Networks cut away from Trump's White House address
New York: ABC, CBS and NBC all cut away from President Donald Trump as he spoke from the White House to make an unfounded accusation that the presidential election was being stolen from him.
Trump on Thursday tried to commandeer the nation's airwaves at a time when the evening newscasts are shown on the East Coast, after a day when the slow drip of vote counting revealed his leads in Pennsylvania and Georgia dwindling.
MSNBC's Brian Williams also interrupted the president. Fox News Channel and CNN aired the president's full address, after which CNN's Anderson Cooper said Trump was like an obese turtle on his back, flailing in the hot sun realising his time was over .
Network personalities had sharply criticised Trump after his angry, middle-of-the-night speech following Election Day but aired that talk in full. Trump was more subdued on Thursday, yet offered a litany of complaints about suppression polls, mail-in voting and fraud that he never specified.
We have to interrupt here, because the president has made a number of false statements, including the notion that there has been fraudulent voting, said NBC's Lester Holt. There has been no evidence of that.
CBS' Norah O'Donnell broke in to ask correspondent Nancy Cordes to fact-check Trump's assertion that if legal votes were counted, he would easily win the election. Cordes said there is no indication of a substantive number of illegal votes cast, and said Trump's reference to votes arriving late was another falsehood.
MSNBC cut away from Trump to anchor Brian Williams.
Here we are again in the unusual position of not only interrupting the president of the United States but correcting the president of the United States, he said. There are no illegal votes that we know of, there has been no Trump victory that we know of.
After ABC ended its coverage, the network's White House correspondent, Jonathan Karl, also said there was no evidence of illegal votes.
What he seems to be frustrated by is...that it takes time to count votes, Karl said. It's always taken time to count votes. But especially in this election.
While CNN kept Trump on the air, a chyron displayed under him said, Without any evidence, Trump says he's being cheated. Anchor Jake Tapper looked weary when it was over.
What a sad night for the United States of America to hear their president say that, to falsely accuse people of trying to steal the election, to try to attack democracy in that way with this feast of falsehoods," he said. Lie after lie after lie. Pathetic.
CNN analysts David Axelrod and Van Jones both said they were angered by Trump's attacks on authorities in Detroit and Philadelphia, suggesting they amounted to racism.
On Fox News Channel, commentators Bill Bennett and Byron York said that just because Trump did not allege specific instances of irregularities doesn't mean there haven't been any. But the president and his lawyers need to present evidence, they said.
What we saw tonight is a president who believes that at the end of the day, when all the votes are counted, the election is not going to to go his way, so he's trying to plan an alternate route to retain the White House, said Fox White House correspondent John Roberts.
The New York Post, a prominent Trump media ally, headlined a story on the speech, Donald Trump makes baseless election fraud claims in White House address.
CBS News' John Dickerson said Trump's speech felt like kind of a deflated recitation .
The third day of election coverage on the networks was like a high school math class, filled with numbers geeks like MSNBC's Steve Kornacki and CNN's John King explaining the intricacies of the votes being reported.
With Biden chipping away at Trump's leads in states crucial to any chance of the president getting the necessary 270 electoral votes, it was unlike any math class in that it was building to a big ending.
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Siddaramaiah gives push for AI in Karnataka Budget
Bengaluru (PTI): Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Friday said to further strengthen the AI sector, AI and Robotics Technology Park under IISc, will set up a robotics and AI campus called "Bangalore Robotics and AI Innovation Zone" during the current year.
This campus will be set up in collaboration with ISRO and Karnataka State Electronics Development Corporation Limited (KEONICS), Siddaramaiah added.
Presenting Karnataka Budget 2026-27, he said, a centre of Excellence for AI will be set up at IIIT Raichur at a cost of Rs 5 crore.
Noting that Karnataka is the first state to introduce the Global Capability Center (GCC) Policy, the CM said, as a result of the progressive policies of the government, more than 550 GCCs are currently operating in the state.
"Under this policy, the target is to establish 500 new GCCs in the state by 2029, which are expected to create employment for 3.5 lakh people and generate an economic output of USD 50 billion. A new IT park will be established in Mangalore to promote GCC by KEONICS," he said.
With the support extended to the IT sector, more than 30,000 employees are working in 100 companies in Mysuru, the CM said.
To ease the congestion in Bengaluru and to strengthen economic activities beyond Bengaluru, Myasuru city will be developed as the second IT city of the state, he added.
To support drone testing and performance appraisal, a drone testing facility will be established in Chikkaballapur district, he said.
"During the current year, Rs 4 crore will be allocated for the development of an advanced surgical-assisted robot (COBOT)" in collaboration with IIIT-Bangalore and NIMHANS. This technology will facilitate improved outcomes in neurosurgical procedures, he added.
The CM said that infrastructure facilities will be developed at the Centre for Human Genetics at a total cost of Rs 20 crore to accommodate the newly established Institute of Advanced Genome Editing and Gene Therapy, along with other biotechnology-based laboratories.
With the objective of establishing a state-of-the-art AI Center of Excellence in Bengaluru, two centres of excellence will be set up in collaboration with the Institute of Bioinformatics and Applied Biotechnology, Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms and NASSCOM at a total cost of Rs 16 crore, he said.
Rs 10 crore will be allocated to implement the first phase of the Quantum Road Map over five years and this will train and develop high-quality human resources required in the quantum technology sector, he said.
Noting that a detailed project report has been prepared and submitted to the Central Government to establish a state-of-the-art 'Science City at a cost of Rs 233 crore in Adinarayana Hosahalli, Bengaluru, Siddaramaiah said, upon its approval, the State will take further steps, including design and development.
To inculcate scientific temper among students, Science centres have been established in all the districts, and planetariums have been set up in 11 districts. In the current year, six new planetariums will be developed in Vijayanagar, Ballari, Chitradurga, Yadgiri, Koppal and Bidar districts at a unit cost of Rs 4 crores and a total cost of Rs.24 crore, he said.
Highlighting that Karnataka is leading in the country's Information Technology sector, the CM said, "Our state has contributed to 43 per cent of India's IT exports. Under the new IT Policy 2025-30, software exports are expected to reach Rs 11.5 lakh crore by 2030."
Karnataka State has moved up from 21st position in the previous year to 14th in the global start-up ecosystem and is home to over 18,000 active Start-ups, he said.
"Bengaluru is also ranked 5th in the world's top 50 AI cities in the field of AI and Big Data," Siddaramaiah said.
The LEAP is a flagship initiative of the Government, launched with an outlay of Rs 1,000 crore to promote start-ups and entrepreneurship in cities beyond Bengaluru, Siddaramaiah said.
To increase employment opportunities through long-term industry-academia partnerships, a super 100 industry-academia adoption programme will be implemented in collaboration with Karnataka Digital Economy Mission(KDEM).
Karnataka ranks among the leading states in the ESDM and semiconductor sectors, he said.
It is a matter of pride that major global companies like Foxconn, LAM Research, and Applied Materials have recently invested in the state. The state anticipates investments to the tune of Rs 45,000 crore from companies in this sector, Siddaramaiah added.
