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Republicans take control of US House, Congress split: projections

Photo: Mandel Ngan / AFP

| By AFP | Camille Camdessus |

Republicans on Wednesday took control of the US House of Representatives from Democrats, networks said, narrowly securing a legislative base to oppose President Joe Biden’s agenda for the final two years of his term –- and leaving power in Congress split.

The slim Republican majority in the lower house of the US legislature will be far smaller than the party had been banking on, and Republicans also failed to take control of the Senate in a historically weak performance in the November 8 midterm elections.

NBC and CNN projected the victory for Republicans with at least 218 seats in the 435-member House of Representatives — the magic number needed to take control. This came a week after millions of Americans went to the polls for the midterms, which typically deliver a rejection of the party in the White House.

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Biden congratulated top House Republican Kevin McCarthy “on Republicans winning the House majority” and added that he was “ready to work with House Republicans to deliver results for working families.”

Last week’s vote, he said, was “a strong rejection of election deniers, political violence and intimidation” and demonstrated “the strength and resilience of American democracy.”

Tweeting soon after the projection was called, McCarthy said that “Americans are ready for a new direction, and House Republicans are ready to deliver.”

The news came one day after former president Donald Trump — who loomed large during the election cycle, and whose endorsement appears to have doomed some of his party’s candidates — announced a new run for the White House.

With inflation surging and Biden’s popularity ratings cratering, Republicans had hoped to see a “red wave” wash over America, giving them control of both houses and hence an effective block over most of Biden’s legislative plans.

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But instead, Democratic voters — galvanized by the Supreme Court’s overturning of abortion rights and wary of Trump-endorsed candidates who openly rejected the result of the 2020 presidential election — turned out in force. 

And Republicans lost ground with candidates rejected by moderate voters as too extreme.

“In the next Congress, House Democrats will continue to play a leading role in supporting President Biden’s agenda — – with strong leverage over a scant Republican majority,” House speaker Nancy Pelosi said.

‘Officially flipped’

Biden’s party flipped a key Senate seat in Pennsylvania and held onto two more in battleground states Arizona and Nevada, giving them an unassailable majority in the upper chamber with 50 seats plus Vice President Kamala Harris’ tie-breaking vote.

A Senate runoff election in Georgia set for next month could see the Democrats ultimately improve their majority in the upper house.

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The Senate oversees the confirmation of federal judges and cabinet members, and having the 100-seat body in his corner will be a major boon for Biden.

Meanwhile on Tuesday McCarthy won his party’s leadership vote by secret ballot, putting him in prime position to be the next speaker, replacing Democrat Nancy Pelosi.

The 57-year-old congressman from California, a senior member of House Republican leadership since 2014, fended off a challenge from Andy Biggs, a member of the influential far-right Freedom Caucus.

But potential far-right defections could yet complicate his path when the full chamber votes in January.

McCarthy now begins what is expected to be a grueling campaign to win the consequential floor vote on January 3, when the House of Representatives’ 435 newly elected members — Democrats and Republicans — choose their speaker, the third most important US political position after president and vice president.

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McCarthy has raised eyebrows by saying that his party might not grant a “blank check” for continued multi-billion dollar US funding for Ukraine’s fight against the Russian invasion.

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International

Changing the time has an impact on the economy and your health: this entity asks to end the measure in the EU

The non-profit organization Time Use Initiative (TUI), which promotes the right to time around the world, demands an end to the time change in Europe in the electoral programs that will be presented for the next elections in the European Parliament (June 9).

The entity, according to a statement issued on Monday, defends the end of this measure because changing the clocks to an incorrect time zone “negatively affects individual and collective health, as well as the economy.”

During the last 30 years, he adds, “it has been shown that living in the wrong time zones has a negative impact on energy savings, on the risk of cancer and other diseases, on the performance of workers and students, or on GDP, among other issues.”

Specifically, according to TUI, 20% of European citizens and 34% of women with children “suffer from time poverty,” which means “affects both individual well-being and social cohesion.”

The roadmap set out in the EU Manifesto focuses especially on sectors that may experience a greater impact, such as emergency and transport services, and includes a public awareness campaign.

The platform’s request, whose main objective is to encourage public debate on how to collectively organize time to improve the well-being of citizens, coincides with the time change on European clocks on March 31.

According to the entity’s statement, ending the seasonal time change for 2026 is one of the 12 measures included in the EU Manifesto on time policies promoted by TUI to guarantee the right to time in Europe.

According to TUI, the fact that no changes have been implemented in this aspect responds to “beliefs and myths about the need to maintain daylight saving time that persist between public opinion and political debate.”

Three examples:

One of those myths, in the opinion of this entity, is that daylight saving time saves energy.

The platform responds that this “could be spending more energy, given the current consumption patterns, which increase the expenditure on cooling and heating.”

Another myth that TUI points out is that the end of the time change could harm the economy, especially certain sectors such as tourism, leisure or retail trade.

With regard to this argument, experts mention issues such as that the current configuration already causes lack of sleep and, therefore, less productivity and work accidents, or that it is not daylight saving time, but summer and good weather that drive tourism and leisure.

And a third myth: the belief that ending time changes means changing daily habits.

TUI mentions the argument of the International Alliance for Natural Time (IANT), which assures that, since habits are already constant throughout the year in terms of time, they can remain the same.

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International

Switzerland warns of an increase in mountain accidents among foreign tourists

A total of 114 people died in accidents in the Alps and other mountains of Switzerland in 2023, a figure similar to that of other years, although on this occasion there was a strong increase in fatal accidents among foreign tourists (71), the Swiss Alpine Club (CAS) warned on Tuesday.

In its report on last year’s mountain activities, the organization indicated that almost two-thirds of the fatalities came from other countries, a figure “much higher than that of previous years,” since the average of previous seasons was around the 45 deceased foreigners.

The number of deaths is slightly higher than in 2022 (109) but lower than the 131 deaths in the mountain recorded in 2021.

Almost half of the deaths were suffered by people who practiced hiking (51), while the deceased mountaineers were 29 and the deaths from winter sports such as cross-country skiing or off-piste skiing were lower (18), a decrease compared to previous years that the CAS attributed to the lack of snow.

21% of the foreigners who died were German visitors, and 17% Italian, according to the annual study, in which it was pointed out that last year about 3,500 people had to be rescued in the Alps and the Jura, the two main Swiss mountain ranges.

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International

The collapse of a bridge in Baltimore due to the crash of a freighter causes six missing persons

The collision this Tuesday of a container ship against Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge caused the total collapse of that structure that crosses the Patapsco River and so far leaves six missing, in whose search federal, state and local agents are involved.

The event took place around 1:30 local time (5:30 GMT). The freighter Dali lost propulsion, according to the first indications, and ended up being embedded against the bridge, built in 1977, through which about 35,000 vehicles a day cross and which rose to fame in the past as the setting for the series ‘The Wire’.

The alert given by the ship itself allowed the entry of vehicles into the area to be stopped and lives were saved, but there were workers on the spot who were repairing the asphalt: two were injured, one of them serious, and six others are still missing.

At first there was talk of 20 people with unknown whereabouts, but that figure was lowered shortly after. In their search, a helicopter, three boats of the coast guard and teams of divers participate.

The Secretary of Transport of Maryland, Paul Wiedefeld, indicated that the low temperature of the water, its depth, of about 15 meters, and the darkness when the event occurred make the work difficult.

The priority is to find the missing, the mayor of Baltimore, Brandon Scott, told the press in one of the many appearances organized throughout the day to offer the latest details about what happened.

It is already known that there are no signs of a terrorist attack. The FBI is involved in the investigation, as every time there are events of this scope, and its special agent Bill Delbagno specified that there is no “specific or credible information that suggests that there are links to terrorism.”

Everything indicates that it was an accident. The Singaporean company Synergy Group, which operates the ship, announced that none of its 22 crew members were injured, while the Danish multinational Maersk confirmed that it had temporarily rented the ship, named Dali, and that it was transporting cargo from the company.

The Dali has a gross load capacity of 95,000 tons and 300 meters in length. In 2016, it hit the pier in the port of Antwerp (Belgium), according to Vessel Finder.

The port was paralyzed and only the loading and unloading activity of the trucks is allowed. The area is also blocked to traffic and the press, which can only be accessed about 1.6 kilometers away, from where you can see the ship blocked with its containers and the bridge turned into a tangle of steel.

The local authorities do not yet want to talk about the economic cost of the impact. “A bridge can be rebuilt, our focus is on the people,” said the mayor, while the governor of Maryland specified that not only will it be built again, but it will be made in memory of those affected.

The bridge that collapsed is the largest in the state of Maryland. It is 2,632 meters long and owes its name in honor of the poet Francis Scott Key, author of the lyrics of the American anthem.

Its construction began in 1972, its structure crosses the lower part of the Patapsco River between Hawkins Point and Sollers Point and runs through it the I-695 highway, whose traffic was diverted this Tuesday until further notice.

The governor of Maryland, who declared a state of emergency in the area, stressed today that the entire state is in “shock.”

Baltimore is its most populous city, with just over 600,000 inhabitants in the urban center and 2.7 million in its metropolitan area, and its port, located in Chesapeake Bay, is the most important in the United States for the trade in vehicles and agricultural equipment.

The president of the United States, Joe Biden, ordered the reconstruction of the collapsed bridge and the reopening of the port, now blocked, as soon as possible.

“I have ordered my team to move heaven and earth to reopen the port and rebuild the bridge as soon as humanly possible,” Biden said in an address.

The president also announced that the federal government will advance the funds to pay for the reconstruction of the bridge.

“We will send all the federal resources you need while we respond to this emergency. And I mean all federal resources. And we are going to rebuild this port together,” said the US president.

“My intention,” he added, “is for the federal government to pay the total cost of the reconstruction of that bridge. And I hope that Congress will support my effort.”

Biden later clarified that the idea is for the Government to advance the money until the responsibility of the container carrier is determined.

An inspection last June in the Chilean port of San Antonio found problems in the “propulsion and auxiliary machinery” of the Dali cargo engine, with the Singaporean flag and that on Tuesday caused the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in the port of Baltimore, according to the Equasis database consulted by EFE.

The inspection, dated June 27, 2021, found deficiencies in propulsion and more specifically in “measuring devices, thermometers, etc.”

Those problems caused two subsequent inspections, but the freighter, with 300 meters in length and capacity to carry 95,000 tons, was not stopped and was able to continue operating, after solving the deficiencies.

The Dali, which began operating in 2015, had another problem in its history, when in July 2016 it collided with a mooring in the port of Antwerp (Belgium) and suffered damage to the hull.

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