International
As midterm count drags on, focus shifts to 2024 White House race
| By AFP | Chris Lefkow |
Control of the US Congress hung in the balance on Thursday as ballot-counting dragged on and attention shifted to the next big election — the 2024 presidential race — and whether Americans could see a Joe Biden-Donald Trump re-match.
With 209 seats so far, Republicans appear poised to secure a slim majority in the 435-seat House of Representatives, but control of the Senate may come down to an early December runoff in the southern state of Georgia.
Biden celebrated on Thursday what he said was the success of his Democratic Party in fending off a predicted Republican landslide in a stormy economic climate.
“For months and months, all of you heard from the press and the pundits was Democrats are facing to disaster … a giant red wave,” he said. “Folks, that didn’t happen.”
“The American public have made it clear — they expect Republicans to work with me,” he said.
Speaking a day earlier, Biden who turns 80 this month and is already America’s oldest president, insisted he intends to run for a second term in 2024 despite calls by some members of the party for him to hand the reins over to a new generation of leaders.
He promised a final decision “early next year.”
A drubbing would have surely raised questions about whether Biden should run again. But instead he did better than his two Democratic predecessors, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, who both took a hammering in their first midterms.
The 76-year-old Trump has promised a “very big announcement” in Florida on Tuesday that is expected to be the launch of his campaign for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
Trump’s early entry into the race would appear designed in part to fend off possible criminal charges over taking top secret documents from the White House, his efforts to overturn the 2020 election and the attack on the US Capitol by his supporters on January 6 last year.
It may also be intended to undercut his chief potential rival for the Republican presidential nomination, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who emerged as one of the biggest winners from Tuesday’s midterms.
“(Trump’s) intention is to consolidate his support early and crowd out other potential candidates,” said Jon Rogowski, a professor of political science at the University of Chicago.
‘Ron De-Sanctimonious’
The 44-year-old DeSantis, a Harvard- and Yale-educated lawyer, notched up a nearly 20-point victory over his Democratic opponent in the Florida governor’s race and took credit for a host of Republican victories in other races in the Sunshine State.
“We not only won election, we have rewritten the political map,” DeSantis said. “We’ve got so much more to do and I have only begun to fight.”
While DeSantis has emerged as Trump’s main rival for the nomination, the former president continues to dominate in the polls when Republicans are asked who they want to represent the party in the 2024 White House race.
But Trump may have lost the backing of a major ally — the powerful media empire of conservative billionaire Rupert Murdoch.
Pointing to the party’s disappointing midterms showing, The Wall Street Journal, the flagship of Murdoch’s News Corp, declared in an editorial on Thursday that “Trump Is the Republican Party’s Biggest Loser.”
The cover of the tabloid New York Post depicted Trump on a precarious wall as “Trumpty Dumpty” who “had a great fall” in the vote, blaming him for the failure of Republicans to sweep past Democratic rivals.
It celebrated DeSantis as “DeFUTURE.”
Trump coined his own derogatory nickname for DeSantis, a one-time ally, referring to him as “Ron De-Sanctimonious” and belittling his election victory.
“Shouldn’t it be said that in 2020, I got 1.1 Million more votes in Florida than Ron D got this year, 5.7 Million to 4.6 Million?” Trump said on his Truth Social platform. “Just asking?”
Biden was asked by reporters on Wednesday about a Trump-DeSantis showdown.
“It’ll be fun watching them take on each other,” he said.
In the Senate, Democrat John Fetterman defeated Trump-endorsed candidate Mehmet Oz, seizing the Pennsylvania seat after the most expensive Senate race in US history.
The final makeup of the Senate now hangs on three seats: Arizona and Nevada, where the counting of votes could take several more days, and Georgia, where there will be a December 6 runoff between Democratic incumbent Raphael Warnock and former American football star Herschel Walker.
Even with a slim majority in the House, Republicans could stymie Biden’s legislative agenda and launch investigations into the president and his allies.
International
India Approves New Dengue Vaccine as Global Cases Continue to Rise
India has approved a new dengue vaccine as health authorities seek to strengthen prevention efforts against a mosquito-borne viral disease that affects millions of people worldwide every year.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), half of the global population is currently at risk of contracting dengue, which causes between 100 million and 400 million infections annually.
Since 2021, India has recorded more than one million dengue cases, including at least 1,500 deaths.
The virus can cause high fever, severe headaches, muscle pain, nausea, skin rashes and, in rare cases, internal bleeding and death.
The vaccine, authorized by India’s Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO), was developed by Japanese pharmaceutical company Takeda. The Indian Health Ministry said the vaccine is recommended in two doses for people between 4 and 60 years old.
The treatment has already been approved by health authorities in around 40 countries worldwide.
Meanwhile, Indian pharmaceutical company Panacea Biotec has begun the final phase of clinical trials for a single-dose dengue vaccine, aiming to provide another prevention option against the disease.
Brazil recently announced the suspension of the use of another single-dose dengue vaccine developed in the country after two suspected deaths were reported.
International
U.S. Sends First Humanitarian Aid Flight to Cuba Amid Ongoing Tensions Between Both Governments
The United States announced Tuesday the dispatch of a humanitarian aid flight to Cuba as part of a $100 million assistance package proposed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio in May.
The flight departed from Miami with the support of Catholic Relief Services, according to a statement from the U.S. State Department.
The administration of President Donald Trump, which has maintained restrictions on oil supplies to the island and tightened sanctions against the Cuban government, had initially announced humanitarian assistance in November following the devastating impact of Hurricane Melissa.
In February, amid rising tensions between Washington and Havana, Rubio announced an increase in aid while continuing to criticize the Cuban government.
The U.S. secretary of state accused Cuba’s communist authorities of obstructing the distribution of assistance. Washington has insisted that the aid be delivered through the Catholic Church to ensure it reaches Cuban citizens directly.
The Cuban government, meanwhile, has blamed the U.S. oil blockade for making the distribution of humanitarian assistance significantly more difficult.
The aid shipment comes as relations between the two countries remain strained, with disagreements continuing over sanctions, energy supplies and the management of humanitarian support.
International
Controversial Pesticide Law Passes in France, Sparking Ecological Concerns and Ministerial Fallout
The French Parliament on Tuesday approved a highly controversial agricultural law that allows certain farmers to use two pesticides considered harmful to bees, substances that had been banned in France but remain authorized in the European Union.
After the National Assembly, the lower house of Parliament, approved the agricultural bill in the early hours of Tuesday, the Senate gave its final approval with a vote of 214 in favor and 111 against, officially adopting the measure.
Following the decision to reintroduce the use of acetamiprid and flupyradifurone, the office of Environment Minister Monique Barbut announced that she would soon submit her resignation.
Supporters of the measure argue that French producers of sugar beets, apples and hazelnuts need access to these insecticides — banned in France since 2018 and 2019, respectively — to remain competitive with European farmers in other countries where the products are still allowed.
Opponents, including environmental groups, argue that the substances pose serious risks to bees and could also threaten human health.
“Let us be proud of the work that has been done,” said Senator Laurent Duplomb of the conservative Republicans party, one of the main supporters of the measure.
The vote came after France’s Constitutional Council, the country’s highest court, struck down a previous attempt last year to bring back acetamiprid, ruling that the measure could pose risks to human health. That decision followed a petition signed by more than two million people opposing the pesticide’s reintroduction.
The previous bill had also been promoted by Duplomb, who argued that French agriculture needed additional tools to compete in international markets.
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