnosia.

The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke states that there is no connection between the illness and memory loss, vision problems, or learning impairments.

Blum continues, “It is not the same as forgetting or occasionally having trouble finding the correct word.

The severity of prosopagnosia will differ from person to person.

For instance, some people might have problems identifying a familiar face, such as that of a close friend or relative, while others might have trouble identifying their own reflection.

Additionally, some people might not be able to distinguish between faces and objects.

Notably, some data indicates that individuals with prosopagnosia may have chronic anxiety or depression due to the loneliness and fear that are frequently associated with the illness.

Blum notes that some people avoid contact with family members and other loved ones out of concern that they won’t be able to properly recognize or acknowledge them.

“Navigating basic social relationships with prosopagnosia can become difficult,” she says.

Pitt admitted that he has trouble recognizing people’s faces for years in a recent interview with GQ, despite never having gotten a formal prosopagnosia diagnosis.

In fact, Pitt claimed in a 2013 interview with Esquire that his difficulty recognizing people’s appearances was so great that it frequently made him want to isolate himself.

He explained, “That’s why I stay at home.

What is the condition’s cause?

People who are diagnosed with prosopagnosia often fall into one of two categories: either they are born with it or they acquire it.

However, estimations reveal that as many as one in every 50 people may struggle with some lifetime form of the disorder, and experts hypothesize that it may run in families.

According to Blum, research “suggests that congenital, or lifelong, prosopagnosia is less prevalent.”

According to Andrey Stojic, director of general neurology at the Cleveland Clinic, children born with the illness “don’t seem to have any visible structural abnormality” in the brain.

Notably, doctors don’t fully understand what causes congenital prosopagnosia because there aren’t any obvious brain lesions in persons who have it.

In contrast, people who develop prosopagnosia later in life may have brain abnormalities brought on by a trauma or head injury.

According to Bonakdarpour, individuals can also develop prosopagnosia while dealing with Alzheimer’s illness or following a stroke.

What therapies are available for prosopagnosia?

Prosopagnosia is now untreatable, according to Bonakdarpour. The problem can be treated, though.

People who have the syndrome frequently attempt to distinguish between people by focusing on physical characteristics like hair color, gait, or voice.

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