Survey: 4/5 Thais Play Video Games, Highest Ratio in ASEAN

By

-

6 November 2020, 18:02

Screenshot (110) — A screenshot from the “Mother Gamer” trailer.

BANGKOK — Four out of five Thais are gamers – the highest ratio in Southeast Asia region – with smartphone gaming the most popular platform in the country, a report said.

YouGov, a British market research company, found that 82 percent of Thais surveyed play video games regularly, which is more than any other ASEAN member state, and a whopping 89 percent of Thai gamers play on smartphones, more than on any other device.

The popularity of mobile gaming isn’t surprising, given the high cost of PC parts and several other reasons, an editor of gaming news website Gaming Dose said.

“It isn’t very portable, and gives people the ‘gamer look,’” Settasilp Poonbumphen said by phone. “But everyone already has a phone, and usually games apps on it are free, making gaming more widely accessible.”

Thais scored the highest in gamer percentage out of 24 countries surveyed by YouGov. Coming in second was the Philippines at 80 percent, then Indonesia at 77 percent, which tied with Taiwan. The surveyed country with the lowest percentage of gamers was Denmark, where only 45 percent of the interviewees say they play video games.

Most Thai gamers play on smartphones (89 percent), followed by desktop/laptop computers (41 percent), tablets (28 percent), gaming consoles (15 percent), and handheld gaming devices (11 percent).

YouGov noted that countries in South and Southeast Asia tended generally had a higher percentage of mobile gamers and a lower share of console gamers, although in every surveyed country mobile games outnumbered other platforms.

Gaming Dose editor Settasilp said that mobile gaming first became massively popular among Thais in 2013 with Line messaging app’s Cookie Run, an endless runner that was massively popular in its heyday until the game was discontinued in Thailand in Oct. 2018.

Female Gamers Aren’t Rare At All

To some, the term “gamer” mostly conjures an image of a man. But the YouGov survey found that Thai male gamers are only slightly more than female: 84 percent of men said they played games, while 82 percent of women did.

Thai women are also more likely than men to game on their smartphones (93 percent of female games, as opposed to 86 percent of male counterparts).

The presence of women in gaming circles even got a pop culture nod from the 2020 Thai film “Mother Gamer,” whose plot features a mom who enters an esports contest against her own son to get him to focus on his studies.

The unlikely protagonist might not be so far off from reality either. According to the survey, 59 percent of Thai respondents over 55 said that they play video games on any device.

“My 63-year-old dad has been playing games since Pac-Man in the arcade. Now he’s playing the same games as his grandkids,” Settasilp said. “Older people who weren’t used to games are starting to, because it’s become so massively popular in general.”

Settasilp also said he knows a third-grader who is teaching his parents to play mobile games.

Mobile is King

The undisputedly most popular mobile game in Thailand, said Settasilp, is Arena of Valor, called RoV in Thai. Genshin Impact, and Call of Duty mobile are also widely played.

In fact, it was Tencent Games and Garena, which publish and distribute RoV, who sponsored the film “Mother Gamer.” Such heavy-handed promotion is part of why the game is so popular in Thailand.

“So you can see all the ads for Garena games all over, on TV, in the skytrain. Line app promotes their games in the messaging app,” Settasilp said. “This is unlike PC games, which don’t usually have support or ads in Thai.”

Most Thai smartphone gamers (64 percent) played between one to 10 hours per week. The surveyed Thai gamers said they were mostly aware of YouTube and Facebook as gaming platforms (68 percent and 61 percent, respectively).

When choosing which games to play on desktop, Thai gamers usually watch what famous streamers are playing, then try out the games for themselves.

“A lot of people started playing Dead by Daylight and Among Us because the streamers made it look fun,” he said.

The future of gaming in Thailand will hopefully see more localized support across many platforms. Settasilp said that when talking to overseas game studios, Thai language support is the first priority after providing support for “developed countries” such as Japan and Korea.

“We heard that, hopefully, Cyberpunk coming out next month will have Thai subtitles,” he said.

The survey on YouGov was conducted between Sept. 3 and 7 on 8,394 people served across six ASEAN nations: Singapore, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Indonesia.

A total of 2,079 Thais were surveyed in return for compensation and is representative of the online population. Read YouGov’s full report here.

2020 Latest: Biden Overtakes Trump in Georgia Vote Count

By

Associated Press

-

6 November 2020, 17:57

1000 (1) — Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden holds up his daily schedule as he speaks at a drive-in campaign stop at Bucks County Community College in Bristol, Pa., Saturday, Oct. 24, 2020. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrat Joe Biden is now leading President Donald Trump in the battleground state of Georgia.

By Friday morning, Biden overtook Trump in the number of ballots counted in the battleground, a must-win state for Trump that has long been a Republican stronghold. Biden now has a 917-vote advantage.

The contest is still too early for The Associated Press to call. Thousands of ballots are still left to be counted — many in counties where the former vice president was in the lead.

An AP analysis showed that Biden’s vote margins grew as counties processed mail ballots cast in his favor.

There is a potential that the race could go to a recount. Under Georgia law, if the margin between Biden and Trump is under half a percentage point of difference, a recount can be requested.

Twitter Briefly Suspended Anti-Gov’t Accounts Without Explanation

By

Khaosod English

-

6 November 2020, 15:30

A screenshot of the suspension notice on Twitter taken on Oct. 6, 2020.

BANGKOK — Twitter on Friday suspended three accounts belonging to the pro-democracy activists in Thailand before reactivating them shortly afterwards without giving any explanation.

The accounts belong to the Free Youth Movement, and activists Tattep “Ford” Ruangprapakitseree and Panumas “James” Singprom, which often announce locations for flash protests against PM Prayut Chan-o-cha. They were inaccessible for several hours on Friday morning and went back online in the afternoon, though nearly all of their followers were gone.

The American social media company did not provide any specific reasons for the suspension other than saying that the accounts “violate the Twitter rules.”

But the activist group believes the incident could have been caused by multiple users reporting the accounts en masse as part of a government-sanctioned information campaign, or I.O.

“It is highly possible that all three accounts targeted by I.O. mass reporting!” Free Youth tweeted. “But no matter what the cause was, we have asked Twitter to verify our accounts!”

The Free Youth’s Facebook page also encouraged its supporters to re-follow the accounts on Twitter, which saw the number of followers dropped from 227,000 to around 1,000. Tattep could not be reached for comment as of publication time.

It was not immediately clear whether the suspension was a result of the now-revoked court order to shut down social media platforms operated by the pro-democracy movement.

Digital economy ministry’s spokesman Putchapong Nodthaisong could not be reached for comments as of the publication time.

Apart from Twitter, the Free Youth group has presence on Facebook, Instagram, and Telegram.

Chuan to Forge Ahead With ‘Reconciliation Panel’ Despite Snubs

By

Khaosod English

-

6 November 2020, 14:15

download — Pro-democracy activists announce to reporters at Sanam Luang on Nov. 4, 2020, that they will not back down from their three demands: PM Prayut Chan-o-cha's resignation, democratic charter amendments, and monarchy reforms.

BANGKOK — House Speaker Chuan Leekpai said on Thursday that he will still proceed with his plan to set up a national reconciliation panel even though most of the anti-government protest leaders said they would not participate in the effort.

Chuan said he will seek a meeting with Privy Council President Gen. Surayud Chulanont next week to discuss the proposal, and urged skeptics to wait and listen first.

“Whether conflicting parties joined the panel or not is not a precondition,” Chuan said.

Chuan has been toying with the ideas of inviting former premiers onboard to find a common solution for Thailand’s grievances, including Anand Panyarachun, Abhisit Vejjajiva and Gen. Chavalit Yongchaiyudh.

But key activists behind the ongoing protests read a joint statement on Wednesday afternoon denouncing the reconciliation panel as “an attempt at making a political soap opera in order to buy time” for PM Gen. Prayut Chan-o-cha.

“He must resign before there’s any talk,” part of the statement said.

The activists also announced a new rally set to take place at Democracy Monument on Sunday. The protesters will then march to submit a petition urging monarchy reforms, though the route is not yet released.

However, pro-democracy activist Sombat Boonngam-anong said the latest turn of events doesn’t mean that ideas for a reconciliation committee are irrelevant.

“The committee will eventually come up with some proposals and when the time and mood are ripe, it can be used,” Sombat said.

“It’s important for the committee to report to the public as to what’s happening. If their proposals are good enough, they will gain support.”

Thailand Reports First COVID-19 Fatality in 49 Days

By

Khaosod English

-

6 November 2020, 13:00

A health worker screens a foreign tourist arriving on the Special Tourist Visa scheme at Suvarnabhumi Airport on Oct. 26, 2020.

BANGKOK — The government’s response center to the coronavirus reported a new virus fatality on Friday, bringing the total death toll to 60, as eight more people were found infected.

The victim was a 66-year-old man who had diabetes and hypertension, the center said. He returned from the United Kingdom on Oct. 19 and stayed at a state quarantine facility in Chonburi province before testing positive for the coronavirus on Oct. 22, according to the crisis center.

The patient died at a hospital on Thursday. It was the first death associated with the coronavirus in 49 days. The last fatality in the country was reported on Sept. 18.

Eight new cases were also discovered inside state quarantine. They include an individual returning from Switzerland, India, Ukraine, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, and three from Myanmar.

As of Friday, 119 infected patients are being treated at hospitals, while 3,639 patients have recovered. The country’s cumulative case of infection now stands at 3,818.

Mandatory Quarantine Days May be Cut

On Thursday, the Ministry of Public Health approved the proposal to shorten quarantine from 14 to 10 days for foreign tourists visiting the country under the Special Tourist Visa program, though the final decision is yet to be made by the government’s response center.

Health ministry’s sec-gen Kiatiphum Wongrajit said the proposal would only apply to visitors from certain “low risk” countries and territories, which include the People’s Republic of China, Taiwan, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand.

“According to the research, there’s not much difference between 14 and 10-day quarantine. The risk is almost the same under appropriate management,” Kiatiphum said. “Of one million visitors, the chance of finding infections after the 10-day quarantine is 1.5 people, compared with 0.3 under the 14-day quarantine.”

Kiatiphum said the tourists would be tracked with an application upon leaving the quarantine and they may only visit certain provinces such as Chonburi and Buriram.

The selected 10 provinces have the adequate capability to handle possible outbreak and locals are in favor of foreign tourists, he said.

‘SuperPark’ Closes Down for Good, Offers No Refunds

By

Khaosod English

-

6 November 2020, 11:57

BANGKOK — Customers who purchased tickets to an indoor playground at Iconsiam mall are demanding a refund after they abruptly announced its permanent closure.

Disgruntled customers of SuperPark said the management continued to sell annual pass tickets just less than a month before the facility permanently closed Wednesday, citing financial losses amid the coronavirus pandemic. An announcement said ticket and membership holders can contact an email address, but did not mention any refund options.

“We will do our utmost to respond to your enquiries in a timely manner,” the Facebook post said.

SuperPark reopened after the lockdown in June to meagre crowds before closing down again on Sept. 25, citing problems with the electricity system due to rain damage.

On Oct. 2, they posted an apology for the long maintenance break and said that tickets set to expire on Dec. 31 would have their expiration date extended to Jan. 31, 2021. Tickets expiring June 30, 2021 would expire July 30, 2021 instead.

Facebook users on Oct. 23 posted photos of a sign in front of the park saying it was permanently closed and that the park was “not a current tenant at Iconsiam.”

Some SuperPark customers have banded together in a Facebook group to demand a refund from the company. The group documented 227 people who purchased more than 723,000 baht in tickets in a Google Sheets document.

122107638 676285299957559 6928592884585660852 n e1604638566566 — Photo: Somkid Jiamratanopat / Facebook

Porramate Kueakit, a 44-year-old dad, bought an annual pass for about 3,000 baht for his 4-year-old son which he only got to use for two months.

“They closed for months due to COVID, but when they reopened, during opening times there less than 10 people in the park. I knew then that that there was no way they would survive,” Porramet said by phone Friday. “There was no announcement prior to this that they would close permanently.”

“Although I sympathize that they are out of business due to COVID, I think it was unethical that they kept selling tickets even though they were going to close soon. Those people got tricked,” Porramet said.

A woman in the group who asked not to be named bought 6,500 baht in tickets at the government-sponsored tourism fair Thai Tiew Thai in September.

“None of the tickets have been used yet. It feels like such a failure. I feel like they had impure intentions in selling them,” she said.

SuperPark, a Finnish brand of indoor playgrounds, opened on Nov. 30 in Iconsiam. Emails, messages, and calls to SuperPark have gone unanswered as of press time.

Shades of California Wow as True Fitness Takes a Bow

1st Group of Chinese Tourists to Thailand Complete Quarantine

By

Xinhua News Agency

-

6 November 2020, 10:00

S__3146053 — A public health worker screens Chinese tourists from Guangzhou who arrived at Suvarnabhumi airport on a "Special Tourist Visa," in Bangkok, Thailand, Tuesday, Oct 26, 2020.

BANGKOK (Xinhua) — Thailand’s Ministry of Public Health said on Thursday that the country’s first group of travelers since the COVID-19 border shutdown will begin to venture outdoors as they have completed a 14-day mandatory quarantine in Bangkok.

The first group of 33 Chinese tourists, who arrived in Thailand on Special Tourist Visas (STV) from Shanghai, have already completed their mandatory 14 days in quarantine at a Bangkok hotel, and will be traveling into the provinces whenever they are ready, said the ministry.

The ministry said the group of Chinese tourists all tested negative for COVID-19 upon arrival at the Suvarnabhumi Airport.

After the 14-day quarantine period, they again tested negative for the virus.

An executive of the Royal Benja Hotel said the hotel also arranged Loy Krathong event for the Chinese tourists so they won’t get too bored.

“However only the tourists who passed the hotel COVID-19 test were allowed to participate in the Loy Krathong festival held at the hotel’s pool,” Sri-Sa-ard, the hotel executive, told a press conference.

The ministry said the Chinese tourists can stay up to 90 days under the STV scheme and can extend their visas twice within the 90-day period.

Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) Governor Yuthasak Supasorn said that although the Chinese tourists needed to update to the Thai government with their whereabouts, he is not willing to disclose the destinations where the tourists will be visiting.

“All tourists need to inform the Thai government of their whereabouts in the country, but we are not ready to disclose their preferred destinations as it is a matter of privacy,” said the governor.

“After the 14-day quarantine, they can go wherever they like in Thailand,” said the governor.

Yuthasak said that in the near future, all incoming tourists won’t need to be subjected to the 14-day quarantine.

“The government is considering to allow a 10-day quarantine instead of 14,” said the governor. “However this rule will only apply to tourists coming from low-risk countries.”

He said many foreign tourists have shown interest in visiting Thailand, but the Thai government has limited arrivals to only 1,200 per month until the end of this year.

U.S. Hits Over 100,000 Single-Day Virus Cases After Election Day

By

Xinhua News Agency

-

6 November 2020, 09:02

WASHINGTON (Xinhua) — The United States added record-breaking 100,000 plus new COVID-19 cases in a single day on Wednesday, while people nationwide are waiting for the outcome of the presidential election.

A total of 106,537 new cases and 1,141 new deaths were recorded on Wednesday, according to data updated by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Thursday.

The record-high case count sets a new milestone since the outbreak of the pandemic in the country, which had been predicted by experts months ago.

In June, with daily cases hovering around 40,000, Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, warned the country was on track to hit 100,000 daily cases if the nation did not work harder to stop the spread of the coronavirus.

Daily new confirmed coronavirus cases in the U.S. have surged 45 percent over the past two weeks, to a record 7-day average of nearly 90,000, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

S 3146055 — *Customers choose books at Strand bookstore in New York, the United States, on Nov. 1, 2020. (Xinhua/Wang Ying)*

Wednesday’s death count also marked the highest since mid-September, CDC data showed.

In addition to sky-high daily infections, key metrics, including rising hospitalizations and testing positivity rates, indicate that the country’s outbreak is worsening, according to data from The COVID Tracking Project.

Hospitalization numbers peaked in 16 states on Wednesday. 20 states have over 1,000 people currently hospitalized with COVID-19.

Florida, for instance, recorded 6,257 coronavirus cases Thursday, the first time the state logged more than 6,000 cases since Aug. 15, according to the Florida Department of Health.

With the Thanksgiving holiday is just weeks away, experts are concerned Americans will let their guard down which may further fuel an already rampant spread of the virus.

The United States has recorded more than 9,537,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases and over 234,200 deaths as of Thursday afternoon, according to the real-time count kept by Johns Hopkins University.

AP Fact Check: Trump Fabricates Election Corruption

By

Associated Press

-

6 November 2020, 09:00

WASHINGTON (AP) — Citing “horror stories,” President Donald Trump unleashed a torrent of fabricated accusations Thursday in an audacious attempt to undermine the legitimacy of the U.S. election.

Standing behind the presidential seal, Trump used a White House setting symbolizing the power of his office to assail an election he portrayed as rife with fraud and corruption. One allegation after another had no basis in fact, such as his accusation that election officials in Pennsylvania and Detroit tried to ban election observers from polling stations.

A look at his remarks, coming as Democrat Joe Biden made progress toward the electoral votes needed to claim the presidency.

TRUMP: “We’re hearing stories that are horror stories. … We think there is going to be a lot of litigation because we have so much evidence and so much proof.”

THE FACTS: Trump has produced no evidence of systemic problems in voting or counting. In fact, the ballot-counting process across the country has been running smoothly for the most part, even with the U.S. in the throes of the coronavirus pandemic.

One of his main complaints, that counting spilled over past Election Day, is meritless. No presidential election has had all the votes counted the same day, and there is no law or even expectation that that should be the case. The surge in mailed ballots and the high turnout have made the process slower than usual in some, but not all, cases.

___

TRUMP: “In Pennsylvania partisan Democrats have allowed ballots in the state to be received three days after the election and we think much more than that and they are counting those without any postmarks or any identification whatsoever.”

THE FACTS: “Partisan Democrats” didn’t ordain this. It was the state Supreme Court that ruled ballots mailed before the end of Election Day could be received up to three days later and still be counted. The U.S. Supreme Court examined the case and did not stand in the way of the three-day timeframe. It may review the matter again later.

A number of other states have also made accommodations for the crush of mailed ballots.

___

TRUMP: “Pennsylvania Democrats have gone to the state Supreme Court to try and ban our election observers. … They don’t want anybody in there. They don’t want anybody watching them while they are counting the ballots.”

THE FACTS: That’s false. He is wholly misrepresenting a court case in the state. No one tried to ban poll watchers representing each side in the election. Democrats did not try to stop Republican representatives from being able to observe the process.

The main issue in the case was how close observers representing the parties could get to election workers who are processing mail-in ballots in Philadelphia. The Trump campaign sued to allow the observers to get closer than the guidelines had allowed. A court ruled in favor of that request.

___

TRUMP: “Our campaign has been denied access to observe any counting in Detroit.”

THE FACTS: That’s false.

Absentee ballots were counted at a downtown convention center, where some 134 counting boards were set up. Each party was allowed one poll watcher per board, said City Clerk Janice Winfrey.

She said she was not aware of any Republican poll watchers being removed but noted some had been “very aggressive, trying to intimidate the poll workers and processors.”

Mark Brewer, former chairman of the Michigan Democratic Party, said he was inside the convention center and access was cut off to some people from both sides at one point because of capacity restrictions related to the pandemic.

___

TRUMP: “The election apparatus in Georgia is run by Democrats.”

THE FACTS: No, the state’s elections are overseen by a Republican, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.

___

TRUMP: “The 11th Circuit ruled that in Georgia the votes have to be in by Election Day, that they should be in by Election Day. And they weren’t. Votes are coming in after Election Day.”

THE FACTS: That’s not an accurate description of the ruling in question or what happened in the election in Georgia.

Although the court ruled that votes must be in by 7 p.m. Election Day for them to count, an exception was made for ballots from the members of U.S. Military serving overseas. Those can be received until 5 p.m. Friday and still count. Election officials in Georgia are still counting votes, but they are votes that have been lawfully received.

___

TRUMP: “If you count the legal votes, I easily win. if you count the illegal votes, they can try to steal the election from us.”

THE FACTS: This is baseless.

Neither Trump’s campaign aides nor election officials have identified substantial numbers of “illegal” votes, much less the mammoth numbers it would take to ruin an easy win by Trump. He frequently speaks as if mail-in voting itself is illegitimate. But it unfolded in accordance with state voting rules, in some cases adapted by officials to help voters get through the pandemic safely.

___

TRUMP, complaining that underhanded activity sapped his leads in important races: “We were winning all the key locations, by a lot actually.”

THE FACTS: The change in fortunes he speaks about is explained by the nature of vote counting in the states, not by any sudden surge of malfeasance that others have not seen.

Often, big cities are slower to report their numbers, and those votes tend skew Democratic. Likewise, many states tend to count mail-in ballots at the end of the process. That portion of the vote has tended to favor Biden, particularly because Trump urged his supporters in advance to avoid mail-in voting and to vote in person either early or on Election Day.

Trump finished election night with leads in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and Georgia, among the states most in play, then saw his advantage begin to fray Wednesday and past that. Biden won Wisconsin and Michigan; Georgia and Pennsylvania can’t yet be called.

___

Dale reported from Philadelphia. Associated Press writers Amanda Seitz in Chicago, Christina A. Cassidy in Atlanta and Colleen Long and Brian Slodysko in Washington contributed to this report.

Biden Pushes Closer To Victory in Race for the White House

By

Associated Press

-

6 November 2020, 00:10

1000 (3) — Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden speaks Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2020, in Wilmington, Del. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrat Joe Biden was pushing closer to the 270 Electoral College votes needed to carry the White House, securing victories in the “blue wall” battlegrounds of Wisconsin and Michigan and narrowing President Donald Trump’s path.

With just a handful of states still up for grabs, Trump tried to press his case in court in some key swing states. It was unclear if any of his campaign’s legal maneuvering over balloting would succeed in shifting the race in his favor.

Two days after Election Day, neither candidate had amassed the votes needed to win the White House. But Biden’s victories in the Great Lakes states left him at 264, meaning he was one battleground state away — any would do — from becoming president-elect.

Trump, with 214 electoral votes, faced a much higher hurdle. To reach 270, he needed to claim all four remaining battlegrounds: Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia and Nevada.

With millions of votes yet to be tabulated, Biden already had received more than 71 million votes, the most in history. At an afternoon news conference Wednesday, the former vice president said he expected to win the presidency but stopped short of outright declaring victory.

“I will govern as an American president,” Biden said. “There will be no red states and blue states when we win. Just the United States of America.”

Trump, in contrast, was escalating his efforts to sow doubt about the outcome of the race. A day after falsely claimed that he had won the election, he voiced support Thursday for ceasing the tallying of legally-cast votes in a tweet, saying, “STOP THE COUNT!” He later falsely asserted that ballots received after Election Day “will not be counted,” a move that if implemented would affect military ballots, as his campaign propagated baseless allegations of fraud.

Elections are run by individual state, county and local governments and Trump’s public comments have no impact on the tallying of votes across the country.

Trump’s campaign engaged in a flurry of legal activity to try to improve the Republican president’s chances and cast doubt on the election results, requesting a recount in Wisconsin and filing lawsuits in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Georgia. Statewide recounts in Wisconsin have historically changed the vote tally by only a few hundred votes; Biden led by more than 20,000 ballots out of nearly 3.3 million counted.

Biden has an edge over Trump after victories in Wisconsin and Michigan, two key Midwestern battleground states. Contests in Georgia, Pennsylvania, Nevada and North Carolina were tight with votes still being tabulated.

The Trump campaign said it was confident the president would ultimately pull out a victory in Arizona, where votes were also still being counted, including in Maricopa County, the state’s most populous area. The AP has declared Biden the winner in Arizona and said Thursday that it was monitoring the vote count as it proceeds.

“The Associated Press continues to watch and analyze vote count results from Arizona as they come in,” said Sally Buzbee, AP’s executive editor. “We will follow the facts in all cases.”

For four years, Democrats have been haunted by the crumbling of the blue wall, the trio of Great Lakes states — Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania — that their candidates had been able to count on every four years. But Trump’s populist appeal struck a chord with white working-class voters and he captured all three in 2016 by a combined total of just 77,000 votes.

The candidates waged a fierce fight for the states this year, with Biden’s everyman political persona resonating in blue-collar towns while his campaign also pushed to increase turnout among Black voters in cities like Detroit and Milwaukee.

It was unclear when a national winner would be determined after a long, bitter campaign dominated by the coronavirus and its effects on Americans and the national economy. But even as Biden’s prospects improved, the U.S. on Wednesday set another record for daily confirmed coronavirus cases as several states posted all-time highs. The pandemic has killed more than 233,000 people in the United States.

Trump spent much of Wednesday and Thursday in the White House residence, huddling with advisers and fuming at media coverage showing his Democratic rival picking up battlegrounds. Trump used his Twitter feed to falsely claim victory in several key states and amplify unsubstantiated conspiracy theories about Democratic gains as absentee and early votes were tabulated. Aides did not say when he next planned to appear in public.

Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien said the president would formally request a Wisconsin recount, citing “irregularities” in several counties. And the campaign said it was filing suit in Michigan and Pennsylvania to halt ballot counting on grounds that it wasn’t given proper access to observe. Still more legal action was launched in Georgia, and Trump campaign spokesman Jason Miller said additional legal action was expected in Nevada.

“We will literally be going through every single ballot,” he said of the hotly contested state.

At the same time, hundreds of thousands of votes were still to be counted in Pennsylvania, and Trump’s campaign said it was moving to intervene in existing Supreme Court litigation over counting mail-in ballots there.

In other closely watched races, Trump picked up Florida, the largest of the swing states, and held onto Texas and Ohio while Biden kept New Hampshire and Minnesota.

Beyond the presidency, Democrats had hoped the election would allow the party to reclaim the Senate and pad its majority in the House. But while the voting scrambled seats in the House and Senate, it ultimately left Congress much like it began — deeply divided.

The candidates spent months pressing dramatically different visions for the nation’s future, including on racial justice, and voters responded in huge numbers, with more than 100 million people casting votes ahead of Election Day.

Trump, in an extraordinary move from the White House, issued premature claims of victory and said he would take the election to the Supreme Court to stop the counting.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell discounted the president’s quick claim of victory, saying it would take a while for states to conduct their vote counts. The Kentucky Republican said that “claiming you’ve won the election is different from finishing the counting.”

Vote tabulations routinely continue beyond Election Day, and states largely set the rules for when the count has to end. In presidential elections, a key point is the date in December when presidential electors meet. That’s set by federal law.

Dozens of Trump supporters chanting “Stop the count!” descended on a ballot-tallying center in Detroit, while thousands of anti-Trump protesters demanding a complete vote count took to the streets in cities across the U.S.

Protests — sometimes about the election, sometimes about racial inequality — took place Wednesday in at least a half-dozen cities, including Los Angeles, Seattle, Houston, Pittsburgh, Minneapolis and San Diego.

Several states allow mailed-in votes to be accepted after Election Day as long as they were postmarked by Tuesday. That includes Pennsylvania, where ballots postmarked by Nov. 3 can be accepted if they arrive up to three days later.

Trump appeared to suggest that those ballots should not be counted and that he would fight for that outcome at the high court. But legal experts were dubious of Trump’s declaration. Trump has appointed three of the high court’s nine justices including, most recently Amy Coney Barrett.

___

Jaffe reported from Wilmington, Delaware. Associated Press writers Aamer Madhani and Andrew Taylor in Washington and Kathleen Ronayne in Sacramento, Calif., contributed to this report.

Female Gamers Aren’t Rare At All

Mobile is King

Mandatory Quarantine Days May be Cut

Hot News

LATEST NEWS