Joe Biden and Kamala Harris named Time 'Person of the Year'

NEW YORK - US President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris have been chosen as Time magazine's 2020 "Person of the Year," the publication announced Thursday.

The Democratic pair were chosen ahead of three other finalists: frontline health care workers and Anthony Fauci, the racial justice movement, and President Donald Trump who Biden defeated in November's election. 

Time's magazine cover has a picture of Biden, 78, and Harris, 56, with the subtitle "Changing America's story."

Biden beat Trump by 306 electoral college votes to Trump's 232 to end the real estate tycoon-turned-politician's presidency after one term.

Biden received roughly seven million more votes than his Republican adversary, who is yet to concede, claiming widespread fraud of which there is no evidence. 

Time magazine's award -- handed out annually since 1927 -- honors the person or people who most impacted the news, for better or worse, during the calendar year.

Earlier Thursday, Time named basketball superstar LeBron James Athlete of the Year for his achievements on and off the court.

The 35-year-old Los Angeles Lakers player was honored for battling voter suppression among Black citizens in a year when he won his fourth NBA title. 

K-Pop sensation BTS was named Entertainer of the Year.

Teenage climate change activist Greta Thunberg was Time's Person of the Year last year, while Trump won in 2016. 

Agence France-Presse

Teen climate activist Greta Thunberg is Time's Person of the Year

NEW YORK -  Greta Thunberg, the teen activist from Sweden who has urged immediate action to address a global climate crisis, was named Time Magazine's Person of the Year for 2019 on Wednesday.

Thunberg, 16, was lauded by Time for starting an environmental campaign in August 2018 which became a global movement, initially skipping school and camping out in front of the Swedish Parliament to demand action.

"In the 16 months since, she has addressed heads of state at the U.N., met with the Pope, sparred with the President of the United States and inspired 4 million people to join the global climate strike on September 20, 2019, in what was the largest climate demonstration in human history," the magazine said.

"Margaret Atwood compared her to Joan of Arc. After noticing a hundredfold increase in its usage, lexicographers at Collins Dictionary named Thunberg’s pioneering idea, climate strike, the word of the year," Time said.

Thunberg, who turns 17 in January, continues to beat the drum, saying in Madrid last week that the voices of climate strikers are being heard but politicians are still not taking action.

(Reporting by Barbara Goldberg; Editing by Toby Chopra and Nick Zieminski)

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Time names Trump its 2016 'Person of the Year'

Time Magazine has named U.S. President-elect Donald Trump Person of the Year, citing the upheaval in American politics brought about by the election campaign and victory of the New York businessman.

"It’s hard to measure the scale of his disruption," Time said in its announcement on Wednesday, noting Trump's eclectic career as real estate magnate and reality television star before winning the highest office in the land.

"For those who believe this is all for the better, Trump’s victory represents a long-overdue rebuke to an entrenched and arrogant governing class," it said.

The magazine said its short list included Trump's rival in the 2016 presidential race, Democrat Hillary Clinton, as well as Turkish leader Tayyip Erdogan and singer Beyonce.

"It's a great honor, it means a lot," Trump told NBC's "Today" show in an interview shortly after the announcement.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Pope Francis is Time 'person of the year'

NEW YORK - Time magazine on Wednesday named Pope Francis its person of the year, saying that in nine months in office the head of the Catholic Church had become a new voice of conscience.

"For pulling the papacy out of the palace and into the streets, for committing the world's largest church to confronting its deepest needs and for balancing judgment with mercy, Pope Francis is TIME's 2013 Person of the Year," wrote managing editor Nancy Gibbs.

"Rarely has a new player on the world stage captured so much attention so quickly -- young and old, faithful and cynical -- as Pope Francis.

"In his nine months in office, he has placed himself at the very center of the central conversations of our time: about wealth and poverty, fairness and justice, transparency, modernity, globalization, the role of women, the nature of marriage, the temptations of power."

The runner-up for the accolade was NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, who has been granted asylum in Russia and with whom Time published an exclusive interview conducted over email.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com